President Peter Theisen rang the bell and called to order the Rotary Club of Bellingham. Rick Kaiser presented the Rotary Brass rendition of God Bless America. Doug Cole presented the invocation, which was focused again this week on peace.
Book Review: Oops, accidentally got skipped! Sorry Rob...
Support Rotary in Ukraine
Message from our District Governor for District 5050, Bev Harrington:
My Fellow Rotarians:
As the humanitarian crisis unfolds in Ukraine, we ask "what can we do from so far away?" Here is the most comprehensive information I have received to date.
Financial contributions are easily made online to The Rotary Foundation Disaster Response Fund. A link to view the projects that are already in place is also provided below.
You and I and Rotarians from around the world can make a difference.
All donations made online at Disaster Response Fund | My Rotary, including the use of available district designated funds (DDF), need to be received by April 30, 2022. Grant applications to take advantage of the funds will be available now through June 30, 2022. This will be the main avenue for Rotary Foundation support, but Rotary and Rotaract clubs are also encouraged to create their own responses to the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine.
In addition to the support provided through the Disaster Response Fund, the Foundation is coordinating with partners and regional leaders, exploring effective solutions to the increased humanitarian needs. You will find a comprehensive list of projects at this link, with the contact details and websites.
Thank you for all that you do to promote peace
Club and Committee Announcements
Board Briefs
March 17, 2022
Doug Cole presided in the absence of President Peter and President-Elect Paul Grey.
A resignation was accepted from Garrett Jeffery with regret due to work overload. He will definitely be encouraged to return when things calm down.
COVID-related Procedures
A discussion of removing the vaccine card mandate led to the Board’s unanimous decision to lift the vaccine mandate and encourage masking. The following statement has gone out to the membership:
Although RCOB’s Board of Directors continues to strongly recommend that Club members be fully vaccinated against COVID, the current significant decrease in our community’s infection rate allows the discontinuation of the Club’s vaccine requirement for in-person attendance at our weekly meetings. Additionally, mask-wearing at our meetings will now be optional. However, attendees who are not fully vaccinated are strongly encouraged to wear masks during the meetings.
The above measures may need to be reversed if there is a significant increase in Covid infection rates in our community.
Roland Trenouth attended the Board meeting to ask for board support to sponsor the upcoming Whatcom Memorial Day Parade that will be finally held after a 2 year hiatus due to Covid. We also plan on the club participating in it. The Board approved the donation of $1,000.00 from the RCOB Foundation that is budgeted. A request for a grant has been sent to the RCOB Foundation.
The new Hands-On Committee would like to have a booth in Fairhaven at the end of the Sea-to-Ski race. Shauna Naf presented an amazing graphic of the documents she has created and got the full blessing of the board to use funds from the $900 PR budget to pay the fee and for printing of materials. She is hoping to get the Community Boating Center people involved. The event is May 29th, 2022 from 10-4.
Important Date Announcements:
April 9th - Community Boating Center Work Party
Shauna announced a hands-on workday April 9th at the Community Boating Center from 10-4. We will have both morning and afternoon opportunities. Sign-up sheets will be distributed this week. Interested persons can also contact Shauna directly. T-Shirts will be available for purchase.
April 11 Visit from District Governor Bev Harrington. She wants to meet with the Board, and we will meet with her AFTER the noon meeting at Four Points. She would also like a tour of one of our projects and Doug Cole offered to take her thru the Bellingham Food Bank on her schedule.
May 5th Cinco de Mayo Social – The Social Committee is working on a Cinco de Mayo social gathering. – Stay tuned for details.
May 21 - Clean Up at Memorial Park. Teri Treat said the clean-up at Memorial Park will happen 21 May. More info coming soon.
May 28th – Whatcom Memorial Day Parade – The Club will be participating in the Memorial Day Parade, hopefully with walkers/marchers and a float. This is the 100th anniversary of the parade. (who will be coordinating it ???).
May 29 - Ski to Sea Parade – The Club will be a sponsor of the 2022 Ski to Sea Parade. We will also be staffing a Rotary booth in Fairhaven on race day.
June 20th - Changing of the Guard
June 27th Rotary Cruise to Eliza Island
Marty Haines reported that this year’s cruise will return to Dick Tucker’s home on Eliza Island. Marty is recruiting members’ boats for the cruise.
Major Project Committee
Our donations for the Community Boating Center Project now total $70,00. If you haven’t pledged, donated, or would like to increase your pledge, please do so.
Toastmasters
The club received an email from the Bellingham Toastmasters informing us that Steve Ban, Shauna Naf, and Mike Plenkovich participated in their Open House
Membership, Attraction, and Retention Committee
Shauna Naf reported that the committee is busy reaching out to members who have not been participating lately. She also reported that Nathan Twining and Lynda Hinton are working on a Cinco de Mayo social. More to come.
Reece Carpenter - Bellingham Rotaract President Message:
The Bellingham Rotaract Club is teaming up with Stove-Team International to raise $1,000 to supply 10 clean-burning cookstoves for homes in Latin America. The stoves will offer health benefits and will be built within the country. This supports many pillars of Rotary, including improving the health of mothers and children, growing local economies, and saving the environment. If you are familiar with our district's Rotaract work in Guatemala, it is very similar. If you would like more information on the cause, visit the Stove-Team International website at https://www.stoveteam.org/
To encourage donations, they are doing a virtual fundraiser, where donors enter a raffle to win a gift basket of prizes from local businesses. Between now and March 31st, their GoFundMe page will be live and will serve as their raffle ticket platform. Here is the link to the fundraiser, gofundme.com/f/bham-stoves, which can also be found at the end of this message. .
To participate in the raffle, you can buy a ticket by donating a minimum of $20. Additional raffle tickets can be purchased by donating an additional $5. For example, a donation of $20 is one entry. A donation of $50 is 7 entries. Your chance to win one of the amazing prizes, sponsored by local Bellingham businesses, increase with each entry! Prizes include gift cards to local restaurants, an annual membership to the Pickford Theatre, and products from Honey Salon!
If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to Reece or Lstorbeck7@gmail.com, who is the head of this fundraiser. Your participation in such a great cause would be greatly appreciated!
Special thanks to our sponsors: Pickford Theater, Honey Salon, Pure Bliss Desserts, Fairhaven Runners & Walkers, Community Food Co-Op, and Galos Flame Grilled Chicken.
GoFundMe page link: gofundme.com/f/bham-stoves
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 not 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 do not have 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. HERE ARE ZOOM INSTRUCTIONS.
Four Points is now requiring a Contract thru March 2022. We will continue to evaluate other locations for a permanent location. Lunch will be $22 for a sit-down meal. We must notify them by Wednesday at 4:00 pm each week prior to the Monday meeting as to the number of members attending. We are sending out meeting “Invite's” 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 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 directly 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 can simply click on 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 bellinghamrotary.org first. In order to login you need to know your user name and password in your Clubrunner account. The user name is Yourfirstname.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:
Paul Grey introduced Jennifer Dowd, Explorations Academy, Head of School
Members attending on Zoom: Bob Morse, Corey Chaplin, Vinson Latimore, John Moffat, Robin Halliday, Dennis Williams, John Dunne, Loch Trimingham, Marty Haines, Rob Olson, Sandy McIntire and Ken Marzocco
Program
Doug Cole introduced the speaker for the day, Bruce Clawson, a long-time Club member and Commercial Banking Regional Manager for Heritage Bank. Bruce's presentation covered the rationale for and implementation of the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) which was initiated by the federal government through the Small Business Administration in 2020 and passed by Congress as a part of the CARES Act of 2020 and the American Rescue Act of 2021. Local banks were given the responsibility of granting and administering the loans.
The intent of the PPP was to save jobs, keep small businesses from closing, and generally protect the US economy from a potential prolonged and severe depression.
The PPP was very borrower-friendly – No guarantee or collateral was required; No proof of income; 16 months payment-free; The loans could be fully or partially forgiven. As Bruce put it, “this was the best loan you would ever get.” Loan funding was made three times – 1.6 million loans made by 2000 lenders in the first 2-week window, 3.5 million loans by 3,460 lenders in the second round, and in the final 2021 round, 6.6 million loans from 5480 lenders.
The local financial institutions were charged with “making the loans now and figuring out the forgiveness later.” Bruce commented that the early months of PPP were “quite the mess” with many rules and stipulations made on the fly, while borrowers were deluged with well-intentioned but often inaccurate advice. The workload demands for participating local banks were huge.
Bruce described Heritage Bank’s experience in 6 chapters:
“You want us to do what??” Heritage had to organize for the task – everyone from board members to tellers joined in. A PPP leadership team had to be recruited and 300 staff had to be trained on plan details and new processes.
“Break it before you make it.” There were challenges – Heritage’s workflow system crashed 3 times in 3 days; the SBA’s loan registration system repeatedly crashed under the volume; Heritage had 300+ staff working full time on PPP.
“Hitting our stride.” Heritage expanded its PPP Leadership Team to 7 senior executives to keep pace with new and changing regulations and communication with their customers.
“Dawn of the forgiven.” Heritage expanded its PPP leadership team to 12 executives and began to prepare for the forgiveness process. According to Bruce, the forgiveness process is more complex than lending. They contracted with an outside firm to set up and manage the forgiveness portal. Except for a few bottlenecks, it was a smooth transition. But then…
“Off the rails and back on again.” The forgiveness portal firm quit, and Heritage had to source a new provider. Meanwhile, another $285 Billion in PPP funding was released. Heritage found a new portal provider and trained staff and customers on the system. They were able to launch the new loans in January, supported by an upgraded portal and experienced bankers.
“The way to the exit is clear.” PPP funding ran out in May of 2021. Heritage funded its 7500th PPP loan. By August, most of their PPP loans had been forgiven and the leadership team was given a well-deserved break.
Bruce stressed that throughout the process, their support of the bank’s customers was paramount. In the end, they were able to grow their customer base and solidify relationships. 2021 bank earnings were strongly buoyed by interest and loan fees on the PPP loans. Many of the new systems and processes put in place for PPP are now being adopted across the bank.
Bruce answered several questions – about defaults (Heritage has had virtually none), the scope of the program, and the impact on Heritage.
Bruce’s presentation was well organized, well presented, and well received.
Final Announcement:
Adjournment – Peter thanked everyone who helped with the meeting, drew a raffle winner, and adjourned the meeting at 1:35.
