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Thirty Rotarians and our guests were ushered into the front room at Maggiano’s by Tom Van Denover and Jeff Miller, serving as our Greeter and his able assistant, respectively.
President Patrick opened the meeting by inviting Wendell Osorno to the podium for our inspiration and flag salute. Wendell actually started by warning us that he intended to ponder extensively. The extensive pondering was not at all surprising, but the warning came as a shock to the entire assemblage, as Wendell may have, in the past, been known, at some time, to ponder extensively without warning. At that moment, your scribe turned to his table-mate Dan Astle and suggested that we might want to sit down. However, the suggestion was preempted as soon as it was made, as Wendell invited us all to have a seat. Wendell led us through walking paths, journeys, growing, Soul food, inspiration (how meta!), connections, love, understanding, empathy, even a shout-out to your scribe’s band, and more food for the Soul. It was, indeed, much to ponder. With our Souls sufficiently fed, Wendell then led us in our pledge.
President Patrick next invited Steve Holben to the podium to introduce guests and visiting Rotarians. We were joined today by Luke Brucker, the Mick Hitchcock Hobson Scholarship recipient, his father Eric, and Anne Hitchcock, who graced us by representing the Hitchcock family for the occasion. Steve also introduced our Assistant District Governor, Robert Minz, who has been a frequent attendee this past year.
Jim MacDermott, as the chair of the Hobson Scholarship Committee, invited Luke to the podium to share his plans with us. Luke just completed his senior year in high school, where he was valedictorian (and a musician and songwriter!) and he is going to attend Colorado College where he plans to study biochemistry in preparation for a career in medicine.
Mel Grusing started announcements by sharing an update on Young RYLA, where we have two students attending this week. However, he was upstaged by Angie Armbruster with a Senior RYLA update, where we have FOUR students attending, to include Angie’s daughter!
ADG Robert thanked President Patrick for making his job so easy this Rotary year, and he provided some updates on the District. First, Tammy Fenell from the Highlands Ranch Club will be stepping in as DGE to replace our own Martha Diss-Sundby, who we all look forward to seeing soon. He also shared that the District will have $110K in matching grant money available this coming year, and that those funds are going quickly.
PE (for another week!) and recently returned rider of the Rockies Bob Morrison stood in for Elizabeth Bolton today, as he handed out flyers for our upcoming fundraiser and BBQ event on July 14. Elizabeth will be reaching out to all of us so we can all look forward to that call.
President Patrick asked Bud Laber to give a quick report on Mary Benson’s funeral, which Jim MacDermott also attended. While Mary was preceded in death by Tom Benson, Bud shared that he is certain they have been reunited in Heaven as they lived their lives in the best way possible.
President Patrick next invited Egbert Maben to the podium to bring Tom Van Denover into the club as a blue-badge member. The Club was happy to give Tom a rousing standing ovation.
President Patrick next invited Sergeant-at-Arms Dick Castleman to the podium, but he apparently was not available, having clearly been the victim of a recent alien abduction, and in true body-snatcher style, had been replaced with someone in possession of quips that were actually entertaining, and (dare I say?) funny.
Your scribe started the announcements by contributing in honor of this once-in-a-blue-moon event.
Steve Holben shared how he watched the weather come and go yesterday, but that it’s what happened between those two events that was notable.
President Patrick contributed to honor our scholarship student, and for Wendell’s ponderings.
Tom Van Denover had a three-fer for us today—his time as greeter, his blue badge, and his league tennis match where he beat his long-time doubles partner in a nail-biter.
Paul Bauer contributed to bring back the REAL Dick Castleman.
Dan Astle shared that Whizzy had taken a direct hit from yesterday’s tornado, and that a large tree attempted to take shelter in his home, in addition to his BBQ deciding to leave altogether. Presumable, Whizzy is somewhere in Kansas—let’s hope he finds his ruby slippers.
ADG Robert Minz contributed to support UHills, but he also mentioned that yesterday he saw the weather on its way in, and he took an exit stage left from the links.
Anne Hitchcock thanked Jim MacDermott in honor of Mike, and said how proud Mike would have been to see the results of his scholarship. Mike, as many will recall, was very active on the Hobson Committee, and in everything else Rotary does throughout our district.
Dennis Gilmore shared that he and Angie truly enjoyed Santa Fe, and that somehow his tennis team just lost a nail-biter.
Jim MacDermott, with all he does, also thanked Anne Hitchcock for coming today.
SaA Dick Castleman (or whoever that might have been at the podium) honored Mike and Anne Hitchcock, and mentioned all the incredible work Mike had done for the Club and for Rotary.
Wendell Osorno, seeing the connection with his earlier ponderings, thanked everyone for providing food for the soul.
President Patrick next invited Bud Laber to the podium to introduce his neighbor, his son-in-law, and our speaker. Most of us were expecting three people to come forward, but John Gambrill assumed all three roles. John is a managing director of the Denver office of Gensler and Associates, a leading architecture firm. John first shared trends in the use of office space, with a discussion of hybrid solutions, focus, the workplace as a destination, amenities, and the tech-heavy requirement for collaborative spaces.
He then turned to the conversion of offices to residential, and cited the 28% vacancy rate in Denver for commercial space. The considerations for this include site, form, floor, envelope, and servicing, in addition to parking and amenities.
President Patrick closed by recognizing John with a donation to Polio Plus that will inoculate 100 kids world-wide against polio, he thanked our guests, and then offered his thought-for-the-day from Denise Scott Brown which was about, surprisingly, architecture. As an embarrassing aside, your scribe noted that President Patrick tied the TFTD into the subject of today’s talk, similar to what he had done last week with baseball. Your scribe, wondering if this might be some sort of a trend, decided to read (for the first time) the bulletins of this past year, and in fact discovered that EVERY thought-for-the-day this year had been tied into the speaker’s topic. Not sure how he had missed this (save for it being too subtle of a point for your scribe’s brain to comprehend) your scribe pondered this development, and came to the realization that not only is President Patrick cognizant of the speaker and topic before he comes to each meeting, but that he conducts explicit research around that topic. As a Past President of UHills, your scribe marvels at this, and uses it as one of many examples of how President Patrick has been a phenomenal leader of our Club for the past year. (To put things in perspective, during the year in which your scribe was President, he considered it a victory if he remembered where the meeting was being held, and an even greater victory if he showed up to that location.) It has been your scribe’s honor to serve UHills under the leadership of President Patrick.