Meeting of the Rotary Club of Eureka

March 28, 2016

Lunch Menu: Salad bar, fried chicken, fried fish, mixed vegetables, rolls, dessert.

Called to order by President Jay Bahner at 12:30pm.  The Pledge of Allegiance was led by Mike Martin.  The Invocation was led by Greg Williston.

VISITING ROTARIANS:  From Mad River Rotary… Helen Edwards, Mike Rhodes, Daniel Gibbs and President Greg Orsini.

GUESTS OF ROTARIANS: Dale Warmuth introduced his parents, Leon & Elaine Warmuth, Richard Storre introduced his wife, Debby, and her son.

BIRTHDAYS: Richard Storre’s birthday is today, as well as our exchange student Andy (who wasn’t present). Birthdays coming up this week… Justin Golnik, Matt Mesner and Andy Mills.

ANNIVERSARIES: Sue & Bob Bosch, John & Sandy Winzler, David & Roxanne O’Brien, Nancy Dean’s been a member of Eureka Rotary for 10 years this week.

ANNOUNCEMENTS: Ted Loring talked about Youth Exchange.  We have two students leaving Humboldt to go abroad.  One is Jonus Anderson who will be going to Argentina and Paraguay.  He’s a junior in High School. He will be receiving his diploma prior to leaving (finished school in 3 years).  He’s a guitar player.  You can hear his guitar playing at tobeannounced5.bandcamp.com.  Brice is in Bolivia now.  He’s had a rough, challenging and rewarding year abroad and will be visiting when he’s back to tell us about it.  Ted asked Rotarians to step up to the plate and join the Youth Exchange committee as people are needed.  Also, if anybody is at all interested in hosting exchange students please talk to him.

Neal Carnam talked about a fundraiser that Rotary Club of Eureka and Mad River Rotary are working on together.  They are raising money to help restore a village in Nepal that was devastated during the earthquake last year.  There will be a dinner/auction on April 16^th at the Elks Lodge.  Please buy a ticket for $50 and help out. 

Christian Hill talked about NCAA basketball.  There are still 34 $25 squares left out of the 64 squares. Please see him about buying a square. 

President Jay said that the Rotary Exchange team from India will be here in May.  Rotary Club of Eureka will host a trip on the Madaket on Saturday, May 14^th at 10:45am followed by lunch at Bollywood.  They can have up to 42 people attend and so far there are only 20 signed up.  Please let Jay know if you can attend and help entertain our guests - there’s no cost to go.

RECOGNITIONS: Phillip Nicklas spun the wheel and was fined $25 for having a brand new baby girl, Clara Nicklas.  His wife had to deliver the baby by emergency C-section and was air lifted out of the area for care.  Everybody is doing well now.  He’s hoping the insurance company pays the $51,000 bill for the flight to San Francisco!

SPENGLER-HOWARD RAFFLE:  $10: Mike Rhodes. Rotary Coin: Don Leonard. George Owren drew a card for a pot of $310 but took home a Rotary egg timer instead.

GUEST SPEAKER:  Dale Warmuth from Leon’s Car Care Center talked about the history of his family’s business, which started in 1961.  Dale said he is the General Manager, otherwise known as the Boss’ Son aka the guy in the Hawaiian shirt.  Their 1^st building was at 5^th and Broadway in Eureka and is owned by Rotarian Jack Macdonald.  At that time Leon’s focused on muffler and brake work. Cars were still very large at this time and there was a lot of exhaust work required on all automobiles.  In 1966 Leon’s moved to the corner of Broadway and Grant Street in Eureka.

As cars continued to evolve so did the business moving into tires and wheels at one point.  In 1977 Leon and Elaine purchased the northeast corner property at Broadway and Grant Streets focusing on exhaust and shocks at this point. Rotarian Chuck Ellsworth painted this building with a very patriotic theme of red, white and blue complete with stars that, according to Chuck, caused the city of Eureka to write some laws limiting painting options in the future.  In 1993, the current building was built at 929 Broadway in Eureka. This building contains14,000 square ft. of vehicle repair and maintenance. Exhaust/ muffler service was about 70% of the business model in 1993, while today it’s 12% and Leon’s is now an automotive repair shop specializing in general repair and maintenance.

Dale was recently one of 12 people nationally invited to join NAPA’s advisory board who will help NAPA determine best practices in a variety of areas. Leon’s is a NAPA auto care facility as well as an AAA approved auto repair facility. They always have complimentary coffee and homemade cookies that his mother makes. In fact his mother bakes approximately 50 dozen cookies each week.  Tom Schallert pointed out that rough calculations would mean that she’s on her 936,000 cookies now and by 2018 should be reaching her millionth cookie.

Dale said that Leon’s has always had a strong belief in giving back to the community including sponsoring projects like… the Boys and Girls Club, Timber Heritage Association, Humboldt Maritime Museum, Multiple Volunteer Fire depts., Humboldt Del Norte Timing association ( the Samoa Drag Strip ), The Eureka Skate Board Park, Clark Museum, The Northern California Blood Bank, various elements of both the Fortuna and Eureka High Auto Shop Programs, College of the Redwoods Auto Shop Program, the former Humboldt County’s HROP auto shop program and more.  They have been very involved in the Humboldt Botanical Gardens and, in fact, sponsored the Warmuth Family Propagation Garden.  Today they own the whole city block that Leon’s sits on.  In 1993 they had 8 or 9 employees and today employ 15 people. 

MEETING ADJOURNED: 12:30pm

Respectfully submitted, 

Alicia Cox

Meeting of the Rotary Club of Eureka

March 21, 2016

Matt Murrish led us in the pledge of allegiance.  Craig Hansen gave the invocation.  He noted that there would be a celebration of the life of Del “Andy” Anderson on April 2^nd at the Elks Club. 

President Jay Bahner noted that a work Study exchange group would be coming in May and they might need places to stay.  Jay is planning a trip on the Madaket for them. 

Two visitors from the Rotaract Club of Sebastopol had a short presentation video about their projects in India.  They are bringing affordable technology –notebooks and broadband internet to the masses. They are going to the Rotary International convention in Seoul South Korea. 

Lost Coast Rotaract is also fund raising and reminded us of their international food and wine pairing April 2^nd at the HSU Green And Gold Room.  Tickets are $50.

Then Neal Carnam announced another fundraiser, this one to help out the Nepal earthquake victims.  It is April 16^th at the Elks Club. 

Matthew Owen confessed that he’d recently been to Hawaii where he did a make up meeting on a catamaran.  No one drew the joker. 

Our speaker was Rod Holman, Director of Community Development for the City of Eureka.  He’s done lots of studies, on everything from start-ups, commercial zoning, Medical Cannabis, the Cold Storage unit, Business Incubators, to the fishing dock expansion.  He hasn’t done anything about those things, because no one has given him any funds.  Nice graphs, though.  He noted that he’d gone to lunch with 200 different people this last year and asked them all about other people he should invite to lunch. I expect today counted as the 201^st.  Who said there’s no such thing as a free lunch?

Submitted by Hank Ingham

Meeting of the Rotary Club of Eureka

March 14, 2016

The meeting was sparsely attended, due in part to the program:  March Madness.  Apparently not everyone wants to attend a fundraiser at lunch. 

Ziggy Zigenfuss led us in the pledge.  Mike Cunningham gave the invocation.  He mentioned that Mike Martin suffered a heart attack and had had surgery.

Mindy Bussman has her birthday on March 17, St. Patrick’s Day.  She confessed to dressing up in green and drinking her weight in beer.  Linda Wise had her anniversary on the 17^th, and said she also drank her weight in beer. 

Clark Swan, member of Lost Coast Rotaract, announced that 1/3 of her members are “timing out.”  When they reach the age of 30 they need to quit Rotaract and join a Rotary Club. She mentioned that other clubs have been approaching Rotaract members and buying them lunches.  She promised to give us the names of the short-timers so we could solicit their membership.  They are holding a fund-raiser on April 2^nd.  It’s an international wine and food pairing.  The theme is food from countries around the Black Sea.  Tickets are $50. 

Last week’s fellowship had to be re-scheduled because Jay Bahner forgot to attend.  It will be this Friday at the Bar in the Ingomar Club. 

Pat Folkins fined Jay for holding a meeting last week that ended at 1:45pm-15 minutes over.  Jack Reike was recognized for opening 4 stores, being Chamber Business of the Year, and having a new grandson.  It cost him $200.

The program was “March Madness.”  The 64 teams in the NCAA tournament, starting this Thursday, were auctioned off to a less than enthusiastic crowd.  Matthew Owen did his best but you can’t get blood from a stone.  Top four seeds went for as little as $50 in stark contrast to last year’s bids of $500 and more.  Some of the big spenders were there- Mindy Bussman, Jay Bahner, Jay Reed, Jack Reike, Dr. O’Brien and Pat Folkins.  Others like Hank Ingham and Dennis Hunter, took a bullet for the team.  It was short and sweet and we were out of there by 1:15pm, which should make up for last year’s meeting. 

Cheerfully penned by Hank Ingham, who asks you to root for West Virginia and Miami.

Meeting of the Rotary Club of Eureka

March 7, 2016

President Jay Bahner rang the bell to open the meeting.  He called on Rotaract President Christine Tyson to lead us in the pledge.  Bruce Rupp did the invocation. 

Then President-elect  Matthew Owen, who had just returned from “PETS” President Elect Training Seminar shared  a story with us that concerned Bob Roach, 92 year-old former president of  a club down south.  He had not had the opportunity to attend PETS and had always wanted to go.  This year he finally signed up.  On his way to the morning class he had a heart attack and died.  “At least he died happy,” said Matthew. And he didn’t have to go to the afternoon session. 

Jay acknowledged the presence of Long Time Rotarian Fred Griffith, an infrequent visitor since his retirement.  “If they ever open a club in Hawkins Bar” he said “ I’ll attend every meeting”. 

It’s National Rotaract Week, and 4 of our guests were Rotaractarians.  More about that later. 

First some news about Andy Chen the club’s exchange student from Taiwan.  Christian Hill hosted him for three months, but now he’s moving on to the Crivello family.  He is going to Hawaii so he spun the wheel for Christian, who was recognized for $75. 

Who else went to Hawaii?  John McBeth and Paul Brisso.  Not together.  Paul recently created Paul Harris Fellowships for his Dad and sister.  He is engaged.  No date yet. 

There was a brief interlude where we conducted club business.  Everybody was in favor of the By-law changes and so signified by saying “aye” .  Is it pirate week? 

Spoiler alert.  Next Monday is March Madness.  You can buy a square for $25, or you can bid on the top four seeds in each region, or buy lesser seeds in packs of three. 

Next up, Christine Tyson, president of Lost Coast Rotaract.  Recently they sent 3 members to Bangladesh to participate in a Roto-Plast clinic.  That’s where they correct facial anomalies like cleft palates.  It was a life changing experience.  They are having their 4^th Annual Wine and Food Pairing fund raiser on April 2 at 6pm in the Green and Gold Room on the HSU campus.  Tickets are $50.  The theme is “Countries on the Black Sea”. 

Our presenter was Superintendent of Eureka City Schools Fred Van Vleck.  He reminded us that the next generation is here walking the streets and texting to themselves.  Are we Ready?  There are four divisions in the school system:  Personnel Services, Student Services (Special Ed), Educational Services, and Business Services.  Eureka High is now offering Dual Enrollment, the opportunity to take classes at CR while you are going to classes at EHS. Ideally the student will graduate with a year of Junior College already under their belt.

He said their biggest challenge has been employee retention and recruitment.  The school suffers from declining enrollment, so they had to let some teachers go.  Now older teachers are retiring and there is a sudden need for 20 new teachers.  In addition they have only 18 months to decide to extend tenure to new hires.  It is a tight labor market in the educational field. 

He brought up measure S.  They promised to do something about the J. Willard gymnasium.  It will cost $18-19 million whether they fix up the old gym or build a new one.  There will be no pool.  For additional information go to the Eureka City Schools website and click on the blue button.

Cheerfully submitted by Hank Ingham