Northwind October 1, 2015

Call to order:  President Sharon called the meeting to order and led us in the flag salute.

Invocation Rick Staeb provided the invocation and expressed sorrow for Mel's passing and gratitude for knowing him as a member of WCN RC.

Visiting Rotarians: none.

Guests of Rotarians: Cheryl Persse the CEO of Cascade DAFO attended as Julie's guest for a second time.  Mark Sexton,  guest of Marlene's is a regular and welcome visitor.

Returning Rotarians:  Rick Staeb is returning from  a trip to Idaho to visit his brother, ride horses, play golf and chop wood.."manly man activities".

Dan Parsons has been away for a couple of months and is happy to be back. He will be on the once a month cyle again with noon meetings, since he has court 3 of 4 weeks each month at this hour.  ( he likes the food!)

Laurie & Rick Lloyd traveled to Idaho for Rick's 50^th HS reunion..had a great time but did not like the drive home and seemed to be just ahead of the fires.

Birthdays:  Rick Staeb, yesterday.

Anniversaries:  Club anniversary-  Founded October 1973 - 42 years ago.

Announcements;  Fund raising committee continues to meet Monday mornings at 7:00 at Arlis's and has a number of new ideas for the 2016 Duck Derby.  To be continued.   

Foundation dinner: 11/5/15 at 5:30, Northwood Hall.  We need a head count and a strong response since we promised NWH 32 minimum. Let's exceed our promise.  We need nominations for Paul Harris awards. Anyone in the community that exemplifies  "Service above Self"  in their contribution to the community is a good candidate. We have 17 + awards to use for recognition.

Ken auctioned off Tim V's SeaHawk tickets, but I lost track of what happened with them. Last step was Dan looking for the value on the internet..I think Ken R may have had the winning bid at $275.

Happy  Bucks:   Bill Grace  was happy to have known Mel Hollinger and the nice service with his very large family yesterday, Brian Lott was sad about someone losing a rugby game (totally did not follow that one), Deb Wiggs  was happy to have known Mel and his friendship with her father as fellow PDG's and for the Bellingham Bay Marathon, where she "walked" the 10K with Julie  J and for the roll out if the new medical billing codes today (10/1) ICD10, where the specificity of ailments includes a killer whale attack of a surf board (supposing someone was on it).  Julie J was happy for her guest Cheryl Persse, remembering all the years we have known Mel and the BBM 10K,  Marlene had happy bucks for Mel, and Laurie  was happy for Mel as well.  Sharon paid happy bucks for what an inspiration Mel was as a Rotarian and for the memories of our trip to Honduras to visit the women who benefited from the Wilma Hollinger micro loans through our donations to the Adelante Foundation. Rick Staeb was happy to have known Mel and considered him the "ultimate" rotarian.  Stan was happy for Mel being his sponsor into the club back in 1973. Dan Parson then had a mini program on  "tackle football" and his son Zane (age 12) playing in the Bellingham Yard Dawgs..see videos on YouTube  set to music; Dan has a second career in the making.. I just watched the Oak Harbor game..pretty fun actually.  Dan is clearly passionate about the game and the fun the kids are having with this (not to mention the fun he is having).

Fine Master:  Greg Iwasaki debut as fine master; Dan, of course for his lenghthy  tackle football discussion (the best game on the planet), anyone not wearing their Rotary pin, Laurie for not being in the room when her speaker arrived, many questions from the Rotarian magazine, most of which we could not answer..but one to remember is October 23^rd is international Polio Plus Kickoff day and we are supposed to follow a live event on the internet that day.  The article on Mentors Matter in the current Rotarian is something we can all participate in (Jill volunteered to sign us all up for the HS mentoring program) but in addition we can sponsor an Interact club, a Rotaract club and we can sponsor new members into WCN RC and mentor them to become great Rotarians.  There is a direct correlation between successful people and having a mentor.

 Banners:    The banners today represented  some of the 92 banners that Mel Hollinger collected from all over the world. Stan tried to use banners representative of some of the far away places in the world that Mel visited and attended Rotary clubs.

Program:   Kirsten Brazier  Kirsten's mission is to introduce girls to the many career opportunities available to them in the aviation industry. She believes that girls need to see women doing these jobs so they can visualize them as potential careers. She has a personally inspiring story of starting her adult life as a high school drop out to becoming  a professional pilot of airplanes and helicopters…her flying experinces are a program in themselves but she was here to tell us about the annual The Sky's NO limit, Girls fly too event held in conjunction with the International Women's Day in March .  At the event girls see a variety of air industry jobs as well as getting to fly. Over 4,000 girls have experienced flying over the past three-four years and over 20,000 participants have attended these events. Her  goal is to improve the statistics; only 6% of pilots are women, only 3% of women in airline technical trades and only 1 female airline executive. Kirsten needs help with the March 2016 event and requests that we do what we can; needs include money, volunteers, speaking opportunities for her to get the word out, helicopters, and more that I did not catch.  The 2016 event will be in lower BC March 12-13. Kirsten's premise is that we must expose young girls to the idea of these jobs, let them see it, try it and begin to dream about what they could do. She is attempting to live the quote " Success is not just about what you accomplish in life, It is about what you inspire others to do".  Great program! Website is www.girlsfly2.ca

Drawing:  Rick Staeb won a tape measure? And  Greg Iwasaki did not pick the ace of spades; the pot is now at $2,509 or  1,254.50 for 50%.