President-Elect Rick Merritt called the meeting to order. Liz Palmieri led us in Grace and Don Shaw used his single-note harmonica to lead us in O Canada. After toasting the Queen and Canada, Rick took great pleasure in recognizing the return of Peter Banwell. Peter has been temporarily absent while he regains his health. His wonderful wife Barb accompanied Peter. The Club was very happy to recognize his return with a great round of applause.

President-Elect Rick Merritt	Peter & Barb Banwell

President-Elect Rick introduced the head table: To introduce the speaker, John Crossingham; our guest speaker, Professor Angus Sommerville; Sergeant at Arms, Bob Lawler; Member in the spotlight, Dan Patterson; to introduce our guests, Vicky Rudachuk.

St. George's Day Decor	Bob Lawler

Vicky Rudachuk	Dan Patterson

Vicky turned the spotlight on Dan Patterson who was introduced to the Club by Ann Bain in 2001. Dan is married to Saundra and has a daughter Christine. Dan claims he is too busy to have any special interests but Vicky "Googled" Dan and found 23 pages of information about him - more pages than about the mayor. He has served on the majority of the Rotary Committees. Dan has a PhD from the U of T, joined Niagara College in 1991 and became President in 1995.

As there was no need to sing happy birthday, Rick led off the announcements with best wishes to Betty McLean who is at home recovering from an operation. There is a meeting of the youth exchange committee at John and Janet Snowling's home on May 2 nd at 5:30 PM. Don't forget the bike trek on June 10 th and most of all don't forget the District Conference on Friday, May 5 th Saturday, May 6 th and Sunday May 7 th . Recall there is no charge for registering. An added bonus - the President-Elect of Rotary International will speak on Saturday at 9 o'clock. Eugene Gillies is looking for 6 volunteers to help at the District Conference so give him a call.

Eugene Gillies	The Empire Strikes Back Choir
Choir Director Chris Blake	Singing, sort of

The St.George's Day Festivities began with the first (and probably last) appearance of "The Empire Strikes Back Choir". Choir master Chris Blake tried to lead the ensemble consisting of Rick, Nancy, Sangeeta, John, Liz, Graham, Bill, Mark and Carol (last names withheld at the request of some members). Their first song, " Boy George ", will never be a hit and regarding the Choir's rendition of " God Save the Queen " - well - let's just say the Queen was saved, as she didn't have to listen to it!

Corgi Tossing	Black Sheep Ale, Black Sheep, Abused Corgi
Olympians	Olympian Ian Riddel

The St.George's Day activities did pick up with the Corgi Throwing Contest organized by John Crossingham and judged by George Park. Terry McDougall, John Snowling, Mark Zammit, Jagdish Mehta and Nigel Riddell were the Olympic throwers representing nations from around the world. The surprise winner was Scotland, which did not participate! As John Crossingham said, " the contest must appear to be unfair as well as being unfair". George Park was also heard muttering ". those Scots keep the Sabbath and anything else they can get their hands on!"

Blind Judgment	Judge George Park

George Park did happy dollars and was glad to tell us that St. George was an Arab who killed the Dragon in 300A.D. He had a lot of other things to say about the Welsh, the Scots and the Irish but new members should note that other people will have a turn at happy dollars.

Ray Bukovec was happy to remember how Peter Banwell helped him during his (Ray's) term as President. Ray also had some flowers for Barb Banwell.

Ross MacDonald was happy but the Gossip Sheet will not report why until he pays his dollar (those Scots will try anything to sabotage St.George's Day).

Betty-Lou was happy to see Peter back and was also happy to report that the Black Sheep Ale brought in by John Crossingham was made at her cousin's brewery.

Norm reminded us of the Smart Serve Course on May 15 th at 7:00 pm, Brock Tower.

Art Weaver is looking for sponsors in the "Head for the Hills" fundraiser.

Sam Walters is happy his daughter is engaged and Jagdish is happy for Peter Banwell's sense of humour.

John Crossingham	Prof Angus Somerville

John Crossingham introduced our guest speaker, Brock Professor Angus Somerville. Professor Somerville began by telling us that the English Language is internationalized with wide varieties of peoples speaking a form of the language. He reminded us that 300 million people in India now speak English. Professor Angus traced the English language from Indo European roots 7000 years ago to the three Germanic Tribes. He went on to trace it from the West Germanic Tribe to the Anglo Saxons to the time when the Romans abandoned England around 470AD. He described the different periods of development of the Language from Early Modern (1450-1660) to Modern, which is the period from 1660 to today. He noted however that from 1660 onward we have been in an age of constant expansion and evolution and gave several interesting examples to describe this evolution. Professor Somerville went on to demonstrate how English is showing its presence in other countries such as Germany and France. He mused that perhaps there is now a counter wave to offset the French wave that was perpetrated on England with the invasion of William the Conqueror in 1066.

Tom Arkell thanked the speaker noting that he asked the Dean for a recommendation for a speaker on the English Language and Professor Somerville was recommended. We were not disappointed. Thank you Professor Angus.

Rick Merritt & Prof Angus Somerville

Rick kept up Larry's tradition of recalling a Rotary Moment. Rick recalled the time when hurricane Stan went through Mexico killing several people and leaving 370,000 people homeless. Mel Gibson was filming in Mexico at the time and was moved to leave $1 million to help the people affected by the storm. He chose to have the money managed by the Rotary Foundation for that purpose because he had confidence in Rotary's experience in these matters.

With no other business - the meeting was adjourned

10 Day Notice

Christina Pentlichuk, Training Manager, Clarica Financial Services,
proposed by Wade Stayzer