After a social hour, including dinner, President John opened our evening meeting at 6:30pm sharp at the Holiday Inn near the Bellingham Airport.
After being led by the Rotary Brass and singing “American the Beautiful”, Paul Grey provided the Invocation, addressing the Club’s role in helping children in foster care.
President John then noted that he had an opportunity to meet former Club President Margaret Curtis, who exemplified the Four-Way Test.
As a test, Mark Knittel recorded the entire meeting here is the link: video1480273424.mp4
Guests:
Catherine Riordan introduced former Rotarian, from Juneau, Alaska, Dick Farnell
Del VandeKerk introduced our speaker and his new neighbor, Jeffrey Hovenier
Ralph Rinne and Vinson Latimore were welcomed after a long absence.
Also numerous spouses were welcomed!
Club Events and Committee Announcements
Announcements:
The Service Fund Committee is taking applications for Grants.
Please send applications to Nathan Twining or Sandee. Each applicant will need a Rotarian sponsor.
Larry Halgren announcement regarding November 18th joint Clubs meeting:
Larry told us that there would be an important meeting of Whatcom County Rotary Clubs on November 18 from 5 pm to 9 pm at the Hotel Bellwether. All are invited. The topic will focus on the reduced membership of Rotary Clubs everywhere. The agenda will be to have a serious discussion about recruitment and possibly the consolidation of one or more Clubs. The meeting will
include members of the Clubs from Whatcom North, Bellingham Bay, Sunrise, Mt. Baker, Ferndale and RCOB. The meeting will have a question-and-answer format, with no plans to make final decisions that day. Larry urged us to sign up through Clubrunner Events.
Paul Grey announced that we are looking for a place to store our Memorial Day Rotary float. It is 8 feet high, 7 feet wide and some 14 feet long.
Shuana began by showing us an intriguing short introductory film teaser link about MountainFilm, which our Club will sponsor on November 15, 2025. It will be held at Whatcom Community College. It is a fund raiser for our Club. The goal is to sell 450 tickets. They are $25 each.
There are various levels of sponsors which we need to recruit. All of the information is available at:
www.mountainfilmontourBellingham.com
Club members can help by: 1) buying two tickets each, 2) inviting four guests 3) finding sponsors, 4)obtaining donation items for the silent auction 5)putting up posters and flyers 6) visiting other clubs and spreading the word and 7) sharing the event on Facebook with friends and others.
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.
Our speaker was US Ambassador Jeffrey Hovenier, PhD. His talk was titled "A Career in the US Foreign Service". Ambassador Hovenier is currently a nonresident Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Europe Center. He worked for over 37 years in the
US Foreign Service, in nine different countries. His many diplomatic posts included US Ambassador to Paraguay and Kosovo. He also served on the National Security Council.
Ambassador Hovenier began his talk by noting that this was his second visit to the Rotary Club of Bellingham. The first one was on June 20,1983, when he was recognized as an outstanding student by our Club. He was introduced at the time by Club President Dr. Ben Kuiken. He took note of all that our Club did for him as a young student and continues to do for others.
Ambassador Hovenier spoke, with pride about the role of United States’ diplomats. They not only work on keeping the peace around the world, they also provide services to U.S. citizens in times of need when they are abroad. For example, when a U.S. citizen loses a passport or dies overseas, it is the local US consulate that provides assistance. In larger roles, he was involved in negotiating a peace agreement in Yugoslavia, served on the National Security Council and advised President Obama on several issues. In his view, our tax dollars supporting the diplomatic service are well spent.
He closed by thanking the Club for believing in him back in 1983.
CLOSING:
After thanking the members who helped produce this meeting, President John adjourned the meeting at 7:30 PM.
Rotary Brass - Doug Cole, John Dunne & Del VandeKerk
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.
