Looking Back & Forward
About 30 people attended our Annual General Meeting on January 13 to hear our year’s summary of events and initiatives, plus a report on budget highlights. Both of these reports were emailed to members after the meeting. Klaus Kuhn also updated us on issues affecting Youbou and will be scheduling a town meeting soon. We thanked Mike Bishop for his continuous four years of service since our organization was founded in the fall of 2014. Mike is stepping down from the board, but we count on him to stay engaged as an active member as we move forward into 2019. Due to Mike’s departure and one other vacant position, our board would like to add two more enthusiastic people to our busy group of seven. One position would be membership, the other would be a floating member to pitch in where help is needed. If you’re interested, email Julia@raedwulf.org.
Survey 2019
We want to hear from YOU! Our YCA board is conducting an interest survey to help us plan our events AND PRIORITIES for the year. A link to the online survey was sent to members in mid-January, as well as to Facebook members. If you haven’t filled out the survey yet, please do it online by clicking on https://goo.gl/forms/095mrakot99YAohD2. Or, if you would like a paper survey, contact Julia@raedwulf.org. Please respond to the survey by January 31, so we can tabulate the results in time for our February planning meeting.
Youbouyca.com
Youbou is now on the map of the worldwide web. We’ve just launched our own Youbou Community Association web site. Check it out at youbouyca.com. You’ll see information on our board, Youbou events, businesses, history, past newsletters, and how to join our community organization. We’ll work at keeping the site up to date so everything you, or our visitors, need to know will be right at your fingertips.
In the Event of an Emergency
If there’s one thing the recent multi-day power outage taught us, it’s that we could do a better job at being ready for disasters in the future. It was heartwarming how many of you reached out to help neighbours who were cold or hungry when you had the resources to offer. However, we’ve realized we need to coordinate a more concerted community-wide effort. To that end, a group of concerned Youbou citizens are meeting with CVRD representatives to create a plan and gather the necessary items, so next time we’re caught without power, we’ll be more than ready. If you would like to be part of this task force, please email julia@raedwulf.org.
Happy Trails
You may have heard that a lakewide trails initiative is underway with big plans to maintain or develop hiking and biking trails around Cowichan Lake. The new society is called Trailblazers and Youbou is well represented on the new board. Youbou Community Association board members Julia Martinusen and Lori Lafave are both new directors with the society. Improvements to the Christopher Rock trail are high on the list of priorities for both Youbou and Trailblazers. The group will be scheduling trail work days once each month on designated trails around the lake. We’ll let you know when these are slated and especially when work is scheduled on Christopher Rock.
Eagle Eyes on New Year’s Eve
Thanks to all who rocked in the New Year with us and Eagle Eyes at Youbou Hall. Local musicians Ray Harvey, Jack Gunderson and their band mates played to a sold-out crowd. Many party-goers started dancing on the first number and didn’t stop until after the stroke of midnight. To keep the energy level high, we fueled up on a sandwich buffet halfway through. The band counted down to the stroke of midnight and after a couple of hard pulls, the net released its cascade of balloons on the dance floor. While our board members organized the event, we couldn’t have pulled it off without your support and all of the following:
Ticket sellers: Shop & Save, Cassy’s Coffee House, Daly’s Auto Centre, Scarlett’s Second-hand Boutique, the Lake Cowichan Visitor Centre, and board members.
Shuttle drivers: Linda Rawlings and Trevor
Bartenders and drink tickets: Spencer Day, Randall Wilson, Tom and Paula Nannery, Eva Fearon, Richard Madill, Bob Fish, Allan Gott, Lori LaFave
Food servers: Eva Fearon, Alice Yanke, Julia Martinusen, Pam Palliser, Lynn, Dan Martinusen, Joanne, and Cathy Fish.
Decorations and set up: Teresa Gustafson, Eva Fearon, Alice Yanke, Lori LaFave, Julia Martinusen, Richard Madill, Garry Fearon, Allan Gott, Spencer Day, Randall Wilson, Tom Nannery and Paul.
Door: Brother John, Floyd Augustine, Garry Fearon, Spencer Day, Randall Wilson.
(In fact, there were so many volunteers that it’s probable we missed some in the above listing.)