Meeting Notes, Mar. 8, 2017

Posted by Tom McClellan on Mar 14, 2017
 
Appreciating a Free Press
and the people who bring it to you, including this bulletin
 
Invocation: David Cotant
Flag Salute:  Charlie Maxwell
Visiting Rotarians: Don Daniels (Lakewood), Susan Adams (Tacoma 8)
Visitors: Ben Sclair, Karen Petersen, Judi Maier’s husband, Tom Wie
 
Sunshine report:  None today
 
Club Announcements: 
Upcoming speakers  
March 15 Rose Stevens from Lakewood Rotary to discuss their Nepal Project
March 22 Dona Ponapinto United Way of Pierce County
March 29 – Lt John Unfred – Lakewood Police Annual Report
 
Joyce Loveday invited everyone to Clover Park Technical College Scholarship lunch on April 18th from 11:30 – 1:00. The speaker is Dallas Seavey, 4-time World Champion of the Iditarod Race. The luncheon is free and Joyce has invited us to sit at her table. There is an opportunity to donate to the scholarship fund.
 
Upcoming clean-up day at Tyee in early May. Still coordinating with Rick Ring and the school.
 
March 16th Courage Kickoff Celebration. Details are limited but forthcoming.
 
Join fellow Rotarians from around Pierce County at the Pierce County 100th Anniversary party for Rotary on March 21st for at Hotel Murano. Speaker is Dean Rohrs, current Rotary International Board of Director and Incoming Rotary International Vice President.. Ticket Prices are $35.
 
May 4-6 District 5020 Training and Conference
 
Bonnie Boyle shared this Friday, Saturday, and Sunday is the 23rd RAGS Wearable Art Sale at Mercedes Benz of Tacoma (1701 Alexander Ave E, Fife). It benefits the YWCA and Pierce County’s lifesaving domestic violence services. Last year’s YWCA’s donations, which was 1/3 of the proceeds, was $110,000. She highly recommends the event.
 
We welcomed our newest Blue Badger, Becky Newton. Congratulations Becky!!!! Let’s be sure we get Becky on one of the meeting committees (note taker, greeter, invocation, etc.) and any other committee she is interested in.
 
 
Bryan Christensen shared his Flat Paul story.
 
 
He shared a photo of him and with the District’s incoming President Elects at PETs. It was a digital version but clearly visible of Flat Paul right in the center of the photo on Bryan’s phone. He also shared flat Paul was with him at the Courage Classic. He brought his friend to a prior meeting and he will be bringing him a second time for possible consideration to the Club.  Fred Willis asked how he could get a Flat Paul and Bryan gave him his.
 
Rose Sale
Bryan Christensen shared this year’s goal of 750 dozen sales. With this goal of 750, that means each Rotarian should sell 17 dozen roses.
 
Be sure to pick up your packet. All forms are on Clover Park’s Clubrunner page.
 
Yellow and Pink Orders are due by March 31st
Delivery Dates are Tuesday, April 25 and Wednesday, April 26. 
 
Bryan will be routing sheets to go to other clubs, sort the roses, and help with delivery of roses for those that can’t deliver all of theirs.
 
Georgene Mellom will be sitting at the front table and asking you what your goal is for this year. When Teresa Nye orders the roses we have to have a very accurate number. Otherwise they are ours.
 
We can take cash, check, or credit card. Remember we share some of our profit if credit is used.
 
Bob Lawrence reported he has told people we will deliver to a teacher of their choice or a particular school and let the principal decide who needs a Rose pick me up.
 
Fun and Fines
Heidi Wachter was the Finemistress today.
 
 
She was assisted by Becky Newton, the newest blue badger, as no red badge members were in attendance.  Everyone was invited to share and give their own fine amount.
 
Teresa Nye started by sharing it was her birthday and she wanted to give a shout out to first responders who helped her mother this morning. Her mother’s neighbor noticed sparks coming out the chimney and the firefighters were called. They helped her mother take care of everything and make sure her home was safe.  She paid the appropriate fine.
 
Bonnie Kern went to Wisconsin for her mother’s 89th birthday and Arizona.  Even though Wisconsin trips this time of year are usually a discounted rate she paid for 4 nights in WI and 6 in AZ at $5 a night.
 
Judi Maier also celebrated her birthday and had her check ready to go.
 
David Cotant paid his Wachter from last week.
 
Georgene Mellom paid $40 for her trip to Seaside. She didn’t think the trip was worth the regular fine amount but she had cash ready to go.
 
Joy Taylor happily shared that Bellarmine’ s Team 360 Robotics placed 8th out of 40 teams from WA, OR, and one team from AK.  She gave a Wachter for $20.
 
Anne Winters paid $5 for early leaver. Randy Black paid $5 for being late after several people reminded the fine mistress of his late arrival.
 
Tom McClellan got the floor to share his disappointing outcome of this week’s City Council’s vote on Lake Waughop clean up, which Tom had written about recently in The Suburban Times. Had the vote gone his way, he had planned to celebrate with $200.  However with the actual outcome, he paid $10, so he noted that the choice of the City Council members cost the club $190. 
 
Jim Hairston shared a few more slides on Rotary and the work that is being done worldwide for Water and Sanitation month. It is clear this is a major focus for Rotary.
 
Speaker:  Karen Peterson, Editor of The News Tribune
 
 
Karen has been in the newspaper business for the last 30 years and has a very impressive resume. She started by thanking Rotary for all the good work we do in the community and worldwide.  Readership in print for the News Tribune is down 10% a year. However, digital readership is up 17%.  So readership is actually up.
 
She decided she was going to share the 5 rules to be a good journalist. It turned out to be 7 rules.
  1. Be thorough, fast, and be thorough.Nowadays people want information quickly so that is their goal but it is more important to be accurate.They now have a Breaking News team of 3 reporters.
  2. Learn to find your own readers.Need to have a good headline, picture or video, and be sure to release at the right time of night. 7:00 -8:00 am is the best time to release the story.
  3. Choose story wisely. Readers like local stories. Number of reporters has been cut in half so they have had to prioritize the stories to be written. Some of the more popular areas are: Watchdog, Breaking News, Living in South Sound Economy, History and Sense of place, Seahawk Blog, Restaurant Reviews and Just for Fun.
  4. Clearly separate news and commentary.  Journalists should be reporting straight news. The columnist can handle the opinion page or the Editorials.
  5. Have thick skin.
  6. Find the truth, verify the truth, and report the truth.
  7. Love your community
In answer to questions……. Newspaper can elaborate more on a story and give more detail than the national headlines.  5 member Editorial Board meets with all political candidates and ask the same questions before endorsing any one candidate.  With the current vendor they have they cannot release the digital paper earlier than 5 am although they would like to. It has to do with all the embedding of video and photos. Their cutoff time is 11:30 pm to meet the 5:00 am release.
 
Why are some sport scores not reported when it seems like there is plenty of time to report? It has to do with the cutoff for the paper version. The stories need to get in, so they can be printed, and distributed to carriers to be delivered.
 
Raffle Drawing:
The raffle is at $535. Jim Hairston pulled a nine of clubs so the pot will continue to grow.
 
 
And Finally...  Do you know about "neologisms"?