It was Confucius Day, or so we were told. Lunch was egg rolls, fried rice, lo mein, pot stickers, and Chinese chicken salad. There were fortune cookies on the table. The fortunes said things like “is good idea to give to Rotary” and “You will come into some money. Give it to Polio Plus.” Former Marine Bill Tuttle led the pledge of allegiance. Bill McAuley gave the invocation. Wayne Wilson is having an operation in San Francisco next week.
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| We add a new member |
We went immediately to introducing new members. Susan Tissot joined the Club. She is the fund-raiser for Humboldt Botanical Gardens. Tom Schallert introduced her and Will Kay gave the past president’s admonition. From there we went to the Annual Membership Meeting.
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| Jay Reed |
Jay Reed noted the problems we had with dues collection last year, and this year we will mail the invoices rather than e-mail them. Last year we had a deficit of $4,000. 80 members participated in last year’s event at the Ingomar. We had $8,000 in revenue.
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| Greg Seiler |
Greg Seiler talked about the results of the recent member survey. Members felt we needed more education. 90 % of them were involved in community service projects, dispelling the notion that we were a checkbook club. They wanted to see more fellowship, and more craft talks.
Gregg Gardiner went over our membership goals for the year. We have 8-10% attrition every year. This year we started out with 124 members, and we are now at 134. His goal is to reach 150 members. If we achieve that goal we can restore funding to Backpacks for Kids and reduce dues to $400. Our big projects this year are remodeling the Boys and Girls Club, Cleaning up the Serenity Inn and assembling a playground there, and putting 3 redwood benches in Rotary Grove. Our club has $700,000 in the Sign Smith fund, an additional 60,000 in the Rotary Endowment Fund, and we have recently added the Harvey Harper Scholarship fund and the Scott Guild Memorial Fund. We are rolling in money.
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| Lucky winer |
No one drew the joker and won the pot of $90. It was noted that last week’s winner of $310 gave the money to the Boys and Girls Club.
Dr. Kim Bauriedel introduced our speaker, Doctor Donald Baird health officer from the Humboldt County Department of Health and Human Services. He spoke of the growing problem of parents refusing to get their children vaccinated.
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| Dr. Baird |
The resistance is based on fears that the shots cause autism. A study done twenty years ago and since discredited is still widely believed. Young people have not been exposed to childhood diseases like measles, mumps, whooping cough, diptheria and polio. Once the population falls below a certain threshold of immunity there is a chance that those diseases could resurface in epidemic form. It’s a good idea to get your vaccinations renewed every five years. Flu vaccine is 50% effective. Hepatis B shots are a good idea. Watch the NPR special on Vaccines for more information and wash your hands.
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| confused |
Gregg ended our session by quoting Confucius, who was born in 1541 BC. “Confucius say, never trust quotes you read on internet”
Typed with rubber gloves and a surgical mask by Hank Ingham
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