Rotarians on the trail of a speaker who will stay on topic. Plus some important admin notes, so read to the end.
Notes from the Sep. 15 meeting of
The Rotary Club of Clover Park
First an administrative note: These are the meeting notes, but there are a lot of administrative notes reserved for the end of these notes, so please read all the way to the bottom.
President Teresa Nye rang the bell and welcomed the Zoomers and the Inpersonators. Jeannie Hill was absent, and so Alan Billingsley stepped up and offered an inspirational note (from Zig Ziglar):
“Children more attention pay
To what you do than what you say.”
The club welcomed visiting Rotarians Greg and Mary Horn from the Lakewood Rotary Club, as well as old friends Ralph Lockhart and Ernie Heller. Ernie had been living on the east coast, but just recently moved back this way and is now living in Lacey.
Sunshine Report
Our normal sunshinexecutrix Jeannie Hill was away from this meeting, waiting for completion of the hernia surgery that her significant other John was undergoing. A late report revealed that the surgery went splendidly and that John was up and walking around the same evening.
Future Programs
Sep. 22 Emily Butler, Western Pond Turtle Restoration
Sep. 29 Cheryl Keely, Covid Update from County Health Dept
Oct. 6 Bobbi Miller, Woodland Park Zoo Conservation Programs
Announcements
Bob Lawrence noted that the Lakewood Playhouse (LPH) radio play event was outstanding, and there is more coming. On Sep. 24 they will open a 4-week run of “Broadway Bound”, the final installment of Neil Simon’s autobiographical trilogy.
In November, Bob noted that the LPH will feature “Something Wicked Happened”, a play name which Google has never heard of, so perhaps your scribe heard it wrong. And in December is a production of Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol”. Vaccine proof is reported required for all performances.
And Bob also wants us all to remember the 9th annual Lakewood Film, Art and Book Festival coming up on Oct. 8, 9, and 10. See https://www.lakewoodfestival.org/.
[ed note: Why is the title somehow missing the Oxford comma after “Art”? Evidently it’s not the Lakewood Uptight Text Editing Festival. Because people would definitely go to that.]
And this should not be confused with the Lakewood Arts Festival, http://lakewoodartsfest.org/, in Lakewood, Ohio, which was on August 7, so that means you have already missed it. Next year, we’ll have to plan a club road trip.
Karen George shared word of a recent discovery of Dispatch Health, a mobile urgent care service. They can be contacted online or by phone, and send out a nurse practitioner of physician’s assistant, who can order meds, arrange tests, conduct assessments, and other services that would ordinarily require a visit to a clinic. They take most insurance. Karen just engaged their services for Bill Harrison, and it worked great.
A New Blue Badger
New member Gretchen Allen has completed all of her requirements to matriculate from red badgeholder to blue badger.
President’s Minute:
Teresa invited members to share memories of sending (or receiving) college care packages. She shared her own recent story of son Patrick, who is now attending St. Leo’s College in Tampa, Florida, and despite being a varsity lacrosse athlete he somehow forgot to pack his own running shoes, which Teresa had to send to him. Included in the package were some homemade chocolate cookies.
[ed. note: what’s worse, shoes that smell like chocolate, or cookies that smell like running shoes?]
Tom McClellan shared a story about receiving backyard-grown avocados from his mother in Los Angeles while attending West Point. This was before avocados achieved widespread popularity, and so Tom’s roommates wondered what this weird fruit was (yes, it really is a fruit, and technically it is a berry), and why would anyone eat it? But the classmates who were from California knew the deal, and came around to share in the bounty.
Ed Trobaugh had some snide comment about Tom receiving avocados in a care package, the exact message of which was not clear to your faithful scribe.
Sue Potter related that she once had to mail off a guitar plus several other exotic musical instruments to her daughter.
Guest Rotarian Greg Horn’s son Zach attended college and lived on Moses Lake back in 1999. Zach somehow convinced his father Greg that it was essential for Zach’s successful completion of college there that Zach be permitted to take temporary possession of Greg’s Ski Nautique boat. What every collegian needs, of course.
[ed. note: The judges say that in the category of “care packages”, a ski boat is not the answer they were looking for, but they will allow it this time. The judges urge caution concerning the re-use of this answer in the prospective future category of “best Mother’s Day gifts”]
Fun And Fines
Ed Trobaugh joined us via Zoom, distancing in preparation for an upcoming back surgery. He started by reviewing the Wachter (i.e. an IOU) status of President Teresa Nye, who reported that she had paid off the entire thing with $140 in cash.
Ed confessed to his own absence at yet another family reunion, this time with a total of 9 children and grandchildren, plus a grandson’s new bride.
Ed called out the celebrations of September birthdays including Bob Lawrence and Fred Willis, as well as anniversaries for David and Judy Cotant, Tom and Barbie Faubion, Sydna and Corky Koontz, and Kerri and James Pedrick.
Tom McClellan offered up a confession to having just that morning gone up into the middle of the air at the controls of a Bell 206 helicopter, trying to relive his days as an Army helicopter pilot years before. Despite 28 years of not touching the controls of any aircraft, and accumulating a significant amount of rust on his flying skills in the process, Tom was successful at keeping the aircraft in the middle of the air until a successful and smooth landing (which earned compliments from the actual qualified pilot who accompanied him). So in celebration of still being able to stay in the middle of the air*, Tom offered up $20.
[ed. note: The * “middle of the air” is pilot-speak referring to the preferred place to stay while flying. The boundaries of this area are marked by trees, mountains, and buildings on one side, and interstellar space on the other side.]
Former District Governor Greg Horn offered an announcement, which he promptly delegated to his wife and former Chief of Staff Mary Horn. There was a challenge offered by a former District 5020 Rotarian now in Alaska for a peanut butter challenge between clubs. The Lakewood Rotary Club has picked up the challenge, and will be collecting peanut butter donations on Saturday, Sep. 18, at the Albertson’s store (now technically a Safeway) on Steilacoom Blvd. from 0900-1500. All of the peanut butter will get donated to Nourish Pierce County.
This Week’s Program
In an effort to learn more about the other avenues of service in which our club’s members are engaged, the scheduled speaker this week was Tom Faubion, who was invited to talk about his work with the Washington Association of Trail Builders.
Toward that end, Tom Faubion started off by noting that on Sep. 15, 1588, the Spanish armada was defeated by the English navy off the coast of Cornwall. This observation was an homage to the type of similar observations once offered by Bill Harrison, who would interrupt then-President Faubion with a “point of order”, observing some random historical factoid.
Tom then recognized former member Ernie Heller who was present on this day. Ernie is a former member of our club who departed the region to live on the east coast for a few years, and is now back living in Lacey.
Before continuing with the scheduled program, Tom also recognized Mike Killen, who already had everything set up for the meeting by the time Tom arrived.
Tom mentioned that he had been asked by your program director (and scribe) to talk about the Washington Association of Trail Builders. But first, he wanted to mention a few things about Clover Park Rotary. The club came into existence courtesy of the Lakewood Rotary Club, which had noted an excess number of professionals in the area, and so owing to classification limits they decided it was time to spin off a new club. Meeting guest Ralph Lockhart was instrumental in that effort.
Tom continued to avoid getting around to the topic of his talk, telling stories about several colorful past members. He noted that Ed Trobaugh took over as finemaster many years ago, replacing one-time president Ernie Meyer, a used car salesman who actually ended up going to prison for attempted murder.
In the mid-1990s, the club did a fundraiser in partnership with Clover Park Technical College (CPTC), which taught several of the building trades. The club bought a residential lot on Farwest Drive near Pierce College, and partnered with the trade classes to construct a house, splitting the proceeds with CPTC.
In another project, involving the club’s adopted school Southgate Elementary, the club proposed to all 6th graders one year that the club would pay for all of their college if they met certain academic conditions. The cause ended up costing over $100k, gained through several fundraisers. Not all of the students believed in it, or lived up to their requirements, but for those who did the club kept its word, even sending one student to UCLA for medical school.
Tom then spoke about the Guatemala stoves projects that the club has undertaken over the years, installing clean-burning cookstoves in remote villages. Note: the club hopes to do this again, once Covid is no longer an impediment.
Tom mentioned our club’s longtime support for the Shelterbox organization, which provides needed supplies to people after major disasters. It recently gave support to the U.S. southeast after hurricane Ida. Our club was recently recognized with the Bronze Hero Award by Shelterbox for our longstanding support.
He finally got around to talking about trails, but only after mentioning that he had attended school in the early 1960s to learn about forest management, and then served in the Peace Corps from 1964-1967 in Peru, specializing in reforestation. He lived in Pulquemayo at 10,500’ elevation. There were no roads, just the old Inca stone trails which Tom came to respect for their quality.
Upon his return to the USA, Tom wanted to volunteer to do trail work for the US Forest Service, but it took that agency a while to warm up to the idea. Eventually, the Washington Association of Trail Builders came about, and now the members do as much as 85,000 volunteer hours per year. There are restrictions on using mechanical equipment, so no chainsaws can be used in a lot of the areas. Instead, they use manual cross-cut saws. Tom refurbishes and maintains them. They need to have saws to clear trees that blow down across the trails.
Raffle:
Jim Hairston had the winning ticket, but drew a queen. So the pot is at $235 and growing.
Administrative Notes:
The board met on Friday, September 17, and decided on some important changes.
The first involves finances, and the club is going to change its policy on maintaining operating funds in the general funds account. Previously the guidance to the treasurer was to maintain 2 years’ worth of expenses in that fund, but the board has decided that one year’s worth should be sufficient. The current excess will be moved to the Charities Account.
The second involves Covid precautions, and much of this is in order to comply with State requirements for restaurants:
1. Masks. Masks must be worn at all Clover Park Rotary in-person meetings unless actually eating or speaking using a microphone. This policy will automatically be reviewed if the meeting venue’s policy changes.
2. Vaccination. It is REQUESTED that all in-person attendees at Clover Park Rotary activities be fully vaccinated. Proof of vaccination will not be demanded unless the venue requires it. Fully vaccinated means two doses of the Pfizer/Moderna vaccines or one dose of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. This policy will automatically be reviewed if booster vaccines are approved for the overall public.
3. Hybrid Meeting. Clover Park Rotary will continue to offer a hybrid option for all regular meetings held at Carr’s Restaurant. The decision to offer the hybrid option for other meetings or meetings at other venues should be made at the board meeting prior to the event. This policy will be automatically reviewed if either of the two policies listed above are changed.
The final item involves the Golf Tournament, which has been rescheduled to Oct. 2 due to a forecast of severe weather on Saturday, Sep. 18. This new date will conflict with the work party already scheduled t the South Puget Sound Wildlife Area. The board asks that all Rotarians participate in one or the other event. Alan Billingsley will be getting word out soon about the work party. Jim Hairston and Joyce Oubré will have word on volunteer opportunities at the Golf Tournament.
President Teresa will hold a Club Assembly on Oct. 20 to discuss some other changes in club practices. For those who want to read the minutes of past board meetings, you can access them in the Club Documents section in Clubrunner, at https://content.clubrunner.ca/371/Document/List.