Northwind 11/2/06

Whatcom County North Rotary

Northwind

November 2, 2006

Prior to the meeting being called to order two attendees of the Rotary Youth Leadership Awards (RYLA) annual 4-day camp told us what the experience meant to them.  Sam and Phil, who are both seniors at Western Washington University, were thankful to Rotary for providing them the opportunity to attend the leadership event.  Both of them felt the experience would benefit them greatly as they entered the business world after graduation.

MEETING TO ORDER:  Ken Richardson called the meeting to order at 12:35 and led us in the Pledge of Allegiance.  Rick Staeb gave the invocation.

VISITING ROTARIANS:   Ron Vekved and Dewey Dessler were both visiting from Bellingham Bay Rotary and George Tsakumis was visiting from Vancouver Rotary.

GUESTS:  Dan Parsons introduced his guest (today's speaker) Richard Vanderweigh.

BIRTHDAYS:  None

RETURNING ROTARIANS:  Mel Hollinger is returning after missing two meetings because he took his daughters to Boston.  Marlene Sexton is returning (broke) from a trip to Las Vegas.  Brian Finnegan isn't returning from anywhere but announced that a friend donated $100 to the Dick Metcalf Memorial Project (thank you Brian's friend).

ANNOUNCMENTS:

1.  President Ken announced THERE WILL BE NO REGULAR LUNCH MEETING ON THURSDAY NOVEMBER 16^th.  In lieu of the regular lunch meeting everyone is asked to attend the Whatcom North Rotary Foundation dinner Thursday evening November 16^th at the Northwood Hall.  Spouses are invited to attend.  We do need a head count so please sign-up on the pass around sheet or email david.engels@peoplesbank-wa.com with the number attending and your choice of entree.  The cost is $25.00 per person, including tax and tip and the menu includes beef, chicken or vegetarian.  There is also a No-Host bar.  District Governor Rod Thomson is scheduled to speak.

2.  President Ken announced the District Foundation Dinner at the Skagit Casino the following night of November 17^th.  Sign-up information is available on our website.

3.  President Ken announced the Fraser Valley Wine Festival this Saturday.  Information about this event is available on the Rotary District Website.

HAPPY BUCKS:  Lex Ludtke was happy he traveled to WSU this past weekend to attend the ASU game with his daughter and see Bill Cosby on Saturday night.  Bill Grace, (who is always happy about something), was happy that Stan's team came over to go to a funeral and he brought his 1939 MG (I hope I got this right).  Winton Smith was happy he went to Oregon to see the ocean and ended up rescuing his dog who got caught in a sneaker wave.  Roger Lehnert was very happy that OSU beat USC, the Cougars are just okay, and he gave a mixed happy buck because he overpaid?  Dan Parsons was happy he went to Cancun without his kids and Ken Richardson was happy for the RYLA speakers.

FINEMASTER:  Our Finemaster today was Jack Curnow.  He started off by fining Roger Lehnert and Ken Richardson $5 each but reduced Ken's to $1 for reasons unknown and kept Roger's in place because he's Finemaster next week and he wanted to get payback.  Everyone who hasn't lost 65 lbs was fined a dollar (congratulations Jack).  Patty Quanz was fined a dollar for wearing a pirate costume on Halloween and since nobody else owned up to wearing a costume on Halloween, Patty's fine was increased to $2.  Sharon Robinson was fined a buck for something about a raffle ticket or fine or both?  Pete Kremen was going to be fined but he isn't here today.  Kathy Vander Giessen was fined $2 for being cheap and not buying lunch today.  Rose Abbaspour was fined a buck for being the last one in today.  Randy Carr was fined a buck for confusing Jack today.  Scott Wallace was fined $5 for implementing the $5 rule.  Everyone who graduated college after four years was fined a buck.  Dan Parsons was fined a buck for introducing his speaker as a guest and again as the speaker.  All Husky fans were fined a buck because the Huskies are ranked but not in the top 25.  All Cougar fans were fined a buck because they are currently ranked 23^rd and then Jack gloated because USC is ranked 9^th.  Finally, Winton Smith was fined a buck for having a stupid dog.

Banners:  The banner today reflects on the anniversary of Black Monday, (October 29, 1929), which was the day the Stock Market crashed.  Congratulations to Patty Quanz for guessing correctly.

PROGRAM:  Dan Parsons introduced our speaker (for the second time) David Vanderweigh from the Whatcom Museum, who talked about the history of Bellingham.  The Bellingham area was first settled with the establishment of the Roeder Mill by Roeder and Peabody.  Edward Eldridge built the first home (a log cabin) for a non-native about this time and the first town called Whatcom was established in the area we call "old town".  The second town of Sehome was started around 1858 when the Fraser River Gold Rush brought 5,000 people into the area.  When the gold rush died off the town's population dropped back down to about 100.  The third town was Bellingham, which was named after George Vancouver's British servant.  The fourth town of Fairhaven grew up fast because of the railroad.  At some point in the early twentieth century the four towns were consolidated into Bellingham.  The major industries which helped put Bellingham on the map were lumber, coal mining and fisheries.  It was a very interesting presentation and I only covered a small part of David's talk.

DRAWING:  I missed who drew the card but since I didn't hear any loud screaming and yelling I'm sure the Ace of Spades was not pulled.