President Brad opened the meeting with music by Don Anderson and an invocation by Kevin Allen.
President Brad informed us that Mark Knittel’s wife, Joanne, had taken a bad fall and experienced serious injuries. As a result it is likely that Mark will not be able to make the Club group planned trip to Uganda. Joanne will move to St. Frances Rehabilitation Center on Wednesday and hopefully recover soon.
We were informed that there would be a meeting of the Wacky Wickets planning committee immediately after the regular meeting.
President Brad informed the membership that the most recent Board Meeting report could be accessed by going to the Club website, Clubrunner.
Announcements:
Family Fest is an event put on by The Rotary Club of Bellingham at the Whatcom County Boys & Girls Club on Saturday June 20. It provides an opportunity for around 25 foster children to meet prospective parents. This is the third year we have held the event and have had an average of 15 children adopted each year. It is also an opportunity for Rotary members to volunteer a few hours of their time to help with sign-up and to supervise games. Contact John Moon or Byron Manering to sign-up to help.
We have all been invited to come to “Rotarians Night Out at the Ballpark”, Friday, June 19, 7 p.m., for a night of good friends, good baseball, ice cold beer and more. Tickets are $7.50 (a discount from $9.00) at Joe Martin's newly renovated field. There is a link on our website home page under events, or in the email invitation that was sent out.
Board Briefs June 11, 2015
President Brad thanked everyone for their service and support for the last Rotary year since this is his last Board meeting he will preside over. He also thanked Past President Gregor Hodgson, Doug Cole – Board member for 2 years and Bob Sytsma, Treasurer for 5 years who are all leaving the board.
He handed out the results from the District survey and we will receive a report soon comparing us to other clubs. The survey results will be discussed in the future along with the club phone survey.
Kathy Hughes and Joe Coons representing the Major Project Selection Committee reported on their selection for the 2015-2016 Rotary Year. The decision will be announced to the membership shortly.
The Service Fund Grant committee has made recommendations and the Board approved the following grants requests to be made to the RCOB Foundation:
NW Innovation Resource Center $1,000 Sponsored by Ken Marzocco
Animals As Natural Therapy $1,000 Sponsored by Jeff Jenkins
North Cascades Concert Band $200 Sponsored by Joe Coons
Business Week – We budgeted $1,500 for Business Week this year and the board approved the payment from the RCOB Foundation.
Other Business:
Paul Grey requested his classification be changed from ‘Software” to “Business Consultant” This was approved.
Letter of resignation was accepted from Dean Shintaffer due to retirement
New Membership proposal of Chris Lyddan, proposed by Teri Treat and Brad Burdick to fill the classification “Timber Analyst”. He was approved and will be eligible for membership on June 29, 2015 unless written objection is received on or before June 27 by Sandra Lindhout, Exec. Sec., 2200 Vining St., Bellingham, Wa 98229
The next Board meeting will be Tuesday, July 14, 2015 at 4:45 at the Dorothy Haggen building
Guests of Rotarians
Dominique Zervas introduced Allen Stockbridge with Kulshan Commercial and former Rotarian of Bellingham Bay
Mauri Ingram brought Pamela Jons with the Whatcom County Foundation
Fred Kaiser introduced Sean Stimac with Exxel Pacific Inc.
Program: Climate Change
Program Chair Del VandeKirk introduced the two program speakers, Ray Dellecker and Andy Day. They spoke on “Climate Change. What’s Happening and What We Can Do About It”.
The program began by Ray and Andy introducing themselves. Ray is a retired electrical engineer and Andy is a member of the Bellingham Fire Department. Both are members of the Citizens Climate Lobby.
“Whats Happening.” Ray began the presentation by outlining the problem of global warming, the extent of the problem and probable contributors to the problem. The rapid increase in warming being experienced world correlates with the beginning of the industrial revolution and is the result of rapidly increasing production of greenhouse gases. Since 1960 the carbon dioxide level in the atmosphere has gone from 300 parts per million to over 400 parts per million, and is continuing to increase. The year 2014 was the warmest year in recorded history. It was pointed out that global warming presents threats to national and world security in the form of natural disasters, government instability, food shortages and mass migrations. Locally, we should expect reduced snow pack and river flows, coastal damage, increased forest vulnerability and modified recreational opportunities.
“What Can We Do About It.” Andy presented the argument that if we are to decrease the amount of greenhouse gas production, much of which comes from burning of fossil fuels, some method of charging for carbon (i.e. hydrocarbon) use should be considered. Two approaches that could work are a cap and trade system and a carbon tax. Several states area already are using the former approach. The second approach, one that puts a tax on the hydrocarbon supply chain is being used, apparently successfully in British Columbia. If a carbon tax were to be instituted in Washington State, the idea would be to maintain revenue neutrality by, for example, lowering the B &O tax on manufacturing and the state sales tax. Several prominent spokespersons, politial commentator David Brooks and former Secretary George Schultz, have come out in favor the carbon tax approach. During the Q and A after the presentation, it was pointed out that the oil companies also favor the carbon tax approach.
