2021 May/June

RCMC Newsletter
May - June 2021

PDF Download for Printing

May - June Virtual Meetings

May 13th. - ZOOM VIRTUAL MEETING - Martha C Rogers:
Pandemic: Affects to our Schools and our Children's Education

Presentation:
Martha Rogers is responsible for the education of approximately 35,000 students enrolled in the Upper Grand District School Board. Martha will describe for the RCMC, how life in the school board was upended in March 2020. We will get a glimpse of what going to school has meant for students in JK - Grade 12 in the 2020-2021 school year. September 2021 is still months away but we will hear what is being considered as we all emerge from the pandemic.

Bio:
Martha Rogers is the Director of Education for the Upper Grand District School Board, a position she has held for 26 years. She is the longest serving Director in the province of Ontario.Prior to being Director, Martha was a supervisory officer for eight years in the areas of Special Education,Program,and Human Resources. Martha also worked at the Ministry of Education as an Education Officer for several years. Martha has an Honours B.A. in Psychology from the University of Western Ontario, an M.ED. from OISE/University of Toronto, and a Ph.D. - also from the University of Toronto.Martha is an active member of the wider educational community. She is a past Chair of the English Public Directors and the Council of Ontario Directors of Education (CODE). Martha was appointed by the Ministry of Education to their Board Administration Advisory Group, chaired a Task Force on Principals and Vice Principals for the provincial government, and represented CODE on the Technical Working Group on Benefits. Martha represents CODE at Board meetings of the Ontario Public School Boards Association (OPSBA), and has been involved in Collective Bargaining for OPSBA for over 15 years. Martha is also a member of OPSBA’s Labour Relations Council. Locally she has been a member of the Rotary Club of Guelph for 30 years, with a particular interest in children and literacy, and At-Risk youth.She was formerly a member of the Intercultural Leadership Advisory Board for the City of Guelph, a member and past Chair of the Wellington County Public Sector Consortium’s Leader Group, as well as, a member of the Human Services Committee of the United Way Social Planning Council. For six years she served on the Board of Directors of the Guelph/Wellington Association for Community Living, and on a Program Advisory Committee for Conestoga College.Nationally she is an Education Partner in the Education Research and Development Institute, has served as a member of their Advisory Board and was on the Customer Advisory Board for the National Express Corporation for many years. As an educator who has worked at many levels of the education system for 49 years, as well as in the private sector, Martha is firmly committed to public education.For all of this, she was selected for a Guelph YM/YWCA Women of Distinction Award in 2012 in the category of Lifetime Achievement – Education

10am. To be followed by Live Questions

May 27th. - ZOOM VIRTUAL MEETING - Mike Bechtold:
Air Power Clears the Way...D Day and Normandy 1944

Presentation:

Historian John Terraine has said "Air power was the decisive factor in the Normandy Campaign." It is true that the fighters, bombers, and reconnaissance aircraft of the Royal Air Force and Royal Canadian Air Force played an important role in driving the Germans out of Normandy. Dr. Bechthold will explore the contribution of the air force to the victorious campaign fought by the Allies in the summer of 1944.

Bio:

Mike Bechthold holds a PhD in History from the University of New South Wales, Canberra, Australia and an MA & Honours BA from Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. Mike is the author or editor of eight books and numerous articles. His most recent book is Flying to Victory: Raymond Collishaw and the Western Desert Campaign (University of Oklahoma Press, 2017) and he is the co-author of a series of guidebooks about the Canadian battlefields of the Second World. He specializes in the fields of military air power (especially tactical air operations in the First and Second World Wars), the Canadian army in Normandy and Northwest Europe, and the Canadian Corps in the Great War. He has taught history at Wilfrid Laurier University, the University of Waterloo, Conestoga College, and the Schulich School of Business at York University. For 22 years Mike worked as the Communications Director of the Laurier Centre for Military Strategic and Disarmament Studies and the Managing Editor of Canadian Military History, an academic quarterly journal. Mike is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society in the UK, a Fellow of the Gregg Centre for the Study of War and Society at the University of New Brunswick, a Research Fellow at Nipissing University Centre for the Study of War, Atrocity, and Genocide, and he recently served as the Executive Director of the Juno Beach Centre Association.

.10am. To be followed by Live Questions.

June 10th. Annual General Meeting 9:30 am start time
- ZOOM VIRTUAL MEETING – Dr. Dorothee Bienzie:
Covid in Pets

Presentation:

In my presentation I will briefly review the biology of SARS-CoV-2, the cause of COVID-19, and then speak on why animals are susceptible to infection, how infection manifests in animals and the ramifications for other animals and people.

Bio:

I obtained my veterinary degree in 1988 from the University of Guelph, followed by a couple of years in general veterinary practice. I then returned to Guelph for a residency/Master of Science, and obtained board certification as a Veterinary Pathologist. Thereafter, I received a Medical Research Council of Canada fellowship for doctoral studies, and completed a PhD in Immunology at McMaster University in 1997. My family and I moved to the University of Georgia in Athens (Georgia) where I was on faculty from 1997 to 1999. We then returned to Guelph, and I have been on faculty here since. I held a Canada Research Chair in Veterinary Pathology from 2005 to 2015, and was most recently (Dec. 2020) honoured with a University Research Leadership Chair. My research concerns asthma in horses (a very common condition in Canadian horses), and devising and validating improved diagnostic assays in Veterinary Medicine. I teach in multiple phases of the veterinary curriculum and in graduate courses, and have supervised 20 graduate students.

AGM: 9:30am
10am. Speaker:To be followed by Live Questions.

June 24th. - ZOOM VIRTUAL MEETING - Dr. Karen Davis:
My Pain - It's Personal

Presentation:

Bio:

10am. To be followed by Live Questions

To Our Members,

Royal City Men’s Club Cancellations Related to COVID-19 - Updated 29 April 2020

In line with guidelines from the government and public health professionals, Royal City Men’s Club is regretfully cancelling all "live" lectures, activities and coffee club get-togethers until further notice. We anticipate this could be from a several weeks to a few months.

However, we are pleased to announce that we will be offering a limited number of "virtual" meetings where speakers will present a virtual presentation using Zoom. Also, on every Thursday on which we do not have a presenter, we will have a "virtual coffee morning", again using Zoom. Thus there will be either a lecture or a coffee morning very Thurs at 10 am. In order to simplify Zoom logins, everyone will be sent a single link which will apply to all these meetings.

We thank you for your understanding and patience during these uncertain and stressful times. We will continue to communicate via our mailing list and on our website to keep you well informed. There is additional information on the website.

In the meantime, your health is of primary importance and we encourage everyone to follow the advice of the government and health professionals.

R.C.M.C. Board of Directors

Martha C. Rogers

Mike Bechtold

Dr. Dorothee Bienzie

Karen Davis PhD

Future Meetings

Meetings for July/August 2021:

Check Schedule on Website

Activities & Events

Coffee/Breakfast 10:am

Cancelled Until Further Notice

EVENTS:

ALL ACTIVITIES ARE CANCELLED

Contact for Events & Activities - Ken Marchant: marchjack@rogers.com

Other News

There is a new What's New section on the Home page of our website. This will give you quick links to any new information which has been posted on the website.

If you have any new content for the website, please send to Ritchie Zelk at edna.ritchie@sympatico.ca

Membership