President Gary brought the meeting to order with the Pledge of Allegiance.

Jim Blaney provided the invocation.

Incoming President Laurie led the Club in reciting the ‘Code’, more often called the Four Way Test.

Greeter for the day was Ken R.

Visiting Rotarians: our regular visitor (home club of Melaque, Mex,)  Jeanne McGee and Bellingham Bay’s Jim Johnson

Guests: Jim Johnson, our program speaker, and his  wife, Marianna(sp) were guests of Julie as was Deborah Garrett, a candidate for Whactom County Superior Court Judge.  Brad Tuininga  from Bellingham Technical College was the guest of Max and Scott.

Announcements:

Ken reminded all that the Installation Dinner is June 28 --- 5:30 p.m No Host Bar and Social Hour with dinner to be served starting between 6:00 and 6:30 --- Northwoods Hall.  $20.00 per person.

Dress code is casual…”what you have on” (there was a time when this was called ‘come as you are’, but I am not sure that Ken meant it that way). Sign up or decline the invite on line at the Club’s website.

Ken also encouraged all to get active selling Duck Race (raffle) tickets. See Derek to get tickets to sell and to turn in ticket stubs and proceeds. Important: include the name, address and phone number of the ticket purchaser on each ticket …or the gambling commission will get you.

Bill Grace asks for your assistance regarding the Club Member Roster. Send any changes in your address, status, etc to Bill or Rick.

Max noted how easy it is to do ‘make-ups’ on line and encouraged all to do so.

President Gary made special note of and a thank you to Tim V. for the fine and fun Club Bar-B-Cue last Thursday at Hovander Park. The good food, good time, good fellowship and nice evening was largely the result of Tim’s personal and individual efforts. Tim has been doing a good job and deserves our gratitude for organizing a number of social/fellowship events this year. Thank You Tim!

Important: There will be no Club meeting July 5.

Happy Bucks

Bill Grace…for summer, the Bar-B-Cue, and his 17 gallon pin for 136 donations of blood.

Ken R….for at least one member, Julie, having already sold half or more of her first batch of Duck Race tickets and because he likes the Club’s generally resurgent  enthusiasm.

Greg I….for his and Jill’s 34th wedding anniversary.

Jeanne M….for the Bar-B-Cue and her certification as a Hypnotherapist.

Sharon R….to celebrate the end of Gary’s term as Club President and to thank him for his service.

Max L….for his and Loren’s 38^th wedding anniversary and for the ease of making up Rotary meetings on line.

Marlene S. …Congrats to Gary on completing a good year as Club President and because she sat next to Brad Tuininga and now can put a face to his telephone voice.

Julie J….a Thank You to Gary and to Marlene, Maureen, and Sharon who are all ending terms on the Board and for her guests.

Laurie L…. Thank You to Gary and the  Board members stepping down including Tim C. and Jake S.

She also gave Birthday Bucks in an undisclosed, but quite substantial amount as it was a buck a year. ($29.00 is substantial to some of us and she might have put that amount or more in the pot.)

Mel H….$5.00 which he said Gary gave him to proclaim that Gary had a great year as President.
Jake S….good for Gary and “Hi” to fellow attorney Deborah Garrett.

Tim C….because he is going to be doing lots of good with all his extra time now that he is off the Board.

Dale H….for the good weather and his daughter’s soccer team winning a tourney.

Brian F…(whining that Gary saved the best for last)  to thank Tim V. for the Bar-B-Cue and the fun time watching his daughter running about at the party.

Norm V….for the Bar-B-Cue, Mel’s cake and for his Mother’s installation as President of the Fidalgo Rotary Club.

Gary T…  a Thank You to the Club for having  afforded him the opportunity to have served as President, a job he enjoyed and appreciated.

Fine Master

Max Legg had the Duty…

Gary T. for various reasons, such as calling the Four Way Test our ‘code’ .

Brian F. for a Herald article about real estate sales.

Julie for looking good and working too hard.

Laurie L.  because she is a U. of Oregon Duck and Chile is having difficulties with Beavers on former Trillium property…she should have done something like have the Ducks stomp the Beavers. (Max, a former Naval officer and Annapolis Grad evidently thinks all institutions of higher learning have access to guns, planes, and weapons of mass Beaver destruction.)

Ken R., no fine, fine master to fine master courtesy.

Marlene S.  gets to pay for asides to the fine master about Ken’s flat head that so aptly supported a Rubber Ducky when he was promoting the Duck Race ticket sales.  Did it look like Ken reverted to the old Duck Tail hair style of his youth?

Tim C. for being nice to a candidate for judicial  office.

Jim Blaney for having appropriately visited the great air museums at Paine Field.

Those sitting at any table without at least two women…only the new old rowdy table…paid $2.

Banners……….Mutt and Jeff, Big and Little, Tall and Short

Thanks Stan.

Program:

Julie introduced our speaker, Jim Johnson of the Bellingham Bay Rotary Club.

Jim spoke about the need for action to combat Slavery throughout the world, and

especially child slavery, and how his and our clubs have already started work to help eradicate this scourge.  Jim was introduced to the subject at a Rotary International conference in Birmingham, England in 2009, while talking with Rotarians in the Friendship Hall . He mentioned that there are 2 to 3 times the number of slaves today as in the 1800s.  50 to 60% of slaves are children.  There are 12 to 27 million slaves in the world.  Slavery is big business:  $32 billion a year in 161 countries.  Slave made goods are sold in the United States. California is making efforts to put  businesses on the line to assure that the products they sell are not part of slavery commerce. Slaves, among other misfortunes,  have no freedom, nutrition, hygiene, and education. Efforts to stop slavery include setting up schools and missions. Education is hugely important.  Most slaves are orphans.  Children are sold to pay parent’s debts.

Jim noted Abraham Lincoln’s quote, “If slavery is not wrong,  nothing is wrong.”

Jim also noted that slavery is like killing people, but leaving their hearts beating.

It seems some social and religious norms in some areas tend to encourage or extend the practices and circumstances that foster ongoing slavery. Education and opportunity are major tools of the  eradication of slavery efforts.

The hope is that Rotary International will take on the Eradication of Slavery in a manner similar to Rotary’s efforts to Eradicate Polio.

 You can cut and paste the following to your browser to learn more about Rotary’s fight against modern slavery.

http://www.roisight.org/cs/news/racsnews29.pdf

Drawing…no winner.