Year 37 Volume 28 (Feb 11, 2019)

CLUB NEWS

President Talee Crowe introduced PP Craig Essex, who filled in as Sgt-at-Arms this week, as the third string Sergeant. If PP Jim "Snowbird" Suss is first string, PP Clay "MIA" Fell is second string and PP Paul "Lotto" Urtz is third string, that would make Craig "Bench Warmer" Essex fourth string. Craig admitted he has been sitting on the bench as Sergeant since we met at the Doubletree Hotel. But both Paul and Craig were at the meeting this week so that must mean Coach Talee spoke correctly and has bumped Craig up to third string! When Paul was Sergeant a couple weeks ago, Pat Pogue noticed how much fun Paul was having counting the Lotto money (see pic) and commented "attorneys sure do love money". Maybe attorneys love money a little too much (?) and that had something to do with Paul falling to the bottom of the depth chart.

Following the demotion, Paul apparently has moved to the position of Invocator and his playing time has been relegated to researching important topics such as Valentine's Day. Paul asked everyone what they could smell in the air … PP Al Horton quickly responded with … "Denny!" (PP Denny Passantino) - not the answer of "Love is in the Air" that Paul was

looking for. Paul said Saint Valentine of Rome was imprisoned for performing weddings for Roman soldiers who were forbidden to marry but, as Paul added, don't assume this made them celibate! According to legend, during his imprisonment, Sa

int Valentine restored sight to the blind daughter of his judge and before his execution, wrote her a letter signed "Your Valentine" as a farewell. It is estimated that 1 billion valentines are sent or exchanged in schools each year in the U.S. - teachers receive the most valentines. And in the words of Stephen Stills: "If you can't be with the one you love honey, love the one your with."

CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL VALENTINES … The annual Valentine's Day arts & craft projects and face painting for children and their families at

the

Children's Hospital on the Anschutz Medical campus was held on Tuesday, February 12th. Volunteers included PP Darryl & Donita Harvey, PP Al Horton (the Great Hortini), PP Mark & Kay Johnson, PP Nancy Jones and PP Denny Passantino.

It was a relatively quiet but nice evening shared with good friends at the Children's Hospital and as another volunteer (an attorney!) played beautifully on the lobby's grand piano, everyone watched Denny da Vinci create a magnificent work of art (a dog) on an arm, a valentine heart on a cheek and a snowman on a forehead! In the meantime, Mark Van Gogh could be seen painting a chick fil a cow on Kay Van Gogh. Others participated in arts & craft projects. Thanks to Al and Darryl for putting the project together!

ROTARY DISTRICT 5450 DISTRICT CONFERENCE … Saturday, April 27th at the Arvada Events Center. Register at Rotary5450.org - registration closes midnight April 19. Full Conference fee is $125 per person (9:00 am - 9:00 pm) and there are reduced rates for first time attendees/Rotaract and if you attend the Saturday lunch/program or dinner/program instead of the full day. Highlights: Connections Cafe - learn about Rotary from other Rotarians; Rotary Club Presentations - service in action; Tracey Carisch - Making Connections; Andrew Romanoff - Mental Health in Colorado; Hall of Service - show off your club; Up with People - Saturday night speaker & entertainment.

President Talee Crowe was pleased to announce that Rotarian Ray Anderson has been selected by the District Nominating Committee as the 2021-2022 District 5450 Governor. Ray has been a member of the Rotary Club of Highlands Ranch since 1997 and served as President in 2000-01. Ray is a landman, a realtor and a good friend of former SHRC member PDG Steve Cantrell. If a challenging candidate for District Governor is not received by DG Sandy Mortensen by February 22, 2019, Ray Anderson will officially become the DG 2021-22. Talee believes Ray will be a great DG and that is a strong endorsement since it comes from a great PDG!

SMOKY HILL ROTARVARIETY OF NEWS … The offsite visit scheduled for March 18 at the Gaylord Rockies Resort & Convention Center is being negotiated since the Gaylord has asked for a minimum of 30 people at $36pp or 15 people at $63pp for the lunch/tour (we usually have about 15 Rotarians attend offsites). Talee will keep us posted.

The next club board meetings are scheduled as follows: Thursday, Feb 28; Thursday, Mar 28; Thursday April 18 and Thursday, May 30. All of them fall on the last Thursday of the month except for April which is the third Thursday.

Prez Talee welcomed a very special guest at lunch this week, our good friend … Heidrun Gottman! It is always great to see our spouses … they make us better humans and Rotarians! Oh … PP Lloyd Gottman was here too because he wanted to be with the one he loves!

Registration for this summer's RYLA and Young RYLA begins on February 15 according to PP Craig Essex. Young RYLA is for students entering the 8th grade and RYLA is for students entering their Sophomore through Senior years of high school. Contact Craig for more information.

THIS WEEK'S THOUGHT … “You will never know how many people you have encouraged and inspired because you made the choice to be your generous and encouraging self."

THIS WEEK'S PROGRAM

Rich Mauro, the Senior Policy and Legislative Analyst for the Denver Regional Council of Governments ("Dr COG"), talked about Public Policy, Citizen Lobbying, Colorado's Legislative Process and Older Adult Legislative Issues. How a bill becomes Colorado law can be a complicated process. Generally, the first reading of a bill is within a committee, the second reading occurs on the floor of a chamber (either the House or Senate) and the third reading occurs in the next chamber. An engrossed bill is the version of a bill as passed on the second reading in the chamber of introduction (including all amendments) and is passed to the second chamber for the third reading. At any point during the process the bill can be killed, passed or amended. If a chamber amends a bill, it has to be returned to the previous house for another reading. Concurrence is the action when one chamber agrees to a bill the other chamber has approved. At that point the bill is sent to the Governor for signature.

The statewide senior advocacy network includes area agencies on aging, the Colorado Senior Lobby, the AARP-Colorado, the Colorado Alliance for Retired Americans, public policy organizations, professional lobbyists, volunteer lobbyists and citizen advocates. If you want to lobby as a citizen, get to know your legislators, become aware of legislation, become an expert on your issue and find a sponsor. To be a successful lobbyist or advocate you have to build coalitions, build relationships, be persuasive (make your case) and use leverage. Your analysis/position must be communicated using community meetings, fact sheets, letters, emails, phone calls and personal visits. Afterwards, send thank you emails, follow up on your requests, answer unanswered questions and if a legislator supports you, thank him/her.

There are a number of "older adult" or "older person" (there are groups studying proper terminology) legislative issues including availability of health care, hospital transparency, prescription drug costs, the cost of health care, communication of advanced directives (DNR's, etc.) and affordable housing.

Duty Roster

SHRC Birthdays and Anniversaries

CLUB CALENDAR