Northwind 2/8/07
Whatcom County North Rotary
Northwind
February 8, 2007
MEETING TO ORDER: President Ken called the meeting to order at 12:35 and led us in the Pledge of Allegiance. Winton Smith gave the invocation.
VISITING ROTARIANS: Visiting Rotarians are Stephanie Sadler from the Bellingham Club and George Tsakumis from the Vancouver Club.
GUESTS: Gary Cordrey introduced his guest Al Hopper and Rose Abbaspour introduced her sister Vivian Simonis.
RETURNING ROTARIANS: Jerry Landcastle is returning from a trip to El Salvador.
BIRTHDAYS: None
ANNOUNCMENTS:
1) President Ken placed a Flyer on each table announcing the Ferndale Boys & Girls Club Grand Re-Opening Celebration. The celebration will be held on Tuesday February 13th from 3 to 7 p.m. at their new temporary location, the Whatcom New Life Assembly (East Entrance) on 2290 Main Street in Ferndale.All are invited to attend.
2) The Dick Metcalf Memorial Project Committee met yesterday to kick-off the campaign for 2007. More information will be forthcoming in the next few days. Stay tuned.
3) President Ken announced there is a Flyer on the back table dealing with changes in the current tax code as it relates to deducting or not deducting some club expenditures like Happy Bucks.
4) President Ken announced that required attendance for our rotary club is 60% of all scheduled meetings per calendar quarter and half of all meetings need to be attended at our club, not make-ups.
5) Dick Donahue announced that Mel Hollinger had another heart attack, but he is doing well so we need to keep him in our prayers. He also took this opportunity to welcome back John Aubert.
HAPPY BUCKS: Larry Pollett had a couple of happy bucks because he and Jake Smith went skiing in Montana where it was 11 degrees and there were no accidents and gas was $1.99/gallon. Elizabeth Barnard had two happy bucks for recently attending a Gem Show in Arizona. Dick Donahue had a happy buck to echo Larry Pollett's statement that gas is cheaper elsewhere. Brian Finnegan had a couple of happy bucks for skiing by himself in Whistler, where he also discovered he's too old for the nightlife. Rich Jacobson had a happy buck for spending the weekend playing golf in Phoenix. Max Legg had a couple of happy bucks for Mr. Baker's new grandson and a "what's up" with the wacko astronaut. Bill Grace had a happy buck for a neighbor girl who discovered a tree limb hanging from a tree in the neighborhood. She told Bill about said limb and he promptly called someone at 7:30 in the morning and they came out immediately and disposed of the problem limb. Dr. Lehnert had two very happy bucks for a "scary" reported shooting at VistaMiddle School. The police responded in three and a half minutes and did an excellent job because they caught the Perp who made the phone call sitting outside the school. He turned out to be a Blaine graduate. His advice is to lock all doors and do not pet the police dog. George Tsakumis had a happy buck because he is a personal friend of a VIP in El Salvador and if he'd known Jerry Landcastle was going he could have introduced them.
FINEMASTER: Today's Finemaster was Scott Wallace. He fined Roger Lehnert $2 because the school busses in his district actually do use Bio Diesel. Scott then departed from our standard Rotary meeting format to ask everyone what the Banner's represent. Everyone was fined a buck for not knowing they represent Hawaii in the winter. Gary Tomsic was fined $2 for making a wrong guess. Everyone wearing a tie was fined a buck. Jim Bliss was fined $3 because he couldn't come up with a credible answer why he is not on the Board of Adjustments. Randy Carr was fined the maximum $5 for missing today's meeting. Leah Macaleer was assessed her first official fine of $1 as the newest member of our club. Ferndale and Lynden residents were fined a dollar because of the water issue and it didn't matter which side of the issue you were on. Ken Richardson was fined a buck for the Maureen/Marlene, Marlene/Maureen confusion. Jerry Landcastle was fined a buck for the Highland Games moving. All Super Bowl viewers were fined two sad bucks for the commercials. Anyone who was flying Western Airlines and didn't get stranded should pay a happy buck. Everyone should pay a dollar because the Cougars are ranked 14th in the Nation. Rick Staeb was fined a buck for something about a new Advertising Director. Everyone should pay a buck for Intalco starting up the second Pipeline. Bill Grace was fined a dollar for owning up to his mistakes (calling Leah's husband Bert instead of Bret) and finally Brian Finnegan was fined whatever it takes to get him up to the $5 limit.
BANNERS: See above.
PROGRAM: Today's speaker was introduced by Jake Smith. Vince McLeod is the Director of Sales for Aluminum Chambered Boats. Vince is also a retired Marine Corp Officer who started by sharing some of the many experiences he's had while in the military. He has had a distinguished career receiving the highest peacetime medal when he helped save three lives in Camp Pendleton, California after eleven straight days of rain caused severe flooding. Vince also put in a plug for Toys for Tots, where he is co-head with Art Anderson. He's also done rescue work in areas hit by hurricane Katrina and he served in Somalia in 1993, which was during the same time period reflected in the famous movie Blackhawk Down. He finished his presentation with a short video on Aluminum Chambered Boats. If anyone would like a tour of their manufacturing facility in Fairhaven just let him know.
DRAWING: Brian Finnegan had the winning ticket but he did not draw the Ace of Spades, so the pot grows.
Editor this week: David Engels