revSep23 | PROBUS Blue Mountain

Meeting Review September 2023

AGM

The (somewhat) formal Annual General Meeting of the Club was the first item of business. Prior year’s minutes and the Treasurer’s financial report were accepted by the membership.

Steven Hyndman (President), Michael Coward (Vice President), George Powell (Secretary) and Gene Peycha (Treasurer) were elected as the Club’s executive for the 2023-2024 year.

In his closing remarks Ron Mitchell thanked the Management Committee for their support and referenced the efforts outgoing members (Bruce West for reinvigorating Club Activities and Events) and Doug Smith (for his many years of service and commitment to the Club).

Steven Hyndman presented Ron with his Past President’s badge and assumed the Chair. Steve’s remarks emphasize the continuing importance of volunteer participation to the Club’s future.

Christmas Luncheon:

Eddie Sokoloff announced that the event would be held at the Legion on Thursday, December 7th. Ticket sales will be limited to 100 guests.

Chris Meleskie:

Introduced himself as the incoming Activities Co-Ordinator. His review of upcoming activities highlighted the October 17th visit to the plastic recycling facility at Ice River Solutions and to heavy equipment manufacturer Medatech Engineering Services on November 9th.

Travel:

Carl Wintermeyer: Updated the status of the Travel Group plans for the Muskoka Cruise, Newfoundland circumnavigation, and Norway trip. He noted that Dan Edwards will be the new PBM representative for the Travel Group.

Paddling:

Jim Higgins will be leading a downstream paddle on the Saugeen River on October 5th.

Speakers Committee:

As Chairman of the Speakers Committee, Don Stockman introduced fellow members Steven McKee, George Pengelly, and Bill Mullock. The Committee has confirmed speakers through to July 2024.

Profiler:

Bob Noppe has always been passionate about his interest in flying and described aviation adventures early in his career. He also shared youthful travel adventures in Cuba and Mexico that he experienced with his brother.
Bob was particularly proud of the creation of a four course Aviation Program at the Brampton high school where he was teaching. It was the first of its kind in Canada and the graduating students actually got the opportunity to fly!

Kultural Attaché:

Walter Barclay told many funny jokes that can be found on the Website under the Kultural Attache title. You will need to Login to view this area.

Guest Speaker: Peter Lang (introduced by David Hore)

Peter is a member of the Canadian Nuclear Society and a former chair of the Education and Communications Committee. He is the CEO of Duneden Energy Systems, a company that is leading the development of a micro-reactor to provide power and heat in remote communities.

Ontario currently generates 58% of its electricity from nuclear energy and it is an extremely efficient process.
The bomb that flattened Hiroshima only contained the amount of fuel that could fit in a restaurant packet of sugar

Peter’s (expertly illustrated) presentation began with the discovery and history of atomic energy and graphically illustrated how (relatively) quickly its half life works. He also demonstrated how much background radiation is present in our environment by an experiment and chart of radiation level increasing as altitude increases (he is a retired Air Canada Captain and measured radiation on a Toronto-Hong Kong flight).

He gave a detailed explanation of how the CANDU reactor operates and emphasized how safe it is – largely due to its design.

In conclusion, he reviewed current and planned safe storage for any nuclear waste that cannot be recycled.

(Thanked by Steven Hyndman)