Speakers: Barbara and Jim Goit were the speakers today.
Barbara and Jim Goit are both active members of the Rotary Club of Truro, Nova Scotia. 2019 marked Barbara’s 25th year in Rotary. She served as club president in 1998 and Jim held that office in 2011. Jim was also District Governor in 2015.
Both Barbara and Jim are multiple Paul Harris Fellows and Bequest Society members. Barbara is currently Club Youth Services Director and Jim manages the Club website and newsletter. They are both RLI facilitators.
Barbara is a retired fundraising professional in the health care field. She managed the local Hospital Foundation, served as chief development officer at the largest adult hospital in the province, as well as consulted with other organizations. Jim worked for the provincial Department of Agriculture in extension service positions and retired from the senior management of the Nova Scotia Agricultural College in 2012.
Barbara and Jim enjoy cooking together. Jim is the bread baker and pasta maker while Barbara makes the best pies and cookies. They both enjoy exploring new foods and wines. They downhill ski in the winter. Jim is an instructor at Ski Wentworth.
Barbara and Jim have two adult sons and four fast growing grandchildren who live in the Ottawa area. Needless to say, Ottawa is a favourite destination! They are now looking forward to more travel. They have hosted many exchanges but this is their first time participating as outgoing Rotary Friendship Exchange (RFE) members
With the aid of a slide set, Barbara and Jim explained what a Rotary Friendship Exchange is and how they came to be involved with it. Teams of Rotarians arrange to travel to other districts and spend time with Rotarians there on an exchange. Teams usually consist of up to 10 members and the exchanges typically last for 14 days. During that time, you are hosted by Rotarians in their homes and are shown the sights of the local area. While it varies from place to place, you usually just have to get the starting point for the exchange and other than for personal spending, a few meals and small gifts, the rest is covered by the hosts.
The RFE Tour to Australia started in Melbourne on March 1st and went north ending in Albury on March 14th. The team members from our district were hosted by five Rotarian families, visited popular tourist attractions such as the Great Ocean Road, visited museums and art galleries, wineries and breweries. They got to travel on the Murray River on an authentic steamboat and made iron hangers in a blacksmith shop. They got to pet Koalas, feed Kangaroos, hold a Python and feed Sheep. They saw some amazing scenery, eat some wonderful food and learned a lot about this great part of the world, it's history and people.
It was a wonderful adventure made even better because they were with new friends and immediately felt at home. The trip ended just as the global pandemic was getting underway outside China. Jim and Barbara explained how it felt to be so far from home and hear how the boarders were closing and how they had to scramble to get back. However, they came home with many new friends and fond memories and can't wait until they can go again.
Brian thanked Jim and Barbara for their presentation.
Happy Mug: There were a number of Happy Rotarians this week:
- Ed Macdonald was just happy to be a Rotarian. That goes for a lot of us.
- Kevin was happy that his renovations project was just about complete. It is good to have a functioning bathroom.
- Rod was happy to have an appointment with the barber tomorrow. The first cut in 4 months.
- Christine was happy to have her son get home from his work in Alberta. The first time her has been able to since Feb. She'll be glad when the 2 week isolation period if over.
- Richard was happy to have a haircut appointment as well.
- Lydia is happy to be heading home soon from Markham. They plan on camping as they travel. People wished her good luck.
- Brian was happy for the presentation today as he had always want to go on an RFE. He was also impressed with the way Barbara pronounced Melbourne.
Closing: 12:55 pm 21 members and 2 guests on the call.
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