The Rotary Club of Kirkland held an in-person meeting at the Eagles Club in Kirkland.  Gary Cohn acted as president for this meeting.  He called the meeting to order at 6:16 p.m.

Al Hoviland led us in the Pledge; Rashmi Garimella was our Greeter.

Attendees were: David Aubry, Cody Baker, Scott Becker, Gary Cohn, Sue Cohn*, Donald Dicks, Jocelyn Ellison, Doug Evanson, Rashmi Garimella, Isabelle Kalisa, Kate Koslosky, Laura Loomis, Kristin Olson, Rick Ostrander, Rémy Pairault, Angela Pritchett, John Pruitt, Manassey Tetteh, and Alice Volpe. *Attended via Zoom.

Guests included: former member Al Hoviland, guest of Alice Volpe; Charles Loomis, guest of Laura Loomis; and Daniel Kao, guest of Gary Cohn.

The Rotary Club of Kirkland will operate a booth at the Kirkland Downtown Association's Pumpkins in the Park event on Saturday, October 26, from 11a.m. to 3 p.m., with contests and prizes and club members will be dressed up in costumes. There will be treats for kids and prizes for the grown-ups as well. More volunteers are needed for set-up, the two shifts, and clean-up! Click HERE to jump to the volunteer sign-up through the Club Calendar online volunteer system, or contact Membership Committee chair Cody Baker to join in this event to promote Rotary in the Kirkland community.

The Holiday Gift Wrapping Party & Annual Holiday Dinner is scheduled for Monday, December 16, 2024. The club's holiday event typically begins at 5:30 p.m. with gift wrapping, with dinner to follow, and then the club holds its annual meeting for this Rotary year. Holiday gifting supports John Muir Elementary School families whose circumstances the school staff determines make them eligible for holiday gift donations. Click on the red wrapped box to make a holiday gift donation to the Rotary club. Terry and Michelle Cole have committed $2,500 in match for most holiday gift donations.

The five Hopelink Food Markets collectively serve thousands of families and individuals each year in north and east King County. Banner Bank is conducting a food drive in support of families suffering from food insecurity. Banner Bank's Park Lane staff ask for Rotarians' help keeping the shelves stocked by donating items on the list found HERE. Items can be dropped off Monday - Friday from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. through October 31st at the Kirkland Branch, 201 Park Lane, Kirkland.

Rotary Club of Kirkland's Student of the Month for November will visit with membership the evening of the November 4 meeting. Marianna Makowska describes herself as a driven environmental activist and leader in the Kirkland community. Her priority goals are to earn a college degree in America, balance schoolwork with service to achieve a 4.0 GPA, and as the Green Team's president lead her school in advancing in the Green Schools Program. As the parliamentarian of her Future Farmers of America (FFA) chapter, she inspires her fellow students to pursue careers in agriculture, and she placed fifth at the FFA State Conference in the Agricultural Issues Competition for hosting four community forums on tackling food waste, and second in the Parliamentary Procedure Competition.

Rotary Club of Kirkland's April 2024 Student of the Month is featured in the Greet Kirkland November 2024 edition. Read Raahina Ali's story as a Young Achiever profiled by the local publication. Click HERE to see a reprint of the story.  

Music4Life is pleased to report that during the fourth quarter of 2023-24 (June thru August), Music4Life delivered two (2) ready-to-play musical instruments to Lake Washington School District: One 4/4 violin and one double French horn (rare to find). Thus, the end-of-the year total is ten (10) delivered instruments valued at $7,950. In that time, the Lake Washington Chapter raised $2,000 in donations. Instruments are provided to participating public school districts on the basis of the relative financial productivity of each Music4Life Chapter.

During the year past presidents are stepping up to preside at meetings while our president is away from club activities. Thank you to those all of the past presidents who've volunteered to lead meetings during the year. There are several other roles that are necessary for smooth conduct of our meetings, whether in-person or virtual. Please sign up for several "open" meeting duties for this year. Our club needs your contribution to make the meetings effective and enjoyable for all of our membership. The meeting responsibilities matrix is available to you in the "Members" drop-down menu on the home page of the club's website. Like the committee table, the responsibilities table is updated regularly as club members add their names to the duties throughout the year. You may click HERE to jump to the table from this article.

On Thursday, September 19, 2024, the club's board of directors unanimously approved a proposed revision to Article 9 of the club's Bylaws, Duties of Officers, and sent the proposed revision to the membership to be considered at an upcoming meeting. During the meeting of October 21, 2024, 19 members voted in favor of approval. Approval permits the club to continue processing expenditures, in the case of a vacancy in the treasurer position, with the approval of two other named officers. The club was also reminded that on October 19, 2024, the club's board approved several Bylaws amendments (Articles 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and Article 10) to make several officer positions voting positions on the board, to clarify how quorums are counted, and to change the name of the spouse/partner membership to partner and clarify the qualifications under this category. The proposed changes will be brought to members during the November 4, 2024 regular meeting.

The club’s board of directors met on Thursday evening, October 17, 2024 at Brezza Condominium in Kirkland. Highlights included discussion about the status of outstanding club dues payments, the new budget reports from QuickBooks, approval of reinstatement of a former member, and approval of revisions to several of the club's bylaws; and approval of several event registration fees and dates, discussed student of the month progress and scholarship funding, and heard reports from various officers and committee chairs.