Meeting of the Rotary Club of Eureka

December 7 , 2015

The meal was chicken steaks, mashed potatoes, vegetable medley, and brownies for dessert. 

President Jay Bahner had Hank Ingham lead the pledge.  Carlton Nielsen gave the invocation. 

Former Rotarian Frank White was having Cancer surgery. 

Jay Bahner’s Christmas party is on December 12^th at his house and he hopes everyone will attend. 

Nathan Nilsen was recognized for his family’s stores being in business for 115 years.  They have four locations. 

Dennis Hunter was asked to stand because the 49er’s won their game in overtime.  Dennis has a bet with Jay that they won’t win more than 7 games. 

Burt Campton’s cell phone went off, and Dale Warmuth heard it and ratted him out.  No fine.  

The Logger Classic is coming up and Jay needs 20 Rotarians to come up with $100 apiece to fund the game. 

Don Leonard was singled out for a $10 fine.  It wasn’t clear why. 

Our program for the day was the Limited Edition, led by EHS music teacher Charles Young.  The group sung Christmas carols including What Child Is This, the Coventry Carol, I’ll be home for Christmas, Jingle Bell Rock, and as always, spread out through the room to do a nice rendition of Carol of The Bells. 

Charles Young is an honorary Paul Harris Fellow and his group has been invited to several singing competitions.  Some students are going to the All State Choir.  Not much else to report.  Jay ended with one of Yogi Berra’s quotes- “Nobody goes there anymore, it’s too crowded” 

Submitted by Hank Ingham

Meeting of the Rotary Club of Eureka

November 9, 2015

The menu was fried chicken, spaghetti, and mixed vegetables. 

Jay Bahner rang the bell, and it was another day in Rotaryville. “Some people claim there’s a woman to blame, but I know it’s my own damn fault’. Jimmy Buffet.  Jay asked all the military veterans in the club to stand up and lead us in the pledge. Then Captain Bruce Rupp gave the invocation, thanking all the veterans for securing the freedom of generations.  Next week the District Governor will be our speaker, so no early leavers. 

Dennis Hunter was recognized for the 49’ers win last Sunday.  He and Jay have a bet, but in order for Jay to win, the Niners have to win five of the next 7 games.  Pretty unlikely. 

Tom Schallert got to spin the imaginary Rotary Wheel.  It’s his mother’s 90^th birthday and his 40^th anniversary.  He also won a chair at a recent Rotary event.  John Fullerton donated the chair.  When Tom sat in it the arm broke off. No refunds, said Jay. 

Pat Folkins encouraged everyone to give $100 to the foundation in November as a tribute to Jim Howard, who will be 100 on December 1^st. 

Drawing: J. Warren Hockaday won $10, Rick Littlefield won the coin, and Tom Schallert failed to win the pot. 

Our Speaker was Bill Damiano, head of the Humboldt Probation Department.  He told us that the idea of probation came from John Augustus.  In 1841 he was attending a sentencing hearing for a young miscreant and was so moved by his plight that he offered the man a chance to rehabilitate himself, gave him a job and a place to stay and offered to teach him a trade.  

Damiano manages the juvenile detention system.  Now they use actuarial tools to assess whether the juvenile is at risk to re-offend.  They also supervise 225 adult felons.  The State used to handle all felony probation, but because of AB109 they now take the lesser offenders while the state gets the murders and sex offenders. 

Humboldt County has the only Regional Juvenile Drug treatment center.  He says crime stats are going down in spite of what appears to be a large homeless population. 70 percent of offenders have substance abuse and mental problems.  The most reliable indicator of future felonious behavior is anti-social behavior and beliefs.  Those people think differently than us.

Submitted by Hank Ingham

Meeting of the Rotary Club of Eureka

November 2, 2015

The menu:  Roast beef Swiss chicken mashed potatoes and a brownie for dessert. 

President Jay Bahner convened the meeting.  Dale Warmuth led us in the pledge to the flag.  Greg Pierson gave the invocation.  Jay noted that Jim Howard is feeling better now. 

The club observed a moment of silence for Steve Brodhag, a fellow Rotarian who passed away recently . 

Rick Littlefield and his wife went to Yosemite for a rotary Conference and then took 30 family members on a cruise to celebrate their 40^th anniversary. He chose to contribute $310 to Paul Harris.  

Jim Howard’s 100^th birthday is coming up on Tuesday December 1^st, so the club meeting has been moved to that date.  He’ll get a key to the city and other awards. 

Pat Folkins reminded us that this is foundation month, and the annual Foundation Dinner will be held on November 14^th.  If you buy raffle tickets Bill Gates Foundation will match each dollar with two more dollars. 

J. Warren Hockaday was recognized for an addition to his family. His wife just returned from Africa with a 6 year old girl they adopted from an orphanage in Ghana.  Her name is “Faith.”  The adoption process was arduous but the result made it all worthwhile.

No one won the raffle money. 

Our speaker was the selfsame J. Warren Hockaday.  He talked about the contributions the TV station had made to the community and the importance of local news stories in keeping the viewers informed about local events.   

Hank Ingham then made a brief appearance showing a power point presentation filled with rare photos concerning the history of KIEM-TV3, which signed on the air in October of 1953.  Some of them were real. 

Jay then continued talking about the young people just out of school who make the station their first job, and go on to other markets as soon as they can put a resume tape together.  In spite of the frequent turn over in news, KIEM still has a core group of people who have been with the station for 30 years or more. He finished with five minutes to spare. 

Submitted by Hank Ingham

Meeting of the Rotary Club of Eureka

October 19, 2015

The menu was meatloaf, chicken casserole, mashed potatoes and green beans.  Dessert was marshmallow rice crispy bars or cake. 

President Jay Bahner called us to order.  Walt Shimasaki led the pledge and Lisa Slack gave the invocation. 

Jay asked Andy the foreign exchange student about his week and Andy replied that he’d seen the Golden Gate Bridge for the first time in real life instead of in the movies. 

Pat Folkins reminded all that the Foundation Dinner North is at the Fireman’s Hall in Ferndale on November 14^th.  Raffle tickets are available for $25. 

Missing a roster from your collection of Rosters from past years?  Lisa Slack has discovered a box of old Rosters.  Get the one with your high school picture in it – oh, wait, you’re still using that picture? 

CJ, the ornithologist president of the Arcata Noon Club, brought a guest, Pablo “Cuespi” Elizondo from the San Jose, Costa Rica club.  He is coordinating a project.  It’s an economic development program assisting women in the Costa Rica highlands.  They are facilitating micro lending – loans of $500 to $3000 to help women develop businesses.  Arcata Noon plans a trip there next spring. 

Jay noted that George Owren was sporting a tan.  Apparently he attended a series of  “happy hours” in Puerta Vallarta.  They have them starting at 10am.  He spun the wheel and missed the question from the Cartel (correct answer: A “mob” of kangaroos.) so he was out $60.  

Walt Shimasaki had a chance to draw a winner from the raffle deck, and came up with an Ace. 

Matthew Owen introduced our speaker, attorney Peter Martin from the ACLU.  He worked as an assistant district attorney for Terry Farmer, then joined the ACLU.  He’s president of the local chapter.  Recent national cases involving the ACLU include the Collection of Meta-data by NSA exposed by Edward Snowdon, accountability for torture in the case of Abdullah Saliman, who was abused for years by the CIA, and requesting data on who is being killed by drones outside of war zones.  Locally, they help out people with legal matters but don’t do any litigation. He mentioned an app called Mobile Justice California, which puts a red button on your screen that you can immediately press if you see some law enforcement misconduct.  It records the incident and sends it to the ACLU.   Attorney Martin then opened the floor for questions.  He deflected a few, and then we ran out of time. 

Written while secret spy cams observed me from outer space,

Hank Ingham