Upcoming Gatherings

WLURA hosts regular presentations on the last Friday of most months of the year. The next few gatherings will be a hybrid of in-person and by Zoom. Zoom invitations are sent out a few days before the event.

April 25th WLURA Presentation

Prof. Steve Wenn, former Chair of Kinesiology and Physical Education at WLU, will speak on:

“The International Olympic Committee's Oversight and Management of Tokyo 2020 in a COVID-19 Environment.”

Prof. Wenn is co-authoring a new book with Prof. Robert Barney, UWO, based on behind-the-scenes interviews with the Chair of the IOC, Thomas Bach, and other officials on how the decisions about the Tokyo Olympic Games unfolded both to postpone, and then to chart the way forward a year later.

2:00 p.m. Friday, April 25, 2025
Coffee and Snacks at 1:30 p.m.
202 Regina St. Lounge

For free parking, simply register at Parking Office, 202 Regina St. when you arrive.

Past Events

Friday, March 28, 2025, 4:30 to 6:30 p.m.

Pub Night: At Beertown

Waterloo Square, 75 King St South, Uptown Waterloo. https://www.opentable.ca/beertown-public-house-waterloo

Let’s Celebrate the Coming of Spring and have some fun!

Lots of parking available. Bring a friend. Enjoy good company!

Friday, January 31, 2025, 2:00 p.m.

Fifty Years In and Out of Libya, with Gerry Schaus, Professor Emeritus, Archaeology and Heritage Studies, WLU

When you’re young and you’re offered a chance for a free trip to Europe and Africa (even if it’s Libya), what would you be willing to do? To me, almost anything, even attempting to study a group of 2,500-year-old potsherds of unknown importance from some little-known Demeter Sanctuary at a legendary place called Cyrene. Where? This fleeting opportunity incredibly led to fifty years of fascinating research and exotic travel in and out of Libya, land of mystery, violence, intrigue, and rich cultural history.

This will be a hybrid gathering: on Zoom and in-person in the first floor lounge of the 202 Regina building.

Come at 1:30 pm for coffee and refreshments and to catch up with fellow retirees.

Friday, February 23, 2024, 2:00 p.m.

A Gaspésie Scavenger Hunt, with David Peirson.

An illustrated tour of the Gaspé in which we search for a host of amazing objects and places. Sure, Gaspé is Percé Rock, but, it is much more than that, which you will see, if you join us as we follow our guide.

Friday, March 22, 2024, 4:30 to 6:30 p.m.

Pub Night: At Beertown, Waterloo Square, 75 King St South, Uptown Waterloo. Let’s Celebrate the Coming of Spring! https://www.opentable.ca/beertown-public-house-waterloo

Friday, May 31, 2024, 1:30

Reception for 2024 Retirees and WLURA AGM. Join us on Friday, May 31, when we host a reception for all those retiring in 2024. The reception will begin at 1:30 in the main floor lounge of the 202 Regina Street building. All planning to retire in 2024 have been invited.

At 2:00 p.m. WLURA president Jim Butler will welcome new retirees. Several current retirees will speak about their retirement experience. The reception will also provide an opportunity for new retirees to learn about the WLU Retirees’ Association, its activities, programming, and its representation on matters relevant to the interest of Laurier's retiree community.

This is an opportunity for those now retired to welcome new retirees and discuss matters of interest to all retirees.

At 3:00 p.m. we will have our Annual General Meeting.

This will be a hybrid gathering: on Zoom and in-person in the first floor lounge of the 202 Regina building.

Come at 1:30 pm for coffee and refreshments and to catch up with fellow retirees.

WLURA Annual General Meeting, 202 Regina St. Lounge

Friday, January 26, 2024, 2:00 p.m.

Visiting Lebanon, with Steve Izma

Three of Steve Izma’s grandparents arrived in the Waterloo area from Lebanon around 1900. His parents’ generation lost contact with Lebanon almost completely, so that in 2017 he was one of the first of family members born in Canada to travel to Lebanon. During that trip and on subsequent ones in 2019 and 2023, most of his time was been spent hiking in the mountains, especially on the Lebanon Mountain Trail. The LMT, completed in 2008, includes about 600 kilometres of trails that, collected together, run from the north to the south of the country. Steve will present information about the trail’s significance to a sustainable environment and agriculture in Lebanon, and then give a summary of the complex politics of the country’s democratic institutions, which precede by decades those of the supposedly “only” democracy of the Middle East.

Friday, March 31, 2023, 4:30 p.m.

Pub Night at the Abe Erb pub in the Tannery Building at Charles and Victoria St. S. in downtown Kitchener.

Friday, April 28, 2023, 2:00 p.m.

Carol Stalker: on visiting the Costa del Sol – an alternative to Florida

Friday, May 26, 2023, 2:30 p.m.

Brad Dunbar, Certified Public Accountant: on tax advice and long-range planning

Friday, February 24, 2023
“Birds of Waterloo Region: Their Status, Threats, and What We Can Do to Help Them,” with Lyle Friesen, songbird biologist, retired from Environment Canada

What birds are found in Waterloo Region and are they at risk? We have experienced significant and widespread losses of both insect pollinators and birds in North America, with a decline of one-third in individual bird abundance since 1970. One cause of the decline is the way we have developed the urban landscape. We can help birds by using native plantings and by managing our yards to provide food and shelter for insects and birds throughout the year.

Dr. Lyle Friesen worked for over twenty years as a songbird biologist with the federal government (Canadian Wildlife Service, a division of Environment Canada). His work focused on monitoring and researching native bird populations in Ontario – particularly species-at-risk – and on environmental assessment, including the impacts of wind turbines on birds and bats.

Friday, January 27, 2023, 2:00 p.m.
Living with and learning from bees with Fred Leutenegger, apiarist

Fred Leutenegger is a beekeeper and dairy farmer from North Perth. Bees have been Fred’s passion since he was a boy. He has kept bees for 16 years and says he is “still learning from them!” In his 4 apiaries he keeps 85 large hives, each one containing approximately 60,000 bees.

We have asked Fred to bring some of his heavenly honey along for us to purchase.

This will be a hybrid gathering, in-person in the first-floor lounge of the 202 Regina St. building as well as on Zoom. In keeping with the university policy requiring masks in classrooms, masks will be required at our in-person gathering.

Friday, November 25, 2022, 2:00 p.m.
David Peirson on travels in the Arctic

Not your usual road trip: driving the roads of the Yukon and Northwest Territories, with David Peirson, retired Professor of Biology. Join us for David’s narration and slide show of his trip and adventures along the way. Get to know Yellowknife, Fort Providence, Fort Simpson, the Mackenzie River, Victoria Falls in Nahanni National Park, the Alaska Highway, Whitehorse, Dawson City, and Mount Logan – parts of Canada not visited by most of us.

Wednesday, May 18, 2022, 2:00 p.m.
The Annual General Meeting of Members of the WLU Retirees’ Association

Election of Officers, Receipt of the Financial Statement, and Speaker (TBA).

Friday, April 22, 2022, 2:00 p.m.
The Worldwide Destruction of Our Cultural Patrimony: Wars, Treasure Hunters, and Metal Detectors

By Gerry Schaus, Professor Emeritus, WLU.

Today, it’s the indiscriminate bombing of Ukrainian cultural monuments; a couple of decades ago, it was the looting of the National Museum in Baghdad and the blowing up of the giant Bamiyan Buddha statues in Afghanistan that caught the world’s attention. In between, largely unnoticed, pillagers and treasure hunters have destroyed countless archaeological and historical sites for their own personal gain. It’s impossible to document all this destruction of world cultural patrimony, but at least we can glimpse this tragic loss from one archaeologist’s sad personal experience.

Thursday, April 28, 2022, 2:00 p.m.
Meeting with Nela Petkovic, WLU’s Chief Information Officer, regarding WLU email system usage

Nela Petkovic, Chief Information Officer for WLU, Scott Elliott, Director of Information and Computer Technologies Infrastructure and Information Security, and Yi Ruan, Internet Download Manager and Security Manager, will join us in a special session to provide information about the WLU email system and how best to continue using it. Nela and her colleagues will be addressing two major issues. The first is cyber security, of interest to all members. The second topic, more specific to users of the WLU email system, is steps recently taken to provide additional security for users of the system. This includes not only access to the system through regular login procedures, but also includes access to the WLU email archive, i.e., access to all of one’s email history for the past 25 years or so. WLURA members will have the chance to learn about the issues involved in having a secure email system.