The Rotary Club of Kirkland held its regular weekly meeting online on October 19, 2020.
Attending were James Nevers, Dave Aubry, Joanne Primavera, Steve Shinstrom, Rich Bergdahl, John Pruitt, John Woodbery, Kristin Olson, George Anderson, Rick Walter, Bill Taylor, Amy Mutal, Bella Chaffey, Rick Ostrander, Patti Smith, Dave Debois, Monica Fratiti, Brandon Honcoop, Dan Bartel, Mike Hunter, Margie Glenn, and Jim Meneketti. Let me know if I missed anyone.
President James Nevers rang the bell at 6:15 p.m.
Jim Meneketti recited the Pledge of Allegiance while the rest of us stood, mostly mute, in order to avoid ‘out-of-sync-problems’ with our audio.
Guests were city councilmember Toby Nixon and Lynette Apley.
We had a short presentation by Joanne Primavera regarding Community Loaves, home bakers who make four loaves of sourdough bread a week, three of which go to Hopelink. The program was started by former Club member Katherine Kehrli. Sourdough starters are available for others who want to participate.
Steve Shinstrom spoke about the Rotary District 5030’s Facebook page. There are various clubs’ activities on the page as well as a promotion for Rotary’s polio vaccine campaign.
Dave DeBois introduced Toby Nixon and Lynette Apley, who gave a short presentation on Kirkland Nourishing Network, a Kirkland community-based grassroots effort to ensure kids and families get access to food while schools are closed. It is a simple way to help – people can sign up to bring boxes of food on a specific day. The food is then picked up the same day by families. The program is essentially run through school counselors. The program has been going since 2012 and is focused on long school breaks. COVID-19 has changed the focus. It started at John Muir Elementary with 20 families; it is now at several schools serving several hundred families. If you would like to help, see the link in Dave DeBois’ email of 10/20.
Bella Chaffey reported on the effort to organize a “virtual” wine tasting. We voted on dates in November and an email will be sent with the selected date. Cost will be $35 per member and the activity can be shared with a spouse or other participant.
Dave DeBois introduced our speaker, Kate Vitasek, the chief of Vested, a consultancy that teaches a new way of building mutually beneficial business relationships. She lives in Kirkland, is a professor at University of Tennessee, and is an expert in supply chain management. Her group has developed new ways of managing all types of vendor relationships such that mutual goals can be identified and everyone can work collaboratively towards these goals. The idea is to expand the pie rather than to get more of a perceived finite pie. This requires building a mutually-trusting relationship. She illustrated the concept with examples. The guiding principal must be that the relationship must have priority.
She was an effective speaker such that there were only a couple of questions from members.
We adjourned at about 7:26 p.m.
Respectfully Submitted
David Aubry - Acting Scribe