Back home to Oregon

March 28 - After a month in the Caribbean, visitng Dominica, Martinique, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, a tanned GSE team returned to a significantly cooler and wetter Oregon.

The tanned team at Portland airport

We will be adding more posts to the blog - mostly on the vocational exchange visits - as we sort through our notes and pictures.

The team will also make a presentation on our trip at the District 5110 Conference in Eugene on Friday, May 21 at 3:15pm.

Lawyering on Barbados

March 26 - I had such a great time on Barbados with the attorneys there. I finally got to go to court with a criminal defense attorney, which was just amazing, and this particular attorney was a notorious character on the island. He participated in the local theater and had been defending the most high profile cases on the island for years.


When I mentioned at the Rotary meetings that I had been with Andrew Pilgrim that day, the whole club erupted in laughter. But he and his associate drove me around to all the small courthouses and showed me first hand how the criminal process works. I also got to hear first hand about the different idiosyncrasies of the judges, which was exactly like some judges I know. In fact, practicing criminal law in Barbados seemed to be the most similar to my practice. We shared the same stories about clients and judges and the criminal process in general. I felt like I was sitting around with my colleagues here discussing another work day. It was wonderful.

I also met another attorney who was close to my age and he was very informative and interesting. He worked for a large law firm that handled corporate litigation, so we had a chance to discuss trial practice as well.


I also toured the new Supreme Court building and sat in on a criminal trial. This was great and the building was just beautiful. It also had every piece of high tech equipment a court room could need. I was jealous.

Lillah McBride

Stantec Engineering - Barbados

March 25 – My final vocational visit was spent with Justin Jennings-Wray at Stantec. Stantec is a Canadian engineering firm with branches in the US, Canada, and the Caribbean.

Justin explained the EIA, or Environmental Impact Assessment studies he does on the island of Barbados. These studies sometimes determine the sustainability of the golf courses’ water drainage and management. I also learned about Barbados's unique water table.

Justin drawing me a diagram during our discussion about the water table of Barbados.

Monica Holzmer

Premier Event Services - Barbados

March 25 - Jerry Ishmael, part owner of Premier Event Services was my favorite vocational visit on Barbados. This man knows events inside and out! I got to talk to him about 2 very exciting events that his business landed, “The Prime Minister’s Inaugural Ball” and the “Barbados Food & Wine Festival” sponsored by Travel and Leisure Magazine! During my visit, I got to meet the secretary to the Prime Minister as she was in the office to approve the event invitation for the Inaugural Ball, a 450 person plated meal affair. She was very happy to say the least.

The Barbados Food and Wine Festival takes place Nov. 19-22, 2010 and will have three top guest chefs: Chef Tim Love, a true Texan and pioneer of urban Western Cuisine, Chef Ming Tsai, a New York chef who focuses on East-West cooking, and last but not least, Chef Marcus Samuelsson, multi-award winning New Yorker famed as the chef at Obama’s first State White House dinner (the infamous crashed dinner we all know and talk about).

The most interesting part of the conversation was about the wine. Barbados does not produce wine, yet the titles is very explanatory, a Wine and Food Festival. They are importing wines and flying in wine experts from all over the world. Rum will be present at the event of course, as Barbados is very proud to say that Mount Gay is the first rum ever to be produced.

There will be cooking demonstrations, wine tastings, rum shop Safari’s, catamaran cruises hosted by the celebrity chefs, dinner banquets, tastings, music, and all kinds receptions throughout this fun 4 day event. On an international level, the event will promote Barbados as a top tourism destination. Given my culinary and hospitality experience on Barbados, they will have no problem with this!

I really wish I was a part of the Premier Event Services team working on this exciting event. Even more, I wish I had the vacation time to take off and go back to attend this event! I have great confidence that Jerry and his staff will do a fine job!

For more info on the event, pick up a copy of Travel and Leisure Magazine!

Shelly Kane

Barbados Legion

March 25 - The Barbados Legion is a semi-private veterans support organization patterned after the British Legion. It provides assistance to former members of the British forces from Barbados and former members of the Barbados Defence Force.

The Legion building - The Main Guard, in the Garrison, Saint Michaels

The BDF was formed after independence in 1966. Prior to that, Bajans served in units of the British Army, at one time constituting (with other islands) the West Indies Regiment. Some members supported by the Legion served in British Army, the Royal Air Force and the Royal Canadian Air Force in World War II. The first prime minister of Barbados, Errol Walton Barrow, was a WWII RAF veteran with 40 missions to his credit.

Over the past few years, the Barbados government has recognized that having a private organization look after its veterans was not living up to its commitment and now partially funds the organization with about US$100,000 per year. The Legion still sells the poppy reminiscent of the poppies sold on Veterans Day in the United States.

Following an excellent briefing and tour by Lieutenant Colonel (Retired) Florence Gettins, the Legion presented me with their organizational tie - I am wearing if in the photo.

Hazzard Engineering and Lime Grove - Barbados

My third vocational visit on Barbados was in two parts. First being a visit to Mahy, Ridley, Hazzard Engineering Ltd. I met with Gregory Hazzard (below), the director.


His company employs about 10-15 people and their offices are in a building (below)that was originally part of a large plantation.

Gregory was very nice and drove me all around Barbados showing me some of his projects. One was an impressive golf course club house with an amazing view of the ocean (but it was closed at the time, so I couldn't take a photo).

Another project in progress was a large office building that will house an insurance company that fellow GSE team member Lillah's host father, Keith, works for. It's interesting how everyone is pretty much connected to everyone else, since it is such a small island.

In fact, another project underway will be one of the largest retail centers in Barbados, and through my vocational visits I met the engineers, two construction companies, and the leasing office on the job. It's called Lime Grove (below) and is a large commercial and residential development on the west coast of Barbados in the affluent town of Holetown.


Lynne Williams (with me below) in residential sales gave me a hard hat tour of the three and four-story buildings, to be complete with a movie theater, underground parking, and retailers including Cartier, Ralph Lauren, and Louis Vuitton, to name a few.



Palm Grove includes more than 10 buildings, plus a second phase to consist of three-story town houses on an adjacent block. It will be a beautiful site complete with three courtyards and roof-top dining. Check out: http://www.limegrove.com/ for some great images and architectural renderings. The center opens December of this year, just in time for some Christmas shopping!

Heidi Ellis

Rotary Club of Barbados

March 25 - The GSE team attended the lunch meeting of the Rotary Club of Barbados, often called the "big club" or the "old club." The club, with about 80 members, is the largest in District 7030.

Monica - to her left is her host family member Ronnie Ramsey

It is also the home club of Past District Governor David Edwards (seated to Shelly's left), who has invited the team to spend our rest day on his yacht - we said yes.

Lillah presenting

Heidi presenting

The customary banner exchange:

Monica - Springfield Twin Rivers


Shelly - Springfield


Heidi - Eugene Airport

Lillah - Bend High Desert

Rick (wearing his Barbados Legion tie) - Port Orford

Rotary Club of Barbados South

March 24 – The team attended the lunch meeting of the Rotary Club of Barbados South. During the meeting, the club inducted a new member into its ranks.

Shelly making her presentation

Monica making her presentation

The club is involved in several community service projects, including the adoption of a school for children with special needs.

The team members presented banners from their sponsoring clubs:

Monica - Springfield Twin Rivers

Heidi - Eugene Airport

Lillah - Bend High Desert

Shelly - Springfield

Mark Thompson Group - Barbados

My second vocational visit in Barbados was to an architect's office, Mark Thompson of the Mark Thompson Group. We started with a driving tour to view some of his completed projects. The Mark Thompson Group has been very successful and has many beautiful projects throughout Barbados.

We ended up at his office, which is a historical building, the "Ronald Tree House." It's a beautiful two-story home, now converted to office spaces, which houses Mark's company, a massage therapist, and a quantity surveyor's office.

Keith Browne, me, Mark Thompson

Which leads me to my second vocational visit of the day: Keith Browne, quantity surveyor. This profession isn't practiced much in the states under that title, but he essentially is an estimator/budgeter/appraiser all in one.

Quantity surveying includes creating a large document of all the individual costs involved in a construction or remodel project. It can be time-consuming, but is very helpful for the contractors to tender (bid). This practice is more common in the UK as well. Keith's company does quantity surveying among other things.

They also specialize in project management, contract review, and valuations. To be a chartered quantity surveyor, there is a three-year program, then two years of training, and a final assessment test. Keith also completed his MBA, which has aided him in running his own business and managing a team.

Heidi Ellis

Barbados Coastal Zone Management Unit

March 23 – I spent my second vocational day in Barbados with Dr. Leo Brewster PhD, Director of the Coastal Zone Management Unit.


Dr. Brewster showed me a boardwalk project the Coastal Zone Management Unit has been working on around the island to better serve the public and use the natural forces the geomorphology of the ocean exhibits to conserve and maintain the beaches on the island with the most public use. The wooden boards were brought into Barbados from Brazil for their tested longevity. The boulders had to be shipped in from Canada because the geology of Barbados is made up of coral entirely and it is not a favorable material to take the endless pounding of the surf year upon year.

Dr. Brewster and I on a section of the boardwalk on the south coast.

Monica Holzmer

Renaissance Events - Barbados

March 22 - I spent the afternoon with Andrea Thompson, owner of Renaissance Events. I found Andrea’s career transition to the event industry incredibly interesting. Before the internet, window displays were the leading way to advertise products and services. Andrea was the person to hire when you wanted your window display to take on that perfect look to ensure every consumer who walked had the desire to purchase the product or service.

Soon after the internet, window display space transitioned into expanded space for products. Andrea’s window display business was declining, but she was getting an increased number of inquiries to decorate at weddings. Soon, she found herself working full time in the growing wedding and event industry. Now she works on all kinds of corporate and social events developing wall and ceiling treatments, table and buffet treatments, and sign and design work.

Shelly Kane

Rotary Club of Barbados West

March 23 – The GSE team attended the dinner meeting of the Rotary Club of Barbados West at the Bagatelle Great House in Saint Thomas. The club had numerous visiting Rotarians from Great Britain and Canada.

The GSE team at dinner at the President's table

Dessert Monica

Shelly delivering her portion of the presentation

Club President John Hadchity and banner exchanges:

Monica - Springfield Twin Rivers

Lillah - Bend High Desert

Heidi - Eugene Airport

Shelly - Springfield

Rick - Port Orford

GoeOrbis - Barbados

March 22 – I visited GeoOrbis for my first vocational visit in Barbados. I spent my time discussing the GIS projects GeoOrbis does for their clients with Managing Director Craig Batstone and GIS & RS Coordinator Renee Babb. GeoOrbis has constructed a vehicle tracking GIS application for many companies and government departments to utilize on the island. For commercial endeavors this allows companies to streamline their efficiency. While ambulances and emergency vehicles are the most widely used service vehicle GeoOrbis tracks for the government offices.

GeoOrbis has also supplied all of the aerial imagery for the recently published road atlas of Barbados.

Craig showing me some of GeoOrbis’s aerial imagery.

Monica Holzmer

International Business in Barbados

March 23 - I met with two business-oriented organizations to discuss the international investment climate in Barbados.


Janette Babb and Ezra Catwell represent Invest Barbados. Invest Barbados is a government body charged with attracting international investments into the country, particularly the “off-shore” – a term they avoid, preferring “international business company” – companies that are registered in Barbados . Companies registered in Barbados as Barbados corporations are able to avoid higher taxation in other (home) countries, especially the United States and Canada.

The organization is also involved in the registration of maritime vessels under the Barbados flag, again for tax avoidance purposes. The two officials pointed out that Barbados is a “low tax, not a no tax” country. The ship registration business is growing – Barbados maintains four offices around the world to facilitate the process.

Barbados is an attractive venue for banks, trusts and especially insurance companies. Most of the international insurance companies registered in Barbados are American, although there has been a slight decrease since a change in U.S. law that applies an excise tax on premiums paid to “foreign companies.”

When asked is American tax laws are beneficial to the Barbados economy, all I got was a smile.

I later met with Henderson Holmes, Executive Director of the Barbados International Business Association, sort of a chamber of commerce for the international companies that are registered on the island. This is a member-funded organization that works to ensure the Barbados government does not pass legislation that hurts the international business companies.

Henderson too allowed that stringent U.S. laws are the reason companies register as Barbados corporations – there are in excess of 3000 of them currently. He just wrote an article in the publication pictured above entitled, “President Obama’s New US Policies – A positive spin for Barbados.” (He’s not expecting an invitation to the White House….)

I appears that every time the United States passes higher corporate taxes or more restrictive regulations, more Barbados corporations are created. Perhaps some of out legislators should come here and research this. Wait, what am I suggesting, members of Congress traveling to resort destinations?

Rick Francona

Soul Mates Barbados and Bay + Wellington Creative Services - Barbados

March 22 - I had a short visit with Sue Wellington, event coordinator and wedding planner. She owns two businesses: Soul Mates Barbados and Bay + Wellington Creative Services. Soul Mates Barbados, focuses on wedding planning. Wellington Creative Services focuses more on corporate and product launches, award banquets, meetings, seminars, customer appreciations, fairs, tradeshows, and many more events.

Her business is growing and in 2007, she was able to add Beverly to her full time staff. Beverly was hard at work during the visit, but I managed a photo with her near the end.


Sue wants to connect and talk about event standards and education on the island. There is a lack of event education and would like to integrate event standards and teach other upcoming event planners the tools for success.

Shelly Kane

Innotech Construction - Barbados

March 22 - I had several vocational visits in Barbados, the first of which was to Innotech, a major construction company. Martin Da Silva, the CEO, met with me. Their main sector is hotels and condos, which are prevalent in beautiful Barbados. There is growing interest in building right on the coastlines - Innotech is researching how to build structures that can hold up to the Atlantic waters and with respect to the surrounding environment.

Cary from Foundation Technologies, Inc., Martin from Innotech, Phil from Innotech, and Frank from Foundation Technologies, Inc.

That day Mr. Da Silva was meeting with two sales reps from Foundation Technologies, Inc a US company from Georgia, to learn about the newest technology in concrete helical pilings and tie-backs. These products would be very useful in marine construction and are new to Barbados.
The meeting was very interesting and familiar. I often meet with sales reps about the newest technology in flooring, lighting, wall covering, or fabric back home.

Heidi Ellis

George Washington slept here - in Barbados?

March 22 - A little known fact: George Washington lived in Barbados for a short period of time. The team visited the house that is now the George Washington House museum in Bridgetown, Barbados.


The museum account: The young George Washington and his ailing brother Lawrence resided in this historic plantation house, also known as Bush Hill House, for two months in 1751. Barbados was the only country ever visited by the future “First Father” of his country and Bush Hill House the only house he ever lived in outside of the continental United States. The visit is a little known but very important chapter in the life of the then unknown 19 year old man, who would go on to become, as later described by Light-Horse Harry Lee, “first in war, first in peace, first in hearts of his countrymen.”

The bedroom used by George Washington, where he contracted and survived smallpox.

Dining room

Card table