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

Meeting of the Rotary Club of Eureka

October 5, 2015

Menu:  Deep fried cod or sweet and sour pork, French fries, green beans and dessert.

Matthew Owen led us in the pledge.  Craig Hansen gave the invocation.  When he asked if anyone might need special help, someone in the audience mentioned the 49’ers. 

President Jay Bahner asked for a report from our foreign exchange student Andy Chen.  He had been at the Medieval Festival in Blue Lake over the weekend watching people dressed in sliver painted cardboard beat each other over the head with foam-covered sticks.  He says there’s nothing like that in China.  

There were no birthdays this week.  Hank Ingham was asked how many years he had been married.  29 - with an anniversary coming up on the 11^th.  He was gifted with a fluorescent Rotary hat.

Then all the past presidents were asked to stand up.  There were 14 in the audience, including Past District Governor Dave Dillon.  Jay gave them a hearty thank you and no fine. 

Our Rotary club has given $6,000 to the Middletown Fire Relief fund.  South West Rotary’s annual Halloween fundraiser is on October 24^th at 7pm.  The theme this year is Cirque de Soulless.  The Lost coast Rotaract club will perform circus tricks as part of the entertainment.  $60 a head.  Costumes are encouraged.  Proceeds will benefit Meals on Wheels. 

Dave Purdy, former postmaster in Arizona and recent immigrant, announced a gathering at the Adorni Center this weekend.  It will include a demonstration by a Coast Guard Helicopter and rescue boat, feature ROTC and a Girl Scout Troop, and end with the unveiling of the new Coast Guard postage stamp.  You can’t lick that. 

Jamie Carrol is a member of Lost Coast Rotaract, and also occasionally  sings the National Anthem at Rotary.  She previewed a Rotaract fundraiser, “Spooks and Spirits,” which is a guided tour of Old Town on the 30^th and 31^st.  It is a benefit for Rotaract and the Clark Museum.

Jerry Reece was recognized for a recent trip to London, Paris, Spain, and Italy.  He spun the wheel and it cost him $50.  Sue Santche is a 3-time cancer survivor and is raising money for a 3D Imaging Device.  She’s having a Chemo Party that will have lots of raffle items.  Call her at Personal Choice for more information.

Then it was time for the Spengler Howard raffle.  John Winzler won the four-way test coin and Sue Bosch won $10.  J Warren Hockaday drew for the pot and came up with the three of spades. 

Our presenters were our own club member Neil Carnam and his friend Dave Creech.  They flew to Nepal earlier this year to complete their bucket list item- a trek to the base of Mt. Everest.  They started in Katmandu and ended up climbing 17,500 feet to the first base camp.  There were no roads, no motors, no wheeled vehicles.  Everything that came up the mountain rode on the backs of the local Sherpas who could walk for days with 225 pounds on their backs.  The trail had been hand crafted from boulders and was very rough. They got to the Everest base camp and stayed overnight, then started down the mountain.  2 days later the earthquake struck, toppling buildings and sending the terrified residents out into the street.   No one slept indoors for days.

The April 2015 Nepal earthquake (also known as the Gorkha earthquake) killed more than 9,000 people and injured more than 23,000. It occurred at 11:56 NST on 25 April, with a magnitude of 7.8M_w or 8.1M_s  (and a maximum Mercalli Intensity of IX (Violent). Its epicenter was east of the district of Lamjung, and its hypocenter was at a depth of approximately 8.2 km (5.1 mi). It was the worst natural disaster to strike Nepal since the 1934 Nepal–Bihar earthquake. The earthquake triggered an avalanche on Mount Everest, killing at least 19 making April 25, 2015 the deadliest day on the mountain in history.  The earthquake triggered another huge avalanche in the Langtang valley, where 250 people were reported missing.

Hundreds of thousands of people were made homeless with entire villages flattened across many districts of the country. Centuries-old buildings were destroyed at UNESCO World Heritage sites in the Kathmandu Valley, including some at the Kathmandu Durbar Square, the Patan Durbar Square, the Bhaktapur Durbar Square, the Changu Narayan Temple and the Swayambhunath Stupa. Geophysicists and other experts had warned for decades that Nepal was vulnerable to a deadly earthquake, particularly because of its geology, urbanization, and architecture.

Continued aftershocks occurred throughout Nepal at the intervals of 15–20 minutes, with one shock reaching a magnitude of 6.7 on 26 April at 12:54:08 NST. The country also had a continued risk of landslides. A major aftershock occurred on 12 May 2015 at 12:51 NST with a moment magnitude (M_w) of 7.3. The epicenter was near the Chinese border between the capital of Kathmandu and Mt. Everest. More than 200 people were killed and more than 2,500 were injured by this aftershock. Neil and Dave made their way to the airport where they waited for days for a flight.  They had made it to Everest and survived and now it was time for the next item on their bucket list, sleeping overnight in the Devil’s Playground . 

Submitted by Hank Ingham with help from Wikipedia.  There will be a test on this, and a bonus will be given to anyone who can pronounce Swayambhunath.

Meeting of the Rotary Club of Eureka

September 14, 2015

Lunch was raviolis, fried chicken, corn, garlic bread, our usual lovely salad bar, and berry cake.

"The Cartel"

Ziggy Ziegenfuss led us in the Pledge of allegiance, and Tom McMurray led our invocation.  We observed a moment of silence for Ron Nicholson (Valley of the Moon) who passed away recently.  Ron had been involved with our own Kim Bauriedel in our numerous projects with our Siberian Rotary clubs since 2001.  Tom also asked us to keep Steve Brodhag (SW Eureka) in our thoughts as he faces some health challenges.

Liana Simpson was our only visiting, well kind of visiting, Rotarian.

Andy, our exchange student from Taiwan, joined us.  He is doing well and getting use to Eureka High.  His first host family is Christian and Sally Hill. 

Klark Swan and Carly Robbins joined us from Lost Coast Rotaract.

Birthdays this week:  Jesse Klair, Ken Daer, and Matthew Owen

Anniversaries this week:  Phillip and Alana Nicklas, Dave and Patti Tyson, Corky and Annie Cornwell, Greg and Jenny Bowen, and Hawley and Laura Butterfield

Carol Rische also celebrated her 15 year Rotary Anniversary with our club.

Nancy Dean talked to us about our Sign Smith Fund grants which applications are due for soon. 

President Jay talked about District Governor nominations, and that our club was on the District Nominating committee this year.  If you are interested in pursuing the DG path please contact President Jay.

The Boys and Girls Club’s fundraiser is coming on September 26^th.  It will be held at the Elks Club starting at 5pm.  Both President Jay and Dennis Hunter have purchased tables and we are all encouraged to attend.

There is a District 5130 Lake County Fire Relief fun being set up.  More info will be coming soon on how to donate.

Linda Wise turned in her Red Badge for a much more appealing Blue Badge.  Way to go Linda!

President Jay then had Greg Williston on his feet to talk about what he does and his hobbies.  Greg is the Regional Manager for SHN Consulting Engineers and Geologists, which means he manages the project managers.  They work with small communities in Northern California.  They employ 100 folks, 50 of whom are at their Eureka location.  In his spare time Greg works on his house, does woodworking, and polishes fossilized sand dollars with a granite polisher.

Sean McLaughlin was on his feet next.  Sean is the Executive Director at Access Humboldt.  He manages the local benefits of our area cable franchise agreement with Suddenlink.  Access Humboldt is located on the Eureka High campus, has four public access cable channels, and plenty of equipment to help you edit video and content you would like to see on their public access channels.  Sean has long been a supporter of internet adoption efforts and enjoys reading on technology and associated regulations.  He moved to Humboldt from the great State of Hawaii.

Then it was time for a little non-gambling to benefit the County Science Fair.  George Owren won the Four Way Test coin, $10 went to John Winzler, and Greg Seiler missed picking the joker for $350, but received a cool four-way test paperweight.

Our program was from Rosemary Den Ouden.  She is the Director of the Humboldt Independent Physicians Association.  They help to manage health plans, improve health care delivery, and recruit physicians in Humboldt County.  98% of health care providers in Humboldt are members of their organization.

The title of her presentation was the Super Utilization Project.  The premise behind this project was to track and analyze members of our community that are disproportionately frequent users of emergency rooms in our county.  She noted that, as a nation, health care costs have risen 42% in the past 6 years.  Currently this averages about $8000 per year in medical costs per American.  Norway has an annual per capita expense of $4000 for health care related expenses.  The US life expectancy rate, when compared to other industrialized countries, is not commensurately higher as compared to what we are paying per capita. 

The top 1% of health care users are responsible for 20% of the dollars spent nationally on health care.  The top 5% of health care users are responsible for 50% of national health care expenses. 

This Super Utilizer tracking project worked to identify the most frequent users of our local emergency rooms in order to reduce ER utilization, and to understand why they were relying so heavily on the ER’s for their health care needs.  In a 6 month period some of the patients that they tracked had gone to the ER more than 80 times, and average of once every 2.25 days.  The study found that most of the Super Utilizers had a primary care physician.  The average Super Utilizer’s health care expenses, incurred on an annualized basis, were $28,000. 

The study found that assigning a care coordinator to frequent ER users was key in reducing the number of times they went to the ER.  Care coordinators primary role is to translate and clarify for the patient what their options were to achieve a better end result for their medical issues.  This also reduced annualized costs per participant. 

Lastly, she noted that mental health and substance abuse treatment is not available as they need to be in Humboldt County.  This lack of availability of treatment contributes greatly to ER overutilization.

Yours in Rotary Service,

Carlton Nielsen