Image
Olaf from Norway visiting our club
 
Olaf talked to members about Norway and his Rotary Club.  He is the incoming president and had been the president 22 years ago.

Norway is a large country with 5 million population located very far up north at the top of Greenland and should be covered with snow and ice all year but thanks to the Gulf Stream they have some nice weather. The west coast has weather that is similar to Vancouver with summer going up to 20-25 Celsius and winter can see temperatures of -10 to -20.  Their thinking is somewhere between communist and capitalist.  Major industries include oil and gas where their government gets most of its income from. 

Their club has 42 members and is doing some international projects in India to help youth and in Czech to help put young girls at school.  They have mentorship programs locally to help young people to learn from professionals.   

Olaf’s background is an engineer and he has worked in Switzerland, Scandinavia as engineer, management consultant and in real estate as well.  He has an IT company managed mainly by his son developing database technology for handheld devices for institutions such as hospitals.  In Oslo, there are about 500 Rotarians out of a population of 100,000 compared to about 200 Rotarians out of a population of 200,000 in Richmond. 

Olaf invited members to visit Norway and meet with him there!