March 19, 2012 Spokesman
President Brandon called the March 19, 2012 Kirkland Rotary Meeting to order at 6:27 PM. David Aubry lead us in the Pledge.
D. V Hurst gave us inspiration about the many of the most important men on the early U. S. business scene. Of the head of the New York Stock Exchange, the World Bank, and others, many ended penniless and one committed suicide. The stand-out was Gene Saransen, a PGA champ back then. Gene, who died in 1995 at 92 y.o. continued to be very happy and successful to the end. The moral!! Enjoy what you do and live some for today.
VISITING ROTARIANS AND GUESTS In view of our very prominent guest speaker there were visiting Rotarians, guests, and many many family members visiting our club meeting.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
· Megan Nakinishi announced with much enthusiasm that the 2012 Duck Race will be held at the new Kirkland Celebration on Saturday August 11. We will still have a presence at the July 4 celebration, be in the parade, and sell tickets in the usual booths. She also complimented the sponsors effort of Scott Becker and his committee.
· Scott told us we are up to $18,000, which was last year’s total. The goal is still $20,000 so please ask potential sponsors or pass names to Scott and his committee.
· President Elect Patti told us we will have our annual club assembly on April 9 to help develop our plans for next year on April 9. You have an email with a survey; please get those results to Patti in the next 2 weeks so they may be tallied and reported at the Assembly.
· Reminder – The Kirkland Rotary Foundation Auction will be held on April If you have any auction items please contact Barb Seaton, Rachael Knight, John Woodbury, or David Aubry.
KIRKLAND BOYS & GIRLS CLUB – Doug Wozeniak, Executive Director of the KBGG came to our meeting to thank us for our support of the new Teen Center. Because of our gift of $75,000 over the last three years the Center is named for Kirkland Rotary. President Brandon presented the last installment check for $25,000 to Doug.
PROGRAM Sigi Schmid, Coach of the Seattle Sounders FC was our speaker. He was introduced by Rich Bergdahl who outlined Sigi’s amazing career. He and his family emigrated from Germany as a child and he grew up playing soccer. He started for UCLA all 4 years as a midfielder. After a BA in Economics, he got an MBA and CPA from Southern California. He lived in Manhattan Beach and he and his wife have four children. In 1977 he started coaching as an assistant at UCLA for 3 years then became head coach for the next 19 years (1980-99) where the Bruins had 16 consecutive playoff appearances and won national championships in ’85, ’90, & 97. He then started coaching in the Major League Soccer (MLS) with the LA Galaxy for 5 years (MLS cup in 2002), the Columbus Crew for 3 years (MLS cup in 2008) and for the Sounders since 2009. The Sounders experience has been amazing with every league match sold out, highest ticket sales in the league, qualified for MLS cup playoffs each of his 3 years and won the U.S. Open Cup. In 2004 he was inducted into the UCLA Sports Hall of Fame.
Sigi gave an inspirational talk (and has been in high demand as an inspirational speaker). He made many correlations between professional sports and business. He feels the foundations in both are essential for success and emphasizes attention to detail in both. He feels one learns every day if one pays attention. He also is confident to be successful one must enjoy what he or she does. In a generous question and answer period Sigi gave many examples of how the above basics have been important in his life, the life of his four children, and in coaching soccer at the highest level. Everyone enjoyed his talk.
ADJOURN To give our speaker as much time as possible, we did not do Happy Dollars and suspended the Joker Pool. Currently there is approximately $2300 waiting to be won.
President Brandon adjourned the meeting at 7:40 PM
Respectfully submitted Bob Webb