Early Birds, July 7th, 14th and 21st
Early Birds, July 7th 14th and 21st
Clearly, your minutes taker and writer is on the Mañana summer schedule! It’s a long one kids, combining minutes from July 7th, 14th and 21st. Grab a coffee, and read on.
Let’s start by honouring the memory of one of everyone’s favourite Birds: Roger Jarvis. Thanks to Tony Fisher for pointing us to this lovely tribute to Roger: https://www.arbormemorial.ca/edenbrook/obituaries/charles-stanley-roger-jarvis/88567. A celebration of Roger’s life is planned and the family is asking people to stay tuned to the Arbor Memorial site for more information.
Dan Kennelly – Business is steady- no huge spikes. Activity in Saskatchewan, Northern Alberta and the States.
Customers - asking for American specs since they’re actually building things.
A couple of interesting stats via Dan: First, 65% of oil in the world controlled by 7 companies. All private and sanctioned (in one form or another).
Exxon is responsible for 3% of the world’s production. OPEC+ alliance 50% of the world’s production. Exxon’s price set by market (as is Canadian O & G). Those OPEC+ folks set the price for their commodity. And the world pays.
Renewable energy, solar in particular, is not going to help any more socially responsible western companies. Solar panel production is largely controlled by China. China has been buying up mineral rights to most of the world’s precious metals for years now, and despite the panels being “sourced locally”, regionally or nationally in Canada, most of the panels are constructed in China. Ergo the sale and growth of solar feed the Chinese government more $$.
As an example, Tony Fisher pointed out that the huge Brooks solar installation sourced their panels from a company in Montreal – and touted that fact – when in fact, the panels were made in China.
Dan and folks in his neighbourhood recently helped to equip and re settle a Ukrainian family. Furniture, living space, etc. Very rewarding work.
Dan has talked about Jet fuel on the West Coast before and how much of it required daily to run the Vancouver International Airport. Instead of getting their commodity based on Alberta fuel, B.C. is having (I hope I heard this correctly) a thousand trucks a month supplemented by ships from the US and South Korea. Buy local? Not if it’s Alberta oil and gas.
Trans Am pipe is preparing for ISO audit in September. They’re prepping now and anticipating that it will go swimmingly.
Dan mentioned a site that has helped among others, Bird Ross Mikkelsen recover stolen bikes. It’s the Bike Index. Register yours in the hopes that it might get returned if it’s ever stolen: https://bikeindex.org.
Ian Campbell - helping his daughter move from a Vancouver apartment to a house with roommates on Spanish Banks beach. $5k a month split amongst a few roommates vs. $3k a month for a small apartment.
Ian’s done with commercial renovations! After his story, there’s gotta be a joke that starts with “How many engineers does it take to evaluate painting a non-bearing wall?”
Tony Fisher - Rotary finished post-stampede evaluations. Charities did really well. Huge credit card sales, hardly any cash, despite Rogers outage. The outage WAS a huge issue on the grounds and for most businesses that didn’t have a backup plan.
Logistics is also still an issue for SML. They are sweating a bit because they’re missing August product but hey; at least they’re getting November product. 🙄
Matt Dart – The mid-year update at Johnson Controls is summed up with they have half the work/$$ they were expecting. There’s not much construction other than retail strip mails and condos which they typically don’t get involved in.
In a little Dart family news, the family took their annual trip to Sandpoint and instead of staying at a hotel at five times pre-pandemic prices the family shared a house in standpoint $1500 a night split three ways. MUCH better idea.
Mike Boyles - taking golf lessons from a South African tour pro who, like Madonna, only uses one name: Alberta. Actually, it’s just that Mike and Albert are on a first-name basis. Mike got to play with Albert with him last week after lessons and it was a treat. They DID, however, figure out Albert’s Achilles heel. After he scored 6 under on the front 9, they started feeding him beverages. He was 5 over on the back nine as a result.
Finding a lot of clients with challenges. Transportation, supply and bureaucrats and regulation. More of a counselor than a business advisor.
One of the opportunities in Mike’s business is helping clients prepare ESG packages for small, medium and large enterprise. ESG is Environmental and Social Governance. In some places it’s also known as E%#$^$# Steven Guilbeault. In any case, it’s a growth industry and they’re learning a ton to help their clients navigate that landscape.
Brad Pachal – was headed back to Regina this past week to clean out his dad’s house. Thanks to Andy for help with the trailer.
Dad’s health almost ship shape after a bit of a scare a few weeks ago.
Picking up on the theme from Dan Kennelly earlier, Brad noted that Regina received 250 Ukrainian refugees, and they need everything. A donation center has opened in Regina you can tell your Regina folks about. More details here: https://www.cjme.com/2022/07/15/donation-centre-opens-in-regina-to-give-items-to-displaced-ukrainians/.
Brad discovered a LEGO outlet called The Brick Bin at 2906 Centre St. NE. For LEGO fans (and their sons, daughters, nieces and nephews and grandkids) who need parts, this place is Mecca! The LEGO store actually sent them to the Brick Bin.
Brad has a Birch on his property that needed help. He found it from an outfit called Prune It Up, and the solution was $500.
This led to the line of the day from Andy – “Brad’s yard is now a safe injection site!”
Brett Bain – was the latest to recommend the Mint car wash on McLeod Trail. He subscribed to the $45 unlimited one month pass. Our resident Scotsman said: Great service, great value! Particularly in light of his new impulse buy, a brand new pickup!
Brett’s Scottish blood was at a high simmer over the fact that Alberta’s paying more for gas than Ontario this past while.
OSI business is great. If they could get product, it would be even better.
OSI acquired a new repeat client. Unintentionally perhaps. There’s nothing so dangerous to an organization as an IT person who knows just enough to be dangerous. That happened recently and OSI was called in. After clearing up the technical carnage left behind by this person, OSI recommended monthly maintenance as a preventative/proactive measure for the company’s systems. He declined….so OSI will be back.
One of OSI’s primary business lines is in schools. One of the issues is that “Buddy” in schools, sometimes known as the key contact, disappear for the summer. Of course, they get back in the last week of August and panic, not realizing that they’re going to have to wait until November or December for hardware that might be needed. That they COULD have ordered in time during early summer if they’d done their job right after the end of the school year, except that, they were away.
Andy Lockhart – Going back two weeks, Andy had just landed fresh from a workshop in Port Townsend, Washington where was temporarily the most politically conservative person in that part of the state. He loves the area despite that and discovered how to make his own Travisher to help carve out seats on chairs. Andy tells it better: “…took a ferry to the workshop to work with 8 gay woodworkers and learned how to use my tool properly.”
The tool is tricky to make, and he enjoyed the experience enough to give us a bit of a show and tell. The tool is the sharp, double-edged, finger-skin-shaving tool in the dark wood:
Mike’s story of the golf pro brought to mind another story involving a golf pro, this time out at the Priddis course. In 2016, Priddis hosted an LPGA and had pro golfer Cristie Kerr out.
Among other pleasant moments the members who paid for the privilege of her company had was when the gentlemen offered her a drink each time she birdied, per club tradition, she replied: “If I had a drink every time I had a birdie, I’d look like you guys.” Another moment came when she was arriving at a tricky green and one of the guys explained that the putt was likely to break in a very specific way. Her reply was not “thank you.” It was “I don’t take advice from amateurs.” So…NOT as pleasant as Albert was the long and short of it.
Andy also mentioned this nugget. Just after the latest mass shooting in Texas, it was announced that the Dallas Cowboys had signed a sponsorship deal with the Black Rifle Coffee company. They have delightful roasts like AK-47 Espresso, & Silencer Smooth. You can’t make this up: https://www.blackriflecoffee.com/collections/coffee.
Final note from Andy – re: a legitimate bee in his bonnet from the Birds meeting on the 14th. The Drop-in Centre is working on many initiatives with the provincial government to combat addiction. If you remember from our day volunteering to serve breakfast, the Centre was working *extremely* hard to keep anyone not sober out of the Centre for night-time stays or for breakfast. For 25 years that’s been part of their mission helping the homeless.
Now, in a complete about-face they’re contemplating a safe injection site. The reputational cost to the Centre could be huge.
Dwayne Vinck – returned to Birds on the 14th after being away in Manitoba where he and the family watched over their mom’s passing. Shout out to Brad and Garry from Dwayne for all their help.
While in Manitoba, Dwayne collected a remarkable Coffee with Canadian roots called Resistance Coffee that wasn’t that far off of the Black Rifle Coffee Company.
Paul Boucher - mentioned a credit card scam that’s ongoing for businesses that accept credit cards online. He discovered one night that fraudsters were putting through test charges of $5 on his web site. He was able to successfully refund the charges and block and report each case, but for a business with higher volume, that would be a much bigger issue. Keep an eye on your merchant account. Jae & Reed Achievement - MRU, SAIT
Don Davis – on the topic of thinking you’re “buying local” when you’re actually supporting Russia, China, or some other country remembered this story.
In Don’s Minolta days, Minolta was a Japanese company. Minolta had 100,000 customers across the country, and to mollify perturbed clients, etc., Don’s business would buy refurbished cameras to send to them. People would literally buy them on a Thursday or a Friday, shoot a wedding on a weekend with them or something, then return them on Monday. So off they’d go to be “refurbished.”
In one instance, a client in India actually refused a FREE Minolta camera because it had been refurbished in a part of India that wasn’t on political speaking terms with his part of India. So…not that Japanese after all. Don found a different way to make that client happy.
Other quick notes from Don. He was feeling gratifyingly tired after a day of gardening, when his neighbour came over after swimming 5K in Lake Bonavista then cleaning the yard for the other part of the day. Don was telling Pat something along the lines of “…well, he IS younger…” when she interrupted and let Don know, that “…no, in actual fact, he’s the same age…”
Former Bird Dave Reid’s son Steve opened a venue for entertainment in Invermere after using it for boat and rental storage. He does still get some use for his boat, though. He rents out the boat at $1350 a day.
Then, the story of a FedEx driver who passed out on a porch in Texas. It was likely heatstroke; it gets to be 160 degrees in the back of those delivery trucks.
The only reason it got out was because the homeowner got an alert from his Ring doorbell camera. You can see a video of this poor guy here: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/ring-video-shows-ups-driver-collapse-extreme-arizona-heat-rcna38663.
Finally, Don shared a great Chinese restaurant downtown called U & Me. It’s at 201-233 Centre Street SE (second floor).
Ross Mikkelsen – recently stayed with the family up at the Mt. Assiniboine lodge where they had a full snowstorm! So many moving parts up there and he was super impressed that they manage everything from staff, to grizzlies, to B.C. Parks. Especially B.C. Parks. They had the option to hike 26 km from Sunshine Village, or chopper in. They choppered in. Although they learned that a friend of their daughter’s (who happens to run marathons) ran the entire 26k out and back in 6 hours. That’s a no “flat streets of Boston” marathon!
If you’re looking for a great place for a downtown business meeting, Ross recently experienced the Danish Canadian Club and learned a) you don’t have to be Danish, b) the food’s good, and c) there’s always parking.
Reid Colbran – had missed a few meetings since he was out in B.C. helping family in Shuswap and then a one-week vacation.
Insurance rates have stabilized so renewals are easier.
Reid actually used the word “crisis” when describing all of the catalytic converter thefts. Brokerlink is getting 2-5 claims a week from commercial fleets.
At which point Ross Mikkelsen chimed in and announced, they’d spent roughly $1000 per vehicle to install stainless steel skid plates on the bottom of the Barbecues Galore vehicles to prevent those thefts.
Back to Reid, they returned to water damage in their kitchen. The tip: shut the water off before you leave on vacation.
Bob Wiggins – from skid plates to prevent catalytic converter thefts to motors…really. There once was a dealership client of Bob’s who tells the story of a couple of young guys who took a vehicle out for a test drive. They literally swapped out the engine!
Bob circled back to tell the story of the free playoff trip to Denver for his grandson. He’d told us about this grandson winning the trip to a Stanley Cup Playoff game a while ago.
It was a fantastic experience. Hats off to Tim Horton’s for their great work. A rep from Tim’s met them in Denver. Took them on a tour of Denver in a minibus. Took them to a ball game with 50,000 of their closest friends. And that was day 1!
Day two, they were again picked up by a rep from Tim’s. That day included a tour of the arena, the media area and more. Their seats were about 8 rows up from the penalty box, with a great view. Security even took them into the room where the Stanley Cup was! It was in a word: fantastic. Tim’s even picked up the tab for hockey memorabilia including an autographed jersey. The game itself was terrific – it the one Colorado won in a blowout. Chris’s son may have been converted from a Flames fan to an Avalanche fan.
The day after the game – they visited the Denver zoo. They got lost heading back to their hotel, so Chris stopped to ask for directions. Turns out the “Denver Tourist Guides” were a couple of prostitutes, one a trans sex worker, BUT, they were genuinely helpful and guided them back to the hotel. Chris figures he’ll tell his son *all* of the details on that last part to his son when he’s a bit older. Hahaha.,
Michael McLennan – He and maria have been in the Azores 6 weeks. Came back and the two of them had COVID. That’s never good news, but in this case, it was especially poor timing. They’d come back for her final surgery but that was scrubbed. So, Maria will head back to Portugal until early September (or they’re not going to go back until early September after the surgery. Apologies for the sloppy notes, especially on an important topic).
On the good news side of things, Michael’s son got married in South Carolina. It was fantastic. Palmetto Bluff outside of Blufton, SC. https://www.townofbluffton.sc.gov if you’d like to take a look.
Tom Olson (yes DR TOM) - life proceeds apace. Still a couple of clients, which is just the way he wants it.
For the first time in 30 years, he and his wife own 1 house and 1 car.
Being in Calgary, he had to borrow a car. So, his daughter lent him their BENTLEY 4 X 4. Not making that up. I was riding my bike when I was passed by a Bentley on the way to the meeting, at which point I thought the Inglewood had had a serious client upgrade!
His daughter (she of the Bentley) was away with friends and they’d contemplated buying 12 business class seats. The way things are right now, that’s a good way to paying the price of a rental for a private jet. So they went private.
Tom told the story how after the “great purge”, he’d cleaned out a storage unit he’d been using for 9 months. Here’s the catch on the storage issue: Sentinel storage wouldn’t end the billing until he’d swept the unit.
Finally, from Tom, he relayed how he hadn’t had a thankless job in 40 years, so he joined the board of the condo complex.
Garry Friedrichsen – After Paul Boucher had relayed a conversation he’d had with the CBC’s Eye Opener producer and how he was essentially being considered as a less ( or not) viable candidate for David Gray’s job because he didn’t have a journalism degree, Garry moved on to a P & G story and comments that centered on the philosophy regarding hiring and operating. Would you rather hire book smart or street smart?
People with good situational awareness and street smarts typically tend to be more valuable, but he had a bit of literature and a simple, but comprehensive pie chart showing how P & G measured the success drivers of their ideal candidates.
Thanks also to Garry for pointing out that the federal Carbon Tax Rebates were set to drop into accounts nationwide after the meeting on the 14th. If you’re set up for auto-deposits from CRA, check your accounts.
Final tip from Garry – a neighbourhood hack. They live on a crescent there is a street drain in front of their house. With rain halfway up the driveway, he called 3-1-1 and it was explained to him that the street had a slow drainage system and to call them back when they were flooding. Which, of course, Garry was trying to AVOID! So, in the end, it was all OK, but a city guy did come out following the episode and he was carrying an odd L-shaped shovel, which he used to lift a *grate in the drain* that can be lifted to make it a “fast-draining drain. So…note for future occasions, an L-shaped shovel can be YOUR DIY solution to a “slow drain”.
Our final note is a testament to the value of the Early Birds in trying times for its members. Rob Beasant confided in the meeting on July 14th that his family had recently experienced something very difficult and potentially tragic. Rob requested discretion in the notes, so we’ll simply say this: true to the nature of the gents in this club, many stepped up with helpful, supportive comments and/or actionable counsel. He was made aware that he and his family were not alone, and that he could reach out any time it was necessary. Rob felt lighter, better and thankful after confiding to the group which was a help in and of itself.
