February 5, 2007 Spokesman

Posted by John Woodbery 
 
The meeting was called to order by president Steve Brown at 6:30PM sharp.  "Dr." Harry Cummings led the flag salute with his family Scottish plaid cap off and by his side.  Dan Bartell gave the inspirational moment telling "What I learned about Life" which included "People will forget what you said or what you did but they will never forget how you made them feel".

President Steve announced that the District Governor Nominee for 2009 -2010 is Nancy Dalton with our Gary  Bruner standing in for future years considerations.  How that post is filled is a mystery to all.  There will be a bus available for the trip to the Coeur Delaine District Conference in April that will make two stops at wineries on the way.  Yes, the driver will only observe the festivities at each stop.  Soon there will be a Rotarian license plate for Washington Rotarians for $40-$45, sign up to come.  Mike Hunter announced the call for interviewers for scholarship applicants the process having been delayed due to inclement weather.  Jim Feek asked Dennis Newell to put in a plug for automatic deductions for Paul Harris contributions and Steve Shinstrom and Steve Brown announced that Paul Harris plus donors might lend credits to assist aspiring first time Paul Harris Donors reach their goal. The idea is to just get them started and maybe the desire for serious giving will catch on.  Dwight Olson was awarded his Paul Harris 9 pin. Way to go Dwight.  Jim announced that we are 81% to our club goal for the year but only 52% toward our 100% participation goal.  Jim, Rich & Chuck will ask those who have not started to coffee to strong arm the reluctant.  They really believe in this thing it seems.  Chuck Brockway stirred up the happy dollar interest and raised $125 tonight. 

 

Our speaker was Pam Riem, President of the Duvall Rotary club that meets for breakfast in a Chinese bar in Duvall if you can believe that.  Steve brown said he spoke there once and the tables still had the previous nights customers sleeping  off the night life of Duvall apparently.  Pam who was accompanied by her husband Greg for the program talked about her recent trip with other Rotarians to India for Polio Plus.  Two Seattle Four members on the trip had apparently never met, their club is so large.  India was a discouraging but beautiful place with the Taj Mahal's beauty contrasted by the squalor in the mean streets of New Delhi and other cities in the country.  Sanitation, lack of sewer services and lack of clean water adds to the miserable life for this country of one billion people.  Although the children were in need of polio vaccine, the locals feared that Americans were poisoning their children.  Cows are sacrosanct in public but women are apparently hidden away from  sight.  Her group toured all over India and were moved emotionally by the help they were bringing even though the culture and economy of this democratic country was sadly lacking.  The team apparently stayed an extra week and inoculated 100,000 children from infants to two years of age against the dreaded disease polio.  Doing this as a Rotarian becomes a part of what you are.

 

Mike Hunter won the lucky draw, gave his ticket to Adam McGrath who failed to find the blue marble.  But President Steve found a consolation prize in a Starbucks card for Adam.  His famous thoughts for the week were:  (1)  Why are actors in a movie but on TV? And (2)  Why do we want to sleep like a baby who wakes up every two hours?

 

John Woodbery, Scribe