Soundings (3/31/09)

Posted by Stowe Talbot 
 
 
Flag Salute and Invocation by Wendy Keneipp

Joke by Orphalee Smith (Just to let all of you know, Orphalee took over for President Tim who was doing something or another down in Tacoma with the Shell Oil Company and as a consequence, our reliable former President, Orphalee filled in very well -- heard he was not pumping gas down there, my friend!!), and of course that Joke had something to do with the IRS, CPA's and the ever present, 15 April.

Visiting Rotarians: Tim Carpenter was with us, and as you all might know, Tim Carpenter is a member of the Whatcom County North Club, and a former associate of our own Ron Hardesty (Well, what a big deal that might be!!!). Also, gracing us with her presence, a Ms. Gloria Strickmeyer from the Seattle Club.

Guests: included one Ms. Christine Wright, CFO of McEvoy Oil Company and Joel Hile, who was there as a guest, but will no longer hold that title since he was brought into the Club as a member by a silent acclimation (check with Bob Tull on the significance of that action!).

Board Meeting: For all of you Board Members and other members who might be interested, there will be a Board of Director's Meeting at the Sehome IHOP, commencing at 0730 hours on Thursday, 9 April. If you are interested in a 'Make-Up', please join the Board on Thursday morning---the meetings last for about an hour and it will give you a chance to find out just how our Club operates.

 
Bucks in the Bay: There were a number of members who eagerly addressed the membership from the podium to announce their many years' of marriage, their new arrival in the family, their recent trip to wherever and other important events that did occur; making the ten minutes of confessions very interesting to most of us (other than those who had already dropped off to sleep, to awaken only when the next round of events took place!).
Some of those confessions included the second oldest member of the Club, Art Runestrand (you guess who is the oldest!), who gave us a poignant up-date on his grandchild (the one who does a lot of swimming) as well as one, two or three new arrivals for his family tree--- that should take it well over the 30 count as noted in the Soundings dated 13 May 2008! Also, we had John Templeton who dropped into the bucket a "C" Note plus a 'Five Spot' for something or another that has skipped our thought process; also, Orhlalee gave up some of her hard earned bucks for some sort of an announcement; also, we should certainly not forget some of the others who walked the 17 feet from the wall to the podium, and those included such notables as Eddie (the Fun Guy) Hansen; Harold "Scotty" Scott; Tim Krell (who was there to brag about one of his new clients); Tim Carpenter (mentioned above in the 'Visiting Rotarian' paragraph); Roger "Chip" Hilarides who reluctantly confessed that he had missed a few meetings because of his extensive business travels throughout the U. S. of A.; and Joel Hile who gave a few bucks in recognition of his coming back into the Club after being away for nearly three years while he was caring for his wife, Patricia. And there were probably more confessions, admissions or statements made, but I forgot them in recognition of my impending Alzheimers!!

Our New Member: Orphalee Smith presented Joel Hile his New Member Rotary packet, and spoke briefly about Joel and his former membership in our Club. We all say, WELCOME back, Joel.

Sergeant at Arms: by Ron Hardesty

Past President Ron stood before the Membership, and proceeded to lay into all of us with fines, more fines and then more fines. We would observe that the coffers must be nearly depleted, but Ron took care of that near calamity. Patty Imhof was asked what she would nick one of the members for if she were at the helm today, and she tossed out the Twenty Dollar assessment, and all of us shuddered and looked the other way, knowing that we would be next . We were asked whose picture was on the most recent Rotarian Magazine, and someone in the back rescued all of us by mentioning it was Archbishop Desmond Tutu, recipient of the 1984 Nobel Peace Prize.. Then our SERGEANT went to the crossword puzzle in the Rotarian, and queried each table something or another about some of the entries, and only one of us was able to come up with the correct answer, and that was the one as to who was Sandy or Roberto of baseball (the answer for those of you who were sleeping or not there: Alomar!). Not to go into details as to all of the money collected, we say thanks to Ron for your usual fine Sergeant work!

Program:

Past Bellingham Bay Rotary President, Sue Sharpe, introduced our speaker, and gave a lot of information as to how he got to his current position as President of WWU, and that would be Bruce Shepard. Many of us have heard that Bruce (he asked that we use his first name only when addressing him, so, we will be taking that to heart in this presentation) was a very qualified individual, and after hearing him speak for the thirty minutes, I do feel that we all know that the College Trustees did a great job in selecting him to lead the University during these coming years. Bruce outlined all of the things that the University is involved with at the present time, and letting us know what direction he would like to see it go during the next ten or fifteen years. If you managed to miss this meeting, I would suggest that you go to his next dissertation, and you will probably agree that he is THE ONE!
Our thanks to Bill Gorman, Program Chair, for coming up with one of our very best programs of the year.

And as a closing note, it might be interesting to read an up-date regarding the 'Clean Water' effort that is going on with Rotary International, and know that we have been doing something about it for nearly five years---thanks to Bob Moles and his ever active Committee who has directed all of us into this kind of effort. And, the current Rotarian has a good article on the 'Water' project on page 53.

Respectfully submitted,

Stan Dyer (The Club's Oldest member)