The Rotary Club of Kirkland held its regular weekly meeting online on June 29, 2020. It is our annual Club Assembly meeting where the Club Committees Chairs outline some of their plans for the coming year.
The meeting began about 6:18 p.m., as arranged by James Nevers, using his Zoom account. As usual, we waited a few minutes before starting, to give everyone a chance to ‘arrive’.
Attending were James Nevers, Dave Aubry, Margie Glenn, Gary Cohn, Dan Bartel, Joanne Primavera, Kristin Olson, Rick Ostrander, Rich Bergdahl, Patti Smith, Rick Walter, Don Dicks, Amy Mutal, Jim Meniketti,John Woodbery, Bella Chaffey, Monica Fratita, Scott Becker, Terry Cole, Ambareen Jaddi, George Anderson, Tricia & Russ Stromberg, Stefan Landvogt [all the way from Germany!!], Steve Shinstrom, and Dave Debois. Let me know if I missed anyone.
President James Nevers rang the bell at 6:18 p.m.
Joanne Primavera recited the Pledge of Allegiance while the rest of us stood, in order to avoid ‘out-of-sync-problems’ with our audio.
We can now make almost any Club payments on line, including dues, Happy Dollars, and Duck Dash Sponsorships.
We started with Happy Dollars. James Nevers was so happy about being wed to Jessica he made us watch a video of his wedding video. Several other folks were also happy but perhaps many of us need to learn how to pay in advance on ClubRunner.
Announcements:
Scott Becker has checked on Club member Bob Webb – he is in a new group home. His daughter reports that he is not doing as well as one would like. He still misses Rotary. Scott will assemble a photo collage for Bob – send any appropriate photos to Scott.
For Zoom meetings going forward we will use the same link. Look at email or go to ClubRunner. James will send out reminder emails about meetings.
Don Dicks asked Dave Aubry whether Mayor Sweet had gotten back to him with an answer to last week’s question about the status of the CKC Pavilion. Dave replied that he had not heard from the Mayor but had made enquiries and had been told that a check was to go out this week to start the manufacturing process for the Pavilion kit. It will take 8-12 weeks to build and ship. Dave will follow up.
Bella Chaffey and Stefan Landvogt went Red-to-Blue Badge. We welcomed them both enthusiastically as valued new full-fledged members.
Club Assembly – Committee Chairs talked, solicited volunteers/members. Especially important as the Duck Dash will probably not occur this year, thereby cutting our major source of revenue. We need to work out cancellation details with the duck supplier. We do have about $13K in sponsorship money that we can apply to our projects.
Amy Mutal/Rick Walter – Membership. They will try to follow through on all systems to ensure that interested folks get the support they need to become committed and successful Rotarians. We need to find a way to raise our profile in the Community so that more people recognize what a force for accomplishing good things we are.
Rich Bergdahl/Don Dicks – Rotary International Foundation. They are targeting $12K total including $5K to the Polio Fund. November is Foundation Month.
Bella Chaffey/Joe Getzendanner – Club Service. They will send out questionnaires to help boost involvement – probably over the next week. More to come.
Joanne Primavera – International Service. She shared a screen to show us her Committee members and some of the projects they are considering. Could use more District-wide participation in International projects.
James showed us some numbers from the Club survey – it shows a wish for more Happy Dollars. Going forward we will start our meetings with that. We will do a monthly theme for our speakers. Any of us can help to find appropriate speakers.
Gary Cohn – Vocational. He is looking for more volunteers. Would like to maintain $10K for scholarships, plus independent member-sponsored scholarships. He would like to beef up the Student of the Month program, and possibly include Middle Schools. He is looking at other programs such as DECA, coding, etc.
Ambareen Jaddi/Dave Debois – Community Service. They are looking at more engagement with the schools community. Some schools have new counselors who do not know us, so this will take some effort to educate them about Rotary. This can also be viewed as an opportunity to raise our profile. More later.
Terry Cole and John Woodbery thanked James Nevers for keeping us together through virtual meetings.
Next week our speaker will be Kate Riley, Editorial Page Editor of the Seattle Times, speaking about the Free Press Initiative.
We adjourned at 7:31 p.m.
Respectfully Submitted
David Aubry - Acting Scribe