Rotary Club of Eureka Burl August 25, 2014

Lunch Menu: Salad bar, sweet potatoes, ham, turkey/dressing, carrots, rolls, dessert. Called to order by President Gregg Gardiner at 12:30pm.The Pledge of Allegiance was led by former US Marine Corp Captain, Bruce Rupp. The Invocation was led by Steven Justus. Wayne Wilson is back in the hospital and not receiving visitors. Steve Beckman is back in Granada but doing better.

VISITING ROTARIANS: Liana Simpson- Old Town, Jeff Pauli- Old Town (Bert Campton fined President Gregg $25 for mispronouncing Liana’s name as Lisa. Then, President Gregg fined Bert Campton $25 for mispronouncing Liana’s name as Lisa when he fined President Gregg. Neither side would budge on the fine. They tried to get the club to vote but most members abstained.) GUESTS OF ROTARIANS: Ted Loring brought Scott Loring, Carlton brought Rachel Burns from Redwood Teen Challenge, Mike Cunningham brought his son-in-law Andre who is moving back to Eureka, Tom Schallert brought Susan Tissot the Executive Director of the Humboldt Botanical Gardens, Dick Storre introduced his wife, Debbie. STUDENT GUESTS: Our new exchange student Lisa from Belgium has arrived. Today was her first day of school so she won’t be joining us until the next meeting. Lisa still needs a 3rd host family for her stay with the club. FOUNDATION MINUTE: Mike Cunningham provided today’s meeting filling in for Keith Crossley who hurt his back. Rotary Foundation began over 100 years ago with a donation of $26.50 from Rotary International President, Arch C. Klumph. Mike pointed out that money alone could not accomplish the many things the Foundation does. It also takes service from the many committed Rotarians who live throughout the world. BIRTHDAYS: J Hockaday, Jill McDonald, Steven McHaney, David Wells, Ted Welton ANNIVERSARIES: Russ Harris he was already recognized last week so President Gregg let him sit back down unscathed.

ANNOUNCEMENTS: Tom McMurray said that Redwood Teen Challenge is holding an annual dinner/fundraiser at the Arcata Community Center on Sept. 9th at 6pm. Tickets are $25 and tables for 8 are available. President Gregg reminded the club that Redwood Teen Challenge has contributed a lot to the Winship Project and will be contributing a lot to the Boys and Girls Club project. President Gregg updated us on the Boys and Girls Club project… The new roof will be put on next week. The painting has been finished to remove all lead-based paints… things are moving forward. Sign Smith applications are due October 1st. Applications are on line. Grants generally run in the $30 to $35,000 range. If you know of a non-profit that has a project that fits, encourage them to apply. It’s time to vote on the Board of Director’s for next year. Ballots were passed out. Carlton reported on the Rotary Exchange Student rafting trip. He BBQ’d for 115 kids, parents, etc. on Saturday night. It was a great event. Russ Harris provided all of the salmon for the BBQ. Bruce Rupp, sporting a t-Shirt promoting KEET TV was asked to stand up by President Gregg and tell us what that’s all about. Bruce invited everyone to join KEET TV. It costs as little as $5 a month. KEET has to raise $800,000 or they will no longer be on the North Coast. If you enjoy watching KEET please join. President Gregg held up spare change canisters that have the message, Spare Change to Change the World with the Rotary emblem. Rotarians are all asked to take one and bring it back filled up. Then you can get a new one to fill again. We are committed to contribute $120 perm member this year to the Foundation. If you want to put the canisters out at your business you can get extra ones to do that with. RECOGNITIONS: President Gregg asked all Directors of the Boys and Girls Club to stand. The board has committed funds that more than match Rotary’s contribution to the renovation project as part of their commitment to Boys and Girls Club. Dale Warmuth and ? stood up in recognition of their commitment to the Boys and Girl’s Club. Wendy Purnell was asked to stand. Wendy recently took an out of town trip with members of her golf team to compete against 20+ teams. Wendy’s team took 1st place. Her first place cost her a $25 donation to the club. Anyone that has traveled overseas this summer was asked to stand. Up went Dennis Hunter who went on a cruise of the Mediterranean including his favorite, Italy. Cost him $25. Dale Warmuth went to New Zealand for a fine of $100, Tom McMurray went to Norway because his daughter got married. He made the mistake of telling the club that he only had to pay for the dress and flowers. His in laws picked up the rest of the costs. That cost him $100. ROTARIAN OF THE MONTH: Steve Lafferty received a framed certificate from President Gregg thanking him for his consistent, hard work in setting up the club each week, keeping attendance tabs and emailing each Rotarian each week. SPENGLER-HOWARD RAFFLE: A bottle of Riverbend Cellars wine was won by Scott Loring. Bruce Rupp drew from the deck of cards for the joker with no success. The pot now stands at $230.

GUEST SPEAKER INTRODUCTION BY: Bruce Emad. College of the Redwoods (CR) President Kathy Smith started at CR in May of 2012, at a very dark time for CR. There were sanctions against the school, finances were horrible, etc. Today’s report will be very different. Kathy’s background was as President of Mendocino College for many years and prior to that worked for 11 years at Pikes Peak Community College in Colorado Springs, Colo. She earned a bachelor’s degree in accounting at the University of Kansas and a master of business administration (MBA) at the University of New Mexico. She has been a CPA since 1978. GUEST SPEAKER: Kathy started off with a few statistics about Community Colleges. In total there are 112 community colleges in California with over 2 million students as opposed to 23 California State University colleges and 10 University of California colleges. She provided some interesting handouts with other statistics. Today College of the Redwoods has no sanctions. They have a mid-term report due in mid October. Assuming they pass that with no problems there will be no review required for 3 to 4 years. The recommended budget reserves are 5% of the annual budget. When Kathy arrived at CR their reserves were at 2%. Today those reserves total 5.3% and they expect to meet their goal of having reserves totaling 5.4% at the end of this year. Those achievements came at the cost of 33 people that she had to lay off and the hard hard work of existing employees who were committed to making CR succeed. There are a lot of reporting requirements that take a lot of time and her staff works hard to meet those requirements. They have built 3 new buildings… Science, Humanities, Administrative/Student support. Those buildings are being fully utilized. However, the old buildings on campus are sitting idle and are too expensive to retrofit because they are so old. However, the buildings need to be maintained to stay safe, which costs money. They can utilize the buildings for non-student activities. They did rent one to PG&E who will be expanding their rental needs this year. That has been a great experience. The PG&E employees also eat at the Cafeteria, which helps with sales at the Cafeteria. CR’s Mendocino Campus is being transferred to Mendocino College. It’s too far and too expensive to keep up. It doesn’t make sense. The Nursing classes are full with a waiting list of 200 students but there is no budget to increase and even if they did, she’s not sure there are jobs to support the additional students that would be coming out. Kathy invited all Rotarians to come to the 50th anniversary celebrations on October 4th from 4-6pm at College of the Redwoods. It will be a fun time. MEETING ADJOURNED: 1:30pm. Alicia Cox

Rotary Club of Eureka Burl August 18, 2014

Lunch Menu: Salad bar, scalloped potatoes, salmon, chicken cordon bleu, rolls, dessert

Called to order by President Gregg Gardiner at 12:30pm The Pledge of Allegiance was led by Bob Palmrose The Invocation was led by Greg Williston VISITING ROTARIANS: Bill Morill- Southwest Rotary, Retired Judge Brown-Ferndale GUESTS OF ROTARIANS: Carlton introduced Bill Tuttle owner of the Chalet Restaurant new owner of the Cutten Inn; Lisa Slack introduced Cindy Beddington CEO of Redwood Acres Fairgrounds; Jeff Leonard introduced last year’s outbound exchange student to Sweden,

Ashley Bott back
from Sweden

Ashley Bott and her grandmother, Donna Fuller. BIRTHDAYS: No birthdays this week. President Gregg asked for a moment of silence in recognition of this momentous occasion. ANNIVERSARIES: Russ Harris is celebrating his 13th anniversary with Rotary,

Richard's 32nd Anniversary

Richard Borough is celebrating his 32nd wedding anniversary. Carlton will be celebrating his 20th anniversary without his wife, cooking food for about 110 kids and their parents at the Rotary Youth Exchange event.



Gregg forgot Ken's Anniversary

 Ken Stodder notified President Gregg that his 41st anniversary had been forgotten amidst gasps from the audience and a profound apology from our President. ANNOUNCEMENTS: A new community service project is coming up soon. In partnership with Del Norte Rotary we will be cleaning up the Rotary Grove, comprised of 80 acres, located between Eureka and Crescent City. It needs to be weed wacked, a bench replaced, etc. Stay tuned for dates. Bill Morrill thanked the club for a grant recently made to him to help fund a series of shows being produced for the Clarke Museum. Board of directors meeting next Tuesday. Board of director nominations will be on Sept. 8th for the coming year. A list of eligible members will be emailed soon.Our president announced that today is National Bad Poetry Day and in celebration he wrote an astoundingly bad poem which generated boos from the crowd.

Forgot their Rotary Pins

RECOGNITIONS: Everyone without a Rotary pin, tie, etc. were asked to stand up. Christian Hill, Nathan Nielsen, George Owren, Tom McMurray, Carol Rische and Don Smullin all stood and were asked to confess why they were not wearing their pins despite a reminder last week from our president and a follow up email. All received a $5 fine except for Christian Hill who was fined $10 for claiming that his pin was left sitting on the windowsill to reflect light to keep bugs away and Don Smullin who was fined $20 for deleting President Gregg’s email without reading it. SPECIAL PRESENTATION: Ashley Bott gave us a presentation on her year in Sweden and what her experience was like. She definitely recommends this experience to anybody who is interested.

Dennis tries to barter his bottle.

SPENGLER-HOWARD RAFFLE: A bottle of Riverbend Cellars wine was won by Dennis Hunter.
Brad Mettam drew from the deck of cards for the joker and a pot of $180. However, he drew a 4 of diamonds. The pot is now at $200.

Gregg's card trick floors 'em

Jeff Leonard has come up with a new twist on the drawing that President Gregg will announce next week. GUEST SPEAKER INTRODUCTION BY: President Gregg Gardiner introduced Humboldt County Chief Administrative Officer, Phil Smith Hanes who is hear to talk to us about Measure Z.

The Z stands for ...

GUEST SPEAKER: Measure Z raises local money that will stay here in Humboldt County by putting a ½ cent tax on goods purchased in Humboldt County for the next 5 years. The measure was put on the ballot because $286 million dollars has been taken away in State revenue over the past 22 years, decreasing public safety and other essential services. If passed, this measure is expected to raise approximately $6 million annually.

The under-sheriff
fills in for Phil.

The Sheriff’s office is down 30 employees from where it used to be. Other services such as fire departments, rural ambulance services, 911 emergency response times, etc. would all benefit from the passing of this measure. The election will be on November 4, 2014. Fore more information about Measure Z go to http://www.humboldtgov.org/ MEETING ADJOURNED: 1:30 pm by President Gregg who announced that anyone with an August birthday who didn’t sit up front put $5 on the table. If you haven’t paid your dues, pay up. And lastly he left us with this thought… ‘taxes grow without rain’.

Respectfully submitted, Alicia Cox

Rotary Burl August 11, 2014

Lunch Menu: Salad bar, fried shrimp, French fries, chicken pasta, mixed vegetables, rolls, dessert
Called to order by President Gregg Gardiner at 12:30pm. The Pledge of Allegiance was led by Pat Folkins. The Invocation was led by Bruce Rupp, VISITING ROTARIANS: Liana Simpson from Old Town Rotary. GUESTS OF ROTARIANS: Bruce Rupp brought back Hawley Butterfield amidst cheers from the crowd.



First Lady Of Rotary

 Kathy Cloney-Gardiner introduced Chris Cox, Assistant Principal at Winship Middle School. Chuck Goodwin introduced Eureka City Council Member, Marian Brady.




Kathryn Smith

  Jay Reed introduced Anthony Stubbs, CPA at Aalfs Evans & Company. FOUNDATION MINUTE: Keith Crossley told us we were this close to eradicating polio. When Rotary started down this path 125 countries still had polio. Today only 3 countries still experience polio… Afghanistan, Nigeria and Pakistan. Help is needed now more than ever. Dr. Kim Bauriedel added… eradicating polio from the last 3 countries is very expensive. These last 3 countries are hard to gain access to and that is the reason it costs so much.



Mike Martin Paul Harris Fellow

 Mike Martin was asked to come to the podium where he received a long past due pin and medal for his contributions to the Paul Harris Foundation. Mike received a standing ovation from the crowd. BIRTHDAYS/ANNIVERSARIES: Dave Dillon’s birthday and anniversary are on the same day, 08/13/14. President Gregg fined Dave for missing last week’s meeting when District Governor Kevin visited. On top of that he missed it to go to a music festival. Dave defended himself as it was an anniversary trip but he still had to pay a fine of $5.76. He generously upped his fine to $10. Other birthdays this week include Rick Littlefield, Kitty Poterack and Pat Folkins.
RECOGNITIONS: Past President Hank Pierson was led into the room by Sheriff Mike Downey in handcuffs.



Hank Pierson in cuffs

  His crime? Missing President Gregg’s first meeting and every meeting since then. Prosecuting Attorney Arnie Klein questioned Hank at length and ultimately pronounced him free to go. However, President Gregg wasn’t letting him off that easily… A super fine of $100 was imposed on Past President Hank because of the egregious



Gregg and his attorney

 nature of his crime. ANNOUNCEMENTS: Kathy Smith passed on an announcement from Lee Cunningham that there is an internship available from the Women in Transportation Initiative that pays $14 or $15/hr. The internship has an emphasis on public relations for women in construction. Call Lee if you are interested in knowing more. SPENGLER-HOWARD RAFFLE: A bottle of Riverbend Cellars wine was won by Steven Lafferty. Russ Harris drew from the deck of cards for the joker and a pot of $150. However, he drew a 4 of clubs so the pot goes up $20 for next week’s drawing. GUEST

City Manager Greg Sparks

SPEAKER INTRODUCTION BY: Gregg Gardiner. Greg Sparks was appointed Eureka City Manager on May 1st. He is from West Des Moines Iowa, and is a former Rotarian. GUEST SPEAKER: Greg Sparks grew up in Newton Iowa. He is celebrating his 39th wedding anniversary this year with his wife, Mary who is a nurse. She is currently waiting for her nursing license to arrive in the mail before she can start her job search. Greg has a Masters in Public Administration and interned at the City of Reno in 1978, 36 years ago. He’s stayed in this field ever since. He said there are many challenges in Eureka. There has been and continues to be a lot of turnover in some key positions. The Director of Community Development position has been empty for awhile but they expect to announce the new director soon. They are recruiting for a new Finance Director. There are openings in police and fire.

Assistant City Manager Mike Knight is taking early retirement in September and there are a few long time employees who will be taking early retirement in September with the California PERS early retirement offer. With those long-time employees goes a lot of institutional knowledge. Greg’s focus is on providing strong customer service and innovation. The city belongs to an “Alliance Consortium.” This consortium is committed to sharing ideas, etc. They are committed to succeeding through innovation, finding solutions to problems creatively. When he arrived there was a $4 million dollar imbalance between revenue and expenditures and although they have balanced the budget it came at the price of reducing services they didn’t want to reduce. Measure Q, on the ballot to continue the ½ cent sales tax will generate approximately $4.1 million dollars annually. The economy has improved but these dollars are still vital to city services.

Keith Crossley showing how
much respect he has for Gregg

 Police and Fire services need to have money increased so that there are adequate services. Greg’s goal of customer service came from the continuing complaints he has heard about the lack of customer service at the city.

He said this will change one person at a time. He is holding Department Heads accountable and has asked city council members, etc. that if they hear complaints to let him know so that he can sit down one on one with the person(s) to try to resolve the issue. He wants to hear about problems as they happen, not 6 months down the road when it is too late to fix the problem. The rest of the time was devoted to questions and answers including topics like the Homelessness Task Force and the need for more housing and mental health services and funding from the State and Federal level to help. MEETING ADJOURNED: 1:30pm by President Gregg who reminded us this year’s primary goal is membership and asked us all to invite somebody to Rotary. He in fact invited City Manager Greg Sparks to become a Rotarian in the Rotary Club of Eureka. He suggested that everybody wear their Rotary pin to the meeting next week.

Respectfully submitted, Alicia Cox

Rotary Burl August 4, 2014

LUNCH MENU: Salad bar, roast beef, chicken a la king, mashed potatoes, mixed vegetables, rolls, dessert.
CALLED TO ORDER by President Gregg Gardiner at 12:25pm with a rousing slide show celebrating the Coast Guard’s birthday on this very day 224 years ago and a special acknowledgement to Ziggy on his anniversary of 28 years with the Army Reserves.THE PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE was led by visiting District Governor, Kevin Eisenberg. THE INVOCATION was led by: Greg Pierson. A special prayer was given for Wayne Wilson who is home recovering but not receiving visitors. VISITING ROTARIANS: None GUESTS OF ROTARIANS: Kathy Cloney-Gardiner introduced Mary Eisenberg, wife of our District Governor, Ray Wickel introduced his wife Pauline, Sue Bosch introduced her daughter Laurie, Dick Storre’s wife Debbie was visiting and Kittie Poterack introduced her son Robbie and a colleague, Lois Cook. BIRTHDAYS/ANNIVERSARIES: Kurt Barthel’s 65th birthday was August 2nd. Pat Folkins is celebrating his 75th birthday and and 54th wedding anniversary, George Owren’s 50th Anniversary was on August 1st. Greg Williston confessed he is celebrating his 29th anniversary by taking his wife to the Benbow Inn next Monday in lieu of attending Rotary. FOUNDATION MINUTE: Dr. Kim Bauriedel let us know that our former exchange student, Dan, from Russia is doing well. He’s back cooking for a living, which Dan loves, and he is about to apply for his driver’s license. So far he has not had to join the Russian Army - a concern of his. Dr. Bauriedel went on to say that The Foundation is part of what makes Rotary different from any other type of organization. The Foundation was established in 1917 but it didn’t really take off until about 1947 when President Paul Harris passed away and donations were made in his name to the Foundation from Rotary Clubs everywhere. Since that time the Foundation has developed the mission to focus on projects related to health, hunger and humanitarian projects throughout the world. This has included the eradication of Polio in 120 countries. Today only 6 countries are not polio free, and hopefully that number will be at 0 soon. (A country is not declared polio free until 3 years have passed with no cases.) Dr. Bauriedel reminded us how important it is to donate to the foundation and how much good every dollar donated does.
ANNOUNCEMENTS: President Gregg opened his comments by stating that so far this year his fines have totaled $360 and Kathy says it has to stop as the fines are starting to come out of her clothing budget. He then asked Ziggy, Jay Bohner, Carlton Nilsen and Kathy Cloney-Gardiner to stand up and show everybody how close we are to ending polio. They all stood up and gave us “the sign”. To find the sign yourself, Gregg says to go to 101 things about Rotary, available at the badge table at your next meeting. George Owren, Kathy Cloney-Gardiner, our Rotary Foundation team, Ray and Pauline Wickel and District Governor, Kevin Eisenberg were all asked to stand at the podium. Ray and Pauline recently donated $10,000 to the Foundation, becoming a Major Donor of the Foundation. District Governor Kevin thanked the Wickel’s for their donation amidst a standing ovation. He then went on to tell us that $10,000 represents 6,000 polio immunizations, That’s 6,000 children not at risk to catch a life altering and threatening disease. $10,000 represents completely equipping a school for girls in a country that doesn’t believe in educating women or $10,000 could represent clean water for 50,000 people. The Foundation does so much. Kevin encouraged us to remember to support this worthwhile cause. The Wickel’s received pins and an engraved glass award in recognition of their donation in addition to a second standing ovation.
SPENGLER-HOWARD RAFFLE: A bottle of Riverbend Cellars red wine was won by Kathy Cloney-Gardiner among cries of a fixed drawing. Sadly Corky Cornwell did not win draw the joker and did not win the pot of $120.
GUEST SPEAKER INTRODUCTION BY Gregg Gardiner. According to Gregg, Kevin Eiserberg loves basketball which is why every table in the room has a basketball as a centerpiece today. Gregg presented a slide show on Pride and Joy, Kevin’s theme this year, that exemplified numerous companies and things that utilize the name pride and joy including a bar, tattoos, and a memorial for a dog. But… Kevin’s real pride and joy are his wife and two children.
GUEST SPEAKER: Kevin presented Gregg with a framed photo of a bottle of pride and joy. He also accused Gregg of being the Rodney Dangerfield of Rotary. Kevin went on a tour of Eureka on Sunday with Gregg, and viewed first hand many of the projects accomplished by our Rotary Club. He attended a board meeting earlier this morning and heard how one person at the Rotary Club of Eureka can have a great idea and the entire club works together to make it happen. Kevin said that in addition to his theme, Pride and Joy Rotary International has their own theme, Light Up Rotary. He knows there are a lot of jokes, especially in Humboldt and Mendocino about this theme, but he encourages us all to look past the jokes to see the power of that statement. The President of Rotary, Gary Wong, took his inspiration from Confucius who said, ‘it is better to light a single candle than to sit and curse the darkness’. Kevin feels that each club lighting one candle at a time can do a lot, but 35,000 clubs lighting one candle at a time can make an immense difference. He said Rotary stands apart from many other organizations in the world and because of our reputation for ethics and service about self we are allowed entry into other countries when others aren’t. He said, one of your own Rotarians told me this morning that a recent survey conducted to research a coming ballot initiative found that registered voters in Eureka were asked, “what organization do you most trust in Eureka?” Rotary was the number one answer. Kevin said, Rotary should be fun, it’s ok to have fun in fact President Wong insists on it. Kevin suggested we wear our Rotary pins everywhere and maybe consider a tattoo so we can even wear it in the shower. He said not only does it create instant friendships with other Rotarians it also sparks conversation about what Rotary is all about. He asked us to look inside ourselves, feel our pride and joy of being a Rotarian, explain that feeling to other people. If you do that membership is no longer a problem. The Foundation has 6 essential goals 1) Disease Prevention and Treatment 2) Water and Sanitation 3) Maternal and Child Health 4) Literacy/Education 5) Economic and Community Development 6) Peace and Conflict Resolution. In conclusion… Rotary is a beacon of light illuminating the path to a better country and world. Take pride and joy in Rotary. Don’t forget to sign up for an exciting conference on April 24-26th in beautiful Yosemite. Flyers available at District 5130 web site.

MEETING ADJOURNED: (1:30pm)
Respectfully submitted,
Alicia Cox