Posted by John Pruitt on Sep 11, 2017
President Steve Shinstrom called the September 11, 2017 Kirkland Rotary meeting to order promptly at 6:31p.m.  Rick Walter was the greeter, Don Dicks led the Pledge of Allegiance and Rich Bergdahl was at the front desk and provided a fine Inspirational Moment, reminding us about how 9/11 brought him to Rotary and helped unify the country.
 
Visiting Rotarians were: Sue Eichler – Seattle 4, Virginia McKenzie – Seattle 4, Cary Young – Sammamish
Guests were:  Sandra Sea-Fisher and Richard Kinberg.
 
Special Guest and Speaker:  District Governor Alexander C. Hopkins 
 
Club Business and Announcements:
  • Rotary Board Meeting is Thursday, September 14th @ 5:30p.  Please RSVP with Steve S.
  • Candidate Forum is September 18th.  Please RSVP to Patti Smith.
  • “I am Jane Doe” – is a documentary film highlighting the fight against sex trafficking in America, sponsored by Seattle 4.  It will be on Tuesday, October 3, 2017 – 6:00-8:30p.  For more information go to:  http://tinyurl.com/y8xp8ozs 
  • Kirkland Oktoberfest:  Rotary volunteers will be pouring beer on September 23rd from 5:00- 8:30p.  Contact John Pruitt for more information.
  • Patty Sims announced that the October 2nd Rotary program, “Taking the Risk and Creating Your Own Gaming Company” would be an ideal program to invite the younger generation!
  • Bunko will be held November 11th at Steve Shinstrom’s.  The theme this year is “South of the Border.”
  • Christmas Party for the needy is booked for December 16th.  For more information, contact Terry Cole.
     
    Happy Dollars:  Rick Walter extracted many Happy Dollars that are used to pay for guests and other happy events.
Program:  District Governor Alexander [Alex] Hopkins presented an inspirational talk on the status and direction of Rotary, including:
  • The focus for his year as District Governor is back to “Traditional Rotary.”
  • There are 2,600 Rotarians in the District and also another 100 in Rotaract and RYLA.
  • Rotary First Harvest has distributed to date over 400,000,000 servings of food!
  • Rotary Academy Starts September 21st.  Please go to the District 5030 website for more information and to sign up for the self-paced training program designed to give you a comprehensive understanding of Rotary.
  • The “Together for Peace” – the U.N. International Day of Peace is schedule for September 21, 2017 from 11:30-12:00p.m. at the Seattle City Hall – Fourth Avenue Plaza Steps.  D.G. Alex encouraged Rotarians to attend.
  • The focus of Rotary will be on younger professionals.
  • D.G. Alex invited all Rotarians to attend the District Conference to be held at the Tulalip Resort on April 27-29, 2018.
     
    The Joke for the Week:  The scribe was busy laughing and was unable to capture it!  Too bad!!!    (Editor Note.  See Joke Below!!!)  
     
    President Steve adjourned the meeting at 7:34p.m
  • Scribe for a day, John Pruitt
A women desperately looking for work goes to ED the personnel manager.  He goes over her resume and explains to her that he regrets he has nothing for her.  The woman answers that she really needs work and will take almost anything.  The personnel manager hems and haws and finally says he does have a low skill job on the “Tickle Me Elmo” line and  nothing else.  The woman happily accepts.  He takes her down to the line and explains her duties and that she should be in by 8:00am the next morning. 
 
The next day at 8:45 there is a knock at the personnel managers door.  The “Tickle Me Elmo” line manager come in a starts reading the personnel manager the riot act about this new employee.  After screaming for 15 minutes about how badly backed up the assembly line is, the personnel manager suggests he show him the problem.  Together they head down to the line an sure enough Elmos are backed up from here to kingdom come.  Right at the end of the line is the woman.  She has pulled over a roll of the material used to make Elmo and has a big bag of marbles.  They both watch as she cuts a small piece of the fabric and take 2 marbles and starts sewing them between Elmo’s legs.  After 20 minutes of gut busting laughing the personnel manager pulls himself together and walks over to the new employee and a says, “I’m sorry I guess you misunderstood me yesterday.  What I wanted you to do was give Elmo two test tickles.”