Rotary Club of Eureka Meeting November 19, 2012

Rotary Club of Eureka Weekly Meeting
November 19, 2012


Stock Market is up, S&P is 1383
Weather is blustery and a big storm is rolling in.
Lunch: Chinese chicken salad, potato soup, and pesto tortellini

Welcome to the 19th Meeting of the Rotary Club of Eureka
Rotary Year 2012-2013

Anthony Antonville led the Flag Salute.  Invocation by Past President Carlton Nielsen.  

Katy Verhamson from Auburn Rotary was visiting.  Guests of Rotarians included Steve Jackson from Western Web and Robert McCarthy. John Friedenbach of the water district was here as well, along with Chuck Ellsworth’s daughter, Alicia Ellsworth.  No Student Guests due to the Thanksgiving holiday.  Birthdays and Anniversaries are in the book congratulations to all.  There is a Memorial for Norm Shopay President Mad River Rotary.  It will be Nov. 28 from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. at Azalea Hall.  A Fund-raiser by Eureka High School Interact raised over $380 for those impacted by Hurricane Sandy.  Gary Todoroff is going to Swaziland to work on a hydroponics projects.


John Friedenbach of the Boy Scouts thanked us for the raffle we are helping them with. The proceeds of the raffle will be funding the building a water filtration system at their Elk River campground.  Tickets are $20 and the grand prize is $1,000 worth of gasoline.  Past President Kim Bauriedel pointed out that our club funded the bathroom and shower system that is unusable unless the water filtration system is built.  

New member Steve Jackson was welcomed to the club by Past President Carlton Nielsen. Proposed Classification: Printing Services Employer: Western Web, Inc. Applause.  

New member Christine Witt gave her craft talk. It was great! She gave us a quiz! What local school was 3^rd in the state academically?  Northcoast Preparatory Academy.  Who used to run the ferry to Davis Island in the San Juans?  A veritable forest of hands went up on that one.  As everyone knows, it was a group of nuns – but they quit doing it in 2006.  She's from the home of the real Paul Bunyan, Bimidji Minnesota. She worked on the Humboldt Community Help line, worked with campfire and Adult Ed at Eureka City Schools, works at Humboldt Area Foundation, and went way over her two minutes, which was just fine.  She is a welcome addition to our club

Recognitions

Charlie Bussman made a semi-rare appearance and was immediately recognized for the max. That'll teach him to show up!

Raffle
The Spengler " Science Fair"  Raffle  Tickets: -
$10                Steve McHaney                $10​​​​ John Friedenbach


Past President Carlton Nielsen introduced our speaker, Jacqueline Debets, of Prosperity 2012.

 Jacqueline's brief bio:
2004- Present Current Executive Director Workforce Investment Board at County of Humboldt
2000 – Present Economic Development Coordinator at County of Humboldt Past
1995-2000 General & Marketing Manager at Lost Coast Communications, Inc.
Education - Cornell University

Program

Prosperity 2012 is the updating of our county economic strategy. Jacqueline pointed out that innovation and entrepreneurship are important economic indicators. 27% of Humboldt residents have a bachelors degree or higher. The US average is 19.5%.  New businesses continue to grow nationally.  Six local industries qualified as targets of opportunity:

Diversified Health Care
Building and Systems Construction
Niche Manufacturing
Management and Innovation Services
Specialty Agriculture, Food and Beverage
Investment Support Services

Forest products and Tourism are huge parts of our economy but not classified as targets of opportunity.  They launched a Go Local campaign and an I Phone app for Humboldt products.  Prosperity 2012 plans to have a final draft of their report by January 2013 and to adopt the plan next March.  Our 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
November 12, 2012

Veterans Day program

Stock Market closed

61 degrees and sunny

18th Meeting of the Rotary Club of Eureka
Rotary Year 2012-2013

Flag Salute

Past President Don Leonard

Invocation 

Past President Bruce Rupp

Veterans of the four branches of the military & the Coast Guard were honored. The Marines brought a cake in honor of the 237th anniversary of the Marines.

Visiting Rotarians
No visiting Rotarians.

Guests

Multiple veterans of various campaigns were in attendance and introduced themselves to the club to extended applause.

Steve Jackson of Western Web was introduced by Past President Carlton Nielsen as a guest.

No student guests for Veterans Day

No exchange students due to Veterans Day

Remember that Larissa is having a fund raiser for her Rotary Trip to Hawaii.  Homemade German food served at Lisa Slack’s home on Friday evening Nov. 30th.

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

Announcements
• Christmas cards for veterans.  If you forgot to bring one, you can still drop it off at any North Valley Bank location until Nov. 21^st

• North Coast Honor Flight and the Eureka Symphony invite you to an evening of music and art honoring our Humboldt County WWII veterans at 5:30 PM today, November 12. Musical director Carol Jacobson has selected a program of moving American music, including Our Town, by American composer, Aaron Copland. Also featured will be portraits of the veterans by Trinidad artist, Kathrin Burleson, co-founder of North Coast Honor Flight.

• Rotary Club of Arcata Sunrise presents Taste of the Holidays this Thursday, November 15 ^th from 5:00-8:00PM at the Arcata Community Center

• If you are staying in Eureka on the 15th, participate in the Henderson Center Annual Holiday Open House where the Eureka High Interactor’s are having a fund raiser with money going to those impacted by Superstorm Sandy.

Recognitions
Jim Howard was served a birthday cake and instantly recognized. He likes to gamble? He won $1500 at a casino? He also "won" a rainmaker.

Raffle Winners
$10 to Bruce Smith & $10 to Sid Dominitz

Hank sent the point man on and tried to go around Outpost Queen, until he heard Chinese voices and doubled back. He ran into his own machine gunner, who had not gone on the mission and they made their way back to the aid station.Program
Speaker's pre-introduction done by Steve Justus, mentioned our club's great success with Honor Flight, bringing WWII veterans back to the monument in Washington D.C. Steve announced our extension of Honor Flight to Korea veterans.

Mack Gardiner, Korean War veteran, former Boy Scout leader and member of Eureka Rotary for 22 years, introduced Hank Nicol. Hank was raised in California, enlisted in the Army, and won two Purple Hearts. Hank is well-traveled, having gone to New Zealand and Australia, then joining the Peace Corps where we worked primarily in Thailand. Hank is a member of the color guard and an excellent photographer.

Don "Hank" Nicol, a Korean War veteran and recipient of two Purple Hearts was our featured speaker.

Hank got a Purple Heart walking down the road towards the shower!  Easyfinger. Christmas Hill and the main line of resistance had a hill between them. The raging battle on the middle hill, Outpost Queen, went on for over two years. Easy company took heavy casualties ahead of the outpost position. Hank's company, on the second to last day of the war (unbeknownst to them,) advanced to Easyfinger. They were to collect the bodies of their fallen. They saw piles of untouched sea rations, which the Chinese apparently disliked as much as the Americans did.


The day was incredibly foggy, and Hank's troop passed several small bunkers, and several dead bodies. About 50 feet away, they saw a ruined bunker through the fog. Hanks point man got too far in front, and Hank bearded a dog barking behind them. One of his troop shot it with an M1.

The point man got to the ruined bunker, about head high, and gunfire erupted and a grenade hit him in the side of the helmet. Suddenly, Hank's men had put their bayonets on their carbines, and the point man popped up and came running back! The grenade was a flash, intended to knock him out and capture him. He was knocked out, but only for a moment.

Hank's team started shooting. The KATUSA embedded jammed his M1, so he handed it to Hank to unjam it. While the other team was picking up bodies, Hank's team engaged in a 30-minute firefight, which seemed like 3 1/2 hours.

Between the bunker and Hank's team were two dead GI's.

The platoon behind had finished collecting bodies and was pulling out, so Hank's team began to back out in reverse order (he had three squads with about 20 men total).

Hank mixed up his own orders and started backing away in confusion, when mortar fire erupted around them. He kept his squads moving and an injured man fell at his feet. He was the only WWII vet and didn't have his own medic bag, so Hank used his own. The man miraculously got up and made it back on his own.

Suddenly, Hank was hit in the leg, lightly, and got a nasty Charlie horse, making walking difficult. Everyone made it back ahead except Hank and the point man, who stayed with him.

Hank and his team had a profanity laced discussion of the scouting mission, and when the chaplain objected, the two of them had a fight.

The captain gathered all the men, and with a straight face, announced that the truce was to be signed the next morning at 10 am, to be effective that night at 10 pm. Nobody cheered, mostly from exhaustion.

The next morning, the captain called for Hank and the fog lifted early. At about 10 am, there was all quiet.  But by 11:30, there was a steady roar of fire and shells going back and forth.

There were quite a few casualties that last day of the war from the shelling. Both sides kept firing until just before 10 pm.

The next day, the men were ordered to clean up the hill, and Hank personally threw away three flamethrowers.

Just before they left, a colonel decided the hill wasn't clean enough, and they were sent back to do it over.

Hank and some of his fellows have a book, out of print, called "Christmas in July."

Applause.

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

Respectfully Submitted,
John Harper

Rotary Club of Eureka Meeting November 5 2012

Meeting of the Rotary Club of Eureka
November 5, 2012

The turnout was pretty good for a warm sunny day in November.  Of course, a nice day isn’t in Nancy Dean’s best interests, because it makes for a smaller audience.   

Jack MacDonald, who joined the club in 1980, was asked to do the pledge.  Greg Pierson then came to the podium to give the invocation, for which he had prepared a short and (He thought) humorous poem having to do with the upcoming election.  He soon learned that people laugh at the president’s jokes, but once you are an ex-president you are, as they say. “Chopped liver” Roses are red. Violets are blue.  I’m going to vote, and so should you.   

EHS Rotaract & 2013-2014 outbound exchange students

Kim Bauriedel had returned from Siberia bringing gifts – chocolates which he shared with the club, and hand-made banners from the clubs he had visited.  He even gave Nancy $50 in recognition money.  Then he offered his surplus souvenir pens for sale.   

Nancy announced that last weekend’s parks cleanup project had been successful and thanked Jill MacDonald for organizing it and Tim Jones for suggesting the idea during one of the Firesides.  14 people traded hard labor for donuts.  It sounded like Siberia all over again.   

Next week our program will feature a World War II veteran.  Nancy also plugged a special concert on Monday November 12 at 5:30pm at the Arkley Center in Eureka.  The Eureka symphony will present A Musical and Artistic Tribute to our WWII veterans featuring portraits of veterans by Kathryn Burleson. 

This week’s birthdays include Ray Wickel, Del Anderson, Sally Arnot, and Ted Loring. Anniversaries Bruce and Faye Emad and Ray and Pauline Wickel.   

Ms. Dean then eschewed recognition in favor of the drawing and an early start for our program featuring our three foreign exchange students.   

Eric Bergel gave a short intro, and then each in turn talked about their backgrounds and experiences.  

Franco Callegga Lorenzini is from Talca Chile and is 16 years old.  He likes to work with his hands and sports are his hobby.  Chile is known for its copper mining, cattle, a budding wine industry, and fruit.  Chile’s scenic features include the Andes, Patagonia, and Easter Island where they have the stone statues featured in Thor Hyderdahl’s 1958 book Aku Aku.  He lives with his 4 brothers on a farm.  On 2/27/2010 Chile suffered an 8.8 earthquake and his family’s house was destroyed.  They rebuilt.  He’s staying with Greg Williston’s family.    

Larissa Tölke is from Cologne, Germany in the state of Westphalia.   It’s the most diverse, ethnically, with foreign labor attracted to industrial jobs in the Ruhr Valley.  2.4 % Turks, and 6.1 % other immigrants with BHT added as a preservative.   Temperatures in Westphalia range from –59° Fahrenheit to 104º.  Snow is common [but not when it’s 104º].   She lives with her brother, father and mother in a house that was built in 1723.   Larissa is holding a fundraising dinner for her Rotary Exchange Trip to Hawaii.  It will be on November 30 at the Slack home 4232 Campton Rd in Eureka.  Dinner starts at 6pm and features her favorite German foods plus beer and wine.  The suggested donation is $20.   

Bibiana Fabri is from Italy.  She lives in the Lombardy region in a town called Bergamo.  Bergamo is famous for its ornate churches. When she’s there she gets around on a scooter.  Tennis is her favorite sport.  She observed that when she arrived she expected some similarities between her life in Italy and life here but nothing is the same.  She commented that Youth Exchange isn’t a year in a life – it’s a life in a year.  Nancy closed the meeting with a reminder to bring Christmas Cards to the November 12^th meeting.  Signed, with no envelope.  They go to our soldiers via Socks For Soldiers.  We then walked outside into and extremely bright light.  One of the older members said he had seen it before once and it was called “The Sun”.                

Briefly reported by Hank Ingham

Meeting of the Rotary Club of Eureka
October 29, 2012

It sure was nice to see everyone at our 16^th meeting of the 2012-2013 year.  I arrived at about 11:45am and there were only a few people there…but, after turning around a few times and clicking my ruby boots together, chanting “there’s no place like home”, the venue filled up nicely.  After sitting down and getting fully caught up on the Giant’s World Series victory (YEAH!), we were called to order for the flag ceremony, and what a surprise we got.  Jamie Carroll, who is with Rotoract and was a former Exchange Student of ours, gave us a rousing rendition of “America the Beautiful”.  It was truly splendid, and she got a well deserved round of applause.  Next, for the invocation Ron Pierre came up, and reminding us all of the pounding “perfect storm” Sandy was delivering back east, read a nice prayer dedicated to storms.  Thank you Ron!

We had a good turnout of visiting Rotarians this week.  Kathy Miller, who is President-elect for the Southwest club was there, as were Mike Brown from Fortuna, Liana Simpson with the Old Town club, and Patty Needham also from the Southwest club. 

Not to be outdone, we had a great group of visiting guests as well.  Jay Reed introduced us to several people from his office, Michael Boreing, Patty Needham, and Heidi (forgive me, I didn’t get her last name).  In addition, Eric Bergel introduced the new student body President of Eureka High, Ben Ross, and former President Izzy Piland.  It was great to welcome them all to break bread with us.

We had two birthdays announced, Lane Strope whose annual special day is the 25^th of October, and Doug Lanning who celebrates his naming day on the 27^th of October.  We also had three birthday celebrants at the head table – Jana Jones, who graces us each October 3^rd, Steve Lafferty whose birthday is the 3^rd of October, and Bruce Smith whose day is the 18^th of October.

There were no membership or personal anniversaries announced this week.

So let’s now look at the announcements – we had a fair number to share.

First, Steve Justus announced the VA Connect concert, which will be sharing lifetime photos of local veterans and musically celebrating their lives with the Eureka Symphony playing an Aaron Copeland Suite. Tickets are $12 for adults, and $5 for kids.

Second, the Eureka High Interact club is newly invigorated.  It advertised Interact during the Chalk on the Walk at Eureka High before homecoming.  They’ve volunteered at the Freshwater School Festival to carve pumpkins which they then delivered to Timber Ridge.  They are gearing up to help the Toys for Tots and Food for People programs.  They’re also unveiling a Facebook page soon.

Third, Lost Coast Rotaract was very successful during the Arts in Line event on October 21^st, raising about $2000 for an international project in the Tibetan region, and this is very opportune given the recent earthquake there.  In addition they had 40 exchange students (including our own two, Franco and Larissa) who participated in the Spirit and Spirits haunting and imbibing event in Old Town that raised an additional $2000 for Helsey Guide at the Clark Museum.

Fourth, Sally Arnot announced that Arts Alive is having a ribbon cutting ceremony for the garden the Eureka Heritage Society restored at 315 2^nd Street in Eureka, at 6pm, on Saturday, November 3^rd.

Fifth, another reminder that the Beautification Project for the northerly interior gateway to Eureka is happening on Saturday, November 3^rd, at 9am.  We need as many hands on deck as we can get to help with weeding and bark, says Jill McDonald.

Sixth, we learned that Ron Pierre was recently honored for his work helping Service Members and their families.  He’s helped over 300 families over the last year or so.  In any case, he was named the National Ombudsman of the Year in Washington, DC, recently, and received the award from the Secretary of Defense, Leon Panetta.  In addition, around the same time he was promoted so that now he is the Ombudsman for the Western 14 states.  Finally, at the award ceremony he was given an award of $250, Ron graciously declared that he wants that to go towards two Paul Harris related funds.  Thank you Ron, and well done!

Seventh, and the highlight of the announcements, our esteemed President, Nancy Dean, made a declaration around our annual Vocational Service Month award.  This award is in recognition of the Rotarian who exemplifies the Four Way Test and the Rotary Code of Conduct in their vocational life and who has made a contribution to the vocational development in the Club or community.

In a surprise and loudly applauded announcement, Dean declared that the Board had unanimously decided that this award be renamed in the name of our newly departed and much beloved member, Rotarian Scott Guild.  So, henceforth, this award will be known as Scott Guild Vocational Service award.  In his many years as a coach to local girls basketball, and as an instructor at Humboldt State University, Scott gained a well-deserved reputation as a “by the book” type of man.  Scott also provided numerous internships for HSU students at his firm.  So, with his daughter Katelyn currently in South Carolina, and his son down in San Diego, it was fitting that the Managing Partner of his firm Aalfs & Evans, Michael Boreing, accept the award on behalf of Scott’s family with some of the other partners of the firm present.

Bruce Rupp then came up to introduce the first recipient of the Scott Guild Vocational Service award, Greg Williston.  Greg has served the community in many roles including Eureka Chamber of Commerce (2013 in-coming President), Youth Ambassador Program leader, Adopt-A-Street Program supervising youth volunteers, Eureka Open Space, Parks and Recreation Commissioner, and organizing the volunteer work on the Rotary project at Cloney Field (Eureka High).  Greg also serves currently on our club’s Youth Exchange Committee and is hosting Franco, our exchange student from Chile this year.   Greg was quite humble in accepting the award while again honoring Scott Guild.

Next, Bruce Rupp came up again to introduce us to this week’s speakers, Kathy Miller of Economic Fuel, and Susi Huschle with the Humboldt County Office of Education, who serves as the College & Career Resources Coordinator.  The theme of their presentation was the Decade of Difference. 

Kathy Miller started with a brief introduction of Youth Exchange and its plans for next year.  Next she discussed the Economic Fuel program, which started in 2006, and which has been extremely successful at seeing kids fulfill on graduating from high school and then go on to successful attend college. By 2007, in the program started by Chuck Smith, the local Economic Fuel won an award for the number of participants who graduated from high school, and the percentage that then went on to college.

Susi Huschle then came up and gave us whirlwind presentation on the Decade of Difference. It looked like she could have provided a lot more information, if only she had more time.  In any case, the Decade of Difference is all about planning for the future of our children, making sure as many of them not only graduate from high school, but who then go on to college.  One of the important goals of this program is to see our kids come back to Humboldt after they’ve completed their college education.  The various programs associated with Decade of Difference currently serve 64% of students in our county.

One of the key messages Susi shared with us is the concept that there’s not just one way to win.  Going to college is just one avenue, but it’s not the only one. However, regardless of the path they follow, gaining the skills needed to get good long term employment is key.  Back in 1960, of all jobs the jobs available, only 60% required unskilled labor.  By contrast in 2000 about 65% of all job required skilled labor.  Relative to these numbers, and to put them in perspective with high school graduation and college, out of every 20 high school students, 6 drop out, 6 graduate and immediately go to work, 8 go to college but only 4 of those graduates in 5 years, and only 2 of those actually win a job their college education prepared them for.  The bottom line is that gaining the skills necessary to get good employment is key.

In the final portion of her presentation Susi talked about her role as a College and Career Resources Coordinator.  They have lots of tools available, and some of the programs she mentioned included:  Student Planners and Career Counselors for kids in 7^th to 12^th grades; the online Navigator & HUB websites; Career Mentorships; Middle School Career Camp; and Cal-SOAP (Student Opportunity & Access Program).

In a closing comment Susi declared that there are many ways to connect with our young students, and it’s never too early to start.  Participation in community panels, offering internships, Job Shadowing, Career Mentorship, and even just straight forward financial support are all needed. 

What Susi and Kathy shared is definitely food for thought, and even better, a call to action!

The Rotary Club was very grateful to hear from Kathy Miller and Susi Huschle. The club had them sign a book for our library project. 

Presented in Rotary Service by Bruce Smith

Meeting of the Rotary Club of Eureka
October 22, 2012

When I left my home this morning it was pouring.  With a hat and rain coat it was just another late fall day in Humboldt County.  On my drive to our luncheon there were rain clouds out, but the sun was peeking through.  Again, another case of situation normal on the North Coast.  I know, I know – you’re probably wondering whether our weather person and President, Nancy Dean, had predicted this on again and off again weather, but she was mum on the subject on arrival to the fifteenth meeting of the 2012-2013 year. It was nice to see Bob Prior, one of our long term members (1974) and a Paul Harris fellow lead us in the flag salute – which started right on time.  Next, former President and Paul Harris Fellow Carlton Nielsen read a nice invocation, with special note and prayers for Don Leonard who, we are happy to hear, is recovering nicely from unexpected heart surgery.

While there were no student guests announced at the meeting this week, but we did hear from our own exchange student Franco Calleja, who announced he’s off to San Francisco to see the sights, check out accommodations at Alcatraz, and do his best to cheer on the Oakland Raiders to a hopeful win this weekend.

We had one visiting Rotarian, Paul McGinty, who is with St. Joseph’s Hospital, and hails from the South West Rotary Club of Eureka.  We also had two guests that were introduced. First, our own Christine Witt introduced Cassandra Wagner, who handles scholarships for Humboldt Area Foundation.  Second, Christian Hill introduced Dr. Eric Gerdes, our guest speaker and the ED Medical Director for St. Joseph’s Hospital.

We had two birthdays announced, Lane Strope whose annual special day is the 25^th of October, and Doug Lanning who celebrates his naming day on the 27^th of October.  We also had two other birthday boys who were sitting at the head table – Steve Lafferty whose birthday is the 3^rd of October, and Bruce Smith whose day is the 18^th of October.

There were no membership or personal anniversaries announced this week.

There were a healthy number of announcements made this week, so let’s get right to it.

Lost Coast Rotaractraised $1800 for their international fund raiser.  Also, the have another fund raiser this weekend, the Spirits and Spirits tour of the haunts of Old Town; tickets for this event can be obtained at the Old Town branch of Ramones.

We were reminded that October is still Vocational Service Month.  The club will be giving recognition and presenting a gift to the Rotarian who best exemplifies the Four Way Test and the Rotary Code of Conduct in their vocational life and who has made a vocational contribution to the Club or community.  If you know of any Rotarian who you feel meets these criteria please send President Dean or any Board Member their name and a short description of how they meet the criteria.  The presentation will occur at our luncheon next week on October 29^th.

World Polio Day is October 24^th.  We are right on the brink of eliminating this disease worldwide, so give some thought, prayers and any effort you can provide to make this so.

John Bradley and Mindy Bussman are asking for help with Backpacks this Thursday.

Don’t forget, our annual Christmas Party is coming up soon on December 15^th at the Ingomar Club, so mark this on your calendars if you haven’t already done so!

The Beautification Project for the northerly interior gateway to Eureka is happening on Saturday, November 3^rd, at 9am.  We need as many hands on deck as we can get to help with weeding and bark, says Jill McDonald.

Carol Rische introduced Fatima Naylor and Shayla Burbich, who represent Families Advocating Autism Now (www.faanclub.org). They received a grant of $575 from our club, and they wanted to thank us for that, and tell us of the important services this group offer – one important one being Sensory Screening.   

Autism is much more common than most people are aware of. Steve Justus, for one, stood up with great heart to tell us of his personal experience of this in his family, and called around the room for others who had experienced this in their family or circle of friends – a number of hands went up.  Autism is a growing phenomenon and our Club is proud to support these efforts.

President Dean then handed out some rainsticks.  One went to Sally Arnot who was fined for being absent recently, as she has been spending time in Willow Creek over the summer with her son’s family and her two young grandchildren.  Sally then insisted on paying a double fine so she could get two rainsticks – one for each grandchild.  Way to go Sally!   

Another rainstick went to Jim Davis who has been absent due to his travels.

Christian Hill then introduced our speaker for the day – Dr. Eric Gerdes, who is St. Joseph’s ED Medical Director, who essentially wanted to give us an update on the new Tower, which is now scheduled to open on November 11^th, as well as provide information on some of the challenges the hospital and medical profession are facing.

Eric shared with us that the hospital currently only has nine beds in the Emergency Department (ER), and these beds are mostly in shared rooms only separated by curtains.  The ER currently sees about 25,000 patients per year of which 17,000 are urgent care cases.  With the opening of the new Tower, they expect the ER department will be able to handle 44,000 patients per year, and there will now be 20 private emergency rooms.

One interesting method Dr. Gerdes used to inform us was to ask a series of survey like questions which he used to make a number of points, and to point out how we all need more and better information to both understand the issues, and to have any chance of truly addressing them.  For example, he asked what percent of total medical costs are being used for ER services.  The numbers ranged from 2% to 47%.  The answer was just 2%, which many found surprising.

The most relevant issue for ER departments is Patient Flow.  You need to move the patients through the system, and the more efficiently you can do this, the more service you can provide. One measure hospitals use is how many people Left Without Being Seen (LWBS). In February 2011 that number was 7.2%, while the national average at that time was 5.0%.  So, in June of 2011 St. Josephs and Dr. Gerdes introduced a program to address this, the key component of which is a preliminary Rapid Medical Evaluation (RME) which allows each patient to be more properly routed through the system.  The effects of these efforts has been that the LWBS ratio has dropped to 2% at our local St. Josephs ER, and their target is to get that down to 1%.

Dr. Gerdes then shared a number of other very interesting statistics, such as Time to Provide services, Turn Around Time to discharge, Turn Around Time to admit, Door to Admission times, and then a series of core measures the hospital is using to track patients who come to ER. He also spent some time talking about the new Cath Lab.

One of the startling statistics is how much time it takes for patients to move through the system, with times ranging from 153 minutes for one measure, and 339 at the other end of the spectrum.  This often leads to questions as to what is taking so much time.  The reality is that with new laws & regulations, the efforts needed to process claims with insurers and Medicare/Medicaid, and efforts to improve the charting (documenting all efforts made for a patient) needed to address these changes, doctors and nurses are spending ever increasing amounts of times doing reports and charts.  Even with new computer systems these efforts are still draining more time than they used to.

One bright spot to note is that nationwide the percentage of ER Board Certified doctors in ER departments is only 55%, but St. Josephs can now happily boast that 100% of their ER doctors are certified.

One major challenge that our local medical system faces is that only 6% of doctors surveyed will typically even consider moving to smaller communities with populations of 50,000 or less. To put that into perspective, of those screen for interest in local positions, and 71 who were ultimately interviewed for positions at St. Josephs ER department, only 5 have accepted.  Dr. Gerdes would still like to find 1 or 2 more doctors for his team, but it’s a real challenge.

A number of recent surveys put this issue in even more stark relief.  Of 13,500 doctors surveyed, given all the various obstacles they face, 60% say they would like to retire from the profession. Even among those who are under 40 years of age, 47% say they would like to retire.  All of this points to some other worrying numbers. Currently the nationwide shortage of doctors is estimated at 13,700, and it is further estimated that by 2015 the shortage will be 62,900, and by 2020 the shortage will rise to about 91,500.  Given all of these challenges, and the improvements the new tower at the hospital will offer our community, we have a much improved chance of meeting the challenges we face, but there is still a lot of work to do and this will only increase as we move forward in time.

The Rotary Club was very grateful to hear from Dr. Gerdes. The club had him sign a  book for our library project.  Nancy then closed the meeting, reminding once again that next week was dark.

Presented in Rotary Service by Bruce Smith

Meeting of the Rotary Club of Eureka
October 15, 2012

The Flag salute was lead by Past President and multiple PHF Pat Folkins   The invocation was offered by Bill McAuley with special thoughts for Don Leonard who is recovering from surgery at Stanford Hospital.

Celebrations

Birthdays:  Dana Jones (16^th), Bruce Smith (18^th)

Anniversaries:  Wedding – Dick and Debbie Storre       Club – Roy Frostenson 4 years

Student Guests

Our Exchange Students Larrisa (Germany) and Franco (Chile) updated us on what’s they’ve been doing  since our last meeting.

Announcements

The Rotary Foundation District Dinner was Saturday (Oct. 13) in Fortuna.  President Nancy and Past President Bert Campton attending to represent the Club – they were the only ones there representing the Club so President Nancy took Past President Bert’s suggestion and allowed everyone who didn’t make to the Dinner to make a Foundation donation by putting ten bucks on the table.

At the Foundation Dinner we received three District awards for:

    1) Community Service 

    2) Innovation and 

    3) Distinguished Club

The Innovation award was for our establishing the 501(c)3 1923 Fund and our use of it for the Honor Flight Program.  President Nancy announced we will be using the account again in support of the Boy Scouts and their fund-raiser to buy and install a potable water system at Camp Riggs Johnston on the Elk River – it will allow them to use the showers the Club donated to them previously.

October is Vocational Awareness Month and we’ll be giving an award at the end of the month to a club member who exemplifies Rotary and Vocational Service – Still time to get your nominations in to President Nancy

New Board of Director Members:  Congrats to our newest board members who will serve a two year term starting next year:  Mike Downey, Alicia Cox, Jeff Leonard and John Harper.  Thanks for your service.

President Nancy has a grandson’s wedding to attend this weekend so she auctioned off – for 30 bucks – two 50 yard line seats to this week’s HSU home football game.  She also offered her tickets for this Saturday’s Rotaract fund-raiser at the Arkley Center to anyone wanting to attend the event.

SMALL GRANTS:  Carol Rische presented our first round of Small Grant awards for this Rotary Year.

$2,000 was awarded to the Humboldt Library Foundation for their “Buy a Book Campaign” – our grand will be used specifically to buy books for teens and young adults
 

 $1,000 to HSU Softball for the purchase of a new pitching machine for the team

Recognitions

President Nancy traded in her Sunshine Hat for a Rainy Day one and then recognized Carol Rische with a coveted rain stick for her recent month long trip to Europe.

Program

The program, in keeping with October’s vocational theme, was a presentation about the Eureka non-profit YouthAbility which is aimed at helping disadvantaged youths between the ages of 16 and 24, teaching them job skills and helping to make them self-sustaining.  

 

YouthAbility Board Member Margaret Wheeler and Vance Café Manager Dixie Callahan told us about the program which began in 2006 and runs the Angels of Hope Thrift Store in Arcata and the Vance Café in Eureka.

Respectfully submitted,

Roy Frostenson

Meeting of the Rotary Club of Eureka
October 8, 2012

The club was dark in observance of Columbus Day.