Soundings (8/2/05)

Guests: Brian Finnegan (Whatcom North), Melanie Merz (our club's ambassadorial candidate from WWU), Drew Bosman (Denise's son), Judy Kirkland (Mike's wife), Lydia Stone (Chamber of Commerce).

Bucks in Bay
Bill Unrein - for daughter's successful oral surgery by Dr. Chuck Walters; Barry Kramer - for missed meetings while in muggy Minnesota; John Templeton - Fiancee and friend organizing charity organization, looking for ideas; Dale Zender - missed meetings coaching baseball; Tonja Myers - update Whatcom Center for Early Learning ordered equipment to be paid for by our check, may need volunteers to help set-up; Denise Bosman - upcoming birthday, trip to Napa and upcoming trip to NYC with kids; Dick Stark - trip to Ensenada, MX to build homes; Mike Kirkland - for 3 wks on sailboat with wife and she is still speaking with him; Bob Jones - thank you card from client in Homer, AK; Bill Gorman - trip to Cannon Beach, OR; Ron Hardesty - golf season, a razor cut, Wild Buffalo concert tomorrow 8:30 pm. Art Runestrand - 16-y.o. granddaughter's continued success at swimming, competing in Utah in an upcoming swim meet for Western Region; John Barron - anniversary bucks; Donna Edquist - missed meetings, in Europe with kids from Squalicum HS, great trip! Ed Zech - hiking trip on Wonderland Trail with wife, an anniversary, and highly recommends next week's program, to be given by friend from Navy who coordinated post-Tsunami relief efforts; Mike Werner - travel to CA, a successful fishing trip in Canada, and trip to Sun Valley. Lynn Templeton - Ferndale's quarterback Jake Locker going to the UW! Orphalee - Women can paint too!

Sargent at Arms by Cy Lindberg:
Paul Leuthold's unannounced birthday, Dennis's "attendance sheet" on the Website, Todd Ramsay, Phil Schwab, convertible owners, Byron for so many Audi's in parking lot, Bob Jones, David King and others.

Program - Stowe presented a slide show slideshow about our club's new Website and all its features. On the homepage there is a help button (lower left side) you can use to get detailed instructions on how to use the site. The Website is particularly good at: -Message Center (Emailing to individuals or custom "distribution lists") -Events (Emailing registering, regitering attendees, registering volunteers, organizing subcommittees, name tags, etc) -Membership (detailed membership database, attendance tracking, etc.) -Club Bulletin (meeting notes, calendar, upcoming speakers, to-do lists, etc.)

Several members asked about security, and the danger of Email addresses getting to spammers: The Website itself is protected by a firewall and virus-protected. Emails (such as this one) do not divulge the addresses of the other recipients, so addresses cannot get tracked by spammers. Insofar as we are now tied into the District Website, we do receive Email-solicitations occasionally from them. But to date these have been infrequent, and have been invitations to local Rotary events (not spam or advertising).

Stowe encourages everyone to log on, update their personal profile, and at least try out the Email function.

Respectfully submitted, Stowe