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President's Message - October 2004

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October 2004

by Chris Gainor

I have spent the whole month of September in Edmonton, but the Victoria Centre and the RASC have not been far from my thoughts. From my contacts with council members, I was pleased and not at all surprised to find out that the work of the centre has continued quite well in my absence.

The RASC Victoria Star Party in September was successful given the circumstances, with interesting talks, good food and great people compensating for a bad break from the weather. Thanks to Rich Willis and the many people who helped him pull this off.

Bruno Quenneville has been busy organizing our monthly meetings, and David Lee is putting together our new council, which will take office in November. Council also met in September to get ready for our fall activities.

I have gone to Edmonton to pursue studies at the University of Alberta, and those who suffered from the September rains that hit Victoria will be gratified to know that it snowed here in Edmonton during my first week of classes. The same day, there was an interesting space symposium to go to, so I didn�t feel too bad about my situation.

A few days later, I attended a monthly meeting of the Edmonton Centre at the Odyssium, Edmonton�s science and space centre. I found a well attended meeting of a very active centre. The Edmonton centre is so busy that the business portion of the meeting was much longer than I was accustomed to seeing in Victoria.

One reason for the Edmonton Centre�s high level of activity is that the Alberta government has maintained charity casinos, and the Edmonton Centre has been able to take full advantage of that fact. They have sums in the five figure range to spend on various observing and outreach activities. That�s something we can only dream about in B.C.

Unfortunately, B.C. governments from both sides of the political divide have hacked away at gaming proceeds for charities to the point where the Victoria Centre and other community groups are forced to go cap-in-hand to the government for amounts of money that are chickenfeed by Alberta standards.

On a happier note, SpaceFest 2004 is coming to Vancouver in the first week of October. This event involves many astronauts and leading experts in the field of space exploration. I am taking a break from my studies to be in Vancouver that week, and I hope that many of you have the opportunity to attend.

 

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