The meeting was brought to order by President Paul Gray. A recording of the Star-Spangled Banner by the Rotary Brass opened the meeting. Sara Maloney provided the invocation.
President Paul reviewed the reasons for being a Rotarian: fellowship, learning and growing, giving back to the community, and having fun. Of these, the underlying purpose of Rotary is to give back. Paul mentioned one of his goals this year was process improvement, and in that context reviewed the results of the food survey. He noted that fruits have been added and stressed the importance of keeping the lid on the hot trays. Did someone say quick response time?
Club and Committee Announcements:
Announcements:
Menu for September, 2022
9/12 - Beef Taco Meal & Shredded Tex Mex Chicken, Tortillas, Spanish Rice, ajita Style Veggies, Fruit Salad and Garden Salad, Cookies, Coffee, Iced Tea & Water
Mike Plenkovich reported on the Golfun tournament this past weekend at the Hovander golf course. The RCOB foursome did not win but did well. He said the experience was worthwhile just to see what Nathan Twining could do with a golf ball. The team consisted of Nathan, Mike Plenkovich, Del VandeKerk and John Moffat.
Football Pool
Mike Plenkovich, announcing for another committee, said that the football pool would resume on the 12th.
Writing Project
John Dunne said there has been an exciting expansion of the homelessness writing contest. The Salish Current wants to cosponsor the writing contest with us and is open for submissions from the general public. This requires an extension of the deadline for submission to September 19.Jack Westford is coordinating the submissions of RCOB members. To incentivize RCOB members Jack has devised some prizes and recognition for the winning entry. Jodi Borelli, John Dunne and Catherine Riordan will judge the submissions and forward three finalists to the editors of the Current for them to pick the winner. Here are the revised instructions:
INSTRUCTIONS
RCOB Writing Contest
The writing must involve homeless/homelessness as the subject.
The writing can focus on your concerns about homelessness, your impressions of the homeless, an encounter with a homeless person that was particularly touching or disturbing, your thoughts about how to reduce the likelihood that someone would become homeless or what is needed to help people escape from homelessness.
The form of the writing can take on any form: poetry, an essay, a letter to a fictional homeless person, an epitaph or a fictional letter to an editor, mayor or city council, etc.
Submissions should be no more than 2 typed pages in length; brevity is appreciated but not required.
The submissions must be received by email to John Dunne, jedunne@uw.edu, no later than Monday, September 19.
Submissions will be judged by a three-member panel on the basis of thoughtfulness, clarity and originality. Three finalists would be forwarded to the editor of the Salish Current to make the final selection.
The winner’s name will be announced at a Rotary meeting, the winning submission published in the Salish Current and the Rotary Tattler. The winner will also be introduced at a Rotary Club of Bellingham meeting.
Major Project Committee
Andy Day reviewed the new process for the Major Project Committee, a proactive approach based on the survey of our main concerns: affordable housing, child care and homelessness. The committee has identified nine organizations working in these areas and has invited them to submit grant requests. The response from the organizations has been enthusiastic. That Andy said ‘you’re already on the shortlist’ may have encouraged these organizations that write so many grants to sustain their service to our community. He also noted that Sara Maloney has stepped down as co-chair as she is affiliated with an organization that will be applying for the grant.
Book Group
Andy also let us know that the book group will not meet until the fall. It seems there were some time conflicts in these dog days of summer. What could those possibly be?
Program Committee
Steve Ban put out a request from the Program Committee for RCOB members to volunteer to give presentations about their careers. These presentations are of great interest to some members, particularly the newer members, as noted by Scott Wilson.
Minister of Fun
Minister of Fun was Jodi Borelli who presented multiple-choice episodes of “Friends”. Unfortunately, the screen sharing did not work, making the task difficult. On the bright side, it raised more money for the club. Go Jodi!
Happy Bucks
Monty McAllister, Felicity Dye and Steve Ban have all had wedding anniversaries recently. Mike Plenkovich was happy to have had the opportunity to watch Nathan Twinning play golf. John Dunne was happy after returning from a trip to Fairbanks to visit his daughter and son-in-law. Paula McCandlis was happy to have presided over four recent weddings, including that of Lisa Saar. Mike Diehl was happy to have his daughter enrolled in the University of Maryland to start her second year in college.
WE HAVE MOVED TO OUR MEETING LOCATION TO WHATCOM COMMUNITY COLLEGE, PAVILION #201 EFFECTIVE AUGUST 1, 2022. HERE ARE THE NEW DIRECTIONS (ONES HANDED OUT LAST WEEK HAVE BEEN REPLACED) PRINTABLE DOCUMENT CLICK HERE
The buildings address is 241 W Kellogg Rd. But this is not where you park. There is no parking off of Kellogg Road. You must enter parking off either Eliza Ave or Cordata Parkway. You are looking for the YELLOW lot (look on light poles for Y2 or Y3).
Enter from Eliza Ave: the driveway between Kellogg Rd and Westerly Rd has a driveway into the campus, follow that about 200 yards until it slopes down, park in the area between the three buildings.
Enter from Cordata Parkway: Just north of the WTA station and Cruisin Coffee before the round about is Orca Lane, take Orca Lane around the first two buildings until you find a large parking lot between three buildings.
You will still receive an email from Sandee each week prior to the Monday 12:30 meeting if you are unable to attend in person (you can start logging in at 12:00 for short socializing) with the link for that privacy-protected meeting. If you have n done so, please download the Zoom app on your computer (you need a camera and microphone on it), iPad or phone. There is no cost to you. If you cannot do either, you can also call in. On the invitation, there are US phone numbers you can call and enter the meeting ID number also indicated on the invitation.
Lunch will be $22 for a buffet meal. We must notify them by Monday at NOON the week prior to the Monday meeting as to the number of members attending. We are sending out meeting "Invites" weekly and members are asked to sign-up ASAP. You can also sign-up by going to the event section of our website at bellinghamrotary.org. If you sign up for a meal at the meeting, you will need to pay the $22 even if you don't wind up attending the meeting after the numbers are turned in. If you plan to attend but not eat, PLEASE indicate that on your sign-up so we don't overorder meals and still make sure there is enough seating.
Four Points also will not collect the payment weekly, so the Club will collect payments prior to the meeting or at the door.
We urge members of the RCOB to set up a Venmo account for ease in payment of Meeting lunches, Happy Bucks, Minister of Fun, Dues or donations to the club. Our account is @RCOB- Bellingham. If you do not have a Venmo account you can set up an account with your computer then download the app. on your phone (just Google "Venmo" and you will find all the information you need) You then attach it to a debit or credit card (a fee on your end) or attach to your checking account at no cost. Payment will be sent di ctly to the RCOB checking account. When you use it for the first time it may ask you the last 4 digits of the RCOB phone number which is 0282. Give Sandee a call if you need help. 360-734-5532
Other payment options are to bring a check in the correct amount to the meeting made out to RCOB or cash in the exact amount to speed up the payment process. There is also the PayPal option as usual and we are set to take payments at the meeting. We have a QR Code that you scan and simply click to pay thru paypal also.
Website and Phone App instructions:
Here is a tutorial on how to login for the first time. (Click here) Go to belling mrotary.org first. In order to login you need t know your user name and password in your Clubrunner account. The user name is Your first name.Lastname.264 unless you have changed it. Example: Sandra.Lindhout.264 the password is initially set by Clubrunner at 264 unless you have changed it. Sandee can see your Username from her computer but not the password. She can also change your password for you from her computer at your request if you run into problems.
Once you have originally created your User Name and Password you can download the ClubRunner Mobile app on your phone:
Please contact Sandee at 360-734-5532 or rcob@comcast.net if you run into any trouble.
Guests
Dale Rings and Chuck Snyder from Arizona
Zoom Guest of Speaker, David Lukov, Emily Hockey a Mt. Vernon Rotary Club member, Crystal King with NW Technology in Ferndale, Nicole Heller and Tony Salas with Eden Health.
Members attending on Zoom: Mike Mallory, Steve Hager, Jodi Borrelli, Bob Morse, Rick Kaiser, Roland Trenouth, Jack Mulhern and Dick Tucker
Program:
Steve Ban introduced our speaker, David Lukov, who is the funeral director at Kern Funeral Home in Mt. Vernon. He is on the Rotary District Board and will become its president in 2023. He brought five guests with him! Impressive. After recognizing Jack Westford and his work in Bellingham, Lukov, gave an energetic talk about the lighter side of cemeteries as inscribed in tombstones. One of the fun facts he shared was that for today’s deceased, 75% of their families want them to be cremated, the highest rate in the U.S.
which has photos of very clever tombstones, and some callouts to some local history and Bayview cemetery. Among them were the 1895 mine explosion and the many folks buried in Bayview as a result, and the local and famous author Ella Higginson (1962-1940) who wrote mostly articles and poems about women’s experiences in the PNW in the late 19th century who lived in Bellingham at the end of her life and is buried in Bayview.
Raffle
The raffle winner was Tom Grinstad.
Closing
President Paul closed the meeting at 1:30 with a reminder that there will be no meeting next Monday, Labor Day.
