Northwind 9/18/08

Posted by Nancy Tieman 
 

Whatcom North Rotary

Northwind

September 18, 2008

 

 

MEETING TO ORDER:  President Tim Villhauer called the meeting to order at 12:30 and led us in the pledge of allegiance followed by Gary Tomsic who provided the invocation.

 

VISITING ROTARIANS:   Dave Engels announced our solo visiting Rotarian: George Tsakumis from Vancouver.

 

GUESTS:  Scott Piper introduced his guests, his wife Tone and the Bartabak Band members: John, Aaron and Scott's son Andy.  Eric Nelson brought a co-worker, Darrin.

 

BIRTHDAYS:  None

 

RETURNING ROTARIANS:  Pete Ruese returned after a month on the water.  

 

ACCOUNCEMENTS:  Tim Villhauer reminded us about the next Club assembly on 9/25 and the Ceremonial Ground Breaking for the new Boys and Girls Club at PioneerPark on 9/23 at 4 p.m.

 

HAPPY BUCKS:  Tim Villhauer was happy about a productive Boys & Girls Club Committee meeting.  Bill Grace was happy that he has lost 112 pounds via blood donation (1 pound per unit donated) and that he was able to take his visiting friends riding in his model A.  Greg Thulin was happy he survived a cruise on Randy's boat he bought at the auction.  Roger Lehnert was happy to be back and happy that he opened the doors of the Cascade school on time with more than 200 additional kids.  Rich Jacobson had an OK salmon fishing trip but really was pleased with his 42 and 150 lb halibut catch.  George Myiow was happy about his granddaughter's trout fishing catch.  Tony Cubellis was happy about 2 rotary announcements on the radio.  Dick Donahue had happy bucks for the Horizon buy out of Wamu.   Addie Brown was happy about her brand new home's foundation and Eric Nelson was grateful his son survived another year and celebrated his birthday. 

 

FINEMASTER:  Our Finemaster, Scott Wallace, took the podium to a round of applause.  He started with everyone who did not know the banners (all but Tim Villhauer), all who had ties on and a special fine for the person wearing a purple tie (Rick Jacobson).  Brian Finnegan choose to pay $5 rather than take a cheaper fine and disclose the BBQ fire starter story.  All sports fans paid $1; Roger Lehnert paid because some of his school administrators landed their balloon on Scott's property and used his facilities.  Everyone paid $1 if they owned stock or $2 if they didn't.  Anyone living in Water District 10 paid $2 for the sewage spill.  Tim Villhauer was fined because he did not have happy bucks for his recent sales and service award.  All Blaine residents paid for the Blaine kid featured on TV that blew up balloons with his nose.  Lynden residents paid for their school district investigation.  Randy Carr paid for the confidentiality agreements his boat rider's sign.  Members who ate more than 1 cookie paid and Jake Smith paid $5 for last in.

 

BANNERS:  Equinox time has arrived with equal light and dark banners representing the beginning of autumn with snow just around the corner.

 

PROGRAM:   Gary Tomsic introduced his friend and our speaker, Tom Door, Director, Small Business Development Center (SBDC) at WWU.  Tom and the SBDC staff are "helping to shape the economic future of our region one business at a time".  The Center has been a part of the College of Business and Economics for 25 years.  Their mission is an outreach of WWU giving back to the community at no charge.  Their role is to provide counseling, research and conduct special projects (i.e. permit center listening project and working with the Washington State Parks Department).  They are in the top 2 or 3 centers out of 1100 nationwide providing service to small business owners (those with less than 500 employees).  In WhatcomCounty, 99.8% of all businesses are "small".  The SBDC does "economic gardening" using research tools to understand the markets.  The SBDC has a current list of 436 clients in all stages of development and helps to generate over $24 million in new investments.  They estimate they generate a 49:1 return on investment: for every $1 of local funding, $49 goes back to the community.  Tom educated us on using emerging "social media networks" using the internet and other e-tools to develop 2-way communication and relationships.  Two of these are Face Book and blogging.  Business owners can use Google alerts to track any information about their business or competing businesses that ends up on the internet.

 

DRAWING:  Eric Nelson drew the Jack of Clubs. Only 4 cards left!

 

Editor this week:  Nancy Tieman