Whatcom County North Rotary

Northwind

August 16, 2007

 

 

MEETING TO ORDER:  President Greg called the meeting to order at 12:30 and Mel Hollinger gave the invocation.

 

VISITING ROTARIANS:   Dale Vander Giessen and Ron Vekved from Mt. Baker Rotary; Graham Harris from New Zealand; George Tsakumis from Vancouver; Bill Kirby from Carson City, Nevada; Bob Morse (Assistant District Governor) from Bellingham Rotary and John Bosch (District Governor) from South Everett Rotary.

 

GUESTS:  Ken Richardson introduced his wife Susan; Randy Carr introduced his wife Amie and their three daughters; Tim Villhauer introduced his wife Pati and Greg Thulin introduced his mother Cathy.

 

BIRTHDAYS:  Our only birthday this month is Jim Zervas on August 18th.

 

RETURNING ROTARIANS:  Paul Cooley returned from a skydiving trip to Montana.  Jerry Landcastle and his wife visited Kentucky where the attended the CB (?) Veterans of America, where they also attended a Cincinnati Reds baseball game and saw Ken Griffey, Jr. hit a homerun.

 

ANNOUNCEMENTS:  (1) Golfun is tomorrow with tee times beginning at 11:30 A.M.  (2) The Board will address the "rummage sale" issue at next month's board meeting.  (3) Lex Ludtke announced that United Rentals donated used of their "stuff" for the rummage sale.  (4) Scott Wallace announced the sad news that our own Brad Peterson has been diagnosed with cancer and is going through treatment at the UW Medical Center.  He is in room 7220 and his mailing address is UW Medical Center, 1959 NE Pacific, Seattle, WA.  (5) Jim McKellar announced that the Dick Metcalf Memorial Project has raised $147,000 so far but a long way from our goal of $250,000.  There is a copy of our new brochure on each table and a list of potential donors.  If you know any of them please let Jim know and he will arrange for a presentation to be made.  (6) Bill Grace is still making "garden benches" with proceeds ($250.00) from each one going to the Dick Metcalf Memorial Project.  (7) Tim Carpenter announced that the paperwork for the Honduras matching grant is almost complete and will be submitted in the next month.

 

HAPPY BUCKS:  Greg Thulin was happy to see all the ties, for his mom being a guest and for going on vacation next week.  Jack Curnow was wearing a "virtual tie" and was happy to be back from vacation with his daughter and lady friend.  Bill Grace had sad bucks for Brad Peterson and happy bucks for the roster being done.  Scott Piper had happy bucks for Graham Harris being here following which he told a story about a marathon they both ran in.  Randy Carr had happy bucks for the four Carr women in attendance today and for the UW Medical Center.  Tim Villhauer was happy not to go on vacation with Jack Curnow.  Graham Harris was happy to remember the story told by Scott Piper.  Marlene Sexton was happy to be at a table with such distinguished guests and for not having to do the Northwind this week.  Tim Carpenter was happy to be wearing a suit and for the District Governor's visit today.

 

FINEMASTER:  Randy Carr was the Finemaster and immediately fined Scott Wallace $5 in keeping with the "Wallace Rule".  He fined everyone in the financial services industry a buck because of the fluctuating markets.  All homeowners a buck.  Everyone who drinks milk a buck.  All Sub-Prime mortgage holders a buck.  Everyone not wearing a tie, including women.  President Greg for wearing a tie.  Anyone who brought a pink stuffed animal today.  Graham Harris for his fantastic service to our club as past president.  Maureen McCarthy for being on the radio this morning.  Dr. Gary Snyder for being here today after his obituary appeared in the paper last week.  Bill Grace for spending so much time on the Roster.  Dan Parsons for claiming to be Randy Carr's personal trainer.  He should stick to "lawyering".  Winton Smith for being quoted in the Business Journal as saying something about "hot air"?

 

BANNERS:  The banners spelled out FAIR to honor the Northwest Washington Fair going on this week in Lynden.

 

PROGRAM:  Our Assistant District Governor, Bob Morse, introduced our speaker today, District Governor John Bosch (in attendance with his wife Maxine).  John has been a Rotarian since 1995 as a member of the South Everett Rotary Club.  His message today was to promote membership growth which is the top priority this year for rotary clubs.  He believes it's the single most important thing we can do as Rotarians.  Senior members need to mentor the new young Rotarians and everyone needs to try and bring in one new member this year.  He challenged our President Greg Thulin (who enthusiastically accepted the challenge) to bring in one new member this year.  In addition to new members, his number one goal is to promote communication, which enables each of us to complete the task at hand.  We should all respond to Rotarians request for help.  He acknowledged that District 5050 is second only to San Francisco in giving per capita.  Peace starts with better understanding your fellow man.

 

DRAWING:  Larry Pollett had the lucky ticket but no Ace of Spades.

 

Editor this week:  David Engels