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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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