What makes a meeting good? What makes it memorable? What makes people want to come back? Whatever it takes, it had it in this one. It reminded us of some of our class reunions!
David Dawson, First Vice-President, conducted an upbeat morning session, and Treasurer Peter Cade presented the Financial Report. Expenditures for 2010 total $70,807. (A full financial statement is available on request by phoning our office.) When it came to outreach we missed Elsie Riva, who was at a
grandchild’s baptism. And so Dawn Trueman read that report, and we were happy to see a good number of these faithful workers recognized and applauded before we went on to the election of this year’s Board of Directors:
Rosemary Best Fenwick, ON
Peter Cade Mississauga, ON
David Dawson Hamilton, ON
Gladys Douglas Weston, ON
R. John Foster Charlottetown, PE
Margaret Hunter Scotland, ON
Wilbur James Nanaimo, BC
Elsie Riva Mississauga, ON
Leonard Ross Melfort, SK
John Trueman Hamilton, ON
Hubert Tucker Marystown, NL
John Wilkie Guelph, ON
One of the warmest elements of our meeting is the chance to meet new members and renew acquaintances at lunchtime. To share in lively conversation and get to know new members is a heartwarming experience, and we all came out the richer for it. In fact, we were reluctantly called back for the afternoon session by Dawn Trueman’s medley of wonderful old gospel songs, but we were delighted to be part of a hymn sing led by Dawn Martens and Hannah Jamieson (of the Erskine Presbyterian Choir), who won us over with a beautiful duet.
Then came Gervis! Those of us who were in London, Ontario, will never forget the procession Gervis Black led in London from his church, Metropolitan United, to Alumni Hall at the University of Western Ontario for the 1992 General Council. That was 18 years ago. And it took courage – which Gervis never lacked.
You see, then, that this Annual Meeting had the proper ingredients for a wonderfully memorable one:the joy of meeting old friends and making new ones, our pride in the members who give so much of themselves as they serve in various ways, the chance to remind ourselves of the concern that surrounds us in this gathering of faithful people. We left feeling wonderfully uplifted and encouraged by a great man’s words. Thank you, Gervis, from the bottom of our hearts, and God bless you.