Christina Murray - President
August 10 2024
Hello Imperial Okanagan annuitants!
Summer is in full swing, and I hope that you are enjoying
all that the Okanagan has to offer. There are some new things happening in the
club that I’d like to share.
To start off, the Club has been busy with all three regions
having had their spring/summer events in late June. The South Okanagan group
led the way with a lunch at the Frog City Café in Kaleden. Vernon followed with
a dinner at Masiero Pizzeria and Kelowna wrapped it up with a lunch at the
Kelowna Springs Golf Club. I must thank the Directors for their efforts in
coordinating these successful events.
Speaking of Directors, I would like to welcome Marilyn Kandt to the Executive team as a Kelowna Director. Marilyn joined our club late last year and will replace Rick Dowdell, who moved to the Vice President and Membership Coordinator roles.
Also joining the team is Darcy Reiter, who is currently
transitioning to the Treasurer position through our year-end cycle. Darcy is
also a new member, who joined us in 2023 and will be replacing Paul Kemppainen
who is stepping down from the role. A huge Thank You goes out to Paul
for his efforts over the past 5 years. When I spoke to Paul about his decision
to step down, he said that he was in this role longer in retirement than any
position he had while he was working. Thanks again Paul.
We are looking at some new activities for this fall so stay tuned for those announcements. We have secured a new venue for our 2024 Annual General Meeting. The Harvest Golf Club has raised their prices significantly, so we have gone with the Legends Classic Grill at the Kelowna Springs Golf Club (480 Penno Rd, Kelowna). This is where we had the Kelowna lunch in June, and it was well received by the attendees. We plan to customize the buffet with more items. Please mark October 3rd on your calendars for our AGM and I look forward to seeing you there.
There were some comments at the Kelowna event on how to
connect to the club website. Just click on this link - https://essoannuitantok.ca/
If you have any questions or concerns about the club, you
can also email me directly at president@essoannuitantok.ca
Rick Dowell on behalf of Christina Murray
Previous Newsletters
Christina Murray - President
March 27 2024
Greetings fellow
Imperial Okanagan annuitants!
My name is Christina Murray and I am your new
President of the Okanagan Annuitant’s club.
As a result, Rick Dowdell (formerly Director of the Kelowna B group)
will take on the role of Vice President & Membership Coordinator in addition to his Web Tech role. Sylvia Jurys Director’s role has been
expanded to include both Kelowna groups.
I would like to say a BIG thank-you to Steve
Foord for being the club’s President for the past 5 years. His leadership and knowledge of what is going
on was a great asset and I am grateful he is still around for me to lean on for
advice.
It’s hard to believe that another year has past us by and we are already well into 2024. But first let’s recap last year’s (2023) club activities. We held 6 lunch/dinner events and 2 smaller events. We also held a well-attended Annual General Meeting in October at the Harvest Golf Club. Along with the enjoyable meal we could not have asked for a better view from the club house.
Thanks to our Directors (Al Short, Barb Armstrong, Rick Dowdell, & Sylvia Jurys) for organizing and hosting these events!
In May/2022 we launched the Esso Annuitants
Okanagan website. The site’s primary purpose was to be a communications hub for
members and an avenue for prospective members to learn about the club. The site
includes a “Useful Links” section with the new IOL Benefits Alight link, “Events” section and a “Members Only”
section which is password protected.
We’re also looking to add pictures of the Okanagan taken by our members to our Home page. These could also include particularly memorable pictures related to Imperial. Please send your pics to our hard-working Web Tech (Rick Dowdell).
Imperial Annuitants Facebook page was initiated just last year by Al Short, Vernon Director, and already has over 1.1K members! If you’re interested in staying in touch with Imperial annuitants from across the organization OR need an answer to your question, “what’s the new discount code for a car rental” this is a great place to start and I encourage you to join!
We will once again be collecting annual club dues of $20/member payable in June ($40 per couple). We’ve set up an e-transfer option direct to the club bank account using this email address: treasurer@essoannuitantok.ca Please include your name in the comment section so that we can identify who the payment belongs to. While this is the preferred payment method, dues can also be paid to your Director at the Spring events.
Our Directors are busy planning events for
this year and once they have finalized the events they will be in touch with
the details. As well, details will be posted on the website under the “Events”
section. Keep in mind the first week of
October as we are planning to host our AGM at that time. I hope many of you can make these events!
We are looking for volunteers. If
you are interested in having a role on Executive team, please email me at president@essoannuitantok.ca
We are looking for event ideas. In addition to our dinners/lunches we are looking for ways to connect with other annuitants in the area. If you have any ideas like…coffee on the beach or let’s go bowling contact us.
I hope to see many of you at events during the year and I look forward to any and all feedback on club activities… just contact us.
Christina
Steve Foord - President
March 6 2023
Greetings fellow
Imperial Okanagan annuitants!
I continue to be amazed how quickly time seem to go by these days! I do recall earlier times in my life when days seemed to drag and only weekends seemed to pass quickly. Sometimes it seemed so unfair!
Here we are already well into
2023 and I’d like to take a moment and reflect back on last year’s club
activities. In 2022 we held 6 lunch/dinner events and 3 smaller informal events
spread across the three regions.
We also held a well-attended Annual General Meeting in October at the Harvest Golf Club. From my own personal experience and from feedback I received these events were very much enjoyed by attendees. It certainly was a busy year and I thank the Directors for organizing and hosting the events!
In May/2022 we launched the
Esso Annuitants Okanagan website. The site’s primary purpose was to be a
communications hub for members and an avenue for prospective members to learn
about the club. Based on member feedback we have now expanded the site to
include a new “Members Only” section which is password protected. This section
provides links to:
· Corporate travel discounts
· “In Memory” listing of recent passings & obituaries (via a link to Calgary annuitant club website).
· Imperial Annuitants Facebook page. This Imperial-wide initiative was initiated just last week by Al Short, Vernon Director, and already has over 150 members! If you’re interested in staying in touch with Imperial annuitants from across the organization, I encourage you to join up!
We’re also looking to add
pictures of the Okanagan taken by our members to our Home page. These could
also include particularly memorable pictures related to Imperial. Please send
your pics to our hard-working Web Tech (Rick Dowdell).
Check out all these new
website features and let us know what you think…. and a big thank-you to Rick
for making these changes happen!
Looking ahead the Directors are busy organizing Spring events in the three regions. Details will be posted on the website Events section as soon as they’re available. We will once again be collecting annual club dues of $15/member payable in June. We’ve set up an e-transfer option direct to the club bank account using this email address: treasurer@essoannuitantok.ca While this is the preferred payment method, dues can also be paid to your Director at the Spring events.
I hope to see many of you at
events during the year and I look forward to any and all feedback on club
activities.
Steve
Steve Foord - President
May 26 2022
Good day fellow annuitants
It was great to see so many of you at last fall's club events. I had the pleasure of attending events in each of the three regions. Dinner at the Hillside Winery in Naramata was a real treat. The Basil & Mint luncheon in Kelowna was very special, given the restaurant opened just for this private event. And of course the Christmas dinner at Earl’s in Vernon was its usual great success.
Your Director’s have been busy organizing events for this spring. Here is what’s on the plate, so to speak:
South Okanagan: Saturday, March
28; Dinner and live music at The Dream Cafe in Penticton
Kelowna: Monday, June 13; Luncheon
at the 19 Okanagan Bar & Grill in West Kelowna
Vernon: Tuesday, June 7; Dinner at 1913 Restaurant at the Vernon Golf Club
Your Directors have all the details and will be in touch with you. I hope many of you can make these events!
After a two year hiatus we will once again be collecting annual club dues of $15/member. These are payable by July 1 and can be paid to your Director at the above events. We also have set up an e-transfer option direct to the club bank account. To use this option, simply e-transfer to this email address: treasurer@essoannuitantok.ca. Auto Deposit has been set up, so no need for a security question.
I'm very excited by one of our new club initiatives I'd like to share with you. We are in the final stages of creating an Okanagan Annuitants website. This website has two primary purposes:
First and foremost, it will be a communication hub for members. All upcoming events will be listed there and members will be able to sign up for these online. Members will be able to access the full list of members which will be helpful for members who would like to connect with others who may be in a different region. News from Imperial regarding annuitant issues will be posted on the website as well. We will be encouraging members to post local activities other members may be interested in joining. Things such as: winery tours; bike rides, golf outings; walking/hiking; art gallery/museum visits; etc; etc. There will be nothing too big or too small to post here! This members section will be developed over the next few months, but you will be able to access the rest of the site and make comments.
Secondly, the website will be a link to our club for those Imperial annuitants who may be new to the Okanagan and looking to join an annuitants club. We have a number of recent members who happened upon the club through word of mouth or chance encounters. The website should be a big help in this regard.
And finally, a huge shout out and
“thank you” to Kelowna Director Rick Dowdell for doing all the legwork to
create the website and get it up and running. Thank you Rick!
Steve