Aug 13, 2012

Meeting of the Rotary Club of Eureka
August 13, 2012


The seventh meeting of the year was opened in a timely fashion by our diminutive President, Nancy Dean, with a resounding ring of the bell.  We were led in our salute and pledge to the flag by past President (2002-2003) Hank Pierson, who is a well-noted Paul Harris Fellow.  With catcalls of humor from the audience, John Gierek responded with a call for solemnity and then proceeded to give a short, thoughtful and inspiring invocation.

While there were no student guests announced at the meeting, but the school year quickly approaching, it was noted that new exchange students Franco from Chile and Larissa from Germany would be arriving any day now.  We should note that both Franco and Larissa have declared they want to step up and  assist in defending our honor against the SW Rotary Club of Eureka at the white water rafting event this Saturday.  Let's all give them a cheer -- HURRAH!

We had several interesting visiting Rotarians. First we had Gary Bosley from Castro Valley in the South Bay of San Francisco, and our well-known Jim Seiler from Fortuna.   

Most interestingly, we were introduced to Gary Hayes, hails from far-off and exotic Bangkok, Thailand, by our own distinguished Matt Messner.  As Director of the Think Small Foundation, Gary Hays and his wife with great heart and courage provide young children with a drug free, exploitation free environment, with a good dose of  leadership development training and spiritual support & guidance.

Aside from the visiting Rotarians and guest speaker, we only had two other guests.  Greg Gardiner introduced us all to Steven Jackson,  who is associated with Western Web.  

Eric Bergel introduced us to Leroy Zerlang, with Zerlang-Zerlang and the Golden Rule Project.

As with most meetings, there were a number of  birthdays mentioned. Dave Dillon had his name day on the 13th, Rick Littlefield had his annual renewal day on the 14th,  Gary Todoroff is definitely getting older on the 15th, while Fred Whitmire celebrates his day on the 17th.

Wedding anniversaries had a number of interesting results. We were all amazed and happy to applaud  Dave Dillon's 62nd year of bliss with his lovely wife Carol on August 13th.  We also learned that Fred Whitmire and his better half Carolyn celebrate their love on the 15th.  Kim Bauriedel, who's bacheloring it  this week, will meet up with his bride Sile in Siberia to belatedly celebrate their wedding anniversary which is on the 16th.  Walt Shimasaki's 55th anniversary with his wife Jean on the 17th was also greatly cheered for it's longevity.  We had a pair of 39 year anniversaries to note, with Ken Stodder and his wife Kay on the 17th, and Paul Brisso and his wife Melissa on the 18th.  Rounding out the anniversaries, we had Dick Nash who celebrates his anniversary with wife Jeanne on the 19th.

While we did not have any membership anniversaries this week.

Before bringing up our guest speaker there were a series of announcements that were made.  Christian Hill mentioned that he and Greg Seiler will be stopping at all the tables over the next few month to gather "Best Practices" we may all collectively remember in the lead-up to our February 2013 Fundraiser.   I for one was please to hear that we will definitely be making it through the Mayan Calendar end of times day of Dec. 21, 2012, so I'm looking forward to them visiting my table and  helping them both come up with a good list of fund raising ideas.  While the deadline for signing up had already passed, President Dean reported that Mindy Bussman still accept sign-ups up through the end of Monday the 13th  for the BBQ and horse racing at the county fair on Wednesday, August 15th.  Post time for the horse racing was still expected to be 1:30pm.  

President Dean also reminding us that it was not too late to sign-up for the Trinity River white water rafting this weekend, Saturday, August 18th.  Let's have a good turn out and show SW Rotary how to get wet!

President Dean also re-announced that Lost Coast Rotaract is sponsoring a Softball Tournament on Sept. 1, and we need some players.  In addition she reminded us that the Foundation Dinner North is being held at the River Lodge in Fortuna on Saturday, October 13th.  Finally, President Dean reported that the Ferndale Rotary is having a fund raiser on Tuesday, August 28th -- this would be an Oysters & BBQ Steak dinner for $20 per person.

While many Rotarians might not have known the connection between Rotary and the Boy Scouts of America, Dean shared with us that on August 21, 1912, Arthur Rose Eldred, of Troop 1 in Oceanside, New York, became the first Eagle Scout. That means that this next Tuesday, August 21, 2012 will be the 100th anniversary of that event. In honor of that, Nancy called on all Eagle Scouts in the room to stand and be recognized. We had three Eagle Scouts present from our Rotary club:  Kim Bauriedel, Aaron Tilch and Paul Brisso.   

Our own Rotarian, Susie Smelser, the local Scout Executive, then stood and gave us some history on the connection between Rotary and the Boy Scouts of America, and the parallels between our own Four-way Test and the Scout Oath, Law & Motto. Moreover, Rotary Clubs in the USA charter (sponsor) nearly 1400 Scouting units (Cub Scout Packs, Boy Scout Troops, and Venturing Crews), serving more than 50,000 youth members.  Of note, there are no Scouting units in Humboldt County that are sponsored by a local Rotary club -- this is something we need to look into.

As we all know, one of the activities that leads to a Blue Badge is the Craft Talk. This week we heard from Stacy Lane. Her family first moved up to Humboldt County in the 1960s, so her local roots go back to before she was born.  Throughout her life Stacy has had a passion for learning. In fact one of her first connections to our Rotary club was through a college scholarship we awarded her with.  Her desire to learn shows up many ways.  She's a voracious reader, but she likes the real thing, shunning the newer electronic readers like Kindle.  Her desire to learn led to an AA at College of the Redwoods, then to a Bachelor's degree in Business Administration from Sacramento State, and then an MBA in International Business. She even studied law for a while at McGeorge School of Law in SAcramento.  In her career she had the opportunity to pursue even more training and education as she progressed up the ladder getting licenses and various certifications in the insurance industry.  Stacy was a Regional Sales Manager in Northern and Central California in the Insurance industry, and eventually became a manager for the insurance giant, AIG. Stacy describes herself as being an active volunteer, with a history of "getting involved".  She is justifiably proud for being a deputy director involved in the effort to pass Proposition 213.  She is currently the Executive Director of the North Coast Schools Insurance Group, which is a not-for-profit joint powers authority serving the medical and property/casualty insurance needs of local schools.  Finally, on a personal level, Stacy loves to travel, having been to 28 countries around the world (especially Ireland), she's current engaged, has no kids but would like to have some, and she loves Old English Roses and basketball.  Stacy -- we are lucky to have you as one of our own!



Finally came the time for our speaker.  We were introduced to Robin Meiggs, HSU Head Women's Rowing Coach by Chris Freeman. While we quickly learned that she was the coach that led the HSU women to their first ever NCAA Division II National Rowing Championship in 2012, and that she won a second consecutive NCAA Division II Rowing Coach of the Year Award, it was the story of her  20 year quest that was the most inspiring.  Educationally she started out with a Bachelor's Degree in Broadcast Journalism, but after spending 4 years of rowing as a student at HSU followed by some time in Hawaii rowing outriggers, she recognized what her passion and interests were. She next pursed a Masters in Exercise Physiology and then came back to HSU where she signed on as a Volunteer Coach in 1991, eventually becoming an Assistant Coach in 1992.  Back in those days the rowing team didn't really have any decent facilities available, so they essentially set up equipment storage in condemned buildings along the waterfront in Eureka.  Then as the building became completely unusable and were torn down, they would move on to another building.  By 1999, having pretty much exhausted all the old building, they actually had to lock-up and store their equipment at a dirt field.   

Throughout this time she spent 10 years developing her skills as an Assistant Coaching, then becoming an interim Head Coach in 1995, and by 2003 as the permanent Head Coach she led the HSU women to their first title.  As the team improved and moved up the regional ladder, they eventually qualified as NCAA Division II team.  Robin's passion in describing how the teams trained, how she developed the rowing program at HSU, how races were experienced by her team, supplemented with hundreds of photos on the screen, kept everyone in the club silent and mesmerized.  The way she described her team taking on and ultimately beating seven time champ Western Washington University was a great story that all enjoyed listening to, and whom all seriously applauded when she completed her tale.

Robin's story was impressive and inspiring.  The commitment and passion she has displayed in pursuing and developing herself and the HSU women's rowing team was awesome. The Rotary Club was impressed and moved by the story of  Robin's journey.

Presented in Rotary Service by Bruce Smith

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