Meeting of the Rotary Club of Eureka
January 28, 2013

Lunch: Turkey Burgers and Sweet Potato Fries


Flag Salute: Dale Stockley


Invocation: Dan Heinen

Franco, our exchange student, had a skiing accident and received a concussion, getting airlifted to Mercy Hospital in Redding.  He's in our thoughts and prayers.  Contact President Dean to help out or make contact with Franco

Visiting Rotarians
Liana Simpson from Old Town & Liz Smith from Arcata


Guest of Rotarians
Greg Siler brought  Chris Gaines from CR, Sally Arnot brought Sally Biggin, Kurt Barthel brought Barbara Hurvitz, Dale Warmuth brought Tamara Eastman of the Youth Service Bureau, as well as other guests Jon Greenback of the Water District, Roger Goddard of the California State Park System.


Student Guests
In other exchange news, the three Eureka outbounds discovered the countries they
will be living in on their exchange.  Ashley Bott, sponsored by our club, will be going to Sweden, Molly Owen to Thailand and Spencer Gaxiola to Hungry.

Birthdays and Anniversaries are in the book, congratulations to all.

Announcements
Gregg Gardiner has been nominated as president elect for the year 2014-2015. 

Member Survey:
The online survey is now open to gather your thoughts on your perception of Rotary, and what our clubs can do to increase member satisfaction.  You received an email with a link to the survey.  Please complete by this Thursday January 31^st.

Backpacks for Kids:
Mindy Bussman announce a need for Backpacks for Kids volunteers. We need packers and a delivery driver with a large truck for February & March to deliver to Alice Birney!

Lost Coast Rotaract is having a social on Friday evening February, 8th to welcome District 5130's District Governor Michael Juric.

Other upcoming activities both on Saturday Feb. 9th

–        Fortuna Sunrise’s Crab Fest 5-8PM

–        Southwest Rotary’s fund raiser at the Eureka Inn at 7PM - Murder at the Vampires’ Ball to benefit Alice Birney Elementary School Kindergarten Playground. 

We have a new Paul Harris Fellow – Sally Arnot recognized Sally Biggin, a Hoopa
area resident and longtime local educator. Standing ovation.

Sign Smith Donations– Sally Arnot announced the Rotary Club of Eureka's Performance Rotunda floor at the Morris Graves Museum. $8,000 from the Sign Smith Fund.

The Clark Museum was helped, and Carly Marino discussed our purchase of a system
to optimize the environment for preservation of their priceless collection.$7128.

Past President Tom Shallert brought a Rotary flag from Nigeria, and announced some Nigerian Rotarians are coming to Eureka soon.

Christian Hill announced our Speakeasy-themed, club raffle event.

Recognitions
Today was Dana Jones’ last meeting as a Rotary Club of Eureka member. She is
transferring to the CA State Parks Capital District headquartered in Sacramento.

Eric Bergel spearheaded the opening of the Alano Club of The Redwoods.  Basically, it is a kind of a drop in center/social club for recovering alcoholics who are active in AA. It is complete with a kitchen, game room and meeting space for AA.  In the three weeks since it opened it has gained almost 100 members. The Club is primarily designed to give recovering alcoholics a place to go instead of the bar and there are various avenues of service and rehabilitation to get people incorporated back in to the main stream of life. One of the community service projects the club is developing is a food /clothing drive to benefit the people who rely on Betty Chin. Bravo.


Raffle
The Spengler " Science Fair"  Raffle  Tickets: - $10 to Dale Stockley & ​​​​ Jay


Speaker
Rosa Dixon and Milia Lando are co-owners of “Natural Decadence".  Natural Decadence has created a delicious line of baked goods that are made without gluten, eggs, dairy, or nuts and are carried in many local stores, as well as Whole Foods. Their wholesale bakery is 14 months old. Their very first account was the Coop, now they are in over 50 stores and have 14 products. They began as a catering company in 2009 doing specialty cakes.

Rosa's baby was very sick in 2009, even getting misdiagnosed with cystic fibrosis. After going to Stanford Medical Center, her baby was diagnosed with Celiac Disease. Celiac Disease can be mitigated by a gluten-free diet. Gluten is in almost everything: food, toothpaste, shampoo, and hundreds of other products.  Malia had sudden onset fatigue, and her doctor realized she was also sensitive to gluten.

Both suddenly were thrust into an extremely restrictive diet, and decided to start their business of distributing gluten-free foods to help others with food allergies.

They are experiencing explosive growth and looking to start a snack food line.  After bouncing around multiple commercial kitchens, they worked on a grant and now have a 2200 square foot industrial kitchen at Redwood Acres. They have two offices and eight employees.

This past summer, they were contacted by Whole Foods and managed to get their product line carried across Northern California.

Best of all, they brought samples for us to try! Delicious.


The guests were thanked, the library book was signed, and the meeting ended two
minutes late.

Respectively submitted,

John Harper

Meeting of the Rotary Club of Eureka
January 21, 2013

The Club was dark today in honor of the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday.

Meeting of the Rotary Club of Eureka
January 14, 2013



Live from the Eagle House, at a balmy 45 degrees....Indoors.

Past President Kim Bauriedel led the flag salute, while Craig Hanson gave the invocation.

Visiting Rotarians are sitting at the Wharfinger, wondering where we are.

Guests of Rotarians
Barbara Hurvitz from Cal Courts was introduced by Kurt Barthel.  Matt Hague, CPA from David L. Moonie Co. joined Ryan Fray.

Exchange Students

Our exchange student Franco went to a basketball game, went to a birthday party, and had a sleepover.

Birthdays and anniversaries are in the book, congratulations to all.  Chris Freeman forgot to sit at the birthday table, and paid $20 for the lapse.

Announcements
Lunch was free today, paid in advance by Carlton, and you will get a bill by email. No fair blaming your spam filter, write a check!

Past President Bauriedel announced some changes to the Rotary International grant process. It is becoming slightly more complicated and the commitment by individual clubs will increase for projects. See Kim for details.

President Dean reminded members to fill out the member survey, due February 1st.

Small grant requests can still be submitted for one more week.

There is a board meeting Wednesday at the Ingomar Club.

Kayak storage was built on a cold Sunday morning by select club members, with special thanks to California Redwood for providing materials at cost.

So, here we are, at the Eagle House. Beautiful, freezing cold. The Wharfinger Building is costing us money, and we might be changing venues. Stay at the Eagle House? Somewhere else? Let President Dean or Chris Freeman know.

Recognitions

John Bradley went to Maui with his wife, for his 46th anniversary. He went swimming, ate out a lot, attended a Rotary meeting, and won a rainmaker. John notes that Backpacks for Kids kicks off our new season of fundraising, with a steering committee meeting at Ming Tree Realty tomorrow.

Spengler Raffle Winners
$10 to Chuck Ellsworth and $10 to our speaker, Angie Schwab

Program
Past President Carlton Nielsen introduced our speaker, Angie Schwab of Humboldt Made.

Angie works in economic development for the County. She is running the Humboldt Made program  The program is grant-driven and an attempt to create jobs and support businesses in Humboldt County. Humboldt Made works on the export of Humboldt products, particularly food products, and addresses their needs by giving them a unique branding experience, focused on our region.

Check out their website at www.humboldtmade.com.

Humboldt Made helps with technical assistance, regulatory barriers, marketing and business expertise, and unifying the brand messaging of Humboldt's producers.

Humboldt Made is identifying locally produced products on the shelves of retailers in our area, through their Go Local campaign. They are working on a receipt project where it shows how much of your purchase went to local products.

Humboldt Made has launched a Google and iPhone app, allowing shoppers to find local products no matter where they are, through GPS technology.

Humboldt Made is launching another set of films to promote Humboldt and our lifestyle, as well as myriad other projects to create exposure for our local region and producers.

Angie spoke about the success Humboldt Made had with getting local grass-fed beef sold outside of the local market, specifically at Whole Foods.

The speaker was thanked, the library book was signed, and the meeting ended 5 minutes early.

Respectfully submitted, 
John Harper

Meeting of the Rotary Club of Eureka
January 7, 2013

Welcome to the 24^th meeting of the year!

Jim Howard led the flag salute while John Gierek, Jr. gave the invocation.

Visiting Rotarians

Liana Simpson & Lee Cunningham.

Guests of Rotarians

Matt Hague, CPA-David L Moonie & Co., Barbara Horvitz- Cal Courts, Pete Origer, Heidi Olson-North Coast Journal.

Student Guests

Eureka High Student Body President, Ben Ross, announced the student government elections, winter formal, All-Star breakfast & clearly enjoyed lunch.

Exchange Students

Larissa from Germany & Franco from Brazil are here!  Franco rode a horse, had a good Christmas and is back in school.  Larissa spent her time with her host family, had a wonderful New Year & is enjoying her time in Eureka.

Birthday and Anniversaries are in the book.  Congratulations to all!

Announcements

Help out the Lost Coast Rotaract build kayak storage on Woodley Island next Saturday, January 12^th.  Bring gloves, socket sets and drills.  Profits from the rental of the slips will be split between the Marina & Lost Coast Rotaract.

Recognitions

Past President, Tom Shallert, had a ton of weddings this month, including his daughter!  He continues to work on blood banks in Nigeria, Africa and has a training this spring in the Ukraine.  He got a rainmaker for his troubles.

Neal Carnam received his Paul Harris award for contributions to the Rotary Foundation.  Standing ovation.

So what have we done so far this year?

Goals

1. 4 new members (net), which means 14-18 new members total.  New members include Dana Jones and Steve Jackson, with a nomination for Nathan Nielsen.
2. Every Rotarian, Every Year-  44 of you have already reached your EREY and an additional 39 have contributed towards that goal.
3. Parks project in Eureka-  We did a parks clean up thanks to Jill Macdonald.
4. Peace Project- Working with Veterans for Peace and Eureka High Interact on advertising the 4^th Annual Redwood Coast Peace and Art Poetry contest to be held May 19, 2013.
5. More emphasis on vocation-  October was Vocational Services month and we had various programs around that theme.  We honored Greg Williston as the 1^st Scott Guild Vocational Rotarian of the Year.
6. Strategic Planning continues.

Small Grants

1. $2,000 to the Humboldt Library Foundation for their young adult collection
2. $1,000 to the Humboldt State Women’s Softball team for a new pitching machine
3. $575 to Families Advocating Autism Now for sensory screening events for special needs children
4. $300 to KEET TV for the Homework Hotline

** We are still accepting grant applications through the end of the month.  Applications are available on our website at www.rotary1.org. **

Sign Smith

1. $7,128 to the Clarke Museum for climate control equipment to preserve their priceless collections.
2. $10,000 to the St. Joseph Hospital volunteers for the purchase of a new van to shuttle patients to and from the Evergreen Lodge for cancer treatments, to transfer patients between General Hospital, the Sleep Center, outpatient rehab & the St. Joseph campus.
3. $2,000 to Eureka High School to support the annual Logger Classic basketball tournament.
4. $2,000 to the North Coast Honor Flight
5. Toys for Tots- Through cash donations and having barrels at your stores, Eureka Rotary helped give gifts to over 5,100 children.  Thanks to all who made this happen!

Eureka High Interact challenged our club to a matching contribution, so we kicked in $375 to their fund.  Rotaract is going well too…join them at their evening meetings at Los Bagels!

Raffle

$10 winners were Jay Hockaday & Walt Shimasaki

Program

Murl Harpham introduced our guest speaker, William Panos.  Mr. Panos brings over three decades of experience to his new position as the City Manager for Eureka.  Most recently, he was the Director of Public Works for the City of West Sacramento.  As a member of the City’s executive and budget teams, Panos directed city financial strategies, governmental relations and regional partnerships.  He was previously the school construction executive for the State of Washington where he directed capital finance, land use policy and local school construction throughout the state.  He also served with local government in Idaho and Los Angels, as special advisor to the Chancellor of the California State University system and as Toxics Director for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

Bill thanked Rotary for our service to the community.  Bill is a third generation Californian.  His father worked for American Airlines and his mother worked for the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department.  His wife, Melissa, is finally arriving this Wednesday.  They both look forward to serving our community.

Bill first came to Humboldt County twenty-five years ago to work with Allister McCrone at Humboldt State and stayed at the Eureka Inn.

Mr. Panos’ public sector experience came after a successful career with the TRW Corporation in its defense, space and automotive business operations in the Americas, Europe and Asia.  He was an advisor to the President’s Council on Sustainable Development under the Clinton administration and his work received the TRW Chairman’s Award for Innovation and the prestigious Harvard University-Ford Foundation Award for Innovation in American Government.

Bill is pleased with the team David Tyson left him at the City and feels he’s well situated to succeed.  He says the City Manager is a very straightforward job:  control finances, follow the direction of the council and manage services handled by the City.  Bill wants to get to know the people and the community and believes “context is everything.”

He also believes cities have a business model and are corporations responsible to their shareholders, the citizens.  Bill intends to hire a new police chief.  Finally, he plans to update the General Plan, taking his time to make the right decisions. 

Bill pointed out that we are one of the most giving and benevolent communities in the US, per capita, using our Rotary Club as an example.

He’s so new he doesn’t have business cards yet.  He says to call City Hall and they’ll schedule you a meeting.

Jeff Leonard asked a technical question about zoning.  Bill demurred to make decisions on zoning until after talking to the City Council and staff.

Gary Todoroff asked about the challenges in West Sacramento.  Bill had high praise for their innovative recruitment of experts to serve the City.  He discussed how they successfully garnered $120 million from Washington DC and changed the brand identity of the community.

John Ash asked about replacing the redevelopment agency.  Bill stated that Sacramento will not support “Redevelopment II.”  However, he says Eureka is doing very well with redevelopment and credits Dave Tyson.  He also recognized his hard-working deputy, Mike Knight. 

Bruce Rupp asked about Measure O, the sales tax increase, which is expiring in a few years.  He hasn’t had enough time to get into it in detail (two weeks, people!) but says we are not in as bad shape as many municipalities, and will need to come up with new, creative revenue streams going forward.

Lee Cunningham praised the Eureka Police Department, and asked about Bill’s management style and one-year goals.  He tries to match the style of the departments he answers and evolve with the organization.  However, he subscribes to servant leadership.  His one year goal is to still be employed and that he and his wife are enjoying the community.

Gregg Williston asked about transportation issues and Bill’s experience.  West Sacramento has a busy port, environmental community and wetlands and 1-million tons of shipping annually.  He points out we are a straight shot across the Pacific for Asian shipping.  Bill has experience working with Rail and will look forward to our rail capacity and concerns.

The guest was thanked, the library book was signed and the meeting was adjourned.

REMEMBER!  The next meeting, January 14^th, is at the Eagle House.

Respectfully submitted,

John Harper