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

Photos from February 29, 2016

Meeting of the Rotary Club of Eureka

January 25, 2016

Lunch Menu: Salad bar, turkey rolls, mashed potatoes, gravy, noodles, beef stroganoff, rolls, dessert.

Called to order by President Jay Bahner at 12:30pm.  The Pledge of Allegiance was led by John McBeth. The Invocation was led by Craig Hansen.

VISITING ROTARIANS: None.

GUESTS OF ROTARIANS: Jay introduced our guest speaker, Jon Sapper with the Humboldt County Office of Education (HCOE).

BIRTHDAYS: Chris Freeman, Glenn Goldan, Corky Cornwell, Hank Pierson’s wife- Cathy Pierson, Jeff Leonard’s wife- Michelle.

ANNIVERSARIES: Dennis and Karen Hunter-32 years, Jesse and Roop Klair.

ANNOUNCEMENTS: President Jay announced a vote for Rotary Club of Eureka President in 2017-2018…  There was only one person running and it was a unanimous, resounding, yes vote from all present.  Bruce Smith will be our president following Matthew Owen in 2016-2017.

Matthew Owen reminded us that our annual fundraiser will be February 20^th.  It will be held at the Sequoia Conference Center. Invitations will go out next week.  Tickets are $150 for 2 people. The dinner will be buffet. You must be present to win or have a proxy selected prior to the dinner. Prizes are needed.

 President Jay said there will be an important board meeting tomorrow at noon at the Ingomar.  All Board Members need to attend if possible. Neal Carnum announced that the Rotary Club of Eureka will be holding a joint fundraiser with Mad River Rotary on April 16^th.  The money will go to help the village in Nepal.  It will be a dinner/auction and Carol Rische and Bruce Rupp are also on the committee.  They will be contacting Rotarians about donations of prizes.

RECOGNITIONS: Matthew Owen just returned from Hawaii and he got to spin the wheel… end result $100 to Backpacks for Kids.

President Jay said that Tom Schallert has been taking up a lot of his time lately because he’s been in the paper so much.  Somehow this conversation segued into a discussion of the new chamber board members- Paula Patton, Jaison Chan and Chamber Executive Director, Don Smullin.  All were asked to stand but no fines were given in recognition of their outstanding service.

Jack Macdonald, however, was not so lucky.  In recognition of Jack’s recent Chamber Lifetime Achievement Award, he appointed head of the cartel, Ken Stoddard.

SPENGLER-HOWARD RAFFLE: Rotary World Ink Pen: Ziggy & $10: Neal Carnam. Linda Wise drew a card for a pot of $540 and WON!  Congrats to Linda!

SPEAKER INTRODUCTION BY: Matthew Owen.  Jon Sapper is the Assistant Superintendent at HCOE.  He was born and raised in Humboldt County, sits on the board of the McLean Foundation, SHN Engineering and is a Past President of the Fortuna Sunrise Rotary Club.

Jon talked about ACES – Adverse Childhood Experiences Study. Jon said that 5 or 6 years ago he and Dr. Garry Eagles became concerned and puzzled by changes they were seeing in the kids coming to school.  They were seeing a lot of behavior issues, highly dysfunctional families, etc. Then they found out about a study that was done last year in San Francisco.  Dr. Nadine Burke Harris headed up the study.  Jon showed us a 14 minute video:  https://www.ted.com/talks/nadine_burke_harris_how_childhood_trauma_affects_health_across_a_lifetime?language=en.

Basically, childhood trauma affects kids throughout their life.  For people with a significant bout of abuse it can affect the development of the brain and cause lifelong health issues.   Jon said in Humboldt County, 70% of families experience 1 or more serious types of abuses and 30% experience four or more.  Statistically in the State of California that number is 12% of families that experience four or more. Humboldt County ranks as the top county in California.  Locally many kids have a diagnosis of needing special education- (19.3%) compared to Los Angeles with 11%.  Jon feels many kids are receiving a diagnosis that stems from abuse related issues.  The single most significant resiliency factor that can help kids recover is the presence in their life of a significant adult that can mentor them.  HCOE is putting together teams of health care workers/ counselors etc. to address these issues.  Quick intervention with kids showing behaviors and education at the family level are vital. 

MEETING ADJOURNED: 1:30pm

Respectfully submitted, Alicia Cox