|
Members in attendance: Report by Carl: Gord and Dale, and I arrived early. I planned to be off my plane Wed. by 6pm and have a nice dinner with them, along with Dave and Mary. Yeah, right. My 3rd and last plane went off without me, so I arrived at 1:30am Thur. Being the great guy he is, Dave was waiting to take me to my hotel. Thur. AM I went riding with Gord and Dale looking at the beautiful countryside, and the fall colors were beginning to show their grandeur. When we returned, the Registration table was set up with Gord and Robert attending it. Gradually most members began to show up.
Report by Mel: Before I could even register at the hotel, there were shouts in the lobby coming from my right. They were from Gord Hankin, Bob Steinberg and Dave Flinn. MEL GET OVER HERE ! Coming over to the table where Gord and Bob had their computers set up, we engaged in the traditional ICUFR greeting hugs. Dave, Gord and I managed a three way hug before Bob could get up from the table. It was a good thing that Dave was there because a bear hug with Gord was something else. Even with my long arms, I could not get them ¾ of the way around Gord! That’s not to say I didn’t try! Later on Carl came rolling in and he was a sight for sore eyes. Haven’t seen him . or the others .. in a long time. Of course he got a bear hug and then I invited him up to the room to meet Bianca. That lecherous soul Carl demanded a hug from her as well. Later on that bearded wonder, Irwin appeared in the lobby as did Arlene. Arlene did not have a beard! Earlier that day when I walked into the lobby, a member wearing a conference ID came right up to me and said ‘Hello Mel’. He had recognized me immediately as did I recognize Ernie Russell. He and his lovely wife had arrived about midnight from England. Of course Stella and I in our first face to face meeting hugged and kissed. After all these years, it was a great feeling. But then again, that’s what these conferences are for. The group met for a get together at 6 PM and I finally got to meet Doug and Joan Grose and Doug Vincent as well as Dale Hankin. . Dan and Shirley Mooers, Gene and Ann Erickson and Mary Flinn were also ‘old timers’ with whom I reuned. Dinner being an ‘on your own’ thingy, while most of the crowd went out of the hotel to eat .. (maybe they were the smart ones) Doug, Joan, Bianca and I stayed in. Joan wasn’t feeling to well so I suggested some blackberry brandy to help her. The Ithaca based hotel bar didn’t have any blackberry brandy, can you imagine? Joan and Doug curtailed their trip and left the next morning to go back to Mentor, Ohio. It was a shame, not only her illness, but that we were just getting to know each other.
Back to Carl: Fri was planned as a day to tour, and began with a chartered bus to take us. As you can see from the photo, the Ithaca charter buses are not very ADA handicapped user friendly. Gord, Robert and the bus driver volunteered to get me in and out of the bus. I swore they were trying to dump me on my head. I bet they NEVER volunteer to do that again. The first stop was at the Starlane Farms Clydesdale horse farm of Dave and Mary. They have a beautiful reconditioned very old New York home that we toured, along with the horses, barns, and pastures. Then we loaded up and drove to a local New York Treleaven Winery, where we were given a tour of the equipment and winemaking process, after which we were then allowed to taste their various forms of wine that they produce. Many bought wine and since we had brought box lunches from the Hotel we sat down outside to have a picnic lunch. After that we returned to the Hotel, and some then took a walking tour of the Ithaca Commons business district. Back to Mel: For our Friday buffet dinner, DG Mark Kriebel gave a hearty welcome speech and passed out his DG pins. We have a few pin collectors so that went over well. Bill Cadwallader, PRID (1990 – 1992) came in from neighboring Homer, NY to add to the meeting. There will be a conference at the Hilton Hotel in Fort Lee, NJ on November 2nd and 3rd which is just before UN Day on the 4th. If anyone would like to attend contact Jennifer Hendrickson rifpd@aol.com or visit their website: www.rifpd.org Doug Vincent and I have arranged to meet there. Back to Carl: The next morning, Sat. here are some attendees you haven't seen yet;
Back to Mel: The next AM, Liz Odfalk showed up and strained my memory. I had forgotten that she was already an ICUFR member and had disappeared from the Forum. She promised to mend her ways! Although Doug Vincent had been to other conferences, I hadn’t! BTW, one would have laughed at the imbalance of the room. On one side, closest to the wall, sat the people with laptops. Upon being accused of togetherness, they explained that the only electrical connections were on that side. At the planned meeting, we met Chris Bragdon, Ithaca Rotary Club member and Executive Director of Bosnia Initiatives for Local Development. He led a discussion about Bosnia (et al) and with Irwin’s help managed to have a video conference with his friends in Bosnia. They spoke English and we found it very interesting. Before finishing his presentation, Chris became the newest member of the ICUFR. For a fellow ICUFR member and a good cause, we passed the hat around to collect monies for his organization. Chris later told about all the equipment this money would provide for the people in Bosnia with whom we had just spoken. Back to Carl: Irwin now gave us a delightful photo tour of his trip to the Antarctica, and finished with a description of the uses for GPS, and examples of his hiking on nearby mountains.
Back to Mel: Seeing Dan and Shirley Mooers in a relaxed atmosphere gave insight into that couple. Dan presented a very fascinating talk about the history of Rotary. Carl tried to get it all down but couldn’t accomplish it. Dan later told him what website to access for some of the data. If you want to know what was so fascinating, well .. you should have been there! Back to Carl: Dave presided over our program. One of the earlier presentations was the presentation of the Lobster awards to Gord and Dan, who have carried on a heated argument for years over whether Maine or Nova Scotia has the best lobsters. Back to Mel: At our banquet on Saturday, Dave had arranged for a local group, The Vitamin L Group of Ithaca to entertain us. Of course one never knows what to expect .. especially when some of the 13 members showed up in jeans. Composed of young people from middle and high school on, they gave us beautiful renditions of music, singing and dancing. They were so great that we gave them a standing ovation. Gord asked them to each give a short resume of who they were and their aspirations. It was then we learned of their tender ages and why they loved to perform with the group. True to the James Gang procedures, at the banquet, yours’ truly, that shy and demure person, got up to make a couple of presentations. He went into a resume of some of the traditions of twitting someone starting with that role model Hugh Archer. Quoted was Hugh’s remark when asked if he would mind if we pulled something on him at the banquet in Chicago. His response: “I have fun laughing at myself, do your best.”. I went on to describe the following year’s speaker’s request to know what we were going to do. No one does that to the James Gang! Request refused! It happened to be mild .. there had been a discussion about the qualities and preferences of clam chowder. Being from Maine, he preferred the New England type so we gave him Manhattan. In remembrance of that auspicious occasion, I presented Dan Mooers with a carefully wrapped gift .. wrapped with paper towels and inserted in a plastic supermarket bag. It was a can of Manhattan Clam Chowder. This time Dan did have fun laughing at himself! Stella and Ernie Russell received the furthest distance traveled gift of a can of Gunpowder Special Green Tea. Surprisingly, Mary Flinn had experienced this Oriental product and knew its taste. Doug Vincent gave a talk at the banquet and did a bit of legerdemain to stress his topic
Back to Carl: I sent a certificate to Peter Sotheran for being the only person who regularly sends me information for the NL. The annual serious awards are the GMA - Golden Mouse Awards - to members who have contributed an extraordinary amount of effort and work for the good of ICUFR. This year they went to Lizette Odfalk for all her work to help Dave. The other was given in abstentia, and was mailed to Robin Chapple for the outstanding work he does in revising and keeping up the ICUFR website. Congratulations, and thanks beyond understanding for what they have contributed. The Keynote speaker was Doug Vincent, dual ICUFR/ROTI member. His exceptional talk was about the RI Foundation and he gave many examples of the incredible things that we all are able to accomplish for the downtrodden of the world. I suspect that when it was over many were left like me with a lump in the throat and tears in the eyes. Back to Mel: We said our goodbyes to Gord and Dale Hankin that evening. With a 21 hour drive ahead of them, they were leaving early in the AM. Dan & Shirley left early the next day, staying for a portion of the Sunday meeting. They had a 9 hour drive home. All I can say is that it was a wonderful experience and great to get to meet in such an informal setting. I had seen Shirley many times, but never had a chance to chat with her. Since she sat with us non-laptop people, we had a chance to know each other better.. Final Report by Gord: Just to add my few cents in, We got home after 13 hours drive on Sunday and 7 more on Monday. Not quite a "weekend outing" but the trip was worth every minute. Seeing all 'the crowd' again was wonderful. Meeting the new attendees is an added benefit. Seeing Irwin have trouble with Skype made me feel that I wasn't as inept as I thought I was. Highlights were Mary's farm with Dave in tow, and the wine tasting. Dan and I were each presented with a Maina Scotia lobster. Mine was a little tough but probably due to the southern influence.
Back to Carl: Sun. morning we had our annual General Meeting, a Hot Breakfast Buffet, and wrapped up with out critique of the conference. Anther wonder time with great friends and with a lot of sadness we all went out own way, so until next year..... I hope that ICUFR is able to "Lead the Way" in some small manner the encouragement and continuation of our wonderful world of Rotary. |
||||||||||||||||||
"Thank You ICUFR", from our Tuzla University student organization. After the Conference session by Chris Bragdon, we who were there were so compelled by what we saw and experienced in the interactive live video session with the Tuzla University students, that we reached into our pockets and came up with a over $100 to donate to them for equipment that they needed. (Check the previous newsletters for information about the video conference) Chris sent us this information, and on this webpage http://bild-bih.org/59.html , there are pictures and narrative showing exactly how Rotarians at the ICUFR conference contributed to a Tuzla University student organization that helps students with special needs. Just one more example of what belonging to ICUFR has been able to affect the Rotary world. Carl P Cardey - Editor, Director |
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||
