A bell peal loud enough to clear the cobwebs from this reporter’s ear canals opened the meeting for President Nathan Twining. He then went right into greetings and announcements.
Guests:
Monty McAllister introduced our speakers Dr. ying Wu and Dr. Bill Lombard, a Nephrologist.
Sue Parsons introduced our incoming short term student Clara Di Pietro from Italy and the outgoing student, Grace Walls.
George Halsell introduced his wife Melanie
Steve Ban introduced former Rotarian, Yvonne Cartwright visiting from Maricopa, Arizona
Members on Zoom: Loch Trimingham
Club Events and Committee Announcements
IMPORTANT DATE CHANGE:
July 27th meeting is cancelled in lieu of a Summer Picnic Meeting July 25th at Dick Tucker's Chuckanut Rd. home.
Picnic at Dick Tucker’s
Saturday, July 25th
Chuckanut waterfront lot for a beach BBQ and picnic. We'll do some crabbing, burgers, hotdogs, kayaks, boats, etc.
Peace Arch Park, Surrey, B. C. Cost $52 CAD - must sign up CLICK ON THIS LINK
Board Briefs July 16, 2026
The June 30, 2026, Year Financials reports for RCOB were approved as submitted. Year-end club balance came in at $7,696.31, which is above the projected $250 shortfall, which was deemed a strong result.
Sandee presented the 2026-2027 RCOB Foundation Budget. The board approved the foundation budget, increasing the service fund grant line item from $4,000 to $6,000. The budget will be sent to the RCOB Fdn. for approval. A portion of the budget includes the International Service Budget as follows:
Total international service budget set at $11,780, broke down as:
IPA membership: $2,500
IPA Adopt-a-Village: $3,280
Miscellaneous (food packing/ARES): $2,000
Food packing: $4,000
Membership Survey: Nathan is preparing a comprehensive club survey to gather member input before finalizing strategic direction.
Demographics questions: Age, employment status (working/retired/part-time).
Meeting content review: Every element of a typical meeting will be assessed — keep as-is, change, or eliminate.
Open comment fields: Each question will have an "other/comments" box; general comment section at end.
Topics to be included:
Check-writing vs. active fundraising preference
International service project awareness and participation interest (IPA, food packing, ARES)
Committee interest/willingness to join
Major project focus preferences (requested by Monty and Doug Cole)
Meeting elements members value or want added
Process: Survey will be sent to board first for review; target distribution to full membership within ~one week after board feedback.
Goal: Generate data to facilitate structured internal discussions at future meetings
Committee & Governance Restructuring
Nathan plans to meet with all committee chairs to establish accountability and focus
Next Board Meeting August 20, 2026 at 4:30 on zoom.
Da Prez presented the Will J. Griswold Club Service Award to the one and only David Blair. Nathan ran down a list of David’s accomplishments before giving us the name. The well-written prose is too good to try to summarize. So just imagine the sterling award speech that Nathan gave. But I believe that once he started talking about the winery, there was no doubt in members’ minds who the award was going to. Dave has been a stalwart of the club for nearly 47 years and is the current secretary for the RCOB Foundation. He tries to make things better. Mr. Blair is someone we all look up to.
Book Review
Next up was Rob Olsen who had selected a political book Reagan Land to talk about. This book is about the historical review about Ronald Reagan’s rise from Governor of California to the presidency. President Carter lost to Reagan in 1980, becoming one of a few incumbents to lose the presidential election. Rob listed some of the reasons this occurred.
Reagan stepped in hawking a vision of a shining city on a hill. He swung to the more religious conservative right, using voodoo economics and his acting skills to charm the populace into voting for him. Cutting taxes and increasing deference spending accomplished what a reasonable person would expect, rising prices and a ballooning budget deficit. Sloganeering and simple answers to complex problems made the campaign irresistible to many.
Ronald W. Reagan won the election and was re-elected in 1984. In fact, the Republican party held the presidency for twelve years, (1980 – 1992). Rob is a big fan of Perlstein’s book. In fact, he recommended reading all four of the books that discuss American politics from Eisenhower to George H.W. Bush.
The short-term exchange students, Clara DiPietro from Italy and Grace Walls (from not Italy) shared a bit of their experience thus far. Clara will be in country for a couple of more weeks, and then she and Grace will journey to Italy where they will stay with Clara’s parents. This short-term exchange program is new to this reporter but seems to be a great way to help open students’ eyes and minds.
Weekly Payment Reminder
VENMO:
@RCOB- Bellingham.
Give Sandee a call if you need help. 360-734-5532.
CASH / CHECK:
Yes, we still take these and saving on fees is appreciated.
Dr. Bill Lombard started off the discussion, and he needed to be encouraged to step up to the mike so we could hear what he had to say. He discussed the history of kidney disease and the use of dialysis to deal with it. The machine is not the real answer. The real solution is kidney transplantation. The operation, while expensive, the cost is ameliorated within less than ten years. Last year there were 27,573 transplants, over six thousand were living donor transplants. They have the highest rate of success. A simple bar chart showed the remarkable lifespan results. Ten years after a transplant 75% of living donor recipients are still alive.
Increasing the number of living donors can make a huge difference. Donors tend to have a psychic boost from their generosity. We have been endowed with two kidneys, an extra one if you will, maybe for a reason. It seems that some evidence suggests that kidney donors can have a longer life expectancy than non-donors. Don’t know why. Donors undergo thorough screening process, so they might be more fit than the general population.
There are some restrictions to being a donor. Age is one of them. Heart problems are another restriction.
Dr. Wu then talked about being an actual donor. After retirement, Dr. Wu decided to become a donor. He was brought to the idea by his daughter. An application form is readily available from UW Hospital, Virginia Mason, and Swedish all in Seattle. If accepted, you are evaluated in Seattle, and should you come through unscathed, you can schedule the donation operation. In Dr. Wu’s case, his best recipient match was in Florida. So, he scheduled to donate in the evening. The kidney took the red-eye flight to Florida and was placed in the recipient that morning.
It is a big surgery, but nothing like the major operations performed say twenty years ago. It is now laparoscopic surgery and the biggest incision is to take the kidney out, (maybe 2-4 inches). Not quite an outpatient operation, but close. And using the kidney registry placement is much more efficient.
Important Things to Know: You don’t have to be a match. The operation can be scheduled to make it more convenient to you. We should all be talking about this. People need to know it is a possibility. He noted that Whatcom County may have 60,000-80,000 potential donors, and the need is about 20 per year. There was no time for questions, so the docs stayed later and fielded the questions after.
Closing:
The ear-clearing bell peal echoed in my ears as we adjourned.
RCOB apparel, including polo shirts, dress shirts, vests and hats is now available. These are items that every Club member simply must have in his/her wardrobe! Besides looking great, Club members will be contributing to branding for the RCOB as well as supporting our Club's Foundation, which will receive part of the proceeds.
Click on the button below for the the clothing catalogue, with the Order Form on the last page. Fill out the order form, turn it into Vinson Latimore at a meeting or email a scanned copy to embroidery@choicesscrubs.com.
