Galina Tikhonovsky – Classification Talk

Chris Musselman introduced Galina who works for Investors Group and was born in Siberia, Russia. Galina studied in Moscow, got married in Moldova, and then moved with her husband to Israel to live. She then jokes that her husband then followed her to Canada! Galina and her husband have a beautiful daughter who is 27 years old.

When Galina asked others in the Club what a “classification talk” was about many replied “it’s about telling us about yourself.” She believes that for whatever reason, people are only interested in who you are first and then what you do second. When she turned 50, Galina felt scary. It was a time to take inventory of her life. She understood that she didn’t want to turn 70 and look back and regret not having done something important in life.

Becoming a Financial Planner came naturally to Galina. She had made plans for herself and decided to extend this ability to others. Being an adventurous person also helped her step into a male-dominated industry, the “old-boys club.” It was a new adventure for her after 17 years of teaching university level students. Galina states that there are relatively few women in financial planning, maybe because as a woman you are limited to “male bonding activities” such as golfing but at least Galina plays tennis!

Galina feels that she has greater empathy because she is a woman. She can hear what is not being said and that makes women natural planners and relationship builders. This is why women are natural clientele for her. Women are special in many cases. Galina feels that women have a dysfunctional relationship with money; they feel that they cannot understand money and have natural resistance to money. A woman could be exposed to money making decisions either through divorce or the death of their partner. They easily become walking prey to less-than-ethical advisors. Also, at the same time women are out-earning men in 28% of Canadian families she claims. In many cases women feel lost and are looking for directions. Directions are what financial planning is all about. So, Galina always considers Plan “A” as an ideal arrangement and Plan “B” if the ideal scenario does not work out.

Galina states that statistics say that women live 7 years longer than men of the same age; therefore, at some point a woman will be by herself taking care of her own finances. So, Galina’s advice is simple. Plan A: if you want to be taken care of, marry a rich guy who’s 7 years younger than you are. If Plan A does not work, go to Plan B: deal with a trusted advisor and learn how to take care of your money. Have a guaranteed income for life and never run out of money. Also, get rid of the syndrome of “the bag lady” irrespective of how wealthy you are right now. Galina’s mission is to help every woman she’s dealing with to feel confident about their future and to spend happy retirement years with dignity.

As the Director, Galina is responsible for hiring and training new consultants. To her male colleague’s great surprise, she is hiring a lot of woman consultants. She welcomes any candidates from Club members. Professionally speaking, Galina holds 2 professional designations and is recognized among 5% of the best company managers in Canada.

Galina admits to being an adventurous person and is planning to go around the world. She started slowly in this direction from one country to the other and lived in 4 countries, visited 30 and is working on her bucket list. There are 5 new countries on her list to visit by the end of this year.

In closing, Galina feels that joining Rotary allows her to get closer to the other mission in her life. She wants to help women and girls living in different parts of our planet to live their dreams and make their dreams come true one day.

Lina Demirjian thanked Galina for her wonderful classification talk.

Attendance

There were 31 Club members in attendance and 2 guests. Ron introduced Ron Smith who is the President of the Scarborough Centre Probus Club. Gerard welcomed back Ishrani Annamunthodo for the 4th time!

Open Membership Classification

Monuments is the open membership classification this week.

Announcements

President Mike welcomed back Bob Johnston, Denny Hodge, and Peter Sidorchuk.

Audrey McCaskill announced that there were 3 openings in the Bluffer for business card ads. The cost is $60 for 6 months.

Gerard Baribeau announced that there are only 10 days till Camp Enterprise. The Club is still looking for volunteers for the business game on Friday and Saturday evening. Please see Adam or Geoff.

Gary MacGregor announced that there is a Ribfest volunteer sign-up sheet in this week’s Bluffer. Please let Gary know either way whether or not you are able to volunteer your time.

Mike Cooksey announced that 2 law firms he solicited agreed to sponsor 2 students for Camp Enterprise. He also mentioned that “

Woods-Cunningham Wheel

Adam spun the wheel for the $225 pot and Gerard held the winning number 33. The 2nd spin however landed the ‘King’ of Clubs.

Sergeant-at-Arms – Gerard Baribeau

Don was pounced upon by Gerard to pay a fine for his “out of order” remark. Don tried to suggest that Bob returning from his winter in Florida wanted to join the Club again!

Bob remarked that he could speak for himself but was happy to be back!

Audrey was happy that her cottage was opened for the year and so was “black fly” season!

Mike C. paid a happy buck for attending the RYLA conference at Loyalist College on the weekend and was proud of this year’s attendees. He also noted that the late Bert Geary had left $10,000 to the RI Foundation. Finally, Mike also pointed out that we still need sponsors for Ribfest which is fast approaching!

Shirley was happy to host a Brazillian Rotarian who she is working with on an International project. Candido will be flying in later today. She is also delighted to meet another International project contact at the International Conference in Montreal in June. Koffi will be travelling from Ghana.

Lina apologized for being late because she was busy. She just couldn’t miss Galina’s classification talk and coincidentally she was also the assigned thanker for today’s program!

Jimmy was proud to have his brother rest in heaven. He was also celebrating Lillian’s birthday and a Club anniversary.

Adam paid a buck for arriving late.

Gene paid a happy buck for celebrating a whopping 57 years of marriage!

Chris was happy to see all the wonderful flowers in full bloom finally.

Celebrations

A little Humour Compliments of Gerard Baribeau

Some Real Groaners

1. King Ozymandias of Assyria was running low on cash after years of war with the Hittites. His last great possession was the Star of the Euphrates, the most valuable diamond in the ancient world. Desperate, he went to Croesus, the pawnbroker, to ask for a loan. Croesus said, "I'll give you 100,000 dinars for it." "But I paid a million dinars for it," the King protested. "Don't you know who I am? I am the king!" Croesus replied, "When you wish to pawn a Star, makes no difference who you are."
2. Evidence has been found that William Tell and his family were avid bowlers. Unfortunately, all the Swiss league records were destroyed in a fire, so we'll never know for whom the Tells bowled.
3. A man rushed into a busy doctor's office and shouted, "Doctor! I think I'm shrinking!" The doctor calmly responded, "Now, settle down. You'll just have to be a little patient."
4. A marine biologist developed a race of genetically engineered dolphins that could live forever if they were fed a steady diet of seagulls. One day, his supply of the birds ran out so he had to go out and trap some more. On the way back, he spied two lions asleep on the road. Afraid to wake them, he gingerly stepped over them. Immediately, he was arrested and charged with: transporting gulls across sedate lions for immortal porpoises.
5. Back in the 1800's the Tate's Watch Company of Massachusetts wanted to produce other products, and since they already made the cases for watches, they used them to produce compasses. The new compasses were so bad that people often ended up in Canada or Mexico rather than California. This, of course, is the origin of the expression: "He who has a Tate's is lost!"
6. 6. A thief broke into the local police station and stole all the toilets and urinals, leaving no clues. A spokesperson was quoted as saying, "We have absolutely nothing to go on."
7. An Indian chief was feeling very sick, so he summoned the medicine man. After a brief examination, the medicine man took out a long, thin strip of elk rawhide, gave it to the chief, and told him to bite off, chew, and swallow one inch of the leather every day. After a month, the medicine man returned to see how the chief was feeling. The chief shrugged and said, "The thong is ended, but the malady lingers on."
8. A famous Viking explorer returned home from a voyage and found his name missing from the town register. His wife insisted on complaining to the local civic official, who apologized profusely saying, "I must have taken Leif off my census."

Upcoming Meetings -to update your information, e-mail Gary at garymac@clarkehenning.com

Duty Roster