Opening Welcome:Paul (Grey) filled in for Peter (Theisen) today, in a biblical fashion of sorts, to welcome both zoomers and those coming to the Four Points for today's meeting.
Book Review: John Harris "Wager with the Wind" by Don Sheldon
In 1978, I was a young orthopedic surgeon, just starting my practice in Portland. When I had time off, I was doing some rock climbing is Colorado and Yosemite, and I had climbed Rainier with Willi Unsoeld and his daughter Devi. I joined the Mazamas and was invited to join a four man expedition to Denali Park in Alaska in the spring of 1979. The other members of the party were much more experienced snow and ice climbers than I. They had done a lot of research and had decided, rather than climb Denali, to do some more technical climbs in the Ruth Amphitheater, which is at a lower elevation in the park. I was a invited to go because of my rock climbing experience and because I was a medical doctor.
We spent the winter weekends climbing in the North Cascades for practice, and in April we flew to Anchorage and took the train to Talkeetna. Cliff Hudson landed us on the Ruth Glacier in a small plane with skis and picked us up a month later. We did some fun and interesting climbing, most notably the fifth ascent of the Moose's Tooth.
In Anchorage airport on the way home, I picked up the book Wager with the Wind about Don Sheldon, a famous Alaskan pilot. Born in 1921 in Colorado, Sheldon had traveled to Alaska in 1938, looking for work and adventure. He caught the flying bug from the bush pilots he met, and in the autumn of 1941, he enrolled in a civilian flying school in Anchorage. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, Sheldon became determined to go to war to protect his country in an airplane. After receiving his civilian pilot's license, he enlisted and was trained as a gunner and engine mechanic. Stationed in England, he flew 26 bombing missions over Germany. After the war, Sheldon worked for several years delivering and repairing airplanes before returning to Alaska, where he settled in Talkeetna in 1948 and pursued his dream of becoming a bush pilot, taking fishermen and hunters and supplies of various kinds to the surrounding lakes and villages.
In 1951, Sheldon met and developed a long-time working relationship with Bradford Washburn, who was creating the first detailed map of Mt.McKinley, or Denali, as we now call it. In this pursuit, Sheldon became intimately familiar with the mountain. Other pilots had placed skis on their planes so that they could land on and take off from snowfields, but Sheldon took this to a new level. Learning by trial and a few errors, he learned to negotiate the high altitudes, strong winds and turbulence, icing, and poor visibility. He crashed a few planes, but he and his passengers always survived. Besides Washburn, Sheldon began to be hired to take many climbers, including some very famous ones, to landing places he had found on the mountain. He was also involved in several heroic rescues of climbers and pilots, and sometimes he helped retrieve the bodies of ones who didn't survive. Most of the rest of the book describes Sheldon's spell-binding adventures on and around Denali. Unfortunately, after surviving a number of crashes during the war and afterwards, Sheldon died of lung cancer in 1975, at age 53.
Our pilot, Cliff Hudson, had become Sheldon's rival in Talkeetna, and rumor has it that they had some fist fights in the local bar over clients. I never went back to Denali, but I did return to Alaska a number of times for sport fishing on remote lakes and rivers. I never caught the flying bug myself, but I remain in awe of the pilots who took me to these magical places.
I highly recommend the book to anyone who wants to read about some hair-raising true adventures.
Invocation: With a few minor additions, Catherine Riordan turned the 2019 Rotary Commitment to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion into a prayer that we as Rotarians can appreciate and cultivate a diverse, equitable, and inclusive culture in our organizations, partnerships, and communities, as such a culture is essential to realizing our vision that people unite and take action to create lasting change. Resources on this topic can be found on the web at rotary.org/dei.
Words to/from the Wise
'Truth is ever to be found in simplicity and not in the confusions of things.' Paul Grey offered this cautionary note that has been helpful to him and Mary as they confront the misinformation and disinformation so prevalent today.
Minister of Funds
John Moffat came off today's series of warm welcomes as Greeter to act as Minister of Funds, amping up his geography quiz in response to a claim by Sandy McIntire that John's last quiz was way too easy (Who says this? Thanks Sandy ;( ) From the quiz many of us learned facts like there are four Bellighams in the U.S. and eleven finger lakes. Of course, Sandy McIntire probably knew it all already and didn't learn a thing.
The Tattler staff is trying to track down a rumor that John did the entire quiz, which included multiple choice items, from memory (i.e., without notes). If you have any information on the validity of this claim, please let a member of the Tattler staff know immediately.
Club and Committee Announcements
Rotarians from Bellingham Bike the Eerie Canal
A bunch of Bellingham Rotarians biked the trail along the Eerie Canal earlier this month. Rotarians included Del VandeKerk,Tim Farris, John Pedlow, Corey Chaplin, Steve Ban, Doug Cole, John Macpherson, Jim Wakefield, Andy Day, John Stewart(Former RCOB member), and Steve Kimberley (Bellingham Bay Rotary)
Volunteer Mentorship Opportunity:
This fall Whatcom Community College is launching its first bachelor of applied science (BAS) in business management degree. This degree is specifically geared for the workforce needs of businesses that make up the majority of Whatcom county's employers. Bellingham Bay Rotary is leading a mentorship program with the college and is asking for volunteers. Mentors will work with students in an Organizational Leadership & Teamwork class in winter quarter 2022. The mentorship program will be approximately 8 weeks long, occurring between January-March 2022. Details about the time, days, and topics would be mutually agreed upon between mentor and student.
If you are willing to participate in this short, vocational service mentorship program, please contact Mike Bate (mikebates9@aol.com<mailto:mikebates9@aol.com>), past-president for Bellingham Bay Rotary or Tresha Dutton(tdutton@whatcom.edu<mailto:tdutton@whatcom.edu>), past-president and current faculty at Whatcom Community College, by the end of September, 2021.
Please also contact President Peter or Sandee if you are interested!
You will still receive an email from Sandee each week prior to the Monday 12:30 meeting if you are unable to attend in person (you can start logging in at 12:00 for short socializing) with the link for that privacy protected meeting. If you have not done so, please download the Zoom app on your computer (you need a camera and microphone on it), iPad or phone. There is no cost to you. If you do not have either, you can also call in. On the invitation, there are US phone numbers you can call and enter the meeting ID number also indicated on the invitation. HERE ARE ZOOM INSTRUCTIONS.
Four Points is not requiring a Contract thru 2021 and need only 72 hours to cancel an event. We will continue to evaluate other locations for a permanent location. Lunch will be $22 for a sit down meal. We must notify them by Wednesday at 4:00 pm each week prior to the Monday meeting as to the number of members attending. We are sending out meeting “Invite's” weekly and members are asked to sign-up ASAP. You can also sign-up by going to the event section of our website at bellinghamrotary.org. If you sign up for a meal at the meeting, you will need to pay the $22 even if you don't wind up attending the meeting after numbers are turned in. If you plan to attend but not eat, PLEASE indicate that on your sign-up so we don't overorder meals and still make sure there is enough seating.
Four Points also will not collect the payment weekly, so the Club will collect payments prior to the meeting or at the door.
We urge members of the RCOB has set up a Venmo account for ease in payment of Meeting lunches, Happy Bucks, Minister of Fun, Dues or donations to the club. Our account is @RCOB-Bellingham. If you do not have a Venmo account you can set up an account with your computer then download the app. on your phone (just Google "Venmo" and you will find all the information you need) You then attach it to a debit or credit card (a fee on your end) or attach to your checking account at no cost. Payment will be sent directly to the RCOB checking account. When you use it for the first time it may ask you the last 4 digits of the RCOB phone number which is 0282. Give Sandee a call if you need help. 360-734-5532
Other payment options are to bring a check in the correct amount to the meeting made out to RCOB or cash in the exact amount to speed up the payment process. There is also the PayPal option as usual and we are set to take payments at the meeting. We have a QR Code that you can simply click on to pay thru paypal also.
Website and Phone App instructions:
Here is a tutorial on how to login for the first time. (Click here) In order to login you need to know your user name and password in your Clubrunner account. The user name is Yourfirstname.Lastname.264 unless you have changed it. Example: Sandra.Lindhout.264 The password is initially set by Clubrunner at 264 unless you have changed it. Sandee can see your Username from her computer but not the password. She can also change your password for you from her computer at your request if you run into problems.
Once you have originally created your User Name and Password you can download the ClubRunner Mobile app on your phone:
Please contact Sandee at 360-734-5532 or rcob@comcast.net if you run into any trouble.
Guests:
Dale Rings zoomed in from Arizona.
Other members who were on Zoom: Sandy McIntire, Mark Knittel, Bob Morse, Jack Mulhern, Jennifer Moehl, Robin Halliday, Vinson Latimore, Monty McAllister, Greg Baker, Scott Wallace, John Dunne, Del VandeKerk, Frank King, and Loch Trimingham.
Program:
Doug Ericksen, Washington State Senator from the 42nd district (Bellingham to the border)
Senator Ericksen opened with his bio, including that he was born in Whatcom County, lives now in Ferndale, was elected to the House in 1998, and was elected and served in the Senate since 2010. Both his daughters are in college. His wife teaches in Bellingham. He was sporting a COVID hair “cut.”
He reminded us that being a legislator in WA is a part-time job. In the rest of his life he serves as one of the two officers of the Pac Rim Bridges, LLC. an organization that emerged from connections and partnerships he formed with Cambodians on a trade mission. It began with a focus on MIA/POWs but that evolved into other collaborations. Consequently, Ericksen registered as a foreign agent, but played down the intrigue that comes with such labels these days. ;)
The corporation has expanded over recent years in response to opportunities and disappointments--the recent disappointments coming when COVID hit Cambodia and a new partner—Peru—particularly hard.
Pac Rim presently is bringing WA construction expertise to projects in Peru, where the need is great, but the political situation is a little chaotic (e.g., three presidents during a two-week span).
Pac Rim continues to do quite a bit of economic development work in El Salvador. His experience matches ours: that Rotary is a trusted partner among many in Central America, particularly residents of the Northern Triangle (Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador). (Before and after the RCOB meeting a couple of our members talked to him about parallels and opportunities with his work in El Salvador and ours in Honduras through the IPA.)
A project they are doing is a guest worker program through which Salvadoran women get trained in the US for jobs in El Salvador. Apparently, women have difficulty getting into the U.S.’s H-2A Visa program; Pac Rim’s program was designed to eliminate those issues. The focus on women increases their numbers and strengthens the opportunities within and scope of the programs. Participants receive business, finance, and language training and work in short-term jobs in the U.S.
In this next legislative term, Ericksen is seeking solutions for WA State in three areas. He emphasizes the initial problem definition, which then determines the range of solutions that can be considered satisfactory. An example he shared had to do with PNW salmon—is the problem that whales and other wildlife do not have enough to eat, or is the problem that the rivers are dammed? He proposed the first question fosters better problem-solving.
His Priorities for the next session are:
1) WA Businesses Being Able to Spend Time with Customers Rather than the Government/Govt Regulation.
2) A large-scale salmon hatchery for Bellingham, modeled the Douglas Island Pink and Chum (DIPOC) facility in Alaska. Bellingham Cold Storage and others have been advocating for this.
3) Budget. Ericksen will propose constraining state budget growth to inflation plus population growth multipliers. His ideas will be presented in a booklet coming out soon. Erickson also wants to make it more difficult to raise taxes. He outlined the limitations in current state law that have made it difficult to adopt an income tax (e.g., a new income tax would need to be uniform rather than graduated). Additionally, he mentioned sectors where there has been freedom to raise taxes (e.g., refineries, gas, alcohol, property) resulting in WA taxes being notably higher than other states. Finally, he suggested that excess tax dollars collected in WA State go back to the taxpayer.
A question from the audience led to a discussion of quandaries surrounding Long Term Care Nov 1 deadline. Will it be extended given the difficulty of buying the insurance needed? Erickson claimed companies are no longer selling to WA residents given the latitude WA law gives to customers to cancel without penalty. He mentioned someone was gaming the system.
Another question regarded changes to policing in WA. Ericksen lamented the 8ft fences and 900 national guards positioned in Olympia in early 2021 following the DC insurrection and threats of violence in state capitals. He mentioned the debates he had seen in the WA legislature that were “off the charts” in terms of their negativity toward the police. He felt the choice to use deadly force needed to be in the hands of the police and not be overly restrictive. He is not supportive of the newly approved WA laws calling for reduced penalties for drug possession and early prison release.
Covid Report: There's good and bad COVID news according to Gary Goldfogel. Hospitalized patients in the county are sicker, but fewer in number. He anticipates continuing spread and thus the importance of safety measures. Discussion of incidence of breakthrough and natural immunity were inconclusive, awaiting more definitive research that will come with time.
Nathan Twining
