Meeting Review April 2024
The PROBUS Club of Blue Mountain Meeting Review is published following each regular meeting providing members with a summary of any meetings they may have missed. Prior Reviews can easily be found under the Meeting Reviews Tab above.
O Canada
President's Comments
Stepehen welcomed our guests, promoted member attendance at activities and events, the value to be found on the website (about 90% of the 91 members present have used the site!), asked for profiler volunteers (July and August are open), and reminded us that there were still 81 “Mug Shots” missing from the Member Listing.
In Memorium:
None this month.
Guests: Five this month!
- Don Arthur (Gary Shaw),
- Michael Owen (Fred Chenoweth),
- John Rood (Richard Rood),
- Phil Stark (Rudy Chiarandini),
- John Wettlaufer (Michael Miller)
New Member Induction:
Dan Edwards presented badges and our constitution to Wayne Carlton (right) and John Fox (left)
Announcements:
Kings Wharf (Rock of Ages) Ticket sales end on April 30th.
In order to have the tickets available for distribution at our May 16th Probus meeting, we must cut off sales on April 30th. If you want tickets please send your e-transfer for $52/person to probusblue@gmail.com ASAP.
Please add your name and “Kings Wharf” in the comment section of the e-transfer.
Chris Meleskie reviewed eleven upcoming events and announced that the Paddling Group’s first outing would be on May 9th (Lake Eugenia followed by a BBQ).
He encouraged interested members to review the website Calendar for detailed information.
Jake Johnson’s next gathering of the PROBUS Hockey Group was for a Blues home playoff game on Friday, April 19th and he is currently working on tickets to the national championship in Oakville.
For more information or to join the group contact Jake at jakejohnston.jif@bell.net
Profiler
Rob Dilworth delivered an outstanding profile accompanied by a clever PowerPoint presentation.
Rob grew up in Etobicoke and completed Grade 13 in Switzerland.
His professional career was in market research tracking television viewing ratings – initially with paper questionnaires that were eventually replaced by auto tracking devices. Over the years TV viewing has dropped by 18 hours weekly and been replaced by streaming services. Surprisingly, the most popular service was not NETFLICKS but YouTube that represents 3.3 hours weekly.
The family’s introduction to Collingwood was a result of COVID – they came for a weekend and stayed!
Retirement interests include curling, golf, hiking, and biking as well as summers in Muskoka.
Rob also volunteers as an income tax preparation resource.
Kultural Attaché
Doug Ellsworth announced that Walter BARCLAY (note spelling correction!) would be returning to his Kultural Attaché role at the May meeting. Doug claims Walter’s erroneous April return announcement was “An April Fools joke”.
Doug’s April contributions were excellent and can be found under the “Members” tab on the Club website.
Guest Speaker
Tim Burrows was introduced by our President and his topic was “Gadgets to the Grid – Batteries and our Sustainable Future”.
His talk began with the surprising announcement that the first rechargeable battery was produced in 1836!
Due to climate change carbon emissions must be reduced and batteries will play an important role.
Important battery criteria are lifespan, energy density, charging speed, cost (expected to drop 50% by 2030), safety, and recyclability.
In addition to electric vehicles, emerging applications include trucks, boats, snowmobiles, busses, planes, agriculture, and mining.
Tim stated that existing ev batteries are capable of powering a typical home for two days and three nights. Just one of the “Vehicle to Grid” options.
Another significant application will be the replacement of carbon intensive “Peaker Plants” (currently used when renewables can’t meet demand peaks).
Since solar panels and batteries are rapidly decreasing in cost, this option is increasingly attractive.
In closing, Tim pointed out that batteries are 95% recyclable and that the recovered minerals were les expensive than mining their replacements.
A lengthy and lively Q and A followed his talk.
Bring a Guest Winner
Rudy Chiarandini (and David Thomson)
50/50 Winners
Don Stockman, Richard Toy and Don Rogers
Next Meeting May 16th at the Legion
Who's Who?
We have 122 "Mugshots" of members on file, but missing 99!. Please send your photo in to fill the gaps. Maximum filesize is 2MB.
The PROBUS Club of Blue Mountain Meeting Review is published after each regular meeting. Content is provided by Newsletter Editor Dave Eaman, and Webmaster Bill Booth makes it all look presentable.
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