The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

President's Report What an amazing collection of oral history and pictures have been gathered in our Archives. The more we search for pictures and stories for our planned book, the more we grow to appreciate the work of the archivists and the members of our society that preceded us in gathering information. Of particular interest have been the stories and pictures gathered from many of the early families that established West Vancouver. The Lawson's, the Thompson's, the Leyland's and the Smith's are only a few of families that donated written material, oral history interviews and pictures to the collection. Archivists over the years, including our current Archivist, Shaunna Moore, have done a remarkable job in organizing the material to make it available for people searching for specific subjects. Apparently we are nearing a point where many photographs have been digitized and will be available for viewing on line in the future. At our recent board meeting we voted to increase the membership fee by $5,00 per year. It was pointed out that there had not been an increase in fees since the establishment of the Society. Our decision to create a web site will contribute to an increase in our costs. As well, we were required to put in our own phone line, as the Municipality asked us to secure our own number. It is our hope that the increase will not be a burden to any of our members. If you know of a problem please let us know. An interesting question was put to me by Claudia Freire of the Planning, Lands & Permits Division of the District of West Vancouver. Apparently the residents of the 4400 block of Piccadilly North have been facing "increasingly heavy traffic associated with the mistaken belief that the 4400 block of Piccadilly North provides access to the other 'Piccadilly North' located above and north of the train tracks (which of course it does not)." The request was to rename the 4400 block to Piccadilly Lane to distinguish it from the remainder of Piccadilly North. Apparently Piccadilly Lane was the original name given to the road by Francis Caulfeild. The change was approved on behalf of the Society. We have acquired a new program to assist with the assembly of an initial chapter of the projected book. We gratefully acknowledge the support of the District of West Vancouver through their 2008 Assistance Grant program that will more than cover the cost. The computer program will allow us to lay out Page 2 Cont'd. next column. President's Report - cont^d. pages, vary the sizes of the digital photos and to prepare draft chapters ready for final edit and printing. The program should help us to keep the cost of production to a minimum during these initial phases of the work. Our meeting on November 26**^ will feature Francis Mansbridge, author of the newly published book 'Hollyburn'. He will be there to share many of the stories and events associated with the mountain. For those of you who attended the presentation of 'City Reflections' on Sept. 24*^^^ will be running the DVD at the end of the presentation on the 'Hollyburn' book. The black out that occurred that night left a number of people missing about three quarters of the presentation. We hope this will provide an opportunity for those who were cut short to view the whole DVD. Jim Carter nnnn Winter By Pollough Pogue -December 27^^, 1924. A few days ago a large field of ice from the Fraser River was brought over to the Altamont shore by the same currents that bring the big Fraser Valley cottonwood logs stranded on the West Vancouver beaches. It had been a night of clear sharp frost, and we thought at first that the bright bay itself had congealed. A more experienced beach resident told us that it was drift ice from the Fraser. This field extended for about a mile from shore, blue white and glacial in the cold light of early morning. The diving ducks that winter along-shore, the grebes and the gulls seemed to welcome this ice- field as something which lent a fresh interest to life. They appeared to enjoy the novelty quite as much as the children on the beach. Scoters and grebes strung out in long ranks of hundreds kept up a shrieking chorus as if in glee. They pushed themselves on their bellies over the ice, pursuing each other like children at play. They pattered over the ice on backward kicking feet, with wings beating, as if to rise, but did not take the air. The gulls, which had congregated on the ice- field in large numbers, stood watching the winter sports of the ducks and grebes with idle interest. The gulls were silent, as if dignity would not permit them to express approval or disapproval Cont'd page three.