General Meeting ~ December 8th, 2011

The Royal City Men's Club met at Trinity United Church gymnasium on the above date. There were 50 members, one guest (Earl Gagnon) and the guest speaker present. President Len Johnstone called the meeting to order at 9.55 a.m. and recognized the presence of John Pawley and Dave McEwen who had been away due to serious illness. He then asked that members let someone on the Board know when one of our members or their immediate family members is ill. We can then advise members present at the meeting, as well as express our concern to the individual with a Get Well card signed by members. Don McCrombie presented a timely temperature based joke that was WELL received. Gary Luck advised that the next Coffee Club meeting would be at the Edinburgh and Woodlawn Tim Hortons at 10:00 a.m. Gary Repta advised that: the next meeting would be January 5, 2012, the Valentines Dinner would be February 11 at Delainey's and cost $17 per person, April 12 would be the RCMC Anniversary Luncheon, and that the meeting with spouses would be April 26th. He encouraged members to advise their spouses and mark their calendars for April 26 where Ed Herold will be speaking on “The Changing Sands of Sexuality”. John Proctor introduced Ron Subden to speak on the subject of “The Smart Wine Buyer”. Ron broke his presentation into five sections: Why we buy wine, A break-down of component costs and revenues from a bottle of wine, The impact of climate on grapes and wine, The quality classification system for wine, and an interactive session on identifying the quality of a wine from the label. He handed out copies of a table showing the wording on wine bottle labels for wine quality classes for major wine producing countries. Members became quite enthusiastic about identifying the quality of wine from the labels and Ron concluded by saying that they now had the knowledge to be able to select an appropriate wine for a particular use, and to know whether it was priced according to its quality category. He also offered that the quality of “make-your-own wines” has improved significantly and can be as good as or better than some of the commercial wines. Ken Marchant thanked Ron for his informative and entertaining presentation and gave him a book as a token of appreciation from the Royal City Men's Club. Len Johnstone offered a few musings, reminded members that the next meeting would be January 5, 2012, wished everyone a Merry Christmas and adjourned the meeting at 11:05 a.m. Gordon Framst Secretary