March 20, 2003
Vice-President Steve Roberts was in the "chair" this week as President Jim was fulfilling other obligations. The only guest was Gary Baumgartner.
Sergeant-at-arms:
Don Popple fined Art Dawson for stacking the team at the bonspiel. Art got another fine for preparing to go away again. Dereck Knowles and Peter Forgrave got the mandatory Dudley fine. Jamie Cowen paid up for improper table etiquette.
Business:
Linda Beachli mentioned that former exchange student Rudolpho was discovered again in Kissimmee.
There is a multi-club meeting in Barrie on March 31st to celebrate the Wheelchair program. Brian/Dorothy Menton and President Jim are attending. It is $35.00/person and if you would like to go, contact Jim.
Steve Roberts, Andy Glecoff, Bob Nichol, Jim Richards and Ted Brandon are attending the P.E.T.S seminar in North Bay. More are welcome.
Sean Hawley will be discussing plans for the Steak and Seafood event for later this spring during next week’s meeting.
A calendar was handed around for members to mark their dates for car duty. The tracker was on display in the parking lot and looks great. Chairman Dave Bishop displayed a sign that can be purchased for $15.00 to help sales.
Ted Brandon talked about the membership drive. We have 42 members now and the goal is to have 60 by our 60th birthday, which is in 2004. He handed out an updated list. Members were asked to indicate whom they could approach for membership.
The members’ list (from our website) was circulated. A few members changed their information. It has been updated.
Regarding our Golf Day, contact Dereck Knowles if you need a registration form.
Andy Salvatori lost a sponsor for the Rotary Mile event. This event is run in conjunction with our annual Carnival. He got two sponsors from the floor.
Tracey McMullen mentioned that her business was going to get a name change! It will have a Pizza and Pasta flavour. No date has been set yet, but she invited the club to food and wine. Five dollars of the dinner fee will be donated to the Hospital Auxiliary.
Next week is a board meeting and Luke Schell is the programme chairman. On April 3rd, it is Don Popple.
There were 2 birthdays. Jerry
Walker got some ducks unlimited (literally) and Don Popple received a
whistle and hockey stick in celebration of spring playoffs.
Tonight’s Program:
Brian Black
gave us a few insights into the oil business. He started off by estimating that
there are 20 million liters of gasoline sold in this county in a year. Of the
approximate 80 cents per liter at the service stations, 10 cents goes to the
federal government tax coffers, 14.7 cents goes to the Ontario government
coffers and 5 cents is GST. Dealers have no say in the price setting strategy.
They must also live with a drop in price if they have filled their tanks with
higher priced inventory.
Brian shed some light on why we see such discrepancies in the pump prices around the county and the province:
There are different types of stations
o
Company- run locations that inevitably have cheaper prices. The site is owned by the company, they pay their own insurance and hire workerso
Company Retail stations- They provide gas directly to the stationo
Independent Stations- They may still carry the company logo but they buy from a wholesaler (such as Brian or Steve)There are "big box" retailers that use gasoline as a loss leader
There are different zone classifications (Haliburton is grouped with Bancroft)
Some towns are competing for market share with company stores (Minden)
Brian mentioned that as a wholesaler, he was asked in his 4:00 faxes to change the price 20 times in 28 days in February. He also went on to say that a lot of the reason for the price is the relationship to the crude oil price on the world market (in U.S. dollars). All oil is measured by the one unit; a U.S. barrel of oil, which is about 45 gallons. It is based on world economic situations and pure speculation. The crude price was almost $40.00/barrel not long ago and sharply fell to $25.00 in the last few days. (Web readers see chart.) Steve Roberts also mentioned that about one half of the barrel yields gasoline. With the high demand for heating oil (which comes from part of the other half of the barrel), lots of excess gas is now stored. This will eventually find its way to the gas pumps but the stored gas is at the higher cost so it will take a while for the lower cost gas to reach the marketplace.
A lively discussion ensued in which members gave their frustrated opinions on ways that we as consumers can combat the "untouchable" oil companies and have sensible prices that more accurately reflect fair competitive practices.
Many thanks to Brian for sharing his thoughts on this topic.
Have a great week!
Kim