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Meeting Information
Music - Don Reid
Invocation - Ted Cowan
Guest Book - John John
Greeter - Chris Perret
Lubricator Editor - David Stalwick
Website Editor - Karen Blewett​
Introduction of Guests​
- Owen Fieldberg, our speaker today
Attendance Draw
- Cathie Catalano was not in attendance to win a free meal.
Birthdays:
- John John
- Pam Rickey
- Linda Rossler
- Brian Rothwell
- Kitt Brand
Club Anniversaries:
Weekly Draw:
- Lavar Payne won chocolate, Adolf Seiler won a calendar of outhouses, Don Reid won soap, Stan Sakamoto and Kitt Brand won a roses.
Club 500
- No draws until 2017.
- Chris Perret and Allan O'Bryne are looking after this years Club 500 draw. Please sell the remainder of your tickets and get the stubs and money in as soon as possible. This is a very important fundraiser of the Music Festival, so please make every efforts to sell all your tickets. If you sell any out of province, put your own address or an Alberta address on the ticket. Any unsold tickets are to be returned by December 12th.
Make Ups
Family of Rotary
- Bruce Shepard now at home and on the mend
- Garth Vallely is back in hospital
Future Programs
Minute People:
- Dick Bide wanted to remind the members of the Boxing Day Open house at his home on Monday afternoon, Dec 26th. Dates for dinner club for Jan and Feb may now go to Ken Zollner.
- Chris Perret reminded Rotarians that all Club 500 tickets are now due to be turned in, please finish selling them and get the money in by next week.
- Anne Carrier talked about the club she visits in Arizona gives dictionaries to every 3 grade student. This is a very well received.
- Jenny Hetherington had a draw for a wreath for every Rotarian who sponsored a new member. Dave Stalwick won for sponsoring Jillian Koch and he gave the wreath to Jillian.
- Terry Brekko advised that the ad packages for the music festival will be out the first week in Jan
- Sandy MacKay advised that the Paul Harris fellows will be given out on Jan 16th, so be sure to keep this date and attend the meeting as out DG presents the pins.
- Dave Stalwick needed 5 people for the next BINGO and he got the required people.
Happy Dollars & Fines: Today's Sgt-at-Arms was Adolf Seiler.
Fines:
- All the birthday people were fined.
- Chris Perret for doing such a good job on the club 500.
- Don Reid for being too quick with O Canada as some people did not get a chance to get up and clear their throats
- Jack Snedden and Al Garden were fined for being mentioned as being Dentists and then he fine Ray Kemp so he would not feel left out.
Happy Dollars:
- Ken Z for his birthday
- Dave M for the concert on Saturday night
- Stan S for two concerts in which his wife sang and his daughter played.
- Anne C for being home for Christmas but going back south right after.
- Wayne C for the concert and watching Don Reid dancing
- Terry B for the presentation and reminded everyone to be careful for break-ins at this time of year.
- Jenny H talked about her old 60 lb dog and has now been replaced by a 10 lb dog.
Presentation:
Our Guest Owen Fieldberg was introduced by Adolf Seiler
Owen is a local rancher rancher who shipped beef to Cuba but in order to get full payment he ended up taking some payment in rum. In actual fact he did receive the bulk of the payment but he then had to go to Cuba to get the balance of his funds. This trip did lead to him being asked if he would be interested in buying and distributing Cuban Rum in Canada. Owen gave us a brief explanation of the Rum trade was inadvertently started when Christopher Columbus and the Spanish found the new world. They found that their desire for sweeteners could be filled with cane sugar. So they filled their ships with cane sugar and sold it in Europe. They needed workers to produce the cane sugar so they captured salves in Africa and took them to South America, sold them to the cane farmers and in return they bought more cane sugar for Europe ....and so the cycle continued for many years.
Then Owen gave samples of the Rum which was enjoyed by all who did not have to go back to work. In producing the cane sugar there was some waste products. It took a while but they soon realized that they could make rum from the cane by products. Aging of the rum is very important. This is done in wooden barrels and the longer it is aged the gentler the taste of the rum. Cuba started making Rum in 1946 and used the bourbon barrels to age the product but after Castro got in the US would not allow the Tennessee bourbon barrels to be sold to the Cubans. Owen soon learned that he could import the used bourbon barrels into Canada and then ship them to Cuba. He still gets Rum back and distributes this in Alberta and Saskatchewan.
He gave a very interesting presentation and samples.
Many questions where answered.
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