Whatcom County North Rotary
Northwind
October 25, 2007
MEETING TO ORDER: President Thulin called the meeting to order at 12:34 p.m. and Tony Cubellis gave the invocation.
VISITING ROTARIANS: Past District Governor Rob Martin from Burlington; Tim Farris and Fred Sexton from Bellingham Rotary; Shannon Terrell and Matt Rose of Bellingham Bay Rotary and of course George Tsakumis from Vancouver, BC. And, last, but certainly not least, Bob Morse the Assistant District Governor.
GUESTS: Brad Peterson's wife Tricia.
BIRTHDAYS: There were no birthdays announced.
RETURNING ROTARIANS: Marlene Sexton is back from her Maui business trip of snorkeling and was happy to report that all of her Mai Tai needs have now been met.
ANNOUNCMENTS: The Rotary District Foundation dinner was announced for Nov 9th in Langley and is $60 per person. There will be a silent auction and all clubs are encouraged to donate one item with a minimum value of $100. Our club's foundation dinner is on Nov 15th and there will be no meeting during the day. District directories were available to be picked up on the back table. Please remember to fill out the fund raising questionnaire. Brian has confirmed that there is a conflict with the fellowship dinner originally planned for December and the Ferndale Choir so the dinner will be re-scheduled for the first part of '08.
HAPPY BUCKS: Brad Peterson was happy to be back and generally just "happy to be". Marlene Sexton was happy to have both of her daughters evacuated from the fires in southern California. Larry Pollett gave happy bucks for his niece and nephew who are both San Diego fire fighters. Tony Cubellis was happy to see Brad and his wife Tricia at the meeting today as well as it being a beautiful day. Dan Baker was happy to see Brad and also for his sister who just started chemotherapy. Scott Wallace was happy to see Brad and that the topic of today's program is China which is where he's going next week. Tim Carpenter was also happy to see Brad Peterson. He also gave some medium sad bucks (?) for a bicycle ride (sorry I missed the details) as well as some sad dollars for the recent passing of Joe Senuty. Tim Villhauer was also happy to see Brad in attendance as well as for the Boys and Girls' Club annual breakfast fundraising event. Mel Hollinger was happy to see Brad Peterson and Rob Martin. Jake Smith was happy as well to see Brad Peterson. Phil Bratt gave some happy bucks for Brad looking so good bald. Sharon Robinson was happy that Mel's hearing has improved. George Tsakumis was happy to see Brad as was Ken Richardson who was also happy for having survived a week with a 2 year old. Lex Ludtke gave some happy bucks for a recently catered lunch by Kelly's O'Deli, which I believe he acquired through a Boys & Girls Club event. He noted that Kelly's O'Deli is a great supporter of the Boys & Girls Club. Roger Lehnert was happy to see Brad as was Rich Jacobson. Rich also gave some happy bucks for a recent week in Phoenix in which he managed to get in 5 rounds of golf. Gary Schneider was happy to notice Brad Peterson looking more like him. Finally, Greg Thulin was happy for Brad being at the meeting as well as Tim Villhauer covering for him at last week's meeting.
FINEMASTER: As usual, Randy Carr announced how little he enjoys fining his fellow Rotarians. With that said, Pete Kremen was fined for being the last one in. Brad Peterson was given a "love fine". Maureen McCarthy was fined for the recent dispute between a couple of contractors regarding a recent WTA bid which is sure to cost the taxpayers more money. Tim Carpenter was asked if he was "practicing again", due to him wearing a tie. Or maybe he is possibly working at UPS?? Ken Richardson was fined for his "dead sexy" pink shirt which Randy wondered if it had originally been white but washed with something red. George Tsukamis was fined for getting to much attention each week by signing in as a guest Rotarian even though he is an honorary member of our club. Phil Bratt was fined for an "alleged" cookie on his coat which was discovered to actually be a flag so was therefore only fined $1 "for representing". Any members who have relatives who live in San Diego County were fined. Mel Hollinger was fined for a "tiff" he has with someone but I'm not sure who it is with. Possibly Sharon Robinson since he shunned her invitation to sit with her this afternoon. Laurie Lloyd was fined due to the fact that Randy had never had the opportunity to do so previously and lastly Randy imposed a "self fine" for having left his button in his other car.
Banners: The banners represented the wild fires in southern California.
PROGRAM: Brian Finnegan announced the speaker, Matt Rose, who gave a slide show presentation of a trip to China he took a couple of years ago. The presentation was both informative as well as humorous and, although I had to leave a bit early, I managed to take away from the presentation several things, which included:
1. Most Chinese citizens have not been more than a 5 mile radius from their homes in their lives.
2. You should not use your cell phone during a thunderstorm, at least not on a mountain.
3. Never take cans of beer through security unless you are wanting to chug them all at 9 in the morning!
4. Da Da Shan means "big big mountain" in Chinese.
5. Don't karaoke in China unless you are prepared to sing "Phantom of the Opera"
DRAWING: John Aubert drew the 10 of something (thanks Lex!)
Editor this week: Kathy VanderGiessen