The Latest News for You

Volume 06 | October 2020

GBCRA Monthly News and Updates

ANNOUNCING THE 2020 ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

DECEMBER 1, 2020 12:30 - 2:00

CLICK HERE FOR AGENDA AND

BOARD REPORTS. (Choose 2020 AGM Materials)

Motions and proxy voting details along with other documents will be available on our web site www.gbcra.org

Message from the Co-Chairs

Greetings!

As you read this, we will have had a very different Halloween than we might have expected when we opened new calendars last January. Halloween on a Saturday night with a full moon – and a “blue moon” at that – promised a great night for trick or treating and parties. Of course, it was still Halloween on October 31^st, as usual, even though it was celebrated differently than we would have imagined.

We, too, are going to be celebrating one of our annual events differently this year. As usual, we will be holding the GBC Retirees’ Association Annual General Meeting. In the past, we have had lunch together and have sometimes had a speaker or presentation. This year, we will be meeting virtually, via Zoom, and members will have to organize their own lunches. At the AGM, like our other events, members have enjoyed the opportunity to see former colleagues and to chat a bit. That opportunity is more limited when we are online instead of sitting at tables together, but we will begin our time together with a brief period for greetings and casual chat before we start the actual meeting. After the meeting, we will have a break followed by an online music presentation, "A Wonderland of Yuletide Favourites."

Holding an AGM by Zoom (with the option of phoning in for members who need or prefer to use that modality) will be a new experience for all of us. Several board members have been preparing and practicing so that the meeting can run as smoothly as possible. We have gotten helpful advice based on other organizations’ AGMs, as we are not the only organization experiencing this. Our process will be explained at the beginning of the meeting so everyone is clear. Nevertheless, we will all need to be more diligent in following our agenda and remaining mindful of our process than we have had to do when we are all in a room together.

You will see the link to the first set of materials at the top of this newsletter. Additional documents will follow closer to the meeting. We can all help ensure a pleasant, easy process by reading the material before the meeting, sending in any questions by email, and having a printed copy of the agenda and other material handy at the time of the meeting.

In addition to preparing for the AGM, our regular activity has been continuing. The book club and bridge club have been meeting and there is information about a potential new "birding" club further on in this newsletter. Several members had an enjoyable afternoon playing Bingo online, which most of us had not previously done online and several had not played in any form for decades. The winners of our modest prizes all generously donated their winnings to the scholarship fund. We hosted our annual online auction last month and set a goal to raise $1000 for the Retirees's Scholarship fund. Thanks to your participation and enthusiasm, we raised $1554.00

There was an exceptionally strong response to the questionnaire sent out by our nursing students whose placement we are hosting. They are grateful for the strong response they received and are preparing material that they hope will be interesting and helpful to our members. We are also looking forward to the next music event, Icons of Canadian Music, on November 4^th, along with "A Winter Wonderland of Yuletide Favourites" and "George Gershwin: Jazz in the Concert Hall" on December 16.

Please be sure to register for the AGM and the music presentations. We look forward to seeing all our members at these events and at the AGM!

Georgia and Dianne

Join Us!

Events

Our fall events are well underway: Early in October, twenty-five of us joined Daniel Aonso for a one hour presentation on the "Queen of Soul," Aretha Franklin. A few days later, ten of us spent an enjoyable afternoon talking, laughing, and playing on-line Bingo.

Thanks to you, our online auction was a huge success; we raised $1545.00 which we have put towards the Retirees Scholarship Fund. Not only that, we had more than 3,000 visitors to the auction site - we advertised it to the entire college community and to the GBC Foundation. We thank them for their support.

Coming up, we have Daniel Aonso presenting "The Great Canadian Icons of Popular Music," our AGM followed by another musical presentation, "A wonderland of Yuletide Favourites" and finally "George Gershwin: Jazz in the Concert Hall."

Click here to view event details

Clubs

The Book Club

Our next meeting of the Book Cub is Friday October 30th from 1-3pm and we will be discussing "The Family Upstairs" by Lisa Jewell. "In The Family Upstairs," Jewell, the master of "bone-chilling suspense," brings us the can't-look-away story of three entangled families living in a house with the darkest of secrets. The meeting will take place via Zoom and will be facilitated by Zuby Saloogee.

In November, we will meet on Friday November 27th from 1-3pm and will discuss "Searching for Sylvia Lee," by Jean Kwok. Described as "A deeply moving story of family, secrets, identity, and longing, this book is both a gripping page-turner and a sensitive portrait of an immigrant family. It is a profound exploration of the many ways culture and language can divide us and the impossibility of ever truly knowing someone-especially those we love."

If interested in joining the discussion, please contact Dianne Diniz. Join as many or as few discussions as you wish. For a complete book list click here.

The Bridge Club

The Bridge Club continues to meet each Monday online and is actively searching for new members, and beginners are more than welcome! Contact Laura Lothian-Bryant to find out more.

Theatre and Classical Music Clubs

Both of these clubs have been suspended due to the pandemic, however, we are hoping to resume activities in the near future.

Birding

See the article below by John Wills. If your interest is piqued, let us know and we will create a forum for discussion.

Click here for Club Details

Fifty George Brown College Retirees Participate in GBC/Trent University Student Project

First of all, we would both like to thank everyone for taking the time to respond to our survey! We were overjoyed when we saw the responses and want everyone to know how grateful we are that you are engaging in our project and how much your responses will help us develop and deliver meaningful information to you all over the next few weeks.

We learned so much about how people are generally feeling during this pandemic. The majority of you who participated in the survey are feeling the effects of social isolation, not being able to go to your usual outings for entertainment such as theatres, restaurants, art galleries and museums, travelling abroad especially with winter coming and, most of all, not being able to socialize and see friends and family up close and personal.

Many of you felt that your level of stress has not changed or increased significantly, but an equal number of you agree that your stress level has increased mainly due to worrying about loved ones, and of course, the question we all have on our minds ‘will this pandemic ever end?’. Many people admitted their physical activity has decreased and that they were eating more including more takeout, baked goodies, and snacks out of boredom. About half the members stated they were experiencing more boredom during the ongoing pandemic and the other half experienced no change in their daily routine.

We were encouraged that 90% of respondents have either already received their flu vaccination or are planning on getting it. There was also a 90% response that the majority of you will likely get the COVID-19 vaccination when it becomes available and the evidence confirms that it is safe and backed by medical professionals.

With all of this feedback, we have put together a bulletin that will be available on the GBCRA website with educational information and various resources on a couple of topics we think will be useful and during these times of social isolation. Over the next 2 weeks, we will populate the bulletin with new topics based on the results of the survey and some other resources we think will be helpful.

As a close to our project and our time spent with you, we will be sending out another survey to evaluate the effectiveness of the information and resources we provided to you. We will look forward to receiving your feedback at that time!

Thank You kindly

Cheryl & Faye

This Article is....For The Birds

by John Wills

Bird Watching - It Started With Morning Doves

It was spring and the pandemic had just gone into lockdown. We started to notice things going on around our home. Nature. There it is right outside our window, where we had placed the four birdseed feeders and two suet feeders for the winter. The most we got involved with those feeders up until this spring was filling them constantly, and cleaning them in the spring; and the patio below the feeders had to be swept and hosed down to remove the … well, you know…

We had a dove nest sitting in the eave of our lower screened in deck, right above those feeders. We could not get rid of it. Every time we removed it, it was rebuilt, better than before. We never removed it if there were eggs or hatchlings, only after the nest seems abandoned. And they kept coming back.

As a former builder, I admired their construction engineering and construction management from a technical point of view and also the choice of location from a real estate point of view. I decided to find out why they keep coming back to the same location over the months from March through July. Is it instinct or is it convenience? Do they return to their same nest every year like our other neighbours, the raccoon family? If so, then I should think about building these birds a more permanent structure off and away from the porch. I consulted Google.

AHAAA! … Pigeons… doves are in the Pigeon family! That new-found knowledge made me think back to those pigeons who lived outside of our drafting studio window in the old Architecture building on Gerrard Street at Ryerson. They never left that spot not even for winter. Back to Google for more on “pigeons."

I was referred to a YouTube video The Nature of Things by David Suzuki, and a link to the pigeon episode - He solves the mystery of how pigeons live where they live – the ideal distribution phenomena. Turns out that Pigeons are intelligent birds who never forage for their food. They expect it to be delivered to them by their “human”. And if their human does not deliver it, they move on to another human, in an instant. Cannot fool these birds, they even recognize the faces of their humans, even if they are disguised with different clothing, according to research done in Toronto by Suzuki. Pigeons have learned to adapt to humans in ways we are still learning about.

OK, so if we are stuck with these doves, especially because we hang those feeders out for more than the doves and the squirrels, we should build them a home!

Back to Google. “How to build a dovecote”. Up pops a link to obtain different building plans with multiple designs including technical drawings and details from a Professor of Ornithology at Cornell University, Dr. Kevin McGowan. “Send your email address and we will return the e-plans." The plans arrived almost instantaneously with an explanation of the spring migration that was currently underway in the Eastern US and Canada and included a link to join a free Keynote Zoom seminar “The Joy of Birdwatching” all about how to recognize and distinguish between bird species. It is still available on the Cornell Keynote website where they store videos of pre-streamed seminars.

I signed up for the “live” Zoom session scheduled for July, to see what birdwatching was all about, after all, we were now COVID-19 shut-ins (it was June) and we were noticing more species than ever before at our feeders, why not learn to name them? The seminar included a link to a free app called Merlin. Merlin is a taxonomy of bird species designed to instantly distinguish birds by their size and shape, “…if it is bigger than a sparrow and smaller than a robin then it must be one of eleven species (in Eastern North America)”. Great start, good for size and shape, but what about colour, bird-song, and habit?

There are other great introductory websites at the Cornell Ornithology Lab, see these links: all about birds, Birds at Cornell

Fast forward to October… I’m now hooked on birds… and it all started with doves. By the way, did you know that doves produce up to six broods of offspring per year? Hence the re-building program at the same location - as long as the food lasts, they will be there.

There is another free “keynote” seminar happening soon, called "Winter Bird Feeding 101 with Project FeederWatch". You can learn more about Project FeederWatch at https://feederwatch.org/

The Keynote happens on Nov 19, 2020 12:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)

You can sign-up here

Perhaps a few of us would be interested in getting together via Zoom to de-brief the keynote. Could be fun! Just click here and put "for the birds" in the subject line and we will be in touch!

Stay safe and happy birding.