Whatcom County North Rotary
Northwind
September 21, 2006
MEETING TO ORDER: President Ken called the meeting to order at 12:30 and led us in the Pledge of Allegiance. Deb Wiggs gave the invocation.
VISITING ROTARIANS: Paul Cooley introduced our visitors: From the Bellingham Club, Pete Theisen; from Vancouver, George Tsakumis; from Carson City, Nevada, Bill Kirby; and from Spokane, Homer and Phyllis Todd.
GUESTS: Someone (I didn't get who) introduced Graham Harris and his son Martin and Tim Carpenter introduced his guest Elizabeth Bernard.
BIRTHDAYS: Terry Dawn will celebrate his birthday on September 26th and Brian Finnegan will celebrate his birthday September 27th. Happy Birthday Terry and Brian!
RETURNING ROTARIANS: Doug Thomas returned from a business trip/vacation in Coeur d'Alene where he fished and played golf.
ANNOUNCEMENTS: President Ken announced that Tony Cubellis' surgery went well and he is still recovering in the hospital. Tony is accepting visitors. Doug Thomas announced that there will be a Dick Metcalf Memorial Project meeting after the regular membership meeting next week.
HAPPY BUCKS: Bill Grace was $2 happy to donate blood for the 108th time (14 gallons) and to proudly wear the Cougar colors today. Rick Staeb was $2 sad that Dan Coulters' wife recently passed away. Dan was a former Rotarian and worked as Chief Engineer at KGMI. Tim Villhauer was $2 happy to see Pete Kremen announcing at a recent car show he attended. Randy Carr finally paid his $10 for the sack lunch at the Ferndale Auction/Garage Sale. Jack Stromberg was also $2 sad about Marsha Coulters passing away. Gary Tomsic was $2 happy for Blaine High School whipping Bellingham High School in football. Bob Bowman was $2 happy to see Graham Harris here today. Lex Ludtke was $2 happy for his recent visit to Cabo San Lucas and the fact that he avoided the hurricane. Marlene Sexton was $2 happy that the walk-on Ferry will continue for awhile because it gives her more time to practice walking. Dan Parsons was $20 happy for the Huskies victory over Fresno State.
FINEMASTER: Deb Wiggs was today's Finemaster and she started off by saying that this was going to be all about her today and she was implementing the "Wallace Rule". The Doug Thomas "travel award" went to none other than Deb today (she paid a $2 fine) because she and Julie Johansen recently traveled to Alaska and saw some glaciers and great scenery. Everyone who's gone fishing recently in Alaska was fined a $1. Everyone who has never been to Alaska was fined a $1. Everyone who has not traveled on an airplane in the past year was fined a $1, because they haven't had the opportunity to throw out a perfectly good bottle of water. Everyone who hasn't flown for more than 60,000 miles was fined a $1. Everyone who goes south for the winter was fined $1 because that just isn't fair to the rest of us. Deb then went on to tell a number of light bulb jokes but the only one I remember is "how many Cougars does it take to change a light bulb? None, because electricity is a passing fad. Everyone who saw a Husky or Cougar football game this past weekend was fined a $1. Everyone who has played golf in the past two months was fined a $1. Something about pet lovers and chickens in Spanish (sorry folks, she was just talking too fast). Everyone between 25 and 50 was fined a $1, everyone between 50 and 75 was fined a $1 and everyone over 75 was not fined. Finally, everyone who did not wake-up today feeling gratitude for this wonderful day had to pay $1. I'm pretty sure Deb got $5 out of everyone today.
BANNERS: There were two themes running through today's banners: the first theme is red and blue colors reflecting on the two parties represented in the primary election and the second theme being water which represents the arrival of the fall season. No one guessed the themes.
PROGRAM: Today's program speaker, Peter Theisen, was introduced by Randy Carr. Peter is the President of the United Way of Whatcom County and he talked about the state of philanthropy in Whatcom County. The information Peter passed on is based on studies by Cornerstone Strategy Group. The oldest non-profits in Whatcom County are the YWCA and the Bellingham Theater Guild; the number of non-profits increased from 112 in 1992 to 196 in 2002; non-profits fall in the following categories: education 19%, arts 14%, human services 26%, public benefit 12%, health 12% and religion 10%; 80% of the non-profits are in Bellingham; the non-profit sector employs 3,500; their source of income is 52% from contributions, grants and gifts, 41% from program fees, 3% from investment income, 1% from special events and 3% miscellaneous; non-profits generated total income of $65 million in 2002, up from $51 million in 1997; 76% of the people in Whatcom County made a contribution to a non-profit; as a percent of their Adjusted Gross Income, Whatcom County citizens donated 3.7% compared to 4.5% statewide and 3.2% nationwide. Closing thoughts: non-profits are growing, which provides an improvement in the quality of life for all of us.
DRAWING: Larry Pollett had the lucky ticket but drew the four of clubs.
Editor this week: David Engels