Notes from May 9, 2017 Meeting of THE ROTARY CLUB OF EVERETT #5201 (#43 of our Centennial year)

 

Greeters: Steve McGraw and Larry O’Donnell

 

President Ed Petersen called the meeting to order at 12:09, followed by the Pledge of Allegiance. Lyle Ryan presented the Thought of the Day, reflecting on our 100 years of success, and his concern about our future which requires membership in the club. He reminded us of the importance of all of us taking part in recruiting new members to ensure our future success.

 

Presidential Recollection Maddy Metzger-Utt: (member since 2008, president 2013-14): Maddy is a 4th generation Everett resident. Maddy reported that she was able to travel to Lisbon, Portugal for the Rotary International convention, and the theme was Engage Rotary and Change Lives. Maddy made some controversial changes her year-she cancelled music at the meetings (which was so controversial that we lost a member over it!), changed meeting location to the Everett Golf and Country Club, added the Power Point at meetings with informational slides, and reorganized and combined some committees. Maddy was the 3rd woman president; speakers gifts her year went to our Next Generation Project. Our Club won the Peak Service Award (top for district), Scholarships were narrowed to Everett School District schools, totaling $139k. We raised $70k in fundraising that year with a Movie/Oscars theme driven by Deb Wright. We added 11 new members during Maddy’s year. Maddy closed with a Thought of the Day quote from Woodrow Wilson, summarizing here: “You are not here to merely make a living, you are here to enrich the world” and $100 happy bucks for apologies for not being present for many meetings recently.

 

 

 

President Ed announced that on June 13th Barb McCarthy will be presenting at our meeting about being first woman member. This will be her “swan song” as she is resigning her membership in our club due to other commitments.

 

Introduction of Guests (no visiting Rotarians) Past President Larry O’Donnell: George Bowden introduced his coworker who just passed her bar exam. Mike McGinnis introduced Marcy Volmer of the Snohomish County Boys & Girls Club. Lindsey Webb was introduced from Congressman Larson’s office.

 

 

 

Announcements:

• Paul Harris Awards presented by Past President Andy Hall: 2nd Paul Harris to Rich Anderson, Adam Ballou, Jim Wheeler; 3rd Paul Harris to Bruce Timm, Andy Hall; 5th Paul Harris to Sean Kelly; 6th Paul Harris to Ed Peterson, Janice Ellis, 8th Paul Harris to Deb Wright, 9th Paul Harris to Mike Holcomb, Jim Staniford, 10th Paul Harris to Steve Juntwait (which makes him a Major Donor). Congratulations and Thank You to all!

• District Conference Update – Ed Petersen. 12 members plus current exchange student from France Hugo Coutant and next outgoing Exchange Student Espen Diamond (who will be traveling Norwayf or his exchange!). President Ed reported that while he was at the conference, he got stuck in the elevator and Hugo and the kids helped rescue him with a shovel, prying open the door! At the Conference, our club was recognized with several awards including: Public Image Award for 5050 awarded to Everett (presented to Walt Greenwood) 5050 Rookie of the Year Award to Eric Samuelson for the mentoring program he has developed in connection with Avid (he wrote a grant and got a $50k award for 3 years, developed Rotaract, wrote a grant).

 

• Environmental Committee – Ed spoke for Marybeth Dingledy, Rotary Park Clean Up May 20th, and the Mukilteo Blvd planting project on Sat June 3rd.

 

• Card to be signed for fellow Rotarian (SE/Mukilteo) Shawn O’Donnell and catering staff from our May 2nd Centennial event. Shawn and staff went over and above to provide great food and drink at a major discount to our club.

 

12:33 Happy Dollars:

 

Mike McGinnis (Sergent at Arms Cmte) thrilled that Bill Tilley is back with us ($200)

 

Mark Nesse-stage 4 kidney Cancer in Remission! (missed the event last Tuesday because of a CT scan to reveal.

Rich Toyer-sad dollars for the passing of his love

Janice Ellis-thank you dollars for all the support from the club, returning to work full time next week, walked a 10k on Sunday, and also notified our incoming exchange student is a woman from Taiwan.

Bruce Timm-reminiscing about Maddy as a child.

Todd Morrow-happy for Congressman Larson’s presence and his work in supporting Community Transit and securing $43M federal dollars.

Eileen Simmons-announcing her retirement as of October.

Tammy Dunn-happy to be back to Rotary and really enjoyed the Centennial event.

Gary Cohn-happy for 6 schools earning WA Achievement Awards, all 3 HS listed as top 50 HS in WA (out of 600), every middle school earned a Green Schools Award, and a STEM award.

Ed Rubatino-complimenting PP Andy Hall on doing a great job and the historical reference on how low our past Paul Harris participation used to be.

 

 

Raffle: Tom Koenig-Tequila, Rich Anderson & Roy Yates- Movie card/Tequila.

 

12:45 Program Introduction was a fun true/false interactive one by John Olson.

“Washington State Update” presented by US Representative, Rick Larsen:

Rick promised not to be political but stated he might be provocative based on the past 3 months in Washington DC. Congressman Larson spoke about the pending bill from last week which included money for Community Transit; came from a bipartisan agreement to fund the rest of the fiscal year till Sept, also included $100M for Sound Transit Lynnwood Link. Transportation means jobs, and these are things that are ‘needs’ in the PNW, not just ‘wants’. Also included is a program that supports state exports (STEP; State Trade Expansion Program) and also the Small Business Development Center. He also spoke about Puget Sound Recovery Program/EPA, Pacific Coast Salmon Recovery Fund, and the NW Fisheries Science Program/NOAA which will build a premier research facility for Marine Fisheries. He reported on trade: 40% of our jobs are trade dependent. $17B/yr in trade; $7B to Canada, $2B to Mexico and highlighted the need for NAFTA re-negotiations, NAFTA was signed in 1994, needs to be renegotiated based on current times and needs. He expressed his opinion about Trump announcing a NAFTA pullout via Twitter and its inappropriateness and stated that hopefully this week the President will announce an appointment of a new Trade Rep; and it needs to be more than just about Tarrifs. Rep Larson in Asia: visited DMZ in Korea; North Korea definitely trying to create a rift in our alliance with S Korea; VP Pence visited just afterwards and reaffirmed our commitment. S Korea has a new president. Larson headed to Republic of Georgia as a NATO membership outreach-discussed the importance of continuing our relationship and involvement in NATO as the most important member. Looking ahead: Administration will come out with a new “skinny budget” which reflects cuts to various programs; they have until Sept 30th to address these cuts. New Health Care Act: if this becomes law 24M citizens will lose health insurance, 14M will lose in just the next year, 61k in Sno County will lose coverage in the first year; $880M cut to Medicaid, exclusion of pre-existing conditions which will not be affordable as an additional plan. He asked us to please share stories with Rep Larson at www.larson.house.gov\shareyourstory .

Questions were asked by: Walt Greenwood, Mike Holcomb, Fred Safstrom, George Bowden.

 

1:16 Thank you’s – Contributions, Visitors, Guests & Closing Remarks – Rotary Serving Humanity

 

 

Next Program Tuesday May 16: “Norway” presented by Mark Nesse and others introduced by Ed Petersen. Ed is looking for families of Rotarians with Norwegian history and ancestry; contact him if you do!

 

 

MEETING ANNOUNCEMENTS AND MAKEUP OPPORTUNITIES: 1. Wheeler’s Meeting, May 9th, 11am, Boys & Girls Club, 2316 12th Street 2. Rotary Park Clean Up, May 20th 9-noon at Rotary Park on Lower Lowell 3. Rotary Scholarship Awards, May 22nd, 6:30pm-8:30pm at EPS Community Resource Ctr 4. VOA Food Bank Volunteering, May 25th 11am-1:00pm 5. Rotary Board Mtg, May 26th, 7:30am 3rd Flr Chapel at Bethany