Northwind March 26, 2009

Posted by Max Legg 
 

Whatcom County North Rotary

Northwind

March 26, 2009

 

Meeting to Order:         Chuck Tull called the meeting to order at 12:30 and led us in the Pledge of Allegiance.  Mel Hollinger gave the invocation.

  Visiting Rotarians :       George Tsakumis - Vancouver; Bob Moles - Bellingham Bay; Jeanne McGee - Melaque, Mexico.                                                

Welcome everyone!

  Birthdays:  Happy Birthday to Julie Johansen (March 31) and Winton Smith (April 1).

  Announcements:  There will be no meeting at noon or board meeting next Thursday, April 2nd. This is the day for the Career Fair, and everyone is encouraged to attend the Career Fair and help out if possible.

  Regarding the Career Fair, it starts at 8 a.m. on Thursday, April 2nd at the Whatcom Community College in the Pavilion (PAV Building) in Room #102. There will be a workshop for sorting out student requests in the Laidlaw Center (LDC Building) Room #203 at 6:00 p.m., Monday evening March 30th. The keynote speaker is an astronaut who is currently a WWU professor. There are 42 presenters. Lex needs help cleaning up when the event is over with at about noon.

Haggens will be provided sack lunches for the students and those helping out. Thank you Haggens very much. Thank you, Pete Ruese, for all of your hard work. This is a big job and you deserve a great deal of credit.

 

The auction will be May 8th. It is entitled "Ocho de Mio." Please wear floral shirts and get in the mood. The deadline for getting your auction items to Brian Finnegan is 5 p.m. on April 24th. Sharon can still use help with data entry.

 

Jerry Landcastle mentioned that folks can possibly get a glimpse of the Space Shuttle flying overhead at 6:39 p.m. this evening, March 26th at 40° above the northwest.

 

Happy Bucks:  Chuck Tull had a tooth pulled last Thursday and didn't remember anything or feel any pain. He is still happy. George Tsakumis was happy to see Mel, and happy that MEL is doing so well. Bill Grace was happy about his lilacs starting to pop out and the fact that Chris and he planted some tubers. Rome Sarwas was ecstatic that Congress has cleared its agenda of important items enough to appoint a committee to look at the university college bowl system. Pete Ruese gave $10 for his wife, Lynn, who is making 300 cookies for the upcoming Career Fair. Thank you, Lynn. Pete still owes you. Tim Carpenter was happy for his first bike ride since last October. He was also able to play a round of golf. Tony Cubellis was $14 happy for his trip to Mazatlan. We are glad he made it back in one piece. Winton Smith was glad about his birthday, but had to renew his driver's license. It took him an hour and twenty minutes to get this done. Lex Ludtke was happy that his daughter, Alexika, was coming home from 13 days in Guatemala, and that she will be graduating from Wazzu on May 9th. Alexika apparently provided translation services for a dozen physicians. Way to go Alexika.

  Finemaster:  Jack Curnow was today's finemaster,and he was in good finemaster spirits. Scott Wallace was not in attendance. So Jack didn't initially invoke the $5 Wallace limit until the first fine, which was for yours truly who was fined for assigning Jack to finemaster duty during tax season. Randy Carr was doubly fined for something about his friend, and for missing being finemaster last week. Jack fined anybody on crutches, i.e. Greg Thulin. (Jack really is a sensitive guy outside of tax season.) Although Jack rarely fines guests, he fined George Tsakumis for not being in his usual seat. He fined Dick Nolan for sitting in George's seat. Julie and Bob were sitting at the same table, and Jack fined Julie for this. Jack said he missed Jim McKellar and welcomed him back with a $2 fine. Pete was fined $2 for making his wife bake so many cookies. But Pete said she volunteered. The fine still stuck. Winton Smith was fined for classifying a teeny bit of salt that Jack used as "a white substance" that is not good for you. All those who knew what a "tuber" was paid $2 thanks to Bill Grace. Tim Carpenter was fined again for trying to eat and talk at the same time. Mel Hollinger got whacked for $2 for hinting that he was going to be silent for 5 minutes. Jack wasn't buying any of this from Mel.

 

Banners:  No banners today. We missed you Stan.

 

Program:  The program today was about Engineers Without Borders (EWB). Gary Fortenberry and Derek Napoy gave a very nice presentation. Gary works for CH2M Hill in Bellingham and Derek is a professor at WWU. The vision of EWB is a world where all people have access to clean water, sanitation, energy and community structures. Clean water and sanitation are huge problems in many third world countries. EWB is trying to be a part of the solution to help improve the circumstances in areas of need. EWB was founded in 2002 and now has 12,000 members, 295 chapters and 345 projects. The projects are in foreign countries, and are generally small in size with total costs ranging from $10,000 to $50,000. Gary heads up the local professional chapter and Derek is the guiding force with the student chapter at WWU. Rotary and EWB have many of the same goals with regards to clean water projects. The WWU student chapter is about 2 years old and has a core student group of about 15 members. The thrust of the program is to develop internationally responsible students in the area of service, and to in fact provide the service to foreign locations. The idea of service is very important. The students take a project from the planning stage through to execution and completion. Not everyone in EWB is an engineer since it takes other disciplines to bring these projects together. Project examples underway in Chisec, Guatemala, Mae Ka Chan, Thailand and Axim Ghana were presented. The Chisec project is to plan, design and build a new "lavanderia" (clothes washing station) with the assistance of the local populace. The Mae Ka Chan project is to build buildings at 8 orphanages which are home to about 500 children. If you'd like to know more, please visit www.ewb-usa.org Thanks to Gary and Derek for a being with us.

 

Drawing:         Julie drew the 4 of Hearts so the pot grows.

Adjourned :  1:30 pm