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| APril 29, 2009 |
Editor: Dave Sclair
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THE GRAND OPENING
With the countdown underway, President Joel
Feldman called the meeting to order at 12:33 pm Friday, May 29 noting that
Lakewood Rotary Club has been serving the community for 53 years and
two months.
INVOCATION
Bob Peterson followed the opening remarks from Joel by providing the invocation for the day.
FLAG SALUTE
Ron Adkins ably led us in the salute to our country's flag.
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MEETING ASSISTANTS
Bill Price
handled the Sgt-At-Arms duties, Jim Ray manned the Paul Harris desk and Dave Sclair, bulletin writer.
VISITING ROTARIANS & GUESTS OF ROTARIANS
For the first time in anyone's memory (even that of the ancient warriors at table 1) there were neither visiting Rotarians or guests of Rotarians present at the meeting, which resulted in president-elect (only four more meetings before he stands behind the podium on a fulltime basis instead of illegally grabbing the mike at every opportunity now) Greg Horn jumping to his feet and called for Stephanie Walsh to provide information about the on-going membership campaign.
The surprised Stephanie turned and pointed to her mouth, indicating she had a mouthful of food, whereupon Greg said he would speak until she had cleared the food.
The President-Elect immediately went into an eloquent dissertation of the membership efforts of Stephanie and her committee, urging members to bring a guest to a meeting and from those who bring guests each month one person would receive a certificate for food at some famous eating place (like McDonalds or Stanley & Seafort, etc)
Running out of words
after 5 or 10 minutes
, Greg noticed that Stephanie had stopped chewing and he called upon her to further explain the program. She said simply: "Thanks Greg."
SUNSHINE REPORT
Jan Luze reported that Ferrell (Pappy) Gines wife Jeanette has been hospitalized as has Spirro Damis' wife. Very few additional details were available although Mo Sarram said he understood Zosia would be home in the next couple days. Both Pappy and Spirro were longtime members of the club.
ANNOUNCEMENT
Joe Ghilarducci pointed out that our installation banquet (that's when Joel gets a plaque for his office and Horn gets the gavel) will be unique this year. He explained that the uniqueness is because of the date - Tuesday, June 30, instead of a weekend evening.
Ghilarducci also revealed that District Governor Elect Alex Alexander will be attending and taking part in the program and President-Elect Horn (once again illegally grabbing the floor to speak) announced that District Governor Nominee (that means the year after Alexander) Bob Martin would also attend although it was later disclosed that Horn was misinformed about Martin and he wouldn't join us.
Oh well, some wag pointed out the club already had a couple of its own Past District Governors and that seemed like more than enough royalty for one evening.
Back to Ghilarducci who reminded everyone that the event is slated for the Tacoma Country & Golf Club and he needs reservations immediately and the invites and requests for the reservations will be in the mail this week.
NEW MEMBER POSTING
Unless written objection is received by the Secretary within 10 days, the following will be considered elected into membership of Lakewood Rotary: Kismet Kechejian - Ministry"
ANNOUNCEMENTS
FUTURE VISION
President Elect-Horn (there he goes again to the podium although this time he was invited by president Joel) announced that District 5020 (that's the district our club is in) has been selected one of only 100 districts in the world to participate in Rotary's Future Vision.
He explained this is a program which will result in dramatic changes for Rotary International and clubs in the 100 chosen districts will be operating under new rules and planned changes to see how they work and pave the way for all districts to adopt the new program three years down the road.
Participating in Future Vision is a big deal for the district since only 19 of the 100 districts to participate chosen are from the United States. You'll be hearing a lot more about this in the coming months and years..
POSSIBLE FUNDRAISER
Ron Adkins said he recently ran into PDG Ken Bose and his wife, Sally, and they told him about a special event at a Rainier's Baseball Game that would result in fundraising for cancer. He said the event would include the game and an auction and Adkins encouraged members to participate to see if it was something we could adopt for another club fundraiser. (The game was last weekend so don't plan on attending.)
AMBASSADORIAL SCHOLARS
Ron Adkins stayed at the mike to explain that ambassadorial scholars will be attending a training session next weekend at University of Puget Sound. There will be a dinner on Friday evening to which Rotarians are welcome to attend to meet and hear the scholars as well as the keynote speaker, Jean Irwin.
Much to Dave Sclair's surprise, Adkins revealed that Dave is in charge of transportation for the scholars. "Dave, will you need any help?" he asked. Since it caught Dave unaware of his duties, he quickly recovered and asked for a show of hands of those willing to lend assistance by picking someone up at the airport on Friday. The show of hands was completely underwhelming so if you can handle a trip to Sea-Tac please give Dave a call (691-8103) or send him an email (dave@generalaviationnews.com). He can explain all the details and requirements as soon as he gets them all from Ron.
BIRTHDAYS
Since President Joel said there was plenty of time left because the program had cancelled, he tried to raise some funds by calling for birthdays and other announcements.
Bob Lordahl owned up to celebrating his 74th birthday in May and came up with a Greenleaf.
Norm Tremaine decided he had also been born in May as did Mo Sarram. Each contributed $20.
Since that seemed to be the end of the May birthdays, Jim Early rose and handed over $50 for his June birthday.
Jason Whalen said he celebrates a birthday and anniversary in June and thought that was worth $100.
Astrid Arola revealed that her son graduated PLU and was commissioned into the Army last weekend. She was $100 proud.
PROGRAM OF THE DAY
President Joel explained that Larry Faulk learned very late that the scheduled speaker (manager of the Murano Hotel - formerly known as the Sheraton) wouldn't be able to attend our meeting. He then read aloud an editorial he had read that morning. Unfortunately, I failed to learn from where he got the editorial and I also missed the point he was trying to make.
Slightly more than halfway through the lengthy reading, Joel paused and asked if everyone could hear him, whereupon Wynn Hoffman spoke up and said "No, can you start over?" (Fortunately Joel went on from that point without further rehashing.)
Anyway, without a speaker Larry took to the mike to seek input on programs members wanted and what they didn't like. Lots of good ideas came forth and here's a recap of the discussion:
Joe Ghilarducci: We have had too many non-profit organization speakers blatantly hitting us up for funds for their organization instead of simply giving us a program about their group. He also called for more member presentations.
Mary Lou Sclair gave Larry her idea earlier and Larry explained her idea thusly - have new members interview some of our senior members and give a classification talk about the older member. This allows the newer member to gain some knowledge about our senior members and allows everyone to learn about that person's past history.
Norm Tremaine: Someone suggested we could to do a program on MIA and POWs, perhaps getting some who experienced these situations to speak. Norm rose to ask if a POW was the same as being married.
Dave Betz: Speakers on the country's financial situation and world economics would be very interesting.
Mo Sarram: A representative from the state's transportation department would be good since what they do almost makes them in charge of our lives.
Jan Luze: She noted that programs describing our area would be good. She cited a recent TV program that went into the Sound to study the octopus that she found fascinating.
Gordon Quick: We need a panel of members to explain to the rest of us how to make $1 million. (Someone suggested the best way to achieve that goal was to start with $2 million.)
Donna Phillips: There are lots of area residents who have been back and forth to Iraq and Afghanistan and their observations would be interesting.
Ron Adkins: Seattle 4 has complete a video on their 100 years and Tacoma 8 is developing one now for their 100th anniversary and those shows would be interesting.
Bob Peterson: We need to have a roster of who in the club is willing to speak and their proposed subject as well as a list of non members they think would be good speakers.
Greg Horn: We should have a few members standing by to fill in when a speaker backs out at the last minute. He noted that Jim Rooks filled in at Clover Park Rotary one day and his talk was very interesting.
Dave Coleman: Non-profits are important in the community and they don't always come holding out their hand for money so we shouldn't discount inviting them to speak.
Ben Sclair: Scheduling quarterly assemblies will help get more participation in programs and club activities.
Judy Hosea: The long-range strategic plan that was completed this year and is now in the hands of the Board of Directors called for more of our members as speakers.
With that, the time ran out and Joel called the meeting to a close although someone (several as a matter of fact) called for the drawing. It was held and since this reporter heard no shouting it can be safely assumed that the winner got nothing more than a $5 bill.
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