President John rang the meeting to order at 12:30 PM at the airport Holiday Inn. In his second to the last meeting as president, John finally gave into the urge he had had all year by fining every member in attendance one dollar if they were not wearing their Rotary membership pin.
Guests:
George Halsell introduced our speaker, Nathan Twining
Rick Kaiser introduced Althea Leader with the North Cascades Institute
Sue Parsons introduced visitors Grace Walls and Ayla Kaminsky, Short Term Outgoing exchange students to Italy
Visiting Rotarians: Debbie Kiene, Bellingham Bay member and District 5050 Short Term Student Exchange Co Ordinator and Bill Kirby from Carson City.
Club Events and Committee Announcements
Tom Grinstad announced, after paying a happy buck, the 15th Annual Veterans Classic Car exhibit on Sunday July 19th at 2211 Rimland Drive, Bellingham from 10:00am-3PM Free admission for spectators, $20 car registration fee.
Reminder that the June 29th meeting will held at the Holiday Inn at the Airport at 5:30 with dinner at 6:00. This is our end of year Changing of the Guard meeting. See you there!
Steve Ban presented this Major Club award to John Dunne. Steve stated that John definitely qualifies for this award because of his tireless and effective work in improving the lives of the unhoused members of our community:
He wrote numerous articles about homelessness for the Salish Current and attended many meetings of the various agencies which provide services for the unhoused in order to advocate for that population. John wrote letters to the editor of the Cascadia Daily, urging that more community efforts be made to help the homeless, and he also presented an excellent two-part program to our Club about the complex problems of homelessness and possible solutions.
Club members gave John a standing ovation as he accepted this award.
Rotary Short Term International Student Exchange Program
Sue Parsons announced that the Whatcom County clubs have had an unusually high number of applicants for this exchange program and will be sending out five students this year. She introduced the two students being sponsored by RCOB,
Grace Walls and Ayla Kaminsky, who made short comments thanking the Club for sponsoring them for this exciting experience. They are both going to Italy.
Sue presented them with RCOB pendants and Debbie Kiene presented them with Rotary purses.
Program Chairman George Halsell introduced our speaker, Incoming President Nathan Twining. Nathan recently returned from the annual Rotary International Convention, which this year was held in Taipei, Taiwan, and shared the highlights of his attendance.
There were 37,000 Rotarians participating, representing 140 countries. Nathan was impressed by the city-wide welcome and the many Rotarian volunteers, especially in the subways, to assist and guide the visiting Rotarians. In addition to the general meetings in the convention center, there were smaller breakout sessions, as well as The House of Friendship, which provided an opportunity for Rotarians to visit and learn from the many organizational and Club booths and exhibits there, while getting to know other Rotarians from around the world.
The Convention schedule allowed Nathan and his wife to spend some time sightseeing, including views from the tallest building in Taipei, the Taipei 101, once the tallest building in the world, the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Park and the night markets, where Nathan tried, and failed, to eat pickled tofu. He showed photos of his experiences, including one notable photo of him in traditional Chinese garb.
In closing, Nathan put in a plug for next year's Rotary International Convention in Barcelona, Spain.
Closing
President John rang our meeting to adjournment at 1:30 PM after thanking Club members who contributed to the meeting.
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.
