Bacchus Taylor presented a book report on Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything by Joshua Foer. The book starts and ends with the United States Memory Championship. It chronicles his first encounters with memory whizzes and how he learned how memory champions are able to accomplish their feats. It started him on a year-long search to learn about memory during which he encountered such unusual characters as the “idiot savant” (Editor’s Complementary PC Guidance: currently referred to as “savant” to avoid stigmatization that comes with "idiot") who was the prototype for the character in Rainman and a man with a brain injury that prevented him from remembering even the simplest things. After that year, he returned to the next US Memory Championships as a contestant (no mention of how well he did!).
Opening Welcome:
President Gary Goldfogel gave the opening welcome for the 4684th meeting and the 40th virtual meeting of the Club.
Rick Kaiser provided the opening music: a video of Ray Charles singing America the Beautiful.
Doug Cole gave the invocation inspired by a Ralph Rinne comment at his 95th birthday party. The invocation was taken from Abigail van Buren.
Club and Committee Announcements
President Gary announced that there will be a Zoom meeting of the RCOB Board on Thursday, March 11, at 4:30 where the Board will review the Club’s financial statement. He extended an invitation to anyone who wishes to join that meeting. Contact Sandee if interested.
Jack Westford gave a very upbeat Book Report Committee report, noting all the members, even a former member and a spouse, who have volunteered to give book reports, underscoring how popular this new feature has become.
John Dunne presented the Fundraising Committee’s report. The final amount raised for the Max Higbee Center’s building fund is $107,751! He gave a brief visual tour of the new space, noting the open interior design approach of Jennifer Moehl, the architect for the project. The Center’s ED, Kait Whiteside said a few words praising the Club for exceeding its own funding goal and how thrilled she is with our donation.
This year's District YAIL program will look different, like so many other activities. It is available for all High School students this year for FREE with a limited number of registrations at 30. It will be over 5 separate sessions. Click Here for information
Ongoing Announcements
Blood Drive -Steve Ban reported that when you donate blood, they are still testing for and informing you whether or not you have Covid antibodies. He also reported that our blood drive will be open for the entire Rotary year, until June 30, 2021. We are participating, along with the other clubs in our Area G, in a District 5050 challenge against the other District Areas. He is encouraging friends and relatives to join in. Those who can't donate blood can donate plasma. Currently, the W. Bakerview office is the only donation location open in Whatcom County. Click Here for additional information.
The minimum age for donating blood is 16 and those 16 and 17 would need parent’s permission to participate. Rumor has it that you can score a Bloodworks pair of socks for donating!
You may schedule your donation appointment on the flyer in the above link or you can make an appointment by phone. In either case, when you are donating, please tell them that you are donating on behalf of RCOB.
All Rotary meetings will be held Virtually on Zoom until further notice due to Covid-19 social distancing. You can look for an email from Sandee each week prior to the Monday 12:30 meeting (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.
RCOB has now set up a Venmo account for ease in payment of 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
Here is a tutorial on how to login for the first time. (Click here) 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 my 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 joined us again today!!
President Gary introduced Jodi Borrelli again. She was our last in person speaker 3/9/2020 before Covid shut us down. Great to have her join us again.
John Dunne introduced Kait Whiteside, Executive Director of the Max Higbee Center.
Ward Naf introduced Spence Moore and Russ Nelson with WCC
Paul Grey introduced our speaker, Jeremiah McCoy with Makerspace
Program:
Program: Jeremiah McCoy defined Makerspace as a non-profit cooperative with a collection of often expensive and specialized tools, such as 3D printers and laser cutters, and the people who know how to use them. This allows members to produce their own creative ideas and has allowed many small businesses to launch with their first products. They provide instructional classes. During the pandemic, they had to shut down shortly after opening their new, larger and more welcoming space at Bellis Fair Mall. During the pandemic volunteers at Makerspace produced 36,558 face masks, 3759 3D printed plastic face shields and 714 Tyvec isolation gowns for the healthcare workers at PeaceHealth St. Joseph’s Hospital.
Local Covid Update:
After Sandee Lindhout rang the closing bell, President Gary Goldfogel gave a brief report on the COVID status in the county. He noted that the number of new cases has been steadily falling and at the time of the meeting, there were only two patients hospitalized with COVID-19, neither of whom required ICU care.
Program Recordings: We are now recording the speaker portion of our meetings:
Missed a meeting? Remember a great speaker but want to revisit the content? You can catch the recording on our Rotary Club of Bellingham YouTube page:
