The August 22  Kirkland Rotary meeting was called to order by President Brandon Honcoop.  Rick Ostrander led the Pledge.  Rick Walter was inspirational about flight attendants on a recent flight when there was a health emergency.  Yes, they do more than serve drinks.

 

VISITING ROTARIANS AND GUESTS  Visiting Rotarians included Dick Carlson from Tucson, John DeLatour from New Zealand, and Dr. Bill Grimes from the Bellevue Club.  Guests included Eric Willsey a lifelong friend of Scott Rethke, and Anne Hamilton guest of Bill Woods with interest in joining us.

ANNOUNCEMENTS

·        Long time Rotarian David Tucker passed away suddenly last week.  A celebration of his life will be at the Kirkland Performance Center at 1PM on Friday August 26.  (editor note.  My apologies for the delay on publishing.  Was on the East Coast and didn't arrive home until Saturday.)

·        Pat Dye announced that the Shoe Program for John Muir School is delayed till September 14-15 because the store renovation is not complete.  The Warm Coats program is scheduled for Friday, October 7 from 9 – Noon.  More later.

·        Brandon plugged the Rotary Academy.  This is a seven month correspondence course on Rotary held by the District which many of us have done in the past and enjoyed very much.  September 20 is the deadline for registration.  For details contact Brandon or Brian Tucker who did it last year.

 

AWARDS  Past president Pat Dye presented Past President a present recognizing his contribution to the Kirkland Rotary Board of Directors over the last four years.

    President Brandon presented Pat with a Past President’s Plaque which finally arrived.

 

HAPPY DOLLARS  This week’s Happy Dollar was unique.  It was administered by our Visiting Rotarian John DeLatour who sweetened the event by collecting the dough in a Kangaroo Scrotum which he contributed for the subsequent end-of-the-evening raffle (that’s unique, isn’t it?).  John described in great detail the harvesting and preparing the scrotum; space doesn’t allow it all here but your imagination should work fine.  A number of the sources for happiness were quite remarkable.  Examples included Patti Smith’s Harley ride with Bob Sternoff last weekend.  One wag asked to see the tattoo that comes with such a ride; Patti suggested that was private  (Your scribe wasn’t sure if the tattoo or the location of the tattoo were the private matter).  And,  Jim renewed the never ending Ole & Sven stories after a long break.  This one had something to do with Ole suffering a grievous private injury from a shotgun blast and digital efforts to accomplish function afterward (Didn’t quite get all the details, which is good).

 

PROGRAM  Our program was very good.  Jen Mueller, color sports commentator for Mariners and Seahawks, talked on the importance of small talk in building relationships.  More info can be found on her webpage, TalkSportytoMe.com.  She emphasized the importance of connecting with people for business, pleasure, and just communication.  Areas of emphasis included the “claim to fame” of Nordstroms from John Nordstrom, CEO for over 30 years.  In an interview he said he and his brothers decided on one major thrust – better customer service equals better communication, when they started their growth that lead to Nordstroms being the leading company it has been. 

   In TalkSportytoMe Jen emphasizes sports is something everyone can talk about comfortably, while weather (boring), politics, religion, and sex are to be avoided, and we should think in 15-20 second “sound bites” just like on TV (about 2-3 sentences).  She suggests five points we all should do to be able to talk enough to start conversations: 1. Scan sports headlines in newspaper, 2. Look at a sports channel on line for a minute, 3. Hear the sports update on radio, 4. Observe the ticker line on the bottom of the TV (no time investment here at all), and 5. Participate in 1 conversation a day either as a talker or as an active listener.  She suggests this takes only 5-10 minutes a day and can enrich your life.  Jen demonstrated this technique with a number of us during her talk. 

 

TICKET DRAWING AND ADJORN As above John DeLatour “sweetened” (maybe not the right word) for our ticket drawing.  John Pruitt had the lucky number, did not draw the joker, but drawing the scrotum was even more welcome than the $10 monetary prize and led to many congratulations and not a few pictures to commemorate his lucky evening.  Our meeting ended about 7:40.

 

 Respectfully submitted         Bob Webb