March 12, 2007 Spokesman

Guests

Pamela Wood was visiting us for the evening. She works for ReMax.

  Student of the month, Matt Maier of BestHigh School was visiting us. He is a junior at Best, and plays the bag pipe and Irish flute.

  Visiting Rotarians

Roger Martindale of Ballard spoke briefly about the Rotary District Conference. He is on the planning committee and indicated there are still spots available.

 

Kemper Freeman of the Bellevue club was visiting us for the evening. 

  Announcements

Congratulations to David and Anna Aubrey on the birth of their grandchild today at SwedishHospital! 

Old stock of Rotary vests and shirts are now on sale. Buy yours after the meeting. The supply of new inventory will be here in 3-1/2 weeks.

MARK YOUR CALENDARS!  The April 9^thmeeting will be held at EvergreenHospital and we'll all get a behind-the-scenes tour of the new hospital. Be sure to wear comfortable shoes as some of the areas may still be under construction.

 

The Board meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, March 14 at 5pm at Evergreen.

 

The Gambling Commission is doing a random audit of a Duck Dash year. All is prepared for the audit and we should have an answer of their results in about 2-weeks.

 

MARK YOUR CALENDARS and plan to attend the Annual Rotary Auction to be held on April 14^th.  This past Saturday, March 10, was full of Rotary activity.  The day started at 10am at JohnMuirElementary School for the Rotary Service Above Self Day inside the schools library.  Over 30 Rotarians showed up to help with the project of applying labels to books that are part of the Accelerated Reading Program.  This is a program that our Rotary dollars bought for the school and it helps students take tests on the computer once they've read certain books.  The project was coordinated by our very own Katherine Kehrli and coffee & donuts provided by our very own Evan Perrollaz.  Rotarians are encouraged to drop by John Muir Elementary Library to help with the ongoing efforts of this project. The librarian, Diane Denny, will demonstrate for you what needs to be done.

 

The next Community Service project will be announced Monday, April 2^nd at a special meeting to kick off Miracle League.

 

The Saturday continued with Alcohol Awareness Night held at the Kirkland Lodge at 7pm.  It was a fun-filled night of port tasting, presented by a special port expert. Thank you to Dan Bartel for coordinating the event and for Evan Perrollaz for hosting the event at the Lodge.

 

Plan to attend the fun St. Patrick's Day party at the Auslander's home on Saturday, March 17. Sign up sheets are on each table. Thanks to Alice Volpe for coordinating the party.

 

Be sure to sign the get well card for Jo Mae Woods. Chuck Morgan gave us an update that Jo Mae is doing better and is currently in a care home. The club did send her flowers and Bill sent a nice thank you note expressing his appreciation.

 

Bob Webb gave us a By Laws 101 lesson on what was being updated on our club's By Laws.  Most of the changes were cosmetic. One main change to point out was Article 1, Section 2: The fundraising chair and the sergeant at arms would be part of the Board. But because they are appointed positions (versus elected positions), they will not be voting members.  Bill Taylor made a motion to approve the proposed changes and Brian Tucker seconded the motion. All members were in favor.  Thank you for your hard work Bob.

 

Rachel Knight introduced Evan Perrollaz, Executive Director of Kirkland Lodge. Evan's classification talk allowed us to get to know him better. He's lived in the Seattle area since 1993. He is married with a 2-1/2 year old daughter. Evan grew up in Bloomfield Hills, MI (8-miles from the last known appearance of Jimmy Hoffa!). After raising Evan and his siblings, his mother went back to school for a degree in nursing, and then worked with terminally ill patients for 25 years. This was all inspirational for Evan.  During his teenage years, Evan played in rock bands, and then in his adult life he began a catering company at the age of 25. During his 30's he came upon the opportunity of a career in marketing for senior housing. He found this to be fulfilling and has been in the industry for 6-years. Evan indicated this is a fast-paced, every changing industry too.

 

After his classification talk, Evan received his blue badge, represented by his sponsor: Ev Cox, and his mentor: Steve Shinstrom.

 

Chuck Brockway raised lots of happy dollars for the evening.

 

Our Program

Tonight's program was "Getting To Know You".  Chuck Brockway couldn't stay seated so he introduced Gary Redfern.  Gary shared with us his early years as a farm boy in Manitoba, Canada.  His father was a WWII veteran and later married his mother after the war. Gary is the second oldest of 7 children. Entrepreneurial ship runs deep in Gary's family as 4 of the boys (including himself) were self-employed business owners. Gary graduated from college in 1971 with a degree in business and immediately joined Exxon in their marketing area. He married at this time, and was married for 29 years, having a son and a daughter. His daughter currently lives in the University district and works for Amazon. His son lives in Alberta with his wife and 2 children. After working for Exxon, Gary worked with a variety of companies and lived in a variety of places including Alberta, Manitoba and Winnipeg. Once in Washington, he sold his lawn care business to Scotts and decided to join the ranks of retirement. He slowed down long enough to be our club President during this period, and then met the love of his life, Elizabeth Kemmish. He and Elizabeth now live in Kenmore and travel as much as they can while working on house renovations. Gary loves Rotary most because it gives him the opportunity to give back to the community through service. He was initially invited to join Rotary by Dan Bartel.

 

Chuck announced our second Getting To Know You speaker: Jack Danforth.  Jack shared with us that he was born and raised in the Ozark Mountains, and his move to Spokane was a cultural shift/shock for him. Jack worked for a company that now develops an energy efficient engine that converts primary fuel to shaft power. It takes combustion gas and compresses it into natural gas wells. Jack and his wife Susan spend most of their time traveling and boating. Most recent trips included Santiago, Chile and Rio de Janeiro. His next trip will be to Cabo to see his 1-year old grandson, and then to Africa for a safari.  Jack is the official Miracle League pitcher and has won the hearts of many of the players at Miracle League. Chuck Morgan was Jack's sponsor.

 

 

Honey Pot:

Ev Cox had the lucky number again!  Represented by Rich Bergdahl, Ev drew the Rotary Blue marble too and won again!  Congratulations Ev!

 

Three New Members Proposed!!!

 

Jean Hernandez, sponsored by Sharon Chambers, classification: Higher Education

Ashish Lakhani, referred by District Governor, Mike Montgomery, classification: Technical Staffing

Miriam Gilbert, transfer from Duvall Club, classification: Executive Coaching

 

 

 

Before adjourning the meeting at 7:45, President Steve kept us thinking with his thought provoking statement: Why do overlook and oversee mean opposite things?