August 29, 2011 Spokesman
The August 29, 2011 meeting was called to order by President, Brandon Honcoop at 6:30 p.m. The flag salute was lead by Steve Shinstrom. (Welcome back, Steve, from your family trip to D.C., Baltimore and New York City—thanks for leaving the hurricane, earthquake, rain, etc. behind!) Tonight’s Greeter was John Woodbery. Our Inspirational Moment, provided by Ernie Norehad, “tongue in cheek” on the topics of Homeless Man and Aging.
Visiting Rotarians and Guests were introduced: Scott Becker, a previous Kirkland Rotarian has returned to live in Kirkland and will be rejoining our Club (Welcome Back Scott!). Eric Wilson, friend of Scott Rethke is visiting for the second time. Rob Simpson visiting from Australia. Wives of Rotarians visiting to hear our speaker: Pam Going; Wilma Bartel, Gail Auslander and Sharon Hunter)
Club Announcements: Brandon announced there will be a Community Service Committee meeting before the regular Rotary meeting on September 19th at 5:30 p.m. in the lobby of the Woodmark (or Bar). Please let Dave DuBois know if you will be attending. Pat Dye, Committee Chair for the Shoes Project, announced a delay in the dates for the fitting of the shoes at Fred Meyer. Fred Meyer has not completed their remodel and the shoe fittings are delayed by two weeks until 9/14 and 9/15. Time will be 5:30 to 7:30 on those nights, check in with Pat at 5:15 p.m. Pat has the names of those that previously volunteered; please let her know if you are still available for those new dates.
Upcoming Event Announcement: Patti Smith reminded everyone that the annual Rotary Golf Tournament is on September 12th at Echo Falls. There is a dress code at the course; all shirts need collars, no short-shorts, no jeans, no fleece sweats, no metal spikes, etc. Basically, the usually dress code for golf courses. There will be gift bags for all players and prizes for winners. Patti can still use more donations; drop them off at her office prior to the tournament. There followed a lively discussion about the “monkey”. Bill Woods has the monkey. For those members that don’t know about the “monkey”: it is a “trophy”, now 50 years old, that is given at the dinner after the golf tournament, to the person with the most “memorable” faux pas on the course. The selected golfer retains the monkey for one year and then returns it to the tournament to hand it off the next year.
Club Memorial: A sympathy card was circulated to all members for Patty Tucker, wife of David Tucker, who recently passed away. Bill Woods and John Woodbery spoke at the Memorial last week and many members attended to pay their respects. Dave will be missed by the Club.
Happy Dollars: Lots of Happy Members with Chuck Brockway collecting from nearly every person. Chuck expressed his “unhappiness” at missing last week and the Happy Dollar collections that went into the “sack”. He thinks that is one Happy Dollar collection that is going to go down in history for our Club! (You had to be there to know what happened.)
Program Speakers: Dave and Anna Aubry (our own Club Members) Program Topic:
Our Year In France or, Innocents Abroad.
http://aubrysinfrance.blogspot.com/ For more details.
Dave and Anna shared their presentation of “Why Did They Do It?” and “Why Lyon?” The major motivators for taking a year and living in a foreign country were the deaths of the last living parents for both Anna and Dave, as well as, the desire by Dave to live in France. The early Aubrys are originally from France and most of the early relatives are from the areas around Lyon. They choose Lyon because they wanted to live in a good size city (but not Paris), have an easy transportation system, good weather, great food – it is the gastronomic capital of France, great wines, and they had visited there before and liked it. Both Dave and Anna had heard many negative reasons about France and misconceptions about the people; they decided to go with “great expectations” for a marvelous time. Dave and Anna described their living arrangements, their discoveries of both food and drink and most of all, the wonderful people. They explored the surrounding areas and found every town, no matter how small the size, would have World War I and World War II monuments. The French lost thousands of men and women during the wars. Dave also spent a great deal of time researching his ancestors and found documents going back hundreds of years. Both Anna and Dave were impressed with the amount of history that was all around them, including living in a building from 1880s. They had a great time and are planning on returning in the Spring for 3 months.
Lucky Ticket Drawing: Ernie Norhad had the lucky ticket, but did not draw the Joker. The Pot grows---it is now around $500.
The meeting was adjourned at 7:45 p.m. with a reminder that there would be a mini Board Meeting following the meeting. A reminder to all Members that there will not be a meeting next week because of the Labor Day Holiday. Also, no meeting on September 12th because of the Golf Tournament. Next regular meeting on September 19th.
Submitted by Scribe: Pat Swenson