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p8 the tribune wednesday november 15 1989 stouffville man travelled world by computer over 20 years in the computer industry has given iain drum- mond more than mere expertise its enabled him to experience a variety of exciting cultures and has led to the formation of his own company in canada which has recently developed its own unique product weve been in canada for about three years having always planned to come here explains the island lake resident a native of britain and for many years an employee of icl a british multinational computer company iain spent much of his career overseeing the organiza tion of its various international offices when the opportunity to travel first presented itself in the mid70s he and his wife moya didnt hesitate to take it by then i realized i knew a lot about a little but nothing about the big world when the company needed a new managing director for the malaysian operation i applied and was appointed to the posi tion we went to kuala lumpur in 1975 they went for two years and stayed for five it was a great place i moved from a specialized position to a very generalized one at the time the economy was going great guns so it was very enjoyable but after five years we realized we had to stay forever or get out although he describes it as a tremendously exciting part of the world the constant require ment to entertain took its toll and they decided to leave that may sound odd but sometimes we were out 21 nights out of 30 it was part of the job we finally got sick of it his next position took them somewhere very different to cairo egypt its a horrific place to live it was designed for two million and about 15 million live there as a result driving was an extremely hazardous pastime for employment reasons i had a driver one day he told me the car would have to go into the garage because both horn buttons were worn out traffic signals were largely ig nored when i asked one manager about what the rules were he said red is optional green is compulsory and if ef ficiency was an important con sideration to someone cairo was not the place for them stresses iain one frontpage article he read in egypts only english- language newspaper illustrates his point perfectly the article advised residents of cairo that their telephones which had not been operating for some time would be recon nected the reason for the pro blem the article explained was a broken sewer pipe this has been fixed however residents should not be surprised if for the first couple of weeks odd smells emanate from the handset he also chuckles over the time he was in tel aviv israel and heard a sportscaster come out with the immortal observation this is a real mecca for tourists he and moya made a hasty exit from egypt after two and a half years when he con tracted peritonitis and was flown home following his recovery he returned to work a week later i got a call from icl saying youve got to go to india now so we went to bombay and stayed there for exactly a year parts of the country were very beautiful moya points out and they thoroughly enjoyed the time they spent there when i got there there were no word processors and one elec tric typewriter the rest were manual and we were an interna tional computer company grins iain i insisted on having a word processor and ended up with the only one in the country which lain drummond travelled the world before settling in canada three years ago the former computer firm executive now runs his own business which developed an alternative to the computer keyboard photokate gilderdale for nontypists the device about the size of a tv remote control is used by executive of a number of multinational corporations was imported from britain disaster struck when it broke down we worked out which chip had caused the problem and said wed have to get it from britain within an hour some technicians came in with the microchip he needed they told me they got it from the black chip shop it transpired that the shop sold illegally imported chips brought in by indians who had picked them up in different countries and smuggled them in when their year in india was up they were transferred to abu dhabi where they stayed for two and a half years it was one of the most enjoyable places weve been to says iain there were no taxes on anything and the companies provide you with housing flights medical costs everything they have the highest per capita income in the world there their next and final transfer with icl was to canada i came here as president of icl canada but after about a year i decided the time had come to do my own thing we agreed wed done enough travelling for a while one of his clients was dylex which own such stores as thriftys and fairweather theyd expressed a need to provide executives with com puter systems but they didnt want equipment cluttering up their desks i saw this as a big op portunity so i bought my own company and set about develop ing a computer networking com pany called clan canadian local area networks as a result of extensive research the company developed an alternative to the traditional keyboard a unit which looks exactly like a hand held television channel changer but which can perform all the functions of the keyboard itself executives arent prepared to spend any time learning to use the keyboard but this is something they feel comfortable with the user makes numeric selec tions from the screen to access the information required it can be linked to a pc or a mainframe and it can also be linked into in- foglobe and the stock market explains iain the system is how installed in major organizations including chrysler canada dylex and ontario hydro and has attracted international atten tion for this innovative canadian company stouffvilles jim rehill travels world on a song jim rehill of stouffville will perform with the scarborough dukes of harmony on dec 1 and 2 at seneca colleges minkler auditorium hes been a member of the awardwinning barbershop group since 1986 by kate gilderdale correspondent when the awardwinning scar borough dukes of harmony take to the stage for harmony showcase 89 dec 1 and 2 at seneca college the chorus will feature three familiar faces from stouffville jim rehill george pratt and rick heath will be performing with the group and it promises to be a memorable evening for everyone three scarborough barbershop quartets flipside signature and catch 44 will also be featured as well as chordiac arrest which jim describes as really incredible this quartet came fifth in the world at last years international contest jim himself joined the dukes of harmony in 1986 to get into the dukes you have to be sponsored by someone in the group he ex plains when a friend said he was going to sponsor him his first reaction was to refuse i was so busy but i love singing and id tried almost every kind except barbershop i knew if i didnt do it id always be sorry id passed up the chance to sing with the top chorus in canada he auditioned andto his delight was accepted my whole life has been music i sang in high school and we were the top choir in on tario in 1953 1 also sang with the mcmaster choir which is really outstanding when i was in university ive always either been in choirs or directing them jim finally gave up directing the stouffville district secondary school choir last year after many years of involvement i just couldnt make the commit ment with all the other things i was doing but ive stayed on with the church choir being a member of the dukes of har mony is a timeconsuming affair he admits throughout the year we prac tice on tuesday nights as we get ready for anything special we go thursday nights as well at the end of april we go to fourhour practices on tuesday and three hours on thursday and on sun days we usually go from 10 to 3 thats the time the chorus prepares for the annual interna tional championships were a really competitive chorus the guys live for competi tion with countries like sweden and england now competing in the championships its become a truly international event jim states the scarborough chorus is made up of people from as far away as barrie and georgetown last year we had one guy driv ing to and from woodstock the dukes hire one of the top coaches from the states to coach them in sound interpretation and stage presence we work ex tremely hard but we also have a tremendous amount of fun and the hard work pays off on satur day oct 28 the dukes won the ontario district official chorus contest in kitchener hands down ahead of eight other groups thats just the beginning says jim now the dukes will go on to compete in the international event which takes place next ju ly in san francisco he considers himself very fortunate to be a member of the chorus many people who have been singing for over 30 years have never made it to an international his involvement with the dukes of harmony will also allow him and his wife shirley to do some travelling particularly after he retires next year in 1991 this chorus and the tricity chorus are going to jamaica touring and putting on concerts in 1992 were touring australia one of his fondest memories is of the concert they did last year at roy thomson hall with the sweet adelines whom he describes as outstanding the finale featured a combination of songs including look away look away the battle hymn of the republic and hush little baby in an eightpart harmony when it wasover there were tears in everyones eyes profits from their concerts go to harmonize for speech an organization which provides fun- ding for therapists and treatments for speech problems in hospitals clinics and other medical facilities its like the shriners with their cause we have this one throughout the world our motto is we sing that they shall speak harmony showcase 89 takes place friday dec 1 and satur day dec 2 at 8 pm at minkler auditorium seneca college 1750 finch ave e for tickets or in formation call 2820033