Meeting of the Rotary Club of Eureka
May 27, 2013

The club was dark in honor of the Memorial Day holiday.  Thank you to all who have, or are currently, serving our country!

Meeting of the Rotary Club of Eureka
May 20, 2013

Lunch: Guinness Beef Stew

S&P: 1665.93

The Pledge of Allegiance was led by past president Bill McAuley

The invocation was given by….past president Bill McAuley. Fancy!

Visiting Rotarians

Bill Morrill, who took our GSE guests to Founders Grove, Fern Canyon, and got a ticket from the CHP.

Bill Morrill - Southwest Rotary Club

Jessie Knight of the “fun club,” in Arcata, and David Katz of Garberville.

Dave Gatz, President of the Rotary Club of Garberville

Guests

Patrick Cleary of Humboldt Area Foundation, Lara Williston, and Tess Schallert.

Student Guests

Ben Ross and Francim Aquillar.

Francim Aguilar, EHS Freshman President

Clark Depew of Rotaract was also in attendance.

GAMBLING INTERLUDE

Sally Arnot $10 John Fullerton $10

Announcements

Jessica Ponsano went on an outbound GSE trip to Turkey in 2012, sponsored by our club. Jessica found the people to be passionate and hot-blooded. Everywhere she went they offered her tea or coffee. Every meeting involves food and is usually around dinner.

FUN FACT: GSE stands for Group Study Exchange

Jessica hopes to make her next project partnering with a school in Turkey that helps students with brain damage. She thanks Eureka Rotary for sponsoring her trip.

Carly Robbins went to France this year on a GSE and enjoyed her time in the southernmost part of France. Carly found the extreme differences in culture to be the most striking part of her trip. Buildings and venues hundreds or thousands of years old. They toured castles, the Airbus factory, and a nuclear power plant. Meals lasted a long time, were delicious, and diverse. She also thanks Rotary for sponsoring her trip.

Program

Our visiting GSE team is from District 1700 where Carly visited earlier this year. The six visitors live across that district, and three of them are from Toulouse, home of universities and space and aeronautic manufacturers.  This part of France looks very beautiful, with beaches, forests, and skiing. They’re also rugby fans, not soccer.

District 1700 runs the largest annual blood donation drive in Europe. They also support local food banks and a brain trauma fundraiser.

Emmanuelle Delon is an IT Manager and sponsored by a Rotary club with no female members. Who knows, maybe she will be the first. Her sponsor club sends relief supplies to Dakar. Emmanuelle worked in Spain for 5 years and has been back in France for 3 years. She lives in a small village of 63 people. She has two children, 5 and 7; and a dog and cat. Also her birthday today!

Jesus Diaz is an anesthesiologist and 32. His sponsor club works on blood collection, healthy water projects, and “professional meetings for insertion,” which sounds like a glitch with Google Translate. Jesus’ family is Spanish. He’s not just an anesthesiologist, he’s also an app developer, specializing in health care apps. His hobby is travel, so I’m guessing he has no kids!

Celine Mazieres is 27 and a commercial assistant in a winery. Sounds fun!  She’s sponsored by a small Rotary club that works with schools, hospitals, and an orphanage. She likes to travel and I basically couldn’t understand a word she said, but she seems very nice. I think she works on a jazz and wine event (also fun) and loves rugby. She says thanks to our district for sponsoring her visit.

Jerome Marty is 32, in IT, and sponsored by the Rotary club of Revel. His sponsor club works on Alzheimer’s projects, food collection, and medical supplies for the Ivory Coast. His family grows grapes. Hey look, a castle! Typical France just littered with castles.

Jerome is an IT security expert, working largely with banks and military organizations. Jerome is into cars (and loving America for our fine collection) and he even painted his own car back in France. He’s a member of the Porsche club, and is a salsa dancer. I’m guessing Jerome is also single.

Sophie Guarandel is a 26 year old lawyer. The club sponsoring her was founded in 1923 just like our club, and has their first women president. Sophie is in Rotaract and is from a small village of 800. Her village has history dating to the 12^th century. University is free in France, and Sophie is the good type of lawyer—she works for the Federal Union of Consumers, giving free services to consumers suing big businesses. Sophie spent a few years living in Estonia and a year in Ireland. She loves traveling and is, of course, also single.

Lionel Lainard is a Rotarian, and his club organizes a Ferrari exposition annually. Sounds nice. Lionel is from a village of 400. His parents own a mechanic shop they work together. Lionel’s grandfather has a pet boar.  Lionel now owns and runs a leadership and management training company.  Lionel sings, dances, and does improve theater. Almost assuredly, also single. 

Applause.

The guest was thanked, the library book was signed, and the meeting ended on time.

Respectfully Submitted,

John Harper

Meeting of the Rotary Club of Eureka
May 13, 2013

Craig Hansen led the Pledge of Allegiance.

Tom McMurray gave the invocation.

Jim, John & Ken enjoy their lunch

 Guests
Fred Van Vleck and Patrick Cleary.

Student Guests
Exchange student, Larissa, held her potato dinner last weekend.  It turned out pretty good and she thanks the Rotarians who attended.  She also reflected on loving her time in Humboldt County.

Birthdays and Anniversaries are in the book; congrats to all.

Announcements
Gregg Williston picked up the Group Study Exchange team in Willits.  They had fun and he didn't understand a word they said.  After lunch in Garberville, he found out the restaurant didn't take credit cards.  He will mail a check.

The Rotary District conference is coming up at the end of the month. 

John Bradley reported on the Backpacks for Kids fundraiser dinner.  It raised over $18,000 for the program.

Past President Steve Justus announced a donation from the Sign Smith Committee of $10,000 to the St. Joseph Hospital Volunteers for a new shuttle.  A big check was awarded and a fuzzy iPhone photo was taken for the Burl.

Fun Fact:  Glyndon "Sign" Smith was a ;member of the Eureka Rotary Club for 69 years.  He had perfect attendance. 

Past President Bruce Rupp announced Economic Fuel has picked winners of a $25,000 prize for 2013 an the winners also get an honorary one-year membership in our club.

Dr. Fred Van Vleck was brought into the club today.  He received his pin, some words of wisdom and there was applause.  Welcome aboard, Doc!

Club members were reminded politely not to push or endorse their political views in the context of Rotary.   

Recognitions
Mindy Bussman was recognized for buying a new car.  She swears it is to deliver backpacks for the Backpacks for Kids program.  Rainmaker.

Gambling Interlude:  $10 to Gregg Gardiner and $10 to Tom McMurray.

Program
Greg Siler introduced our speakers: 

• Gary Rynearson- Public Relations -Green Diamond & California Redwood
• Carter Welch- VP Marketing Humboldt & Mendocino Redwood Companies
• Jacqueline Debets- Coordinator Humboldt County Economic Development

Greg also introduced Bob Murtz, CEO of Redwood Capital Bank and Chris Gaines, also from Green Diamond and California Redwood Company.

Gary discussed the long-term decline of the redwood industry.  Share of decking and fencing had declined due to competitors like plastic composites.

Carter from Humboldt Redwood looked at the cotton industry for parallels.  Cotton suffered a similar decline and rebuilt their market share by aggressively marketing an developing a strong brand.

Jacqueline Debets partnered with the redwood producers and the Headwaters Fund to come up with a plan to increase demand for redwood and get the industry companies to work together.

Working with an experienced ad man, they came up with a concept to turn the commodity of redwood into a brand and make it competitively superior to plastic composites int eh consumer perception matrix.

TV and an online campaign were launched, as well as aggressively attending consumer home shows  They also did a viral video...good luck with that.

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

Respectfully submitted, 
John Harper    

Meeting of the Rotary Club of Eureka

May 6, 2013

Pete Vallerga, member since 1986 and Paul Harris Fellow, led the flag salute.  Eric Bergel gave the invocation on the topic of what “shalom” really means. 

Lunch was Shalomi sandwiches. No, I’m such a kidder.  It was pork tenderloin, roasted asparagus, noodles, spinach salad with strawberries, and a chocolate cupcake. 

Student Guests
Larrisa Tolke, our foreign exchange student from Germany, reminded us of her fundraising dinner this weekend.  

Bruce Smith still needs one back up driver for the GSE team which arrives next Monday. 

The District conference is in Santa Rosa May 31-June 2. 

Our club’s 90^th anniversary is in October. 

Recognitions
Nancy Dean then donned her stovepipe hat for a rain stick giveaway.  Alicia Cox was sticked for her weekend getaway  to the Oregon Coast. 

Dave Wells is attending his daughter’s graduation from Law school this coming weekend.  It will be a big party which he hopes will end his financial donations to his daughter.  It seemed unlikely. 

John Bartholomew received his stick for an Ashland trip where he saw a good play, “The Unfortunate”.  His daughter is going to vet school in the fall. 

Kurt Barthel went to Mexico for Christmas, where he could have purchased his rain stick much more cheaply. 

Kim Bauriedel announced that next fall we will see the first ever exchange student from Siberia.  His name is Daniel and he’s from Vladivostok.

Guest Speaker

Pat Folkins then introduced our speaker, Cameron Renner, son of Mike Renner of Renner Petroleum.  Cameron is a Eureka native who went to college in Oregon and then became a 2^nd lieutenant in the Marine Corps.  He was stationed in Iraq in 2003 and again in 2008.  He said growing up in Eureka gave him a sense of community and that people were givers, not takers.   This sense of community served him well in the military. 

The 2003 invasion of Iraq was an “amazing experience” and he felt the power of the troops taking charge of the situation.  After the initial bombardment his soldiers went house to house to clean out the remaining combatants.  He felt that they pulled out too soon - after only four months- leaving a vacuum that drew in insurgents from all over the mid-east.  From 2004 to 2008 there was a counter insurgency with the destitute Iraqis taking money from the rebels to plant bombs because all the infrastructure had been destroyed and they couldn’t find work. 

Mike Renner

In 2008 the military realized that for the Iraqis to achieve self-government, a sense of community needed to be created.  In Anbar province they established trust by rebuilding the village systems from the ground up.  They gave weapons back to the police.  They created jobs.  Rebuilding the rest of the country and reestablishing that sense of community were the keys to winning the war.  When he returned to Eureka he realized that the community had changed and that his generation had a huge problem finding lasting employment.  When he was growing up everyone who wanted a job could get one.  They fit in to the community and could afford to be generous.  People gave more than they took.  Now people need to resort to less than savory forms of employment to supplement their meager wage, and there is no openness and feeling of belonging.  He said that Rotarians need to lend a helping hand to young people looking for work. 

Rotarians gave him a standing ovation.  

Submitted by Hank Ingham