Sept 16, 2019 Bulletin (Sep 16, 2019)

Sept 16, 2019 Bulletin

Opening/Chair: Joanna took over the chair duties for the day and asked Laurie to lead the group in the singing of O Canada. This was followed by a moment of personal reflection.

Visitors/Guests: There were no visitors or guests today other than our guest speaker.

Speaker: Jill Linquist fell into the distilling business by chance, and found a love she didn’t know existed. She is Owner and Distiller for Raging Crow Distillery in North River, N.S., but she would have never expected to end up in the industry. She and husband Al have a small hobby vineyard and sell their grapes to Benjamin Bridge. While on a wine tour in 2016 to the Okanagan wine tour they stopped at Legends Distilling, and a women from Lunenburg gave the tour. Jill was impressed.

By July 2017 Jill decided that although there were already 9 existing craft distilleries in the province, there was market for more and she wanted to give it a try. She teamed up with retiring Dal professor Kris Pruski to be her business partner. They looked at equipment and the costs, formulated a business plan, and incorporated in September 2017.

It was not all smooth sailing. There were many permits and building codes to get by and Jill discovered that they lived in a "dry" community... so had to go through a plebiscite. Since that time the government has made legislation to eliminate all dry areas.

Raging Crow Distillery Inc. is a small-batch, hand-crafted, artisanal distillery that focuses on creating products sourcing local products, wherever possible. That could be the honey from the local beekeeper, the rye from the local farmer, the coffee from the local coffee roaster, the maple syrup from the local maple shack, the bacon smoked by the local butcher, etc. Raging Crow Distillery is focused on quality versus quantity. They are making the only potato vodka in Nova Scotia. There are plans to expand storage soon to include barrel ageing and have more event space.

There is an excellent video on Raging Crow that explains the operation well. https://youtu.be/r4wDz-C_pB8

Jill ended by saying that she loves the business and offered to work with the club to have an event at the facility.

She was thanked on behalf the club by Adam Harris.

Member Health: No report

Announcements and Reports:

Jane gave a brief report on Bollywood. The event is sold out with a waiting list. There is still a need to some volunteers, so let her know if you can help.
Dave Mills gave a brief report on the golf tournament. Our two teams had done well. One better than the other. There were no details on the amount raised.
Kirk reported that there were only a couple of pictures left to take. Approvals were coming in more quickly than previous years.
Kevin asked that people let him know about potential speakers for club meetings.
Jim Goit reminded people that there was time to register for the Rotary Leadership institute session that is happening at the NSCC Truro campus on Saturday Oct 26th. Sections were filling quickly so don't delay in registering. https://rliatlanticdiv.org/. The club will cover the registration fee.
Barb reminded everyone to register for the social at the Goit home next Monday evening. (Sept 23) It is an opportunity to meet and greet with the Australian Friendship Exchange team. The event is pot luck for supper.

President's Report: No report

Happy Mug: There were a couple of happy Rotarians today:

Kevin was happy to have had a great time volunteering for the Golf Tournament. It was long day but good to get out.
Joanna was happy to have had a great visit to New England.

50/50: Darlene had the right ticket (for the first time) but missed the joker, so the $9.00 pot was left to grow.

Closing: 1:10pm

New Member Notice: The Directors have approved the recommendation the Membership Committee for the membership of Ms. Hattie Dyck. Hattie is a former journalist, historian and author. Her sponsor is Rotarian Wayne Gillis. Induction will take place at the next opportunity.