The Rotary Club of Kirkland held its regular weekly meeting online on August 3, 2020.
Attending were Dave Aubry, Gary Cohn, Dan Bartel, Joanne Primavera, Kristin Olson, Rich Bergdahl, Patti Smith, Rick Walter, Don Dicks, Amy & Dave Mutal, John Woodbery, George Anderson, Stefan Landvogt, Steve Shinstrom, Dave Debois, Mike Hunter, Terry Cole, Monica Fratita, Jim Meneketti, Elizabeth Rusnak. Let me know if I missed anyone.
Acting President Dave Debois called us to order at 6:15 p.m.
As of August 1, 34 of the club’s 53 active members, or 64%, have paid their annual dues. On August 1, members received second dues statements produced by the ClubRunner system and sent to members’ preferred email on file in ClubRunner. Unfortunately, seven of our members received second dues statements, but should not have received them. They paid by check, which is wonderful, but there was a minor delay in catching up the ClubRunner system with the U.S. Mail. That’s been resolved and a new double-check established for the statement production process. In addition, several members received statements because of Happy Bucks commitments during the past several meetings. Rotarians may make Happy Bucks contributions through the Rotary Club of Kirkland's Donations page, or receive statements a few days after the meeting during which all that happiness was shared.
Kirkland Rotarians will see an all-star line-up during the August diversity, equity, and inclusion program series, The Legacy of Racism in America. The experts scheduled to speak to the club on four successive Mondays are Scott Miller, August 10, an environmental journalist, on white privilege; Joshua Cooper, August 17, vice president of PriceWaterhousCoopers, LLC, on LGBTQD equity and inclusion; Paula-Ann Clements, August 24, trained facilitator and Circle Keeper, on the Native American experience; and Linda Byron, August 32, former KING 5 television reporter, on equity in policing and what it means to “defund” the police. Rotarian Darcia Tudor will serve as the moderator during the August presentations. Rotarians can find topic and speaker background on the Rotary Club of Kirkland website using the Speakers tab.
The month of September is the perfect time for a back-to-school speaker series. That is what club members will be able to see and hear through the Zoom platform. As of this edition of the Spokesman, two local education leaders are committed for September. On September 21, the special guest will be Dr. Jon Holmen, superintendent of the Lake Washington School District. On the 28th, the club’s special guest will be Dr. Amy Morrison, president of the Lake Washington Institute of Technology. Both of these education CEOs will discuss recent developments and future plans in their organizations, and will update Rotarians on how their teams of professionals are dealing with the impact of the novel coronavirus on operations. Rotarians can find topic and speaker background on the Rotary Club of Kirkland website using the Speakers tab.
Have you ever wondered how many people receive our club bulletin, the Spokesman? Or how many people actually open the Spokesman when it arrives? Through the work of Rotarians Steve Shinstrom and Gary Cohn, the Spokesman has been converted to ClubRunner’s new “bulletin wizard” and, starting back in June, began looking a bit different from past editions. The ClubRunner system automatically formats the bulletin and still adds a variety of information stored in our club files. It also stores past editions on a special Bulletins page designed for archiving these publications. The archive page can be reached through a “pull-down” menu item under the “News” heading on the home page, or by clicking on the small “Bulletins” icon in the “Club Information” box at the top of the club’s home page.