The Rotary Club of Kirkland held an in-person meeting August 19, 2024 at the Kirkland Eagles Club. Past President John Pruitt presided at this meeting and called the meeting to order at 6:17 p.m.
Bob Auslander led us in the Pledge, and Dave Aubry led the recitation of the Four-Way Test.
Rick Walter gave us a Rotary Moment in which he explained the origin of the Four -Way Test. It began as the result of a struggling company during the Depression searching for a way to differentiate itself from the competition. The company succeeded, in 1943 Rotary adopted the Four -Way Test, and eventually the company CEO became president of Rotary International.
Attendees were: David Aubry, Bob Auslander, Cody Baker, Michelle Cazeau, Gary Cohn, Terry Cole, Doug Evanson*, Margie Glenn, Isabelle Kalisa, Jim Meniketti, Rick Ostrander, John Pruitt, Daniel Sada Caraveo, John Storbeck, and Rick Walter. *Attended via Zoom.
Visiting Rotarians:
The club welcomed Dick Carlson, a ‘Sun-Bird’ with the Catalina Rotary Club in Tucson, Arizona who is with us through September.
Guests:
We welcomed Matt Borland, retired Boeing executive, who has participated in the Holiday Shopping event and is interested in perhaps joining the Club. Cody Baker introduced Bailiang Zhou, who goes by ‘Joe’, and who recent became a Kirkland resident.
Announcements/ Committee Reports:
The Salmon Bake at Bob Auslander’s home will be August 26 – be sure to sign up in advance. The event begins at 5:00 p.m. – there are 21 people signed up – registration closes at noon on Wednesday, August 21.
Rick Walter - Community Service. We have 9 people signed up to sort food at Hopelink on August 29. He is working with Nourishing Networks to have us assist in serving a meal on a Wednesday evening in October. He is still working with John Muir Elementary so we can do Warm Coats, Holiday Food Baskets, Holiday Gift Shopping, etc.
Isabelle Kalisa is still working on a potential International Service project.
Cody Baker reported on the survey results regarding the rummage sale – most respondents favored continuing the event. He passed out a financial summary of both this year’s and last year’s rummage sales. Lower volume, greater losses this year. The consensus seems to be that better organization and focus can produce positive results. We need more and younger volunteers, especially for the set-up period. Need to focus first on improving the financial results, secondly on the staffing structure. We need a better name for the event. Moving the event to Lake Washington H.S., where much of our scholarship money goes, might be a good idea. Need to look at the financial aspects of such a change.
Program:
Our speaker, from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms had to cancel, so Mr. Storbeck filled in with a story of a man who changed history by an inadvertent action without knowing or intending to. He told us about the July 20, 1944, attempt to assassinate Adolph Hitler by a group of German army officers. He told us about three of the principal actors, including two key conspirators in the plot, how the attempt unfolded, how and why it failed, and some of the consequences of that failure.
The failure occurred for several reasons – the bombs involved were not all properly armed, the conference room where the attempt was to be made was changed to a less rigid structure, reducing the effect of the blast, and one of the conference attendees, General Heinz Brandt, inadvertently moved the satchel containing the bomb away from Hitler. {note – Brandt was apparently not part of the conspiracy.]
The result was that Hitler was only injured, the war continued as before, with Germany steadily losing ground, and the conspirators were rounded up and killed. General Brandt died as a result of the bomb blast. If the conspiracy had succeeded, the war might have ended earlier, thus with fewer casualties on all sides. [Editor’s note – would the conspirators have been willing to surrender Germany unconditionally? Unlikely. Therefore, the war would have continued.]
John Storbeck reported he is working on speakers for our meetings and again encouraged members who have ideas about possible speakers to contact him. He is focusing on a speaker for the October 21 meeting.
There were several questions from Rotarians.
There is a sign-up sheet at meetings and on-line for duties such as the Pledge, the Four-Way Test, the raffle, etc. Please sign up.
The winning tickets were held by Rick Ostrander, Terry Cole, Isabelle Kalisa, and Rick Walter, who put is prize back in play for next week.
Rick Walter did Happy Dollars – there were several happy Rotarians.
Next Monday is the Salmon Bake; after that, September 9’s meeting will be on Zoom.
Acting President John Pruitt rang the bell to adjourn at 7:20 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
David Aubry – Acting Scribe