Whatcom County North Rotary
Northwind
June 14, 2007
MEETING TO ORDER: Incoming President Greg Thulin called the meeting to order, Mel Hollinger gave the invocation, centered on the theme of Rotary being a service club, designed to help others.
VISITING ROTARIANS: Visiting Rotarians included from Mt. Baker Ron Vekved, from Bellingham Jim Vos and Bill Elfo along with our fine friend from across the border, George Tsakumis.
GUESTS: Guests included: Margaret Brunner, Marge Laidlaw and Joan Whiting
RETURNING ROTARIANS: George Scott and Stan Brunner
BIRTHDAYS: Gary Tomsic celebrated his 60th today
ANNOUNCEMENTS: Incoming President Greg gave an update on the recent board meeting, which included that the installation meeting is an evening meeting on June 28th starting at 5:30 with a social hour followed by dinner at 6:30. There is no meeting on July 5th. The board passed the 2007-08 budget at the board meeting. Also in the meeting the board proposed amending the club by laws, which the club will have the opportunity to vote on during the Installation Meeting on the 28th. Committee sign up sheets were on all the tables. Members were encouraged to sign up for 3 committees of their choosing or have the pleasure of being assigned to various committees. The board also acted on the resignation of Hilary Baumstarck who was scheduled to be incoming president for the 2008-09 Rotary year and Gary Cordrey's request to step down as club secretary. The board has selected Tim Villhauer for Incoming President and Marlene Sexton as Secretary for the 2008-09 year. Mel made an announcement about the possibility of a Washington State Rotary License plate, which would require a petition containing 2500 signatures being presented to the Secretary of the State's office. Bill Grace reminded club members to update their roster information including more current photos rather than their high school class photo that some club members have continued to use. Rome gave an update on ticket sales for the upcoming concert on June 23rd. Ticket sales are lagging and the club members need to step up and encourage friends, neighbors and other rotary club members to attend this fund raising concert featuring the Roy Orbison Group and the Tacoma Wailers. Dick Donahue reminded everyone about the July 21 garage sale and the need for club members to sign up for Department Chair positions. This year's sale will be held at the Central Elementary School. Tim Carpenter conducted a new Member induction. Laurie Lloyd, who was proposed by Hilary Baumstarck, was inducted into the club. Laurie is a long time resident of Whatcom County and is employed by Merrill Lynch with many years of experience in the banking and financial investment community. Welcome Laurie.
HAPPY BUCKS: Phil Bratt $2 welcoming Laurie and a recent vacation. Brad Peterson $27 for that many years of wedding bliss. Mary Kanikeberg thankful the Youth Service Awards are complete and our club recognized such great kids. Bob Bowman $5 to see Stan back. George Tsakumis for 50 years in North America along with presenting his check for $1000 to the Dick Metcalf project. Bill Grace was happy as always. Greg Iwasaki $30 for 29 years of marriage and one for son's completion of his first year of medical school. Scott Piper was happy to see Stan back. Pete Kremen was $20 happy to welcome Laurie into the club and recognize the fine work of the committee that put together the Youth Service Awards one of our club's best efforts each and every year. Rich Jacobson was $5 happy about his son Calvin's graduation from Ferndale High School and that the school year was not quite as long as Roger believed it to be. Tim was $5 happy about Laurie coming into the club. Your editor was happy to the tune of $107.78, a penny for each foot of Mt. Baker that he climbed two weeks ago. Rome was happy about a recent contract that ACB was granted by the government. Kathy was $2 about a remodeling project that had some good and some not so good aspects. Dick was happy about a recent road trip that included some baseball. Paul Cooley was $5 happy about a lot of things including the Youth Service Awards, Stan being back, recently completing a college course, a successful performance of the Heimlich maneuver on a customer in the store, and Dorothy Haggen's 98th birthday today. Dick was $2 to see Stan and welcome Laurie into the club. Bob Bowman was another $5 to see Gary's picture on the front page of the paper. And Gary, arriving a little late was $100 for his 37 years of marriage, his 60th birthday today and his "all clear" from his hospital visit earlier in the day.
FINEMASTER: The fine master today was Jack Curnow who fined heavy and hard in his brief period of time. Mel was dinged $42 for picking on Gary. Tim $5 for abusing the fine master. Scott Piper $2 for whining about members not wearing their rotary pins. George Scott $2 for his return from the sunny south. Stan was docked $2 for depriving the club of his entertaining banner themes while he was out sick. Jim Vos, although we don't normally fine guests, for providing service to so many of our club's members. Scott $5 for not bring Marge more often to our club meetings. Rich Jacobson for not buying his wife's lunch today. Bob Bowman for his variety of bumper stickers on his car. Chad $2 for not getting any fish on a recent fishing trip. Greg Thulin $2 for the fact that his rotary staff quitting on him even before he took office. Bill Grace was fined $2 for updating the roster every half hour. Laurie was welcomed into the club with a$2 fine. Sharon Robinson for killing off any likelihood of someone signing up to chair the Housewares Department for the Garage Sale. Roger Lehnert $2 for having no clue when the school year would be over.
The banners were easy, it is Flag Day today.
PROGRAM: The Program was our honorable and hard working Whatcom County Sheriff and fellow Rotarian, Bill Elfo. Bill spoke about the growth issues of Whatcom County. 700 new homes out in the Kendall area. The County Council along with the County Executive has approved Neighborhood Deputies for Paradise, Birch Bay, Sudden Valley and South Whatcom for added assistance to the community. His department is working on a special Response Team to deal with the possibility of school violence of the scale we recently saw at Virginia Tech. Good news in our community is that Violent Crime is down 12.7%. Meth Labs are being wiped out. with 43 reportedly shut down in 2003 and only 4 were discovered in 2006. On the other hand, gang violence is increasing in our community. In 2004 the voters approved the budget for the Interim Jail since the main jail was over crowded. Built for 148 inmates, the jail at times had over 300 occupants. The Emergency Management Office was moved out of the basement of the Courthouse to a Fire Station out on the Guide. A much better location for Emergency Management to perform their necessary duties during critical times. The Sheriff's department is making good use of their client's time by having them perform various work projects including highway clean up and contract work with the US Forest Service. A great update on the work of a very much under appreciated part of our government.
You're Editor: Rick Staeb