What's Better... a full house or a flush?

Well, my friends, a couple of things to note: 1. we had a nicely packed house today and 2. this is going to be brief because your reporter is tired and wants to go to bed.

 

 

 

 

 

It began with Clarence, the designated greeter, appointing Neil Orchard to take over greeter duties, but when it came time for the absent Steve Forseth to lead the Pledge, it was Clarence who finally had to take part in the meeting.  Following the Pledge, it fell to chorus master Gary Spainhower to get us going on God Bless America, a skill which Gary mastered years ago and today he did not disappoint.

 

 

 

Lunch today was a very appetizing hoagie and let me tell you, it was delicious.  Naturally, ever eager to get to the announcements President (never met one he didn't fall in love with) Sean showed us what appears on the next picture.

 

 

 Before he could complete the announcing/bloviating, PPP Paul mentioned that the entries are in for the Club Foundation Hometown Hero Grants and the Foundation Board (and you know who you are)  needs to vote on their favorite proposals.  Brud Dufficy then stood up and received the warm regard of a grateful Club President for all the great work he did on the B Street Theater project.  Brud took great pains to highlight the work that Pat Murphy did in bringing the effort to fruition.  The performances are taking place now and you should go see one.

 

Thankfully, that wrapped up the announcing and so it was on to the drawing.

 

 Replacing Pat Orelli as treasurer, Jerry Smuts asked Dave Maestas to draw the winning ticket and it was Neil Orchard who got and blew his chance at the newly re-funded pot, worth, by this author's estimate, to be about $3.75.  Hard cheese, Neil.  Hang in there.  Your ship will come in.  Tippecanoe and Tyler too.

 

Then it was up to Sergeant Clarence and his baglady, Pfc Tracy to collect donations from the congregation.  Before beginning the weekly pillage, the Sarge asked PP Chapman to come forward and receive the banners presented to the Club for it's fine performance last year in supporting  the Rotary Foundation Annual Giving program: the 100% Sustaining Paul Harris Fellow Club and the $100/100% average donation banners.  Kudos go to Pat Braziel and Clarence for shepherding this important RI project for our Club last year and to all of our members for stepping up to the plate.

 

 

 Starting off with happy fines, he did manage to stop off long enough to nail Ross Johnson, Tom Redmon and Mike Passof for pin infractions.  Suddenly everyone was 'happy' and Paul paid for his new puppy.  Neil paid for an upcoming trip to the very same Amsterdam that had entertained PPP Paul just a few weeks before.  There was a certain amount of hilarity over Neil's upcoming trip, funded on several occasions by Tom Redmon throwing in a comment or two.  Stay steady, Neil.  Ross paid for his looming trip to his 'other' Rotary Club, the Lahaina Sunrise Rotary in our 50th state.   There were a few more, but your poor reporter lost much of it in the general hubbub.

 

Well, just as everyone was wondering who our guest speaker was going to be, President Sean, reflecting on the recent loss of our speaker chair, Anthony Chacon, presented us with a TED talk about polio eradication efforts and it was terrific.  Well done with lots of figures and mentions of Rotary.

 

 

 No sooner did the film end than the meeting came crashing to a conclusion.  Good one and a good turnout.