Rotary Club of Eureka, California

Meeting of the Rotary Club of Eureka

June 4, 2012

John Winzler led the pledge of allegiance and Dr. Elias Malki gave the invocation, praying for our nation to be protected from our enemies and compassionate toward the needy.

Visiting Rotarians

Paul McGinty from Southwest and Liana Simpson from Old Town

Guests of Rotarians

Mindy Bussman’s guest was Larney Ford;  

Greg Williston brought Nate Downey; 

Mike Cunningham brought Mark Greenleaf the union representative for HSU;  

Dave Dillon brought his granddaughter Samantha Hovis;  

Eric Bergel brought EHS students (see below) and Ron Perry who runs the lab at Eureka High School (EHS).

Student guests

Tess Armstrong and Izzy Piland both from (EHS).  Tonje Sorum, our exchange student, is going to give a concert later this week at EHS.

Birthdays

Dean Christiansen (6/1), Mike Downey, Greg Pierson (6/11), Gregg Foster (6/13), Greg Seiler (6/15), Keith Crossley (6/9), Frank Jager (6/5), Aaron Tilch (6/21).

Anniversaries

Sally and Phil Arnot (6/1), Tim and Marilyn Gallagher (6/3), Don and Barbara Leonard (6/7), Dan and Karen Price (6/5), John and Jackie McBeth (6/17), Matt and Heidi Messner (6/16), Mandy and Tom Nash (6/14), Wendy Purnell and Terry Dickinson (6/6), Don and Cecilia Smullin (6/14), Jim and Shirley Davis (6/9).

Announcements

Gary and Kathryn Philp are moving to Scottsdale this week. We were encouraged to say farewell to the former Sheriff and wife.

Our Club’s Burls have been posted through May 28^th and we can now read them out at our club web page.

Last Saturday evening at the Ingo mar was a nice tribute to Joe Mark who is moving soon. Thanks to Gregg Gardiner for putting on the event. There were many statements with “whereases and therefores” paying tribute to Joe and his tenure as CEO at St. Joseph Hospital.

John Bartholomew announced that Humboldt Regional Occupation Program (HROP) has asked club members to serve the students and potential future employees of our community by representing our respective professions to their classes. Your real time professional experience and knowledge may be invaluable to the career path these young ones will choose.  Please sign up (many did sign up, but if you missed the meeting I’m sure you can call John).

Don’t miss the Summer Spectacular Blood Drive. Giving blood was never so fun! Tom Schallert encouraged our club to give blood on June 9^th at the Blood Center. Supervised activities for kids include Healthsport Zumba and Kick Boxing Demos and a Mirth First Barbershop Quartet.

Greg Bowen announced we are staffing the beer booth for the June 15^th District meeting in two hour shifts from 11:00am until 7:00pm (somebody has to do it).

Christian Hill announced a community health forum. This forum features some local doctors who will provide tests and information for heart and blood vessel health next Thursday June 14^th from 5:30-7:00pm at the Humboldt Bay Aquatic Center (next door to Adorni Center).

Don Leonard announced the Group Study Exchange from Turkey arrive Saturday and will still be here to help President Greg celebrate his birthday next Monday June 11^th at our club meeting.

Saturday June 30, join us on the Madaket. Departure time is 6:45pm and cost is $20.00 per person. Seats are limited (it’s not the Queen Mary), so contact Mike Cunningham soon at 441-1111 or mike@cmmtax.com.

Eric Bergel introduced Ron Perry from EHS along with Izzy Piland and Tess Armstrong. A $200 Rotary grant resulted in student transportation, a historical mural and an all-star breakfast. Izzy proposed an ongoing partnership between Eureka Rotary and Eureka High School. Ron Perry thanked us for being involved in the education of students in Eureka.

Nancy Dean said she would like to do something different (going back to an older protocol) for programs. September birthdays thus met with Nancy in the Southeast corner after the meeting to plan programs.

Matthew Owen has been in charge of organizing the programs the past year. President Greg thanked him for providing excellent meetings for 2011-12 that are both informative and entertaining.

Raffle

Liana Simpson and Steve Lafferty won the raffle and were sitting at the same table which stirred suspicions of un-stirred tickets.

Dave Dillon’s granddaughter Samantha was the first Rotary exchange student from her school, traveling to France in 2004-05. That announcement cost Dave $45 and earned him a tape measure.

Treasurer Scott Guild brought in a new partner, Anthony D. Stubbs, CPA, to his firm. He promptly admitted that the firm will not be re-named Aalfs, Evans and Stubbs.

Anthony Antoville earned his own tape measure for going to Eugene, Oregon to complete his credential in long term care management.

Russ Harris got ratted out and was discovered to have caught a 30 lb salmon. It cost him $125.

Matthew Owen said, “Please vote tomorrow, June 5^th,” and did not mention voting for his wife--at least not yet.

Program Speaker

Growing weary of her old job about thirty years ago, Barbara Groom started Lost Coast Brewery in the 1980’s by making beer in her bathtub. Barbara was unable to attend our meeting, but Briar Bush from Lost Coast Brewery (LCB) was the spokesman for LCB today. Around July 1990 the first LCB pub opened. In 1992 LCB moved to 123 West 3^rd downtown and has been there ever since.  LCB is now the 33^rd largest regional brewery in the United States. LCB became the first regional brewery to become larger than 15,000 barrels. This year they are hoping to produce 70,000 barrels of beer; that equals over a million cases. That’s a lot of beer going out to the entire world, including Asia and Europe. Briar explained that while brewing is actually shrinking world wide, the one growing part of the brew industry is local craft breweries like LCB. Since there are about 2,500 breweries registered in the U.S., the 33^rd rank is high. Briar thanked the local population for buying and presumably, drinking, a lot of beer to get LCB off the ground.

Growth has been double digits for quite a few years, and Briar says this year he expects a modest 15% growth. However, the new brewing facility will enable much faster growth. Wholesalers around the country are begging for his beer, and he is trying to make the growth organic and timely. He wants to maintain distribution to his growing market so there have been some self-imposed limitations.  Other limitations to brewing were discussed through an extended question and answer session.

Question: 

What about problems with interstate regulation of alcohol?

Not too bad, said Briar. But the Richardson Grove problem is pretty big because it adds to the cost of shipping. One way to overcome the transportation problem was to transport to the local and San Francisco Bay area first.

Question:

When will the new brewery be up and running? 

The new brewery in Eureka will require a lot of careful planning and thought. Within about two years he hopes to have the brewery up and running; but nobody is quoting him (except me).

Question: 

How many employees do you currently have?

LCB currently employs about 35 employees at the brewery, and when the restaurant is tossed in it comes to more than 80.  After construction, the new brewery will employ many more; I don’t recall that he said precisely how many.

Upcoming Meetings

June 11, Rotary Group Exchange to Turkey

June 18, will be St. Joseph's Hospital - on-site tour

June 25, President's De-Bunking!

Respectfully Submitted,

Dan Price