Northwind April 5, 2012

MEETING TO ORDER:    President Gary called the meeting to order at 12:30.  He shared some thoughts about Easter and Rotary for the invocation. 

 GUESTS: Norm brought both his wife, Megan and his son Jorgen.

 VISITING ROTARIANS:  Bill Kirby from Carson City Nevada

 RETURNING ROTARIANS:  Marlene is back from Cabo and also Portland.

 BIRTHDAYS:  We noted Julie’s birthday back on 3/31/12 and Winton Smith for 4/1/12.

ANNIVERSARIES:  Derrick celebrates his one-year anniversary today, while Winton and Chuck are both celebrating 25 years.  Josh and Paul Cooley are somewhere in between.

 ANNOUNCEMENTS:

 Dan Parsons: Various Dates for highway clean up were considered.  Decision finally settled on May 19th at 10:00 am.  Signups circulating.

 Bill Grace announced the annual Memorial Day/Sea to Ski Car Show.

 Laurie reminded us she’s collecting Rotarian Magazines when we are done with them.  She also talked about a trip to Costa Rica, and how nice it is to see guests visiting.  She challenged us to wear our Rotary pins every day.

 Fundraising/Social – Norm updated us on the Cinco de Mayo event, which will happen on Cinco de Mayo. (5/5/12).  They hope to raise money auctioning fun and unique experiences, rather than physical objects, and are asking members to come up with ideas for these.  They also will have a Chili Cookoff, which will have a $20.00 entry fee. (Plus the chili of course).

Gary recognized the great job that Dale Holt and the Career Fair team did in organizing and running the fair last week. 

 He also thanked the few hardy Rotarians and families, who turned out for the NSEA work day – Julie and grandson, Maureen, Gary, Jake and Greg Iwasaki.

 April 28 will be Rotarian Work Day, for which we will be painting the Boys and Girls Club in Blaine. 

 HAPPY BUCKS:  Tyler is happy for being on the radio in the current Haggen ad; Norm for his guests and the Career Fair; Dan for the Mariners and Julie for her grandson’s help on the NSEA work which was HARD!  She was also sad, as were others, to hear about the tragic loss of life in the marina fire, and the loss of Randy Carr’s boat in the same incident.

 Stan celebrated 62 years of marriage on a trip to San Diego, and also attended his great-niece’s wedding in Tumwater.  Bill was happy for Eric the Cook’s participation in the career fair , and also for the car show, as there was some question if it would go on this year.

 Ken was sad about the fire, but thankful that the county’s emergency management system functioned as it was intended with all agencies cooperating.  Nick was happy for the great weather and for the Badge that Bill made for his daughter.  He wondered why she was “active” while he was still “red.”

 Marlene put in and IOU for her trip and the career fair.  Also for Rocky stepping up to fill in for Mark, just going to show that you can always count on family.  Laurie also commented on the good career fair and the sad tragedy.  Max mentioned that he is supposedly retired, but he is still keeping up with his colleagues, and told about two happy outcomes with their childrens’ health issues.

 FINEMASTER:  Norm Vigre

Norm first fined his own son for not making his bed today.  Rocky and Ken were fined for something I missed.  Ray George was fined in absentia for for lottery ticket purchases, Tyler for being at Barkley instead of his own store, Rick was thanked for swapping program dates at the last minute, but fined for a comment about Old Women. Norm earned points for saying there are no Old Women in our club.  Pete R. for ???

 Greg Iwasaki was fined for the latest cyber-attacks, Gary for not wearing short sleeved shirts.  Is he ashamed of his tattoo?  Jim Sands was fined for recent real estate successes.  Jim and Rocky for matching shoes, Norm fined someone for revealing to his wife that he had bought a Bill Grace Bench – she didn’t know yet.  Mel was fined for bouncing around the room, and Dan for being dressed up – for Dan.  Derrick was fined for being dressed up by any standard. Scott and Nick were fined for being cougars and not happy about the team’s success.  Nick was also fined for his excessive sideburns.  Laurie was fined for being a financial advisor, Jeanne for bringing Mexico weather up north, and Sharon for bragging about THAILAND.

 No fines, but a big Thank You to Bill, Greg I, Max, Tyler and Pete who helped make the Career Fair a success.

 PROGRAM:  Our own Rick Staeb presented a program on the use of the Club Runner website. The site has much more capability than we are currently making use of.

 Rick started with the basics of how to find the website.  It is a complicated name with a lot of funny characters:  (http://www.clubrunner.ca/CPrg/Home/login.asp?cid=813&lgValMem=0) so the best thing to do is to click this link, or Google Whatcom County North Rotary.  Once you’ve found it, mark it in your favorites.  There seem to be some questions about what the log-in and password should be for new users.  We think it is First.Last (i.e. Sharon.Robinson) for username, and 813 for password.  You can reset your password once you sign on, or if you don’t remember your password type first and last name with a dot between them then click “forgot my password.”  Anyone who has trouble with this process can contact Rick or Sharon and we will help you get your account set up.  Once you have a user name and password, you should click the box saying “remember me” and you will not have to input it every time. 

The site can be used to e-mail fellow members, and to create specific e-mail groups for committees, for example.  Responsibilities like Greeter, Northwind Editor, Sgt. At Arms and others can be posted, and we can also use it for sign-ups for events.  The Northwind Editors use the site every week to send out the Northwind to members.  If a committee chair has input this information, your personalized version will show up on the bottom of the Northwind each week.

• Each member has a profile on the site, including photo, name, address, contact info, etc. which you can edit and update if you have changes.    If you do update your info, don’t forget to also tell Bill Grace so he can update the master membership spreadsheet.
• “View Club Directory” will take you to a simple directory with e-mail and phone info only.
• “View Club Photo Directory” will give you the familiar directory with members’ pictures.   You can save a shortcut to the directory on your desktop for easy reference.
• The homepage shows links to other local clubs, upcoming WCN Events and items of interest.
• The Duty Roster, once it is updated, will show you what your responsibilities are for the year.

Please feel free to explore the site and see what you can do.  Rick or Sharon are available to answer any questions you might have. 

The Banners represented a cross for Easter, and flowers for spring.

 Pete Reuse’s ticket drawn AGAIN??  But no Ace was found.