The Rotary Club of Kirkland held an in-person meeting at Sparrow Restaurant in the Juanita Bay area of Kirkland. Past President John Pruitt presided at this meeting and called the meeting to order at 6:25 p.m.
Michelle Cazeau greeted members and guests and collected the meal money, Rick Walter sold tickets for the prize raffle.
Gary Cohn led us in the Pledge, while Bob Auslander held the flag.
Attendees were: David Aubry, Bob Auslander, Cody Baker, Michelle Cazeau, Gary Cohn, Terry Cole, Donald Dicks, Jocelyn Ellison, Rashmi Garimella, Margie Glenn, Kate Koslosky, Jim Meniketti, Kristin Olson, Rick Ostrander, Joanne Primavera, John Pruitt, Daniel Sada Caraveo, John Storbeck, Manassey Tetteh, Alice Volpe, and Rick Walter.
Visiting Rotarians:
The club welcomed a guest from Mumbai, India, Deviyani Ved of the Rotary Club of Thane North was introduced, and Deviyani introduced us to her daughter, who lives here in Kirkland. Then Deviyani gave us a short outline of the Mumbai club’s activities, and club flags were exchanged. Cody Baker introduced Angela Lopez from Phoenix, Arizona. Ms. Lopez works remotely from Arizona on membership for Rotary International headquarters in Evanston, Illinois. Dick Carlson, a ‘Sun-Bird’ from Arizona who is here again for the summer introduced himself.
Guests:
David Aubry introduced wife Anna, and Jocelyn Reiter Ellison introduced her daughter Jocelyn from Virginia, who is back for another meeting.
Rotary Raffle:
As we finished ordering food and drinks, raffle tickets were drawn, resulting in several winners of the donated prizes. Winners included Terry Cole, Bob Auslander, John Pruitt, and Alice Volpe.
Four-Way Test:
Acting President John directed our attention to the wallet-size copies of the Four-Way Test at everyone’s place. We then all recited the Four-Way Test, reminding ourselves of its central place in our Rotary lives.
Rotary Minute:
Rick Walter presented to us a Rotary Minute, consisting of a recital of many of the things Rotary membership offers, including meeting new friends and then associating with them, and contributing to our communities.
Announcements/ Committee Reports:
Rick Walter reported that he is lining up some Community Service work parties. We may assist Hopelink again, and with John Muir Elementary projects, such as Holiday Food Baskets and Warm Coats. Nourishing Network is another possibility.
Jocelyn Reiter Ellison reported that she is moving ahead on student scholarships, and described the fun of interviewing the amazing student applicants. She wants more club members to get involved in the process – she obtained three recruits on the spot!
Cody Baker announced that there are new membership applicants moving through the process. Then Cody formally introduce Mannasey “Manny” Tetteh to the club. Manny had worked hard at the rummage sale and many members have spoken to him. Cody then formally inducted Manny into membership. Actually, Manny is a transfer as he was a Rotarian in both Ghana and England.
Cody also announced that we are waiting on a couple more bills before we have an accurate picture of rummage sale finances. It appears we will lose a bit of money on the sale, but the sponsorships will put us in the black.
Our new chair of the programs and speakers committee is John Storbeck, and he reported beginning to line up speakers for our meetings starting in October. He encouraged members who have ideas about possible speakers to contact him.
Program:
Our speaker for the evening was Susan Champlain, Senior Director of NW Region Government operations from Boeing. She walked us through a bit of the current and past challenges Boeing has been and is facing. Covid fallout resulted in the loss of many experienced production people. Work is being brought back in-house from subcontractors. These two issues alone have disrupted the aircraft production processes. Boeing is committed to getting its house in order but it would appear that this will be a difficult process.
The company has announced that a new CEO will take over at the end of the year – he is an experienced aerospace manager with an engineering background.
The FAA is overseeing a lot of company activities and will have to buy off on many of the changes, as well as approve any increase in aircraft production rates.
Ms. Champlain also gave us a brief overview of Boeing’s importance to Washington’s economy – the company employs many thousands of workers, as do various suppliers. Boeing is also engaged in academic program development at a number of high schools across the state. These programs are geared towards educating technically adept hands-on workers for Boeing’s production facilities. A number of students have gone directly from school into well-paying skilled jobs at Boeing.
There were several questions from Rotarians.
Happy Bucks:
Rick Walter did a quick round of Happy Bucks, showing once again that this is a happy club. Thank you especially to Don Dicks for the $100 contribution through ClubRunner.
Adjournment:
Acting President John thanked our speaker and guests, each of the members who contributed to the meeting through meeting responsibilities, and rang the bell to adjourn at 7:20 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
David Aubry – Acting Scribe