Four Sherwood Park Gyro couples (Copeland’s,Kropp’s, Malott’s, & Merrick’s) joined 71 other Gyros & Gyrettes from around District VIII in Fairmont the weekend of May 21 – May 24, 2015 for fun and friendship. The weekend started with a golf tournament Thursday morning for those so masochistically inclined, followed by the first of many hospitality sessions. The group from Nelson made sure that no one went wanting for “liquids to quench their thirst” or a place to visit and enjoy Gyro friendship through out the weekend. Our thanks for their great hospitality.
Friday was started off with a poker car rally/tour of the Valley followed by a Bocce tournament won by “Girl Power” led by Norma Vingo.
A highlight of the weekend was the “Pirates of Panorama” themed banquet on Friday evening which saw all those gathered reliving their childhood dressed in pirate costume. A special thank you to Derm Jackman for providing the music both Thursday and Friday evening.
Saturday morning was dedicated to the business of District VIII for the men while the women enjoyed brunch followed by an afternoon of hospitality and visiting. The Governor’s banquet and ball on Saturday evening saw our own Jim Malott retire from District VIII executive and John Hodgson sworn in as 1st lieutenant governor via Skype (a first for Canada) and dancing to L8. And, who couldn’t pass up a dip in the hot tub before retiring for the evening.
The weekend frivolity concluded with everyone gathering for the the float-away breakfast with lots of farewells until next year.
If you haven’t already, please mark you calendars for the weekend of May26 to 29, 2016 and join us in Fairmont for next years convention and more of the same fun and friendship. If you haven’t travelled to a convention you are missing out on a large portion of what your Gyro membership has to offer.
I want to offer an opinion on the recent district convention and our club’s participation. As everyone knows GYRO is a “bottom up” type of organization. That is each club has a constitution of it’s own with a district and international constitution above that. Many of the members of GYRO have no interest outside of their participation in their clubs activities. That is normal but does not diminish the importance of being part of a larger organization and affiliation with other GYRO clubs. How important is GYRO district VIII or international to our club? Do we see value in being part of that organization? That was shown when a healthy club of some 75 members in Tacoma Washington voted to return their charter to GYRO and be a stand alone club. Is this the direction our club is moving? We had 4 members attend the recent district convention and for a club of 50 that is poor attendance. I think a lot of members miss out on what GYRO has to offer beyond the club and that is unfortunate. There are a lot of incredibly interesting people in other clubs we can get to know. I would suggest our club hold some discussions on our role in GYRO beyond our club, that is not to say we have not done our share of the work. We have had a member on district executive for the last 12 consecutive years. Erik Braun then Bernie Kropp then Jim Malott each for 4 years. They were preceded by Keith Bradley and Don Greig. I would suggest the club executive consider a line item in next years budget not to exceed $500.00 to provide as subsidy of $50.00/ per member attending convention to see if this will help get more members at future conventions.
Thanks Bernie for your comments, they are valued and informative and worth looking at from an executive perspective.