Northwind February 16, 2017

Posted by Marlene Sexton on Feb 19, 2017
 
 
Call to Order:   President Dale called the meeting to order and led us in the flag salute.

Invocation:  Deb provided an excellent moment of reflection, with a nod to education, family and Rotary.
 
Visiting Rotarians:   Nancy Jordan (B’ham club), Allen Stockbridge (B’ham Bay), Bill Kirby (Carson City), Dominique Zervas (B’ham Bay), Lynn Masland (Sunrise), Steve Swan (Bellingham).  Welcome All! 

Guests: Ken brought his lovely wife, Sue.
  
Returning Rotarians:  Deb returned from points in Alaska and Colorado and Bill returned from an iced in driveway!

Anniversaries and Birthdays:  No anniversaries, but Happy Birthday to Greg!

Announcements: We are still looking for sponsors for the Duck Derby!  The push is on! Rollo and Dale attended the Ferndale Chamber luncheon and found 5 potential Career Fair presenters.  Also, they were able to do some PR for the Duck Derby.  Dale announced that the Silver Reef Casino is a potential Title Sponsor for the RDD, which is great as we need to reach $20,000 is sponsorship money.  Let Rollo or Dale know of any sponsors you may have.  As noted above, we may have 5 more potential presenters for the Career Fair on March 30th.  Dale promises an email on who is presenting and who we still need.  BOD meeting is on the 22nd (last Wed) and on the 23rd, we will have violinist, educator, and storyteller, Swil Kanim, (AKA Richard Marshall) as a presenter. (He also plays at Te Ti Sen center on the 1st Friday of the month.)  March 4th is the “Luck of the Irish” to benefit Y.E.S.  See Greg for tickets.  March 16th, Rollo and Sharon will attend the Ferndale Chamber Lunch and share information about WCNR.  (Volunteers needed for the April luncheon.)  Mark your calendars for the Career Fair on March 30th.  YSA lunch is at Northwood Hall on May 18th and DO NOT FORGET the Duck Race on August 24th! 

Happy Bucks:  Dale was $5 happy that his dad passed a memory test with flying colors!  Jim B. was $5 happy that his wife went to the beauty parlor.  (It is difficult to make some of these happy bucks sound good!  Jim, you explain this to your wife!)  Tim was $1 happy for Dale and asked Dale to have his dad remind him to send out the email about Career Fair presenters.  Tim was also $1 happy on general purposes.  Pati was happy for our guests.  Jim S. had $20 “really happy” bucks because his meeting in San Diego was cancelled due to the weather.  Greg was $2 happy for another year!  Sharon gave the $5 she found in the laundry.  Bill reiterated his pleasure in being retired at this time of year.  Ken was $10 happy on general principles.  Deb gave $20 for her delight in being warm again after a trip to Alaska.  Jill was $2 happy for Greg’s birthday and $3 happy for her son and daughter-in-law’s marriage and new home.  Laurie gave $20 to make up for absences due to illness, snow, and poor planning on a client’s part. Marlene was $2 happy to be able to keep up with happy bucks while doing the Northwind.  Linda was happy for today’s speaker and colleague, Sabah Randhawa.  Nancy was happy to have gone to 2 Rotary meetings this week.  Dominique was happy for a good time at Las Vegas Nights at MBT.  She was also happy for our speaker.  Stan was $7.70 happy and this represents his first date with Margaret 77 years ago on Valentine’s Day!!  was happy to endorse the good time she had a Las Vegas Nights with a highlight being watching Dominique get cut in half!
     
Finemaster:  Jim B. did the duties today and advised people to leave any item lay if it falls to the floor. (This is especially true for telephones.)  Sharon was fined for winning the Jake Smith Award.  Laurie was fined $3 for owning 3 horses.  Ken was fined because he did not know the world enrollment of Rotary, (1.2 million members!)  Jim S. was fined because he could not name all the countries that form the Middle East.  Stan was fined for not knowing how many women are in our club.  (Last count: 8).  Anyone who did not know how much revenue Mt. Baker activities bring in, (around 12 million?) Ken was not fined for knowing the name of Rick Staeb’s band, (Swing Connection.)  

Banners:  Stan’s banners represented his first date, with Margaret, on Valentine’s day, 77 years ago!  Congratulations, Stan and Margaret, you are truly role models for good relationships!!

Program:  Today’s speaker was Dr. Sabah Randhawa, President of Western Washington University.  Dr. Randhawa comes to Bellingham by way of Pakistan and Oregon State University, where he served as provost and executive vice-president.  Dr. Randhawa earned a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from the University of Engineering and Technology in Pakistan, in 1976.  In 1980, he earned his master’s degree in industrial engineering from OSU, and then, in 1983, his doctorate in industrial engineering from Arizona State University. He became Western’s 14th president, succeeding Bruce Shepard.  Dr. Randhawa shared his commitment to diversity and inclusion, with a focus on students’ academic experience and closing the achievement gap.  Dr. Randhawa also shared his reflections and impressions about Western, as well as his experiences learning about Bellingham.  He provided us with interesting and important statistics regarding WWU and its students and programs.  I am sure WWU will benefit greatly from Dr. Randhawa’s vision and commitment.  This was a great program! 

Drawing: Laurie won the door prize which was a box of chocolates, (for Ric.)  Sue was asked to draw a ticket for the jackpot and she predicted she would draw her own number. She did.  She should have predicted she would win the $54.00.  She didn’t.   The pot grows!  
Editor:  Marlene Sexton