President Brandon Honcoop opened the January 9, 2012 our meeting at 6:25.  He thanked Bob Webb as greeter and Jerry Campo as scribe.   Inspirational Moment: Rick Walter, with , of course, a golf joke.

Visitors:  Scott East:  Bellevue noon Club;  Sherry Harris:  Pres-elect Monroe Club, Deputy Chief of Monroe PD;  Matt Young: outgoing Student of the Month from JHS;  Sam Schwabacher: incoming Student of the Month from JHS;  Kathy Feek: Jim Feek’s lovely bride.

Announcements:

Dan Bartel is heading the work party at Rotary First Harvest, Sat., January 14th, 2012. Meet at the Houghton Park & Ride at 8:00 AM if you’d like a ride or to carpool. Lunch afterward.

Jim Going needs 1 more interviewer for S.O.M. at LWHS on Thurs, Jan 19th at 12 noon.

President Brandon passed on that Katherine Kehrli is collecting books for the Literacy Project now through Mar 31st. You can bring the books to a meeting or take to Katherine’s house.

President Brandon also announced the Rotary District Conference at the Couer d’Alene Resort, April 20-22nd, 2012. Great rates at a great resort!

Matt Young, our outgoing S.O.M. from JHS gave his talk tonight. Matt shared with us his recognition of Kirkland Rotary as a group of people with a desire to help others. Matt plans to take a year off and travel the world before embarking on his educational future.

Rich Bergdahl made it another special night in Rotary, inducting Eric Willsey (CPA). Eric’s sponsor is Scott Rethke, with Chief Olsen acting as his mentor. Eric’s bonus was his ‘get out of jail free’ card. We’ll see how well THAT works!

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Speaker:

Patti Smith introduced Kurt Triplett, the Kirkland City Manager since June 2010.  Kurt’s education included Stanford as an undergrad, then Harvard for a Master’s degree in Public Administration. Kurt served for 17 years in various capacities for King County. Kurt is married with 3 children. Many topics were covered including the Annexation of Finn Hill, North Juanita and Kingsgate, the Totem Lake area project, the Kirkland Parkplace redevelopment. the City Budget in an era of economic downturn and the acquisition of the Eastside Rail Corridor.  Kurt gave us a good synopsis of the major projects taking place in Kirkland today.

Your Scribe, Jerry Campo.