Northwind 8/21/08

Northwind

August 21, 2008

Whatcom CountyNorth Rotary

Meeting to Order:   President-Elect, Chuck Tull, called the meeting to order at 12:30 and led us in the flag salute.  Rick Staeb provided the invocation.

Visiting Rotarians:   Elizabeth Barnard announced how happy we are to have George Tsakumis from Vancouver and Jeanne McGee from Mexico as visitors again this week.  Welcome!

Guests: Stan was accompanied by his wife Margaret.

Birthdays:   None

Returning Rotarians:   None

Announcements:   Larry Pollett wanted to thank all who worked on the Bay2Bay and explained the reasoning behind the cancellation of this fundraiser.  He encouraged everyone not to play the "blame game" and announced there would be a committee meeting 2 weeks from today, (28^th.)  This meeting is open to everyone who is interested.  There will also be a Club Assembly in September (TBA) to discuss this and future fundraisers.  Larry encourages us all to look at the positive side of this decision and look at the learning opportunities.  (As we say in the therapy biz, "be part of the solution.")  Again, thanks to all who worked so hard on this project.  Bill Grace announced he had updates on the roster put on each table.  These include information on our newest members, Tyler Cook and George Myiow.  Scott Wallace announced that Brad Peterson is in Seattle and will go through chemo for 1 month, take a break, have a couple more weeks of treatment and is looking at a stem cell/bone marrow transplant.  We all wish Brad well.  Ken Richardson passed around a card for all members to sign.  Larry Pollett put on his other hat (Assistant D.G.) and announced he has the District Directory available.  If anyone wants one, see him.

Happy Bucks:   Brian Finnegan was very happy to officially be a dad!  Kayleigh Lane has good vocal capacity (after her father) and her mother's good looks.  Congratulations and welcome to Kayleigh!  Bill Grace had happy bucks for Brian and for the 2^nd time in 22 years, he needed to "scoot" early for a pre-op appt. for Kris.  We wish Kris a speedy recovery.  George Tsakumis had $10 happy bucks for the "newest Papa".  Tim Carpenter felt it was only worth $1.00, but he was happy that Jake Smith and Jack Curnow finally arrived.  Scott Wallace was happy that Chuck Snyder was re-elected.  Stan Brunner had $65 happy bucks for his (and Margaret's) 65^th wedding anniversary.  Congratulations!  Dick Donahue had $25 for his 25^th anniversary with Fontene, but he spent it in Chicago.  (Risky, if you ask me!)  He also had $500 for the Bay2Bay (which was based on a government formula for his Social Security check.)  Jim Bliss had happy bucks for the real effort that went into the Bay2Bay and encouraged everyone to see that this was not an "empty experience", but one we can learn from.  Gary Snyder had $44 for his 44^th wedding anniversary on Saturday.  Congrats to Gary and Alix!  Bob Bowman had happy bucks for Brian's new baby and apology bucks, that Guido the wonder dog (specially trained and controlled by Marlene), once bit Brian.  (Guido lived to be 16 and only had a few bad habits, but he was generally considered to be a good judge of character.)  Jim McKellar had happy bucks for the club and the tremendous amount of credit we deserve for all the good work that has been done in the last 5 years.  He listed off several projects including the food bank, the teen center, the clean water project, and micro-lending.  He encouraged us all to remember this.  Bill Grace had more happy bucks for the Wilma Hollinger Memorial Project, (Micro-lending in Honduras) which has collected about $250,000 to date.  Phil Bratt had happy bucks for the horse competition his wife participated in.  He was happy to have been in Wenatchee in 108 degree heat.   

Finemaster:   Max Legg was today's Finemaster and started off by fining Bob Moles for not signing in as a visiting Rotarian.  (We usually don't fine visitors.)  Practical jokers were fined for the Big Foot scandal which involved a (now unemployed) Sherriff Deputy.  Fishermen (and women) were fined because a man bought his little girl a Barbie Doll fishing pole and she caught a catfish 2" longer than the pole was.  John Aubert was not fined for the shameless advertising on his shirt, but was fined for being in the wrong seat.  Larry Pollett paid the fine because he had taken John's seat and that just threw everything off.  Jeanne McGee (despite the rule of not fining visitors) was fined for losing her car keys.  Paul Cooley was fined for being oblivious as to why folks at his table were congratulating Brian.  Jake Smith was fined for being the last one in, and he paid $5 "just to get it over with."  Rick Staeb was fined for talking about the seasons changing when it just got to be summer.  Jim Bliss was fined as his pep talks to the Mariners are not working.  Sharon Robinson was fined for her new glasses which she reports are like a high-def TV, everything is so clear.  (And we all agree they look great, too!)  Winton Smith was fined $1 for clearly praying for rain and wind.

Banners:    Stan tried to trick us with all the Roman numerals, but the banners depicted the 29^th Olympiad, the 26 gold medals, the 28 silver medals, and the 28 bronze medals won by USA.

Program:   Tim Carpenter attempted to introduce Bob Moles but his (Tim's) biorhythms were off.  But suffice it to say that Bob was the chief instigator of Pure Water for the World and he came today to show slides of the progress in Honduras.  He had great pictures of the trip that he and several of our members took to Honduras in February.  Tim will be leading another group down there in September. The slides depicted the great work that Rotary does in getting children and family's clean water as well as business loans.  The group was also involved in distributing shoes, socks, and underwear to children so they can attend school. 

Drawing:   Jerry L. drew the 3 of clubs which did him no good at all.