Our meeting was called to order at 18:15 by President Jim Richards. We sang O Canada, toasted Queen and Country and sang Rotary Grace. This evening there were neither guests nor moose hunters at our table.

Sergeant at Arms Jim Miners handed out a couple of fines related to identification. A couple of members had too much identification and a few had no identification. In an attempt to make up for the absence of a song master, the Sergeant distributed the song books and promised a fine to any table that didn’t pick a song and sing it. What followed could only be described as choral anarchy – every table sang at the same time, but not on the same page. Hurry back Art Ward.

President Jim read a thank-you note from the Dawson family thanking us for our thoughts and tribute at the time of Art’s mother’s passing.

President Jim brought a few items from the Board Meeting held earlier in the day. The first of these was in regard to a presentation by Ray Selbie and Dale Walker asking Rotary to continue to provide support to the Hospital Foundation by co-running the golf tournament. A motion was made to continue our support, but without a specific pledge. The vote will take place at our next meeting.

In connection with the first item, Ray also asked if the club would donate a portion of the net from the golf tournament towards the Polio Plus Campaign. The Board also approved contributing $150 per member to the Campaign this fiscal year.

The Mentons announced that they are available to work for you, either in your place of business or in your home. Instead of being paid, they would ask only that you make a donation to Haliburton Rotary’s wheelchair fund. The Mentons have set a personal goal of raising $1,200 and the Board has added another $1,200 to the pot. To sweeten the deal, the M’s are also offering their own maple syrup at $20 per litre, with $10 going to the fund. The club voted to send $2,400 to RI now, in anticipation of Brian and Dorothy being fully booked until their goal is met.

Don’t forget to bring your Unicef boxes back to the next meeting, or to President Jim’s place of business.

Ted Brandon invited members to help support the upcoming Fleming College Ecotourism Conference by buying raffle tickets. We got tickets, he got fined.

Another auction message from Peter Forgrave - heads up if you’re a volunteer because your call and pickup list will get to you soon. If you haven’t yet provided a donation, there’s still room for your creative Christmas gift – talk to Peter.

The final item is about 3 shortages – dues, letterhead and board members. If you can help with any of these, let President Jim know.

Kim Emmerson was the program chair tonight and he was also the program. Tonight, as Kim told us about his passion, we were able to see the forest and the trees – in our minds, at least.

Kim told us about three of his favorite  products, Spruce, Cedar and Pressure Treated – you guessed it, it was all about wood.

Each of these products is perfect for its particular use. Spruce is ideal as a Christmas Tree and for most of the 17% of your house that is hidden from view. Cedar makes the perfect dock, deck or hedge, although the best building cedar comes from western red cedar. Although pressure treated is less than perfect in many respects (ouch), once injected with the proper chemicals it can withstand rot and decay as well as cedar at half the cost. This feature may soon change as the "no arsenic in my backyard" crowd forces the industry to inject different chemicals in the search for perfection.

The meeting was adjourned by President Jim at 19:16.