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Extracts from our President's remarks at the Language Laboratory Opening Ceremony: "The funding for this project was achieved by The Friends' participation in the B.C. Government's charitable gaming programme. Two years ago, we applied for a Casino licence and were awarded a three-day Casino in December 1997. Our net earnings from this effort were just over $33,500. Now, a year after the event, the Language Laboratory has been built, furnished and equipped, and is ready for use." "This project had its wonderful up times and its frustrating down times, but the cheerful hard work and dedication of our volunteers saw us through. The frustrations arose because the legislation governing the licensing and administration of casinos - and the B.C. Gaming Commission itself - was in a state of flux during 1997, resulting in a great deal of confusion and uncertainty. The culmination of this stop - go series of frustrations occurred in mid January 1998, on the very day that we were due to be advised of the exact amount of our share of the casino fund, when the B.C. Supreme Court ruled that all casino money owed to charities be frozen." "The up side was, of course, the great feeling of companionship and mutual support that we enjoyed while working at the event itself - times that we all have fun remembering." "On behalf of all the Friends of the Library I would like to heartily thank our stalwart casino volunteers for their contribution to our Society and the Library." "Just a brief history of The Friends participation since the 1980's in the Casino programme run by the B.C. Gaming Commission. Before an application could even be considered it was necessary to have our organization Incorporated under the Province's Society Act. The ground work and planning involved in this submission were very extensive as a formal, legal, constitution -with by-laws - had to be drawn up. This impressive endeavour was spearheaded by Tony Scammell during his presidency of The Friends. The government's Certificate of Incorporation was registered on January 18, 1989. Once this important first stage had been completed, the casino licence application was compiled and submitted, resulting in the award of a casino in January 1992. One of the main purposes of this campaign was to raise money for the Bookmobile fund, to which the Friends were then able to pledge $20,000. Presented with this impressive pledge, the Municipality honoured their undertaking to award twice this level of funding to the project. The Library was able to commission a brand new purpose-built Bookmobile." "We have subsequently participated in casinos in 1993, 94, 95 and, of course, 1997. The funds raised in this manner have enabled projects as diverse as computer equipment for our Youth Services Department, furnishings for our meeting rooms, main hall and children's Story House, and some excellent encyclopaedia, dictionaries and other materials for our Reference Department. Without the casino revenues, none of these projects would have been possible." "If the January 1992 casino volunteers can be said to be pioneers, then we December 1997 volunteers might be termed the last hurrah! Legislation brought in over the past twelve months states that registered charities applying to benefit from gaming revenues will not be required to provide volunteers to participate in events themselves." This latest information has been met with mixed feelings -we did enjoy our participation in the casinos - the fun and the drama...... driving back across the Bridge six to a car at 4am......experiences quite outside our everyday environment. Joanna Knight Ted Hill Maureen Eagle The next meeting of The Friends will be on Wednesday February 24, 1999 at 7 pm in the Library's Peters Meeting Room