The Rotary Club of Kirkland held an in-person and virtual meeting via Zoom on January 22, 2024, at Madison House in Kirkland. Acting President Amy Mutal called the meeting to order at 6:15 p.m.
Members attending were: Pete Anderson, David Aubry, Rich Bergdahl, Gary Cohn*, Don Dicks, Sandi Ekins* (Honorary), Jocelyn Ellison, Doug Evanson, Rashmi Garimella*, Mekonen Giorgis, Isabelle Kalisa, Kate Koslosky, Amy Mutal, Rick Ostrander, John Pruitt, John Storbeck, and Rick Walter. *Attended via Zoom.
Greeters this evening were Isabelle Kalisa and Rick Walter.
Rotary Club of Kirkland Student of the Month for February Reese Roberts is a junior at Lake Washington High School who loves to spend time with friends and family she’s not at school, playing basketball, or volunteering. Her goals include graduating with a 4.0 GPA from high school, being named female student-athlete of the year her senior year, attending college out of state with many scholarships, and gaining a corporate job quickly after college. Some of her greatest accomplishments are earning a 4.0 GPA for her first two years of high school, making varsity basketball as a freshman, and playing in the state championship two years in a row. Reese also volunteers with youth sports programs and her school, participating in clubs such as Honor Society and Link Crew.
Registration is open for the club's almost annual Rotary Valentine Dinner for Rotarians, past Rotarians, and prospective Rotarians to gather in celebration of the Valentine's Day holiday. The event is Monday, February 12 in place of a virtual club meeting and will be at Kirkland's historic Heritage Hall. Committee chair Doug Evanson is leading the planning for the event and he needs more volunteers. If you can help with setting up the event, or will bring some refreshments to add to the dinner, please click on Doug's name above and let him know you'll assist.
Rick Walter reports it was a pleasure to attend the investiture ceremony for one of our newest members as a King County District Court Judge in Bellevue. With his wife Patty by his side, Peter Peaquin was sworn in by a sitting judge while 14 judges and dozens of friends and family looked on. Judge Peaquin’s resume is long and distinguished and the Rotary Club of Kirkland is very proud to have him as a member.
ClubRunner recently released a new Donations Module to help Rotary clubs organize and track their charitable campaigns. Our Rotary Club of Kirkland module is now live and may be used by club members and members of the general public who wish to contribute to club projects and activities. Sponsorships for the Great Kirkland Rotary Rummage Sale, contributions to Happy Bucks, and donations for warm coats, holiday gifts, scholarships, musical instruments, and other projects are now possible by clicking on the DONATE button in the gold banner at the top of the website's home page.
The new Membership in Rotary web page collection is now live and accessible to potential and new club members. The pages were designed to support membership efforts, and the ClubRunner Membership Success Module the club now uses. The pages were developed by researching club history, gathering key data on membership types, and collecting ideas from clubs around the world, beginning with Club One in Chicago. Final review was conducted by the board of directors at its January meeting. Members are invited and encouraged to review the pages. If you have photos that might represent the content of any of the pages, please submit them to the webmaster for possible inclusion. The membership pages will be more attractive with photos that represent the Rotary Club of Kirkland's membership culture.
The club's meeting calendar for the months of January and February are unusually light due to the number of federal holidays and the club's decision to scale back to three meetings per month. There is only one meeting during January, and one regular meeting during February, both in-person. The second meeting in February has been converted to the Rotary Valentine Dinner. Attendance at these few winter month meetings becomes even more important than is normally the case.
During the club's February 5, 2024 in-person meeting the membership will be presented an amendment to Article 7, Method of Voting, of the Rotary Club of Kirkland Bylaws for consideration of adoption. The amendment approved by the board of directors for recommendation to the membership would add language authorizing an online voting option for conducting club business. Currently, the Bylaws language anticipates all voting occurs in a regular or special meeting of the club's membership. The 10-day notice remains in place, and the proposed amendment requires retention of the vote results for one year. An example of the type of business that could be conducted online is a change to the Bylaws. The proposed language revision was emailed to all members on Thursday, January 18, 2024.
The club’s board of directors met on Thursday, January 18, 2024 on the Zoom platform. Highlights included approval of an amendment to Art. 7 of the club's Bylaws for recommendation to the membership, approval of an amendment to Appendix A of the Bylaws to recognize spouse/partner membership fee waivers, and reports from the community service and club service chairs on the results of the holiday gift purchases and the Rotary Valentine Dinner event on February 12, 2024.
Rotary Club of Kirkland Student of the Month for February Reese Roberts is a junior at Lake Washington High School who loves to spend time with friends and family she’s not at school, playing basketball, or volunteering. Her goals include graduating with a 4.0 GPA from high school, being named female student-athlete of the year her senior year, attending college out of state with many scholarships, and gaining a corporate job quickly after college. Some of her greatest accomplishments are earning a 4.0 GPA for her first two years of high school, making varsity basketball as a freshman, and playing in the state championship two years in a row. Reese also volunteers with youth sports programs and her school, participating in clubs such as Honor Society and Link Crew.
Rick Walter reports it was a pleasure to attend the investiture ceremony for one of our newest members as a King County District Court Judge in Bellevue. With his wife Patty by his side, Peter Peaquin was sworn in by a sitting judge while 14 judges and dozens of friends and family looked on. Judge Peaquin’s resume is long and distinguished and the Rotary Club of Kirkland is very proud to have him as a member.
ClubRunner recently released a new Donations Module to help Rotary clubs organize and track their charitable campaigns. Our Rotary Club of Kirkland module is now live and may be used by club members and members of the general public who wish to contribute to club projects and activities. Sponsorships for the Great Kirkland Rotary Rummage Sale, contributions to Happy Bucks, and donations for warm coats, holiday gifts, scholarships, musical instruments, and other projects are now possible by clicking on the 
The club's meeting calendar for the months of January and February are unusually light due to the number of federal holidays and the club's decision to scale back to three meetings per month. There is only one meeting during January, and one regular meeting during February, both in-person. The second meeting in February has been converted to the Rotary Valentine Dinner. Attendance at these few winter month meetings becomes even more important than is normally the case.
During the club's February 5, 2024 in-person meeting the membership will be presented an amendment to Article 7, Method of Voting, of the Rotary Club of Kirkland Bylaws for consideration of adoption. The amendment approved by the board of directors for recommendation to the membership would add language authorizing an online voting option for conducting club business. Currently, the Bylaws language anticipates all voting occurs in a regular or special meeting of the club's membership. The 10-day notice remains in place, and the proposed amendment requires retention of the vote results for one year. An example of the type of business that could be conducted online is a change to the Bylaws. The proposed language revision was emailed to all members on Thursday, January 18, 2024.
The club’s board of directors met on Thursday, January 18, 2024 on the Zoom platform. Highlights included approval of an amendment to Art. 7 of the club's Bylaws for recommendation to the membership, approval of an amendment to Appendix A of the Bylaws to recognize spouse/partner membership fee waivers, and reports from the community service and club service chairs on the results of the holiday gift purchases and the Rotary Valentine Dinner event on February 12, 2024.
.png)
