The Rotary Club of Kirkland held a virtual meeting on May 8, 2023 using the Zoom platform.
President Amy Mutal called the meeting to order at 6:18 p.m.
President Amy led us in the pledge.
Attending were Pete Anderson, Scott Becker, Rich Bergdahl, Gary Cohn, David DeBois, Donald Dicks, Jocelyn Ellison, Doug Evanson, Monica Fratita, Rashmi Garimella, Brandon Honcoop, Isabelle Kalisa, Jim Meniketti, Amy Mutal, Kristin Olson, Rick Ostrander, Joanne Primavera, John Pruitt, Karin Quirk, John Storbeck, and Pat Swenson.
Guests:
There were no guests at this virtual meeting.
Greeters:
President Amy greeted members.
Announcements, Club Business, Committee Reports:
Dave DeBois reminded members that EvergreenHealth is donating 100 pieces of art and other items, and the club is scheduled to pick up the merchandise at 8:30 the morning tomorrow. There were several questions about location and transportation, which Dave answered.
Pete Anderson reminded members there is a Rummage Sale Operations Team meeting at the Brezza Condominium on May 10 at 5 p.m. A reminder announcement will be sent to the team members.
Pete announced that he is joining the Rotary Club of Kirkland Downtown (the breakfast club) at their meeting at Madison House this week to brief them on the rummage sale and obtain their partnership for the activity.
Scott reported on the status of donations for sponsorships of the rummage sale. As soon as a list is provided the names will be placed on the website “sponsor carousel” for display.
Gary Cohn provided an update on scholarships, noting that of the 18 who submitted applications by the deadline, 10 have been selected for 11 scholarships worth a total of $28,000. Thank you to Rick Walter, Patti Smith, and Kristin Olson for conducting the Juanita High School interviews, and John Pruitt and Rick Ostrander for conducting the Lake Washington High School interviews. Award letters are expected to be released tomorrow, May 9.
Gary also announced that club members would be receiving at least two surveys in the coming days. The first is expected to be a survey on club committee service preferences for 2023-2024 (not rummage sale teams). The second is a compilation of past programs and club events with a request the members identify their preferences to assist in program and speaker planning and event planning for the coming Rotary year.
Gary also noted that the report of the nominating committee was received and approved by the board of directors at their special meeting last week. The slate of officer and committee chair candidates will be provided to the membership for voting at the May 15 meeting.
President Amy announcing the annual Leadership Transition Dinner will be held on Tuesday, June 20, from 6 to 9 p.m., at The Bravern in a private room. She will be sending an announcement with further details and the dinner fee once the catering cost is settled. The caterer who provided the salmon bake and holiday dinner spreads is also doing the transition dinner.
Classification Talk:
Rashmi Garimella works for Google as a disability analyst. She noted that over 1 billion blind people around the world. The work to provide access to those with disabilities benefits everyone. Rashmi described various types of disabilities: mobility and physical impairments, spinal cord disability, head injuries and brain disabilities, low vision and blindness, hearing impairment and deafness, cognitive and learning disabilities, psychological disorders, invisible disabilities, and various literacy levels.
She described how the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 defines how to make web content more accessible to people with disabilities, and older people with changing abilities due to aging. WCAG provides a provide common definition for accessible content, a benchmark. She also noted that section 508 is an important amendment to The Rehabilitation Act that protects the right of people with disabilities to have equal access to electronic and information technology, commenting that there have been a great number of law suits aimed at organizations that have not provided these access options to people with disabilities who visit their websites.
Rashmi reviewed various types of assistive technologies that can be implemented to make websites more accessible, including: magnifiers, talking devices such as a talking thermostat, braille displays, screen reading software, text-to-speech systems using Optical Character Recognition (OCR), large print materials, and phones with large tactile buttons.
Rashmi noted that she makes digital voice available to people who need access. Rotarians inquired about Rashmi’s background, family, hobbies, and about how the future of AI will affect her work, all of which she answered.
Happy Bucks:
There were no happy bucks collected this evening.
Program:
The program for this meeting was Nan Su of SOH International Chinese Radio Network, who was to speak on “Wisdom and humanity from ancient Chinese culture.” Unfortunately, he did not make it to the meeting.
Instead, Joanne Primavera described her trip to Uzbekistan, and her travels along the silk road. She described a great number of sites, advising it was easy to get there on Turkish Airlines. She noted the food was good, there were no homeless to be seen, and everything was so very clean. She described the struggles of the Uzbekistani people creating a democratic government after the fall of the U.S.S.R., and how far they’ve come in 31 years of independence. In response to a member’s question, Joanne said that the highlight of the trip for her was seeing a central Asia country.
Adjournment:
The meeting was adjourned at 7:06 p.m.
Respectfully Submitted,
Gary Cohn, Secretary