Sep 18 - Randonneurs Ontario

RO is a small club, about 100 members, with four chapters -- Toronto, Ottawa, Huron and Simcoe. The chapters themselves are apparently registered with ACP (France) and there are some requirements in the club's charter, apparently. One of them is that each chapter must have a ride each year (brevet ride that is) and another is that the leadership of the club has a VP for each chapter, plus the usual things you might assume like treasurer, secretary, president etc. Peter Leiss is the brevet administrator, one of the board positions. I had some back and forth with him before the meeting yesterday because I saw that there was only one Simcoe ride planned for next year. Simcoe rides are the closest to me, starting in Alliston.

I also found out, in that back-and-forth, that I'm right at the northern end of being included in Simcoe -- the French River being the northern boundary. When I asked him how many Simcoe members there were, the answer was "2 or 3". So ... it was predictable, when I attended the meeting yesterday, since Isabelle Sheardown dropped out of the club, that I'd end up on the board. They have four meetings per year, apparently, all by telephone. There is also the Annual General Meeting (yesterday) and an awards dinner, held in February. I'm happy to get involved in the club's affairs, limited as I am by geography ...

So, yesterday, after Mass, it was on to the AGM, which was held in the Mains Mansion (a restaurant) downtown Markham. I didn't realize that Markham had such a vibrant historic district, and found that out first-hand. Between those present and proxies, we had 30-something votes registered, a quorum, and the meeting followed a typical annual meeting format of minutes approval, treasurer's report etc. etc. Most of the discussion was around the proposed rides for next year, dates and such. The rides roster must then be submitted to ACP for approval, which is a formality, but cannot be changed once in play. The rides are then posted to the RO website and we have both RO members and RUSA (Randonneurs USA) members who will come and do the rides.

After the RO meeting, I headed up to David's, stopping at Costco and Home Depot on the way. We had a brief "hello" and then David and I, in separate cars, went over to his Cadet Cleaners location. Sandy headed north to the cottage. David explained some of the work flow and I made some suggestions; I now have a better understanding of what he's up against. There's a fair amount of handling required of the clothes on the way in the door, certainly more than I expected and more than he expected. He thought that he'd have idle time, but he's pretty busy all day long, getting backed-up when people bring in large loads.

After the visit to Cadet, I went over to see Alex, a surprise visit. Alex's house is only about 1km away. He had just finished doing some yard work; Jean was packing for a trip to the east coast to visit her family. He and I sat in the back yard and had a beer and then I said farewell and headed to the cottage. Given that I was going to arrive around 7:30, and did, we had my chili, a salad and some of Sandy's olive bread -- a wonderful meal !

The day was done.

Today ... probably some more rock work. We'll see.

Onward !