Meeting Notes, November 11, 2015

President Joyce Loveday once again started the meeting at precisely 1230.  Tom McClellan offered the invocation.  Ed Trobaugh led us in the pledge to the flag. 

 

 

Tim Plante read the list of visitors, which included Rotarian Denny Wilford of Gig Harbor Midday (our guest speaker), Chad Nelson of the UW Tacoma Rotaract Club, and Neil Wachter (of the eponymous familial IOU brand) who is a member of Auburn Rotary, and who came along with wife Heidi and the 3 Wachter minions.  Randy Black introduced his wife Tina. 

 

 

Karen George got her blue badge.  But surprisingly there was no accounting offered of the Rotarians who may have failed to initial her club roster, which will perhaps be an item for further contemplation at a future meeting’s Fun and Fines segment. 

 

 

President Joyce reminded us about the Nov. 21 EFN repack.  Those who have signed up should be at EFN’s warehouse from 1200-1430. 

 

Bonnie Boyle thanked everyone who brought shelf-stable food items for the EFN food drive.  Our club brought in a literal truckload of items to help restock EFN's supplies.

 

 

Joyce Oubre gave a final reminder about pledges for our Tyee Park Elementary School Christmas gifts program.  She thanked everyone for making it possible to break prior years’ records in this respect.  Those who have made pledges but who have not yet paid should get checks or cash to her by Dec. 2.  The shopping for these gifts will be Dec. 6, 0800 at Target in Lakewood.  11 Rotarians have already signed up to help with the shopping effort. 

 

On Dec. 10, 5-8 PM, we will have a combination Rotary Christmas party and gift wrapping event at Carr’s Restaurant.  Price and payment info to be announced.  

 

Delivery of the gifts will be Dec. 21 and 22, in concert with West Pierce Fire and Rescue.  Rotarians are welcome to join in that delivery effort, along with Santa(s) on the fire trucks.  Contact Joyce Oubre to sign up for those delivery days.  

 

 

 

General Ed was assisted by Joy Taylor, who it was noted had earned her blue badge ages ago, and by Mason Hudson who is our lone remaining red badger.  No pressure, Mason. 

 

Charlie Maxwell was in attendance, and finally paid the Wachter for his recent wedding anniversary. 

 

Ed Trobaugh fessed up to having taken a trip to Florida to see his son and his daughter-in-law, plus assorted Trobaugh-minions.  He was gone 7 nights, and offered up the standard $5/night fine rate.  He also celebrated his 83^rd birthday, making him the oldest member of our club.  So according to Ed’s math, 35 + 83 = $100.  No objection was offered to this computation. 

 

There was a string of 5 raffle tickets which was abandoned at the welcome table, and they were auctioned off.  Tina Black simultaneously had the winning bid, and learned that any bodily movement during an auction is considered a bid.  Education can be expensive. 

 

There was also an envelope found abandoned at the welcome table, with a check made out to LeMay Refuse.  Joyce Loveday confessed to losing it while checking in, and claimed it for a $25 fine.  The check is for the LeMay’s Christmas bikes program, and was thence handed to Charlie Maxwell. 

 

Tim Plante was asked about recent news at Saint Clare Hospital.  It turns out that Tim’s boss Cathy Bresler is leaving to take a job in Omaha, still with Catholic Health Initiatives. So Tim is now acting C.O.O. of Saint Clare Hospital, although he has not taken up the issue with HR about an increase in his pay for those additional responsibilities.  Plus he celebrated his 38^th birthday.  A $50 fine in total. 

 

There being birthdays for General Ed and Tim Plante, Ed invited Joy Taylor to lead the entire club in a rendition of the Happy Birthday song.  But this was not the last note in that regard.

 

Upon scanning further down his notes, General Ed noticed that Randy Black was also due for a birthday celebration.  Ed tried to claim that Randy was “low-crawling” and seeking to evade attention on the issue of his birthday, but this assertion was vigorously refuted by Randy.  Ed ended up conceding that he had screwed up in his duties as finemaster and birthday monitor, so to make amends Ed sang his own solo of the Happy Birthday song to Randy.  Here’s hoping we don’t have to go through that again! 

 

Joy Taylor flew to Boston to meet her college freshman son, and thence drove to NYC to meet her sister and see a memorial to their father who had died as a pilot in a 1974 plane crash.  She got ink in response.  The fine was unspecified. 

 

Georgene Mellom was welcomed back after a lengthy trip to France, Italy, Sicily and Malta.  “Good wine and nice people” was the abbreviated description.  Georgene is now back home and living out of boxes, having just completed her downsizing move to a smaller place just before the big trip, but she has not had time to unpack yet.  She did, however, locate her checkbook, and made a big donation to Polio Plus. 

 

Tom McClellan offered up an ink-rat, noting that Ed Trobaugh had recently been mentioned in the Suburban Times.  Tom offered up the standard $2 rat fee, and as finemaster and judge of all fine amounts, Ed proclaimed that he would match that $2 rat amount.  The assembled crowd was duly impressed by Ed's largesse. 

 

Teresa Nye was examined and found to be still married to one Chris Nye, an Army veteran who just won re-election to the University Place city council, and by an impressively wide margin.  General Ed was suddenly and surprisingly in a charitable mood, and was going to allow for no fine. But Teresa had brought her checkbook in breathless anticipation, and thus offered up a $50 contribution. 

 

Karen George, the aforementioned most-recently-christened blue badger, failed to sign in, and was awarded a $2 fine.  Her crime was compounded by the observation that her boss, General Bill Harrison, also failed to sign in.  And so did Charlie Maxwell.  $2 each.

 

 

 

Denny Wilford is a polio survivor, who was born in Nebraska in 1945 and who contracted polio in 1946.  It was a severe enough case that his parents thought he would die, but he (obviously) survived.  Upon retirement after 41 years as a Navy shipyard employee in Bremerton, Denny set about working to help with polio.  Former WA Secretary of State Ralph Munro offered up a 2-word recommendation about how to do that: “Join Rotary”. 

 

 

Denny’s foundation is www.just2drops.com.  Denny showed a brief video of last year’s visit to Ethiopia.  34 Rotarians from the US and Canada went to Cheshire, outside Addis Ababa.  They vaccinated almost 4000 children.  In October 2014, they built a hydrotherapy pool for polio victims to get physical therapy in a non-load-bearing medium. 

 

 

Raffle:  There was $120 in the pot.  Choi Halladay had the winning ticket, but not the winning touch for drawing an Ace. So the pot grows. 

 

 

Final Note:  This past Tuesday marked the 240^th birthday of the U.S. Marine Corps, which was founded by the Continental Congress on Nov. 10, 1775.  The Marine Corps celebrates its founding every year with the Commandant’s Marine Corps Birthday Ball, which will be held this year on Saturday, Nov. 14.

 

At a prior Marine Corps Ball, a retired sergeant major was in attendance.  A WWII and Korean War veteran, he was decked out in his dress blues with medals too numerous for the available space on his chest.  Holding court with the young Marines and their dates plus other young ladies, the retired sergeant major regaled them with his astounding war stories, and all of the young people were quite impressed.

 

After a time, the dance music began playing, and several of the couples absented themselves to take to the dance floor.  The sergeant major was left with one young lady who was still quite impressed with all of his military accomplishments.  Noticing that they were alone at the table, the young lady asked him, “Sergeant Major, when was the last time you had sex?”

 

“1957” was his answer.  So seeing her opportunity, she stood up and grasped his hand, leading him off to the cloak room whereupon she proceeded to show him a really excellent time. 

 

Once they were finished, the young lady asked him, “So was that like how you remember it from all the way back in 1957?”

 

The sergeant major replied, “Well, 1957 wasn’t all that long ago.  Hell, it’s only 2130 now.”