The Rotary Club of Kirkland held a virtual meeting on February 13, 2023 using the Zoom platform.

President Amy Mutal, called the meeting to order at 6:15 p.m.

Terry Cole led us in the pledge.

Attending were Pete Anderson, David Aubry, Scott Becker, Gary Cohn, Terry Cole, Dave DeBois, Donald Dicks, Jocelyn Ellison, Monica Fratita, Rashmi Garimella, Brandon Honcoop, Isabelle Kalisa, Jim Meniketti, Amy Mutal, Rick Ostrander, Joanne Primavera, John Pruitt, Karin Quirk, Steve Shinstrom, Patti Smith, John Storbeck, Alice Volpe, and Rick Walter.
 
Guests:

There were no guests at this virtual meeting.

Greeters:

President Amy greeted members as they joined the meeting.
 
Announcements, Club Business, Committee Reports:

President Amy reminded us of the meeting schedule for the next few months – through April.  We will continue to meet at SOI for our in-person meetings.  We will get a microphone for our speakers to use.  We will have a regular sign-in procedure, as before.  Parking tickets will be placed in a container for validation; water and member badges will be available at the check-in table.  There will be food-order tags to write dinner order on, name, and table number, so restaurant staff does not have to constantly circulate through the meeting.  We want to use our time before the meeting to socialize, etc.  We will do more Happy Dollars as time allows.  We will schedule “Getting to Know You” talks by members so everyone becomes more familiar with each other.  Plan on arriving at 5:30 p.m. so all the preliminaries can be done early.

Meal tickets as used before were discussed – difficult to make work with individual food orders.  We will probably refund unused meal ticket amounts – or members can donate the remaining amount to the club. The board will discuss the issue.  Let Jim Meniketti know what you want done with any remaining meal ticket amounts.

We will not have Student of the Month presentations when we meet via Zoom.  We will try to do speakers when on Zoom, especially those who would not be able to present in person.
Community Service Committee – Joanne Primavera:  We will do projects for the next three months, then we will be focused, starting in May, on our “Rummage Sale” annual fund-raiser.
Next week, our project will be participating in a blood drive, a District 5030 event. We will partner with a local pop-up Bloodmobile on Slater Ave. in February.  The club’s website has details and sign-up information on the home page.

On March 19, we will cook a meal – a lunch for 20 – at Joanne’s place for people at “Helen’s Place”.  Plan on working 8:30 - 10:30 a.m.  Event details and a sign-up will be on our website.  Anyone else wanting to host cooking a lunch should let Joanne know.

In April we will meet at Hero House, and do dinner, a meeting, and perform community service.

Joanne also reported on a possible International Service project.  The massive earthquake in Turkey and Syria has killed thousands and left many thousands homeless.  She asked if we were interested as a club in providing a number of Shelter Boxes.  Everyone supported the idea, and Joanne will investigate costs per Box.  We currently have about $5,000 available, and she will solicit more dollars.  See the club website shortly for more info.

Fundraising Committee – Dave DeBois:  Dave reported on progress towards organizing our first “Rummage Sale” fundraiser.  The committee is working on a location.  Gary Cohn has spoken to various local public-school campuses and has narrowed it a bit to Juanita High School.  On March 8, the committee will walk through the site.  No Kirkland city permits are required; they are discussing possible other requirements with the Kirkland Fire Department.

Mr. DeBois envisions five committees to organize the event; club members will need to join multiple committees.  The largest committee will likely be the Operations Committee, with 15-20 people to handle safety, traffic, trash, etc.  A Finance Committee will handle pricing items, budget, etc.  Ten people will be needed here.  A Tech and Marketing Committee will create a website linked to the club’s website, a social media aspect, yard signs, connecting with Neighborhood Associations, etc.  There will be a Food Committee, and a Message Coordinating Committee so we have an accurate and consistent message to the public.  There will be a Volunteers Management Committee.  We are looking at Saturday July 1 for the event.  On July 2 [provided anyone is still alive] we will have a barbecue or pizza party to thank participants.

The last day of school is June 23, so the first weekday we can access a school campus for set-up will be Monday, June 26.  There are some concerns about conflicts with other community events.

Happy Bucks:

There were no Happy Bucks collected during this meeting.

Program:

New, repeat, member Karen Quirk then gave her classification talk.  She is now a family law attorney but has had a varied professional career.  She told us she was born in Germany during WWII and her parents emigrated when she was six.  She spoke no English, grew up in Spokane, and was the first in her family to go to college.  She went to Eastern Washington University in Cheney.  She became engaged to an Air Force officer who was transferred to Texas, so she went there, married, and moved to a base in Little Rock, Arkansas.  After his discharge he went law school, she got a teaching credential, and they wound up in Bellevue.  After her daughter was born, she explored a number of career options, working in several fields.  Following her divorce, she worked as an investment advisor.  After her daughter left for college, she decided to relocate to southern California.  She and her daughter both went to law school at a for-profit institution where she received her degree.  She passed the bar and began practicing law, eventually specializing in family law.

She relocated back to Washington to be near her daughter, building a business in family law here.  Several club members know her personally and professionally.

President Amy signed up a couple of our newer members for future classification talks, and announced there will be a social event on Wednesday, March 15 … details to follow.

Adjournment:

The meeting was adjourned at 7:10 p.m.

Respectfully Submitted,

Dave Aubry, Acting Scribe