Northwind, September 2, 2010

THIS WEEK'S THEME:  Lummi Island
 
 
MEETING TO ORDER:   President Marlene, a Lummi Island resident, called the meeting to order at 12:30 and Rick Staeb, a recent visitor to Lummi Island,  gave the invocation.
 
 
GUESTS:  Mark Sexton, from Lummi Island; Ray's daughter, Christie; and Kyler Randall, who had a binder to share with us what he will be reporting to various Rotary Club's and other organizations during his time in Spain as an Ambassadorial Scholar.
 
 
VISITING ROTARIANS:  George Tsakumis; Alan Stockbridge.
 
 
VISITING ROTARIANS WHO DID NOT SIGN IN: Bob Moles
 
 
RETURNING ROTARIANS: Pete Ruese, who has been gone for six weeks in his boat, and is only in town long enough for repairs; and Doug Thomas, who had been to Washington D.C., Philadelphia and NYC, among other places.  Sadly, with his schedule and commitments to his industry and family, Doug announced that he was resigning from the club.  Good luck, Doug, and we hope you come back when circumstances change.
 
 
BIRTHDAYS:  Nancy T. (9/1); Jerry L. (9/8)
 
 
ANNOUNCEMENTS:  Please provide Marlene with a list of all your rotary events so she can coordinate with Northwood Hall; October 3^rd is the Banos para Copan Brunch.  Past-Presidents are encouraged to bring a bottle of wine for an auction item; Stan made a binder of all the banners we have, and a world-wide map of where those banners originate.  [Now, if we can get the information on the club website, we will be able to travel the world searching for missing banners.  Reminds me of stamp collecting.  This new information source may be hard on the OCD among us.]; the seating shuffle put people in spaces they were not used to.  Since several people seemed to end up in the usual spot, there must have been some dispensation given to those who cannot accept change; Bill G. put the committee assignment sheets on the tables for review.  Once finalized - soon - the assignments will be carved in stone.  [Our excellent friend, Sharon R., was heard to complain when she saw her name associated with the Fundraising Committee.  She seemed to think that being on six committees, chairing two, serving on the board, and being club secretary was enough.  Go figure.]; Rick S. will send out the list via email; we received many thanks from the auction kids who benefited from the club's largesse and Ray's hard and unrelenting work.
 
 
HAPPY BUCKS:  Marlene - $5 "to L.V. Beach Store on Lummi Island." [I have no clue what my notes are supposed to mean]; Rick Staeb playing music on Lummi Island with a band (bank?); Ken R. - Rick's hidden bank(?), Joe Bates's unfortunate and untimely death by accident - Joe's memorial will be held at 2:00 P.M., September 9^th, at Cornwall Park.  Ken had nothing to say about the Lummi Island ferry; Doug - $25, $15 for his years in rotary and $10 for getting his daughter off to start school in Pullman; Bill G. -Doug leaving, family guests;
Jerry L. - $125.  Fifty for the anniversary of his marriage to Sharon, and seventy-five for his birthday; Brian F. - Doug leaving (not happy), the possibility of Cougar victories, and his upcoming use of the auction item he purchased.  Jake's Orcas cabin.  He plans a kegger to which he will invite the entire island (Orcas, not Lummi).  [Bad news Brian.  Jake's place is great, fun to stay at, but no one will be able to notice any ill effects from an unruly kegger]; Josh for Doug's help on the Metcalf Teen Center, and acquiring a full goat instead of a quarter goat [I don't know.  It seems to me that anybody trying to buy part of a goat is just asking for a negative outcome]; Dick D. $100 for Mel's match - 28 years if sobriety and 27 years of marriage to Fontene.  Also, for getting accredited for a fiduciary something.  I'm sure we should be impressed by this accomplishment, and I only wish I was able to write it down correctly. And for going to the Glenn Beck event in Wash. D.C. - five football fields of people; Dan P. - $10 for #10, and having a wife who lets him watch football instead of attending a family wedding; Max L. - having his wife shot at in Canada; Laurie - a microphone for Marlene? Sounds like an "in" joke; Julie J.: Doug, and dinner with the Staeb's.  I don't recall whether this occurred on Lummi Island; Jake - some quite large sum of money for Mel's match:  On the 24^th of August, Jake celebrated his 47^th anniversary with Gayle.  Gayle celebrated the anniversary on August 28^th. [Betting board is open for those who wish to lay odds on who was correct], but apparently Gayle's birthday was the 24^th.  Jake's entire fiasco was apparently saved by the birth of grandson Gustav on the 26^th; Rick's wife, Debbie's family homestead of 120 years (on Lummi Island?, and his participation in the Lummi Island Blues Festival ( with a rock band?) [Galen Luedtke is a well-known Bellingham rocker starting in the late 50's]; Rocky R., who has relatives on Lummi Island became an "Angel Fish" level swimmer (bu swimming across Hale's Passage?).
 
 
FINEMASTER:  Tyler "The Rookie" Cook, performed the duties.  He had very few individual fines, presumably because he didn't want to hurt anyone's feelings, but he had a lot of group fines and extracted approximately seven hundred and twenty-three dollars for the club:  Anyone not wearing a Haggen's logoed shirt; $1 for not driving a motorcycle or hybrid and $2 for driving a truck; not buying back to school stuff; taking all three days off for the Labor Day week-end and double for taking more than three days; never having been to the Lynden corn maze.  Individual fines did go to Lummi Island Marlene for the playing card seating arrangement; Bill G. for shopping at Albertson's [bad job Bill!]; Randy a $5 IOU for decimating the fish population in Canada; guest Bob Moles for not understanding how Rotary works; Ray as encouragement to use phonetics; Jake $5 for his dissertation, with $2 suspended for humor; Rick for captive island(?).  Must be something about Lummi
 
 
BANNERS:  Paul Harris's schoolhouse on a club banner - "school has started.".  Also, Japan surrendered aboard the USS Missouri on this date in 1945.  [But this was really not discernable from the single banner].
 
 
PROGRAM:  Dan Baker announced that we would have New Member Talks:
 
Jim Blaney:  Jim has been a Rotarian for 30 years, with perfect attendance.  Originally hailing from Ontario, he moved to Dearborn, Michigan with his family. In 1942 he enlisted in the Army Air Corps and became a B-17 pilot, flying 35 missions over Poland and Germany.  He was previously a member of the Altoona, Iowa Club.  He and his wife moved to this area due to his wife's health.  Jim hangars his Air Coupe in Lynden from which he flies tow or three times a week.  Jim is amazed by the sunsets.  He and his wife live in Fairhaven.  Jim had a career as an insurance agent.  He was born in 1922 and, I believe, was somewhat chagrined to learn that at 88, he is not the oldest member of the club.
 
Jim Sands:  Jim is a lifelong Bellinghamster, graduating from BHS with Julie and Ken.  He is a Vietnam veteran, and spent 25 years in the restaurant business [how we miss Boss Tweed].  Apparently, although restauranteuring is very enjoyable, the best part is selling out at the end.  Jim is now it the real estate business.  He gave the impression that he joined Rotary to avoid having to serve on the Realtors Board of Directors - pot to frying pan, Jim.  Really, Jim says he joined Rotary out of respect for Rotary's service to the community.
 
Jonathan Hutchings:  Jonathan (Jon; Jonny) has been in the community for three years, coming from central Nevada.  The county where he worked has 1700 residents, and the town has a population of 300.  This is the site of the biggest gold mine in the country.  He spent seven years there, fighting the Feds, working to balance the needs of farmers, ranchers and miners.  He and his family were planning to more to Alaska, when a job opportunity came up as Assistant Director of Public Works for Whatcom County in water resources.  Although he enjoys [public service, there are intractable problems which do not lead to normal feelings of accomplishment.  Jon and his wife have two girls and a boy, and live..on Lummi Island.  They owned the five acre parcel for several years (Jon grew up in the Seattle area), but it has now sprouted a house.
 
 
DRAWING:  Pete Ruese - not a winner.
 
 
"I need a photo-opportunity.." Paul Simon, "You Can Call Me Al," Graceland. 1986