Whatcom County North
Rotary
May 10, 2007
MEETING TO ORDER: President Ken called the meeting to order at 12:30 and Rick Staeb gave the invocation.
VISITING ROTARIANS: Nancy Harrison announced the Guests and Visiting Rotarians. Out of Town Guests included George Tsakumis and Pete Ruese. From Bellingham Bay we welcomed Stowe Talbot and Mike Kirkland. From Mt. Baker we welcomed Randy Bode.
GUESTS OF ROTARIANS: Rose Abbaspour was honored to have her sister, Vivian Simonis and Ken Richardson's wife, Sue, was his guest this afternoon. Welcome to both.
BIRTHDAYS: None (that anyone admitted to.)
RETURNING ROTARIANS: He didn't admit it, but I have the inside track that Bob Bowman returned from California. Everyone else pretended they were never out of town.
ANNOUNCEMENTS: Larry Pollett announced that Dick Donahue had donated some more Mariners tickets to be auctioned off to benefit the Metcalf project. These are quite a deal with the starting bid at $50.00 and includes parking. President Ken announced that the Installation Dinner is set for the evening of June 28th. He also reminded us that the meeting of July 5th will be cancelled. Jim McKellar left a reminder that we are now into year 2 of the 3 year pledges for the Metcalf project. If you have not already done so, you may give a check to Gary Tomsic and if you have not yet pledged, there are pledge cards available and you may give those to either Julie Johansen or Gary Tomsic. Rome Sarwas offered thanks for the support of the Roy Orbison Group and the Whalers concert which is set for June 23rd. If you would like to help sponsor this (or loan $ for start-up fees) you may write checks to Whatcom County Rotary Foundation. The tickets will be sold through Mt. Baker Theater, every Thursday from now thru June 21st. There will be a short meeting before our regular meeting (11:30) to plan for this event. Everyone is encouraged and welcome to attend. President Ken announced the District Conference from May 31 to June 3. Bill Grace is putting together the new roster and hopes to have it published by Mid July, so be sure he gets any updates on your information.
HAPPY BUCKS: Jerry Landcastle had an update and happy bucks for Stan Brunner. Stan is coming along but has good days and bad. We all wish Stan a speedy recovery. Brian Finnegan had happy $ as his wife is the chairperson for "Girl's Night Out" in Fairhaven tonight. The proceeds for this fundraiser go to Breast Cancer Research and the pinnacle of the evening is Brian playing MC for the fashion show and he will be wearing a (pink?) tux. Phil Bratt had happy $ because it looked for awhile that Dick Landcastle would be sitting at the "Rowdy Table" by himself, but it turns out that Dick does have friends. Tony Cubellis had $100 happy bucks and divided it this way: $40 for the 40 years he's been married, $50 for just being alive to celebrate his anniversary, and $10 for looking forward to the next ten years. Congrats Tony! Rome Sarwas had happy $ because 40 years ago he came to Bellingham. At the time people were complaining about the population growth and 40 years later they still are. He pointed out that some of the population growth is because the people that came here 40 years ago, stayed and had children and grandchildren. While he's fine with the growth, he did want to say that some of the people complaining just came here themselves! (Ed. Note⿦for more of the same complaints come to Lummi Island!) Bill Grace had $ for a good time he and Chris had at their time-share in Glacier. Larry Pollett had a fish story to go with his $. Seems he caught (and released) a 150 pound Marlin. He will bring pictures to confirm the 4 Way Test! Greg Iwasaki had happy $ to celebrate his wife Jill's honor of being selected by Wal Mart as Local Teacher of the Year. She was nominated for this award by community members. Jill is Principal of Windward High and is also a teacher there. Congratulations! Bob Bowman had happy $ for his California visit with his 2 sons and sad $ to have to come back and do the work of taking care of his own animals. He also wanted folks to know how much the club means to him in spite of the fact that there seems to be a sizeable number of unrepentant Republicans. (Ken pointed out that Bob had strategically set himself at a table with the Democrats.) Winton Smith had $ because Bellingham is voted again as a good city to live in and the population increase is fine with him and his roofing business. And to finish with Happy Bucks, Leah Macaleer received her "permanent" badge.
FINEMASTER: Jack Curnow stepped up as fine master as there seemed to be a great deal of confusion with that committee over who held the honors this week. President Ken started things off by fining Max Legg $5 for not telling anyone he would be gone (and appointing a replacement fine master). Then Ken fined Rome $5. Seems that last week, Rome gave Ken's car keys to the speaker, Pat O'Day. Didn't catch if Rome did this on purpose, but Pat discovered the keys and left them with the airline folks on San Juan. After Ken got this out of his system, Jack Curnow took over as Fine master and asked how many had driven their cars with the tops down today? As he was the only one, he fined everyone who hadn't and it seemed to become a theme. Everyone paid a fine (except Jack and Dan Baker) for never having a car roll over their body. (Is there a story there, Dan?) Jerry Landcastle was fined $2 because his wife was in the paper today and Greg Iwasaki was fined because his wife was in the paper yesterday. Leah Macaleer was fined $2 because she CAN smile. Apparently Jack had only seen her looking "dour". Turns out that many members had seen her smile, lots! Randy Bode was fined because we don't fine guests. Nancy Harrison was fined because she lacked a "Command" voice for introductions. Rose Abbaspour was fined because it was suspected that her sister didn't think having Rose as a sister was an honor and any one who remembered Mother's Day is this weekend (and made plans) was fined. Addie Brown was fined $5 for being gone for so long and Brian Finnegan was fined $2 for his snide comments about fine masters and $3 for having a sexist wife who organizes events such as "Girl's Night Out." Greg Iwasaki was fined because Jack found it confusing that his wife could be both a principal and a teacher. And just so people don't think Jack is getting sentimental and kind, Marlene Sexton was fined for not taking care of her parent's animals despite the fact that they are home to do it themselves!
PROGRAM: Today's program was Member's Talk and Rick Staeb spoke first as an "old" member. Rick first joined Rotary in Astoria in l984 and then joined this club in l989. He had an interesting talk and entertained and informed as we went down "memory lane." Rick has enjoyed a distinguished career in Radio Broadcasting (Cascade Radio Group) and is grateful for the good life he and his wife, Deb live in Ferndale. He and Deb have raised two very accomplished "kids". Rick is proud to be a Rotarian and be involved not only on the local level, but also globally.
Phil Bratt was the other speaker and he shared that he originally joined Rotary at the Mt. Baker club in Lynden and joined WCNR in l996 after his business relocated. Phil was introduced to Rotary by our own Mel Hollinger. In l980 (after de-regulation) Phil went into tele-communications and at age 30 bought his own telecommunications business. He shared the successes of his children and being a busy father of six. He hates the indoors and loves to golf for fun and also rides horses, but is starting to suspect that he might be too old for that. (NEVER!)
Drawing: Julie Johansen won, but drew the 2 of clubs so the pot grows.
Adjourned: We ended early so some of us could enjoy the sun from our desks at work and some could enjoy it outside. Meeting adjourned 1:00
Editor: Marlene Sexton