Northwind 8/31/06

Whatcom County North Rotary

Northwind

August 31, 2006

MEETING TO ORDER:  President Ken called the meeting to order at 12:30 and led us in the Pledge of Allegiance.   Gary Thomsic gave the invocation, and asked for special prayers for Tony Cubellis and Greg Thulin who are not well this week.

VISITING ROTARIANS:   George Pierce from Sunrise Club, John Moles from Bellingham Club, Stowe Talbot and Mike Kirkland from Bellingham Bay and Assistant District Governor Bob Morse.

GUESTS:  Ken's wife Susan, Tim Carpenter's guest Elizabeth Barnard, and Jim Bliss's guest Patty Quanz.

BIRTHDAYS:  None noted.

ANNOUNCMENTS:

1.  Julie circulated sign-up sheets for Fellowship Dinners.  There will be a dinner hosted by Lori Pobuta and Sharon Robinson on September 30.

2.  Jim McKellar announced that $8,900 in pledges has come in to the Metcalf campaign recently.

3.  President Ken requested a $10 donation for the lunches we had last week, and a $10 donation from anyone who was not able to help with the garage sale.

4.  President Ken, Garage Sale Chairman Dick Donahue, and many others expressed their thanks to everyone who worked on the Garage Sale. 

HAPPY BUCKS:  Many members were happy about the success of the Garage Sale, especially noting the non-monetary rewards of helping others who benefited from the items sold or donated, as well as those who benefited by having their attics and garages cleaned out. 

Members also had these additional reasons to be happy: Jack Curnow for being 50 pounds lighter one year after his surgery, Dan Parsons for help moving his newly purchased desk, Mary Kanikeberg for a family reunion, Paul Cooley gave thanks to Scott Piper for helping move furniture, Tim Carpenter presented Ed Brown with thanks for helping to price antiques and with a book about how to entertain a Crank (or something like that), Greg Iwasaki was happy about his Son's White Coat ceremony graduating from Med School, Bob Morse was sad about unnecessary primping for the missing District Governor, although he declined Mel's kind offer of photographing the evidence, Jim Bliss gave concerned bucks regarding George Tskumis's health, happily, Tim clarified that George is doing well and is currently in Greece, Jim was also sad to hear that he will be attending a USC football game in Tucson, Mel was happy or sad, I'm not sure which, to have a garage full of books that could not be accepted by the White Rock club.

FINEMASTER: Max Legg was our honorable finemaster this week.  Fines included Jim Bliss for making up reasons to sneak off to the Mariner's Spring Training Camp, Dan Parsons for leaving an open tab on his credit card, Bob Bowman because Mayor Mark didn't consult him before resigning, Gary Cordrey for throwing money into a whole in the water. 

Max then proceeded to quiz members on various trivia related to Labor Day.  Scott Wallace guessed that the only reasons people don't work is that they are dead or retired.   Mel claimed to have invented Labor Day, but even he was not around in 1887 when it actually originated.  Rose guessed that there were 900,000,000 people of working age in the US (boy, that illegal immigrant problem really IS out of hand!).  Gary Snyder was very close to knowing that 82% of working people have health insurance, and Winton was also very knowledgeable about the median income for men ($41,000) and women ($31,000).  Mary was close, but not that close in guessing the number of teachers in the US.

Max finished out the fines with anyone on the list of top ten paying occupations: Physicians, Dentists, CEO's, Podiatrists, Lawyers, Engineering Managers (isn't that an oxymoron?), Optometrists, Petroleum Engineers, Natural Science Scientists (???) and Actuaries. 

BANNERS:   All of the Banners were from Native American place names.

Thanks Stan!

PROGRAM: District Governor Rod Thomson unfortunately had to cancel his appearance this week.  We look forward to seeing him later in the year when he is able to reschedule.

DRAWING:  President Ken's number came up, but he did not draw the Ace.