May 17, 2010 Spokesman

Rich Bergdahl shared an inspirational moment with us about a young man whose dress was less than impressive, who dug deep into his pockets to give $3.00 to our fund-raising efforts.  Once again, we are reminded not to judge a book by its cover.

We were honored to have several guests in attendance, including prospective-member-for-life Joanne Burns, visiting Rotarians Jeff Richards and Sue Greenfeld (who is moving here), Rich's wife, our own foreign exchange student Celeste (who shared how much fun she had at the recent District Conference), and Rotaract recruit Chontelle Rasmussen.

Announcements:

Scott Rethke reminded us to sign up for Duck Dash sales.

President-to-be Pat Dye gave a glowing report on the District Conference;  13 Kirkland Rotarians attended.

President-used-to-be Bill Taylor is going to be District Conference Chair for 2011.  Expect a train ride (aka rolling cocktail party) to be organized to transport us to Portland for the event.

Brian Tucker announced a meeting for 5/27 to discuss potential international service projects; email to follow.

Chuck Brockway reminded us about Miracle League this Saturday.  Volunteers are still needed.

John Woodbury is planning a salmon bake for 8/28 at the Woodbury Trout Farm (aka Casa Lotta Dough).  More information to follow.

We then enjoyed an excellent presentation by Steve Soloman, Annual Giving Chairman for the Rotary Foundation, who talked with us about how we can MAKE A DIFFERENCE and LEVERAGE OUR DONATIONS by giving to Rotary Foundation.  $2.3 Billion has been raised by the foundation since 1947 for projects like Polio Plus, which has inoculated 2 billion children in 122 countries around the world.

Rich Bergdahl then presented a "Paul Harris Plus 5" pin to President Olie (or was it Sven?) for his continuing financial support of the Foundation.  Bill Woods and Rick Ostrander also qualified, and were honored in absentia.  (Note to Don Dicks - that means they weren't in attendance.)

President-Next Pat Dye then "announced" her strategy to get 100% participation from our members in becoming Paul Harris Fellows next year.  You will have to ask her for details.  (HINT: it involves the District Conference.)

We were then treated to a delightful presentation by King County Prosecuting Attorney Dan Satterberg (who, it turns out, is lead singer in a rock band called "The Approximations").  Dan's office deals with 20,000 criminal cases each year with a staff of 230 attorneys.

Dan spoke about the problem of car thefts in King County.  We ranked 6^th in the nation in that crime in 2005 with almost 18,000 stolen vehicles.  That number has been reduced to under 8,000 last year, thanks largely to the tightening of sentencing guidelines for car thieves.  We now rank 37^th.  Thanks for the good work, Dan!

Dan invited each of us to subscribe to his office's "Prosecutor's Post", which is sent out monthly via email by his office.  You can subscribe on his office's web site.

Finally, as a highlight to the evening, the meeting closed without a Norwegian joke.

Respectfully submitted,

Terry Cole

Scribe du jour