Northwind 1/31/08

Posted by Marlene Sexton 
 

Whatcom County Northwind Rotary

Northwind

January 31, 2008

 

Meeting to Order:  President Greg called the meeting to order at 12:30 and led the flag salute.  Winton Smith gave the invocation.

Visiting Rotarians:  Fred Sexton visited from the Bellingham Club.  From BellinghamBay, a welcome for Lynn Templeton, and from Tacoma, welcome to Steve Ray.

Guests:  Eric Nelson introduced his guest, Terry Lineaweaver who is from Jerns & Jerns-McKinney Funeral Chapels.

Birthdays:  Birthday wishes go out to Chuck Tull (Jan 31st), Randy Carr (Feb. 1st) and Tim Carpenter (Feb. 4th).  And we once again wish Dan Parsons a happy birthday (Jan 28th)

Returning Rotarians:  Nobody, not even Doug Thomas, left town.

Announcements:  Greg Thulin announced that there will be a Board meeting on Feb. 7th at 7:30 am at the Zervas Bldg. (209 Prospect St.) and anyone with a Red Badge should consider attending.  In the future, all Board Meetings will be held the 1st Thursday of the month. 

Bill Grace announced that he is still updating the Roster and any new/corrected info should be given to him.

Dick Donahue held a Fundraising Committee meeting today before the general meeting and announced it was fairly well attended.  The next meeting will be at his office on Monday (Feb. 4th) at 5:30.  Charlie Heggem is being hired to assist in the Bay 2 Bay Bicycle Fundraiser and he will be at the Monday meeting to discuss the Aug. 23-24 event.  Anyone is welcome to attend.

Paul Cooley announced the Career Fair on March 28th.  Send Paul the presenters' names, business names, and phone numbers.  He also announced that the brochures needed some corrections and they will be distributed soon.  Paul explained that even though Grocery Stores are a step above Real Estate, neither of these careers made the cut and will not be represented at the Career Fair.  (Brian Finnegan was visibly upset and who can blame him?)

Bill Grace wanted everyone to know that he misspelled Pete Ruese's name in his e-mail.  Remember it is R-U-E-S-E and his e-mail address is:  peteruese@comcast.net

Happy Bucks:  Rick Staeb was happy to have spoken to Char Hart and she is doing well, although she did hang up on him when Brian Finnegan's auction was mentioned.  Scott Wallace was happy to not have gone goose hunting as he probably wouldn't have come back.  Dick Donahue was happy to have visited his 2 month old granddaughter in San Francisco and had feelings regarding a new article about the Huskies.  Tim Carpenter had good news/bad news bucks.  He will be gone to Arizona for the next 5 meetings.  Paul Cooley had happy bucks for the end of "Mustache Month" and his store raised $3,515 and with the Corporate Match it came to $5,272 donated to the Women's Care Shelter.  Maureen McCarthy was happy that the Club (particularly the Finemaster) was so attuned to WTA and its increase in ridership.  Laurie Lloyd was happy to be going to Costa Rica for 2 weeks.  Bill Grace was happy that the snow is off his hill and he was able to be at the meeting.  (And another reminder about Pete Ruese's e-mail.)  Roger Lehnert was happy about a surgery (Dental?) and also mentioned that California will now dispense "medical marijuana". Dan Parsons is happy that Roger is still in charge of Ferndale schools and there was some sort of a melee involving "Wankers and Emo's" and he (Dan) profited by this as he now has some new clients.  Rich Jacobson had happy bucks for Bill if he would make sure his name was misspelled for Mel's email account.

Finemaster:  Today's Finemaster was Tim Carpenter and he said right off that he would actually honor our rule NOT to fine guests and visitors.  Larry was fined first for having special meals at the meeting.  It seems Larry thinks he is "first class" as opposed to us in "coach".  Larry also was fined for his vengeful suggestion that Maureen be fined for WTA publicity.  (After Maureen so generously gave happy bucks for increased ridership.)  All that were not wearing the Rotary Pin were fined.  (Overheard:  Greg T. asking, "There's a pin?")  Jack Curnow fined because of his not funny USC comment and for not having a hair cut and looking like a frazzled CPA so long before April 15th.  Jack assures us that his hair will be cut BEFORE his girlfriend returns to Bellingham.  Roger Lehnert was fined for not wearing a tie and all the people who Eric Nelson had not introduced himself to were fined for not taking the initiative and introducing themselves to him.  Anyone not appreciating our "warm weather" was fined for wearing layers.  Dick Nolan was fined $2 for being the last one in.  Lynn Templeton (our guest and presenter) was fined (despite the honoring of the rule about not fining guests) because Josh went to Maui.  Larry and Rome were both fined because they did not attend the fundraising meeting and Rich was ordered to put in a $10 IOU for Dick Langabeer who has missed some meetings and because Tim "can do what he wants" Dick will be fined $5 for every meeting he misses. 

Banners:  The banners this week represented an error in last week's banners when Stan claimed the Js represented January and "nothing historical" happened in January.  Stan has corrected himself and educated (most) of us with this week's banners.  The first represented Hawaii discovered in January l778 by Captain James Cook who named the Islands the "Sandwich Islands" after the Earl of Sandwich.  Cook was killed at Kealakakua when he visited the next Feb. AND the other banner represented the first of 11 ships of British colonists that landed at Sydney Australia in l788.  (Six of the ships held convicts.)  Captain Cook, while not involved in this latter event (because he was dead), had made detailed maps of charts of Australia during his voyages of exploration.  Now, don't ever tell anyone that nothing happens in January!

Program:  Lynn Templeton and Christine Destry presented on The Boys and Girls Club of Whatcom County.  Lynn is married, has 3 children, 2 grandchildren, and a cat named "Dutch". He has been with the Boys and Girls club for 37 years, beginning his first day of college.  Christine is the Director of Organizational Advancement and has been with B&G Club of Whatcom County for four months, but has been with the organization for years.  The B&G Club was started in l860 in Hartford, Connecticut by 3 women who felt boys needed a place to be guided.  By l906 there were 53 Clubs that together formed the Boys Club of America.  The clubs had always served girls, but were slow with the name change.  In l990, the club officially became the Boys and Girls Club.  Whatcom County B&G came into being in l946 and offers many programs to children and teens ages 6-18 years.  Among one of the favorite programs is "Smart Girls" which helps prepare young girls for their teen years, teaching them safe and appropriate behavior.  The Capital Campaign has a goal of 4.5 million dollars and is in Phase II.  Hopefully, the next few years will see the completion of this very valuable community asset.  

Drawing:  Not sure who had the winning number, but it didn't sound like anything came of it. Better luck next week.

Edited by:  Marlene Sexton