Sunrise bulletin for the week of March 27, 2013
Brief bulletin today, as I'm anxious to be sailing with my son and grandson. President Julie Mantle welcomed 15 members at this morning's meeting, plus 4 guests: Steve McGrandle and Jose Riga, both of whom have visited before, Bill Sheddy's guest Judy Whyte, and 9-year-old Miles Goodell, here for spring break from Wyoming.
Gary Chomyn's back from his daughter's wedding in NYC, Cam Scott leaves tomorrow for Nepal, Sonya Orr is in Capetown. Are they looking for an excuse to avoid preparing their tax returns on time?
Club news
Gary updated us on the preparations for our Hoop-a-Thon fund-raiser for the Strathcona Youth Programs. We need 100% of our members to be working between now and the June 15 event if we are to achieve our $50,000 goal. Gary gives members a 3-way choice: join a club team to shoot free-throws, make a personal donation, or sign up sponsors and/or donors. Let him know your choice if you haven't already.
The board has chosen to not pursue the idea of a Mexican dinner this spring and, instead, to concentrate energies on the Hoop-a-Thon and an outstanding changeover event in June.
Ann-Shirley Goodell brought back from PETS a sample T-shirt that reads "Rotarian at Work" for us to wear during our project appearances. As the club's fashion advisor, Julie is considering whether the shirts should be pink and purple, or orange and lime, or puce and lilac (whatever that is). I'm sure the final result will be stunning!
Susan Neale will be coordinating the club's compliance with Rotary rules for hosting a Youth Exchange student from another country. This requires that each member have a police record check completed, as well as the host families. Susan will advise us how to do this at a meeting in April.
Today's program
Former member Richard Rees was our speaker this morning, in his role as CEO of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of BC. He spoke on two major topics:
One was the upcoming consolidation of the several designations of Canadian accounting professionals into one. Currently CAs, CGAs, CMAs plus other designations in some provinces are represented by 40 different provincial and federal organizations. Now I know why I've been so confused. Mergers are underway in most or all provinces, with Quebec already having completed the process. The plan is for all professional accountants in Canada to be known as Chartered Professional Accountants (CPAs), in keeping with Japan, Mexico, the US and several other countries with which Canada has extensive business relationships. The changeover will be complex, with a transition of up to 10 years, and a major focus will be new curricula in university commerce programs.
Richard's other topic was what he calls the Institute's annual BC Check-up, which summarizes the latest economic statistics and offers recommendations to the Provincial Government for the budget and future legislation. He indicated that production is up in BC in recent years and our provincial debt is up but is lower in relation to GDP than other provinces. The Institute recommends that the province work to strengthen BC as a transportation hub, and to seek economic diversification as a remedy for our resource-based "boom or bust" problem. Businesses hope for streamlined regulations, continuing the reduction in the number of provincial regulations over the past few years. Richard noted that government "red tape" has a much higher cost-per-employee for small and medium-sized businesses, and is an impediment to the growth of smaller enterprises. Richard declined to be dragged into the "what if" game concerning the upcoming election.
The question period addressed problems of pipelines, natural gas exports, and next week's demise of the HST in our part of the world.
The breeze is freshening so I'm on my way. The key question is whether the boat is seaworthy yet. If I don't return, you'll know that it wasn't.
Rob