Northwind 10/18/07

Whatcom County North Rotary

Northwind

October 18, 2007

MEETING TO ORDER:  Tim Villhauer called the meeting to order at 12:33 in President Greg Thulin's absence.  Gary Tomsic gave the invocation.

VISITING ROTARIANS:  Visiting Rotarians were: John Moles of Bellingham Rotary, Roger Hawley of Mt Baker Rotary, Steve Rae from Tacoma Rotary and George Tsukamis from Vancouver Rotary.

GUESTS:  There were no guests today.

BIRTHDAYS:  No birthdays to be announced.

RETURNING ROTARIANS:  Apparently it was a slow week in the travel industry.

ANNOUNCMENTS: The Foundation dinner is going to be held on Nov 15^th. Drinks will be at 5:30 and dinner at 6:00. There will be no lunch meeting that day.  There was a Foundation meeting being held after today's regular meeting.  All reasonable members were invited to attend.  The "dinner theater" on Dec 6^th may have a conflict.  Brian is trying to confirm if the Ferndale Choir is scheduled to perform for us that day or not.  Patty Latham has given her resignation due to a shift in her job responsibilities. Which brings up the important topic of needing to focus on bringing in guests to our luncheons and growing our membership.

HAPPY BUCKS:  Tim Carpenter gave happy bucks for a recent trip he and his wife Lynn took to Scotland, England and Whales. Bill Grave was happy that he recently reduced his 1,016 digital vacation images down to a mere 786. Jack Curnow announced he may have to become a Coug after his daughter's recent application for a position at WSU. Stan Bruner was recently opening boxes from a move last spring and found some traveler's cheques from a trip he took five years ago. Rick Staeb is happy for his 30^th wedding anniversary as well as some traveling he did over the past couple of weeks.

FINEMASTER:  Tim Carpenter was the Finemaster and began the festivities by taking a vote amongst the membership as to whether Dan Parsons or Rome Sarwas had the most fashionable shirt.  This is something that cannot be put in to words here in the Northwind so I will just leave it at that with the note that there really was no clear "winner".  Maureen McCarthy and Leah Macaleer were both fined for not having change available at the sergeant of arms table.  Ken Richardson was fined for wearing a tie.  Everyone with a floral design on a piece of their clothing was fined $1.  Dick Nolan was fined for being the last one in to the meeting today and advised to put in a dollar for every empty seat at his table but that fine was reduced to $2.  Jack Curnow was fined for not knowing that Tim had even been gone.  Stan Brunner received a fine for having so much disposable income he didn't even look for the traveler's cheques way back when and lastly, all those now planning on attending the club's Foundation dinner on 11/15 were fined.

BANNERS:  The theme of the banners was United Nations Day which was Oct 16^th.  All banners represented countries which are members of the UN.

PROGRAM: Tim Carpenter gave a brief talk of the fundraising obligations that we have as a club.  A questionnaire was distributed for all members to fill out.

DRAWING:  Visiting Rotarian John Moles drew the nine of spades.