Posted by Barry Smith on Feb 05, 2018
Attendance: 11 (including 1 guest, John Ramdeen, guest of Dhanni)
 
Chair: President Mike
 
Anthem: Frank Allison
 
Grace: Arthur Retnakaran
 
Announcements:
- President Mike announced that we are in discussions with Baton Rouge, but it looks like the lunch cost may be increasing. Pres. Mike also reported on yesterday’s Board of Directors’ Meeting, where it was confirmed that this year’s budgeted amounts were very accurate. So, there will be no excess funds available this year.
 
- Gerd announced that he had finally relented and accepted the position of Assistant District Governor.
- Gerd handed a request from Just Socks to Director Arthur for the Community Services committee to consider.
- Gerd also proposed that all members apply for the $25 Loblaws gift card, Loblaws’ way of trying to avoid a class action lawsuit with respect to its price fixing of bread products for the past several years. If the gift cards are delivered to Gerd, they will be donated to a food bank in the name of our Rotary Club.
 
- Donna announced that she is looking for an International Services Director for next year.
 
The Marbelous Draw was conducted by Gerd and was won, and lost, by the Wengler/Mushet syndicate. Perhaps an investigation is in order. LOL!
 
Sgt-at-Arms
Barry Smith levied fines and Happy Bucks:
- Firstly, all were fined who did not accept the offered position of reporter for the meeting, since the scheduled reporter had failed to show.
- Secondly, Barry tried to auction off a Jaguar as he had found the keys lying about, but Frank Allison claimed ownership, thereby scuttling what could have been a very profitable auction.
- The consolation prize was collected from the Wengler/Mushet syndicate, and accordingly the threatened investigation was dropped.
 
- Happy bucks were donated by the St. Lucia vacationers, Arthur and Dhanni.
 
 
 
 
Program:
Our very own V.P. Donna presented a program on Blockchain.
Donna explained that Blockchain is a platform for cryptocurrencies, but much much more.
Basically, Blockchain is a shared online ledger for recording and sharing the history of transactions in one central location. Blockchain was created by Satoshi Nakamoto, which is either a person or a group and is also the creator of Bitcoin.
 
Donna used a normal transaction in the auto industry as an example of the type of transaction that could be reported on Blockchain. Instead of five different sets of records on the systems of the car manufacturer, dealer, lessor, lessee, and scrap dealer, the entire history of an automobile could be stored in one Blockchain record at one central location. This information is secured in that it cannot be altered, and it can only be accessed with the permission of all of the information providers or stakeholders.
The Internet is used in order to validate Blockchain transactions and automatically update them on all of the servers in the Blockchain network, being thousands of servers, referred to as ‘nodes’ in the Blockchain network. Since all of the thousands of nodes on the Blockchain network would have to validate all uploaded data, Blockchain is very secure and virtually hacker-proof.
 
Blockchain is in existence and being used right now, but Donna feels that its use will expand greatly in the future. IBM is planning to use Blockchain in a big way to automate data transactions.
Donna shared some examples of the possible applications of Blockchain. One application would be a “Known Traveler Digital ID System” where all of an individual’s personal information, including passport, vaccinations, Iris scans, etc. would be stored on the secure Blockchain system and would be accessible at border crossings through an app on the individual’s smartphone. Another possible application by the lending community would be “Mortgage Bundling”.
Donna fielded questions from the attendees.
Pres. Mike thanked Donna for a very interesting and informative talk, loaded with future shock material.
 
The meeting was terminated
 
Joke of the day:
 
A man was terribly overweight, so his doctor put him on a diet. "I want you to eat regularly for 2 days, then skip a day, and repeat this procedure for 2 weeks. The next time I see you, you'll have lost at least 5 pounds." When the man returned, he shocked the doctor by losing nearly 20 pounds. "Why that's amazing!" the doctor said, "Did you follow my instructions?" The man nodded. "I'll tell you though, I thought I was going to drop dead that third day." "From hunger, you mean?" "No, from skipping."
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