A discussion of the Lakewood Community Foundation. And this thing:
Notes of the Sep. 26, 2018 meeting of the
Rotary Club of Clover Park
Recorded by Tom McClellan, who lives a clean life, escaping attention at almost every turn.
Edited by Dave Hall, who will get notorious mention below.
President Heidi Wachter rang the bell to start the meeting at 1229, as has become her recent custom. She commended Jeannie Hill, our greeter, and the scribe-du-jour, whose identity Heidi was not fully read in on.
[Recorder note: Your humble scribe, who also serves as Program Director, did an amazing job of scheduling Sydna Koontz as both notes recorder and meeting program speaker for the same meeting, which is naturally an impossible combination of tasks. So applying the Army principle of, “If the adjutant screws up the duty roster, then the adjutant pulls the duty,” Tom gets to do the meeting notes.]
Fred Willis offered an invocation, and Charlie Maxwell led us in the salute to the flag. And Heidi led us in reciting the Rotary Vision Statement.
President Heidi then invited us to acknowledge meeting guests, who included Zoë Diaz who was serving as Bill Harrison’s caregiver in place of Karen George. And Ingrid Willis was accompanying her husband Fred Willis.
President’s Recognition
Heidi noted that Club Treasurer Judi Maier was the July Rotarian Of The Month, but was away on her boat then and so the recognition was deferred to today. This month, Heidi recognizes the many contributions of Sydna Koontz to both our club and the larger community.
For the President’s Excellence Award, which features actual chocolate, Heidi recognized John Munn, Becky Newton, and Joyce Loveday, who are working with the staff at Harrison Prep to get an Interact Club started there.
Board Report
President Heidi then invited John Munn to give a report on the events of the recent meeting of the club’s Board of Directors. John related that much of the discussion was around the idea of trying to identify a big “signature project” for the club to begin working on. Efforts are underway to develop that. A year ago, there was discussion about teaming up with the Lakewood Baptist Church on an effort to build a teen resource center at the location of the old police HQ building on 112th street. Due to a variety of factors, that effort is not moving forward, and so the search continues.
Heidi also related that the board accepted the recommendation of the Fund Development Committee that we end the annual rose sale. It is a fund raising method which appears to have run its course. The Theater Benefit and the Golf Tournament will be our main fundraisers going forward.
Sheri Hodson asked if our club’s support for the VA Golf Course was what we had decided on as our “signature project”. We had accelerated our committed payments to that organization because of the funds accumulated in our Charities Account, and how we did not want to arouse IRS attention by sitting on a large amount of money for too long. 501c3 charities like ours are supposed to put their money to work. The effort to find a new signature project refers to our club’s future fundraising and service efforts.
Future Programs
Oct. 3 - Dr. Zhenyu Tian, PhD, Toxins in Urban Watersheds
Oct. 10 - Robert Doane and Tom Taylor, Chinese Medicine
Oct. 17 - Club Assembly - Committees
Other Announcements
The Theater Benefit on Sep. 27 is filling the role of this month’s evening social. Hoping to see everyone there.
Bob Lawrence mentioned that the Lakewood Arts Festival is coming this weekend, at the McGavick Center. Many authors. 8 films. Doors open at 1200 on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.
Rotary Moment
Charlie Maxwell shared that it was 25 years ago when he came to our club, at the encouragement of his employer. He was motivated by his club mentor, charter member Ray Fraley, to always maintain perfect attendance, which he has been able to do with club meetings and makeups for all 25 years in Rotary. We look outward to enrich the community, but through meeting attendance and service we also enrich ourselves. Showing up to meetings with others is a form of service.
Fun and Fines
Ed Trobaugh got to work immediately by getting old Wachters settled up from Teresa Nye, Joyce Loveday, and Sheri Hodson.
He then congratulated Anne Winters on her anniversary of 27 years. She mentioned that she did remember it, and celebrated it with her husband James, but she forgot about it in terms of remembering to bring money to pay the fine!
Tom Faubion was called upon, and instructed to remain seated while explaining his recent trip. Tom said that he would ordinarily object to not being allowed to stand, but in this instance he was still tired from his backpacking trip so remaining seated was okay. He and his brother went hiking in the Glacier Peak Wilderness area. They had intended to get up to the 5000 foot elevation, but only made it to 2500’.
Heidi Wachter was pleased to announce that her daughter Ellie was selected for the Advanced Math Track at school. Heidi added that if mathematical ability is an inheritable trait, then she’s not sure where those genes came from. $25.
Charlie Maxwell offered up $2 in order to rat on Dave Hall, who had scored an “albatross” in golf, which is also known as a “double eagle”. That’s when a golfer is on a par 5 hole, and sinks the ball in only 2 strokes. He did it at Chambers Bay. For a typical golfer, getting a “hole in one” is very rare, with odds of about 13,000 to 1. For an albatross, the odds are about a million to 1. For this achievement, Dave paid a fine of $25 (after buying $150 worth of drinks at the Chambers Bay bar).
One More Announcement
Tom McClellan mentioned one more board decision from the recent meeting. There was a problem with a security setting on the District 5020 web site which came to light when Tom got a suspicious looking email purporting to be from Heidi Wachter and asking for a reply about gift cards (a common scam theme). An offline check with Heidi revealed it was not from her, and was a phishing attempt. Tom notified Clubrunner Support, who found and corrected the settings problem on the District site. Because the District site pulls information from our club’s Clubrunner account, that means their security problem becomes a concern for our information.
Judi Maier had opined at the board meeting that maintaining members’ birthdate information in Clubrunner is a risk, since that information is important in identity theft cases. But it is also useful to the District and to Rotary International for demographic analysis of members. After some discussion, the board decided that we as a club would falsify the month and day data to January 1 for everyone, but keep the birth year information accurate, thereby satisfying the District’s demographic analysis needs but being more protective of member information. If you have any concerns about this issue, please contact Tom McClellan. And you can see what information is maintained in Clubrunner by logging into your account.
This Week’s Program
Sydna Koontz and Joyce Loveday gave a presentation on the Lakewood Community Foundation Fund (LCFF), which was started in 1993 as a joint effort by our Rotary Club and the Lakewood Rotary Club. Its purpose is to improve the lives of people in the community, by establishing a permanent endowment, the income from which could be used for grants to local projects and causes. The original goal was to build it to a $1 million endowment, and they are getting very close.
It has a 9-member board, made up of 3 Clover Park Rotary members (Sydna, Joyce, and Bill Harrison), 3 Lakewood Rotary members, and 3 at large community members. The board makes decisions about how grants will be made, and is also responsible for fundraising to increase the size of the endowment. The presidents of each club are automatically included each year as non-voting members of the board.
There are 5 areas which are the stated goals of grant awards:
- Education
- Environment
- Human Services
- Community Development
- Arts and Culture
Recent awards were made in support of Springbrook neighborhood playground equipment, the Pavilion at Fort Steilacoom Park, LASA, Greater Lakes Mental Health, Emergency Food Network, CenterForce, and the Springbrook Youth Camp. Grants are made solely from the income earned on the endowment, meaning that they never dip into the principle.
In 2011, at the suggestion of Fred Willis, the board transferred custody of the funds to the Greater Tacoma Community Foundation, which has a much larger endowment and staff, and which can better provide the fiduciary functions of maintaining and investing for such an endowment. Control of the investment income still remains with the local board.
The LCFF also sponsors the Larry Saunders Memorial Service Award. Diane Formoso was last year’s recipient. The deadline for submissions for this year is Sep. 28, and you can get details about making a nomination at www.lakewoodfoundation.org. You can also make a donation there.
Why donate? It is a permanent endowment, and so your gift will keep on giving. And the money stays in Lakewood to make our community better. Given recent tax law changes, check with your tax advisor about the deductibility of such a donation. They do provide an acknowledgment letter for all donations.
No grants are ever awarded for political issues, or in support of any religious outreach, although a charity that is associated with a church can still get a grant for a specific charitable purpose.
If you make a donation this year in an amount greater than $1000, there is an anonymous donor who will match such donations, up to a maximum of $20,000 of matching funds.
Raffle
With $750 in the pot, and with 9 cards remaining (1 of which is an Ace), Carr’s server Pam had the winning ticket, but could not draw an ace.
And Finally…
A young student once turned in an interesting bit of artwork, addressing the topic of what she wanted to be when she grows up. That sparked an inquiry from the teacher, and a clarification from her mother.
