Opener

President Margie Burnett called the meeting to order at 7:30am. Desiree Yuzawa gave the Invocation, and Andrew Face introduced visiting Rotarians and guests.

Andrew then gave an update on the Audio Visual Committee. He kindly requested that all members shut off their pacemakers and hearing aids before the meeting, as they could interfere with the audio visual systems. He mentioned that the audio is now greatly improved, due to the addition of computer speakers to our mix of audio equipment.

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Student of the Month: Vananh Nguyen

Bob Holert introduced the Student of the Month, Vananh Nguyen, a senior at Sammamish High School who was accompanied by her father Ba and her school counselor Laura Kleinwere. Vananh has a 3.84 GPA and wants to study Computer Science at the University of Washington.

Comments about Vananh from Laura Kleinwere: “Great student with lots of community service in a variety of areas. She has grown tremendously in her time at Sammamish and is an integral part of the school, in a quiet way, as she helps tutor other students on her own time.”

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District 5030 Conference, May 14-16

Colleen Turner encouraged everybody to attend the Rotary 5030 District Conference, to be held at the Portland Hilton on May 14-16. Colleen mentioned that BBRC members who attend the conference will meet new friends and find out about many of the interesting projects that other clubs within the District are working on, both locally and around the world.

The BBRC is offering a generous subsidy of $100 towards the conference registration fee to the first eight members who register and who have never attended a District Conference previously. As we countdown the next 16 weeks before the conference, Colleen will be composing a list of the 16 greatest reasons why BBRC members should attend.

Reason #16: It’s an opportunity to meet new friends over a glass of bold Oregon Pinot Noir or whatever your drink of choice happens to be.

Register online here.

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BBRC/Rotary First Harvest Computer Project

John Martinka introduced David Bobanick, Mercer Island Rotary and Director of Rotary First Harvest; Andy McDonald, Emerald City Rotary and President of Computers for the World; and Jeff Mason from Newport High School. They each spoke about how the three Rotary clubs and Newport High School collaborated on a project to provide computers at food banks around the state.

John thanked Morris Kremen for his assistance with computers and Access Software.

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Haiti Earthquake Relief

Mitch Freedman, Chair of the Haiti Earthquake Relief Committee, introduced the other three members of his team, Jeff Cashman, Steve Szirmai, and Ann Norman, who all encouraged us to donate to the cause.

Steve mentioned that Haiti is the most deforested country in the world. Mitch and Ann did an amusing skit about marginal tax brackets and calculated that it would actually cost us only $65 out-of-pocket to donate $100 (they made certain assumptions in the process). Jeff brought it all home by mentioning Molly Hightower, a woman from Port Orchard who died in Haiti and gave her life for service.

By the time they came up to speak to us, they had already raised over $1,000 from BBRC members.

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New Member Proposed: Justin Lee

Justin Lee is the owner of My Spine in Bellevue. He has been providing chiropractic care at My Spine since 1992. He belongs to the Washington State Chiropractic Association and the Korean American Health Professional Association.

Justin is passionate about all sports, including golf, soccer, basketball, cycling, tennis, and even poker. He coaches soccer and baseball, and he lives in Issaquah with his wife Christine and two children.

Justin has visited our club five times so far and is sponsored by Steve Lingenbrink and Dick Brown. His proposed classification is Chiropractic Care.

Contact Membership Committee Chair Chris Rasmussen with any questions or concerns regarding this application.

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Bellevue 5K on the Horizon

Jane Kuechle promoted the Bellevue 5K, which will be held on April 25. Margie mentioned that this was Jane’s third year to head the Bellevue 5K Committee and congratulated her on the fine job she was doing.

Although Jane was initially dismayed that the first three people she called to speak from her committee weren’t present at the meeting, she was quickly joined by the following members of the committee who were present: Jenny Andrews, Elena Howell, Steve Luplow, Steve Roberts, Jim Carney, Chuck Kimbrough, Andrew Face, Howard Johnson, Paul Chapman and Tim Moriarty. All of them told us what they were doing to support the Bellevue 5K effort.

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FRIDAY's PROGRAM

"Understanding the Rotary International Foundation," Cary Kopczynski

Dick Brown introduced our speaker, Cary Kopczynski, who chairs the Rotary Foundation Committee. Cary mentioned that the Rotary Foundation was founded in 1917 with $500 and has funded projects in 197 countries. An incredible 91% of the monies donated to the Rotary Foundation go to charities, making it one of the most efficient foundations in the world. Sixty percent of the foundation’s money funds Rotary District programs, while forty percent funds Rotary’s international programs like PolioPlus, Ambassadorial Scholars, and Group Study Exchange (GSE).

Cary introduced Jeff Cashman, who spoke about PolioPlus, which is a campaign that began in 1985 to eradicate polio around the world. Jeff explained that for $0.60, a child can be vaccinated for life. In 1985, there were 350,000 cases of polio in 125 countries. Today, polio is endemic in only four countries: Afghanistan, India, Nigeria and Pakistan.

The Rotary Foundation has committed to raise $200 million to match $355 million in challenge grants received from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. To date, the Rotary Foundation has raised $100 million and must raise the additional $100 million by June 30, 2012.

Kim Shrader spoke about his 2002 trip to Ethiopia with Margie Burnett and Jim Owens to distribute the polio vaccine on National Immunization Day (NID). Their target audience was children under five years old, and they literally went hut-to-hut to vaccinate them. Once the children in a particular hut were vaccinated, a check mark was placed on the door to their hut.

Sayoko Kuwahara then told us about her Group Study Exchange (GSE) experience. In 2007, Sayoko took a group of four young professional women to Japan. In fact, Sayoko’s group was the first all-woman team from District 5030. These four young women were involved in an intense four-week home-stay, where they teamed up with people in the same profession from District 2770 in Japan. During the course of their four-week stay, the team attended 20 Rotary meetings and participated in a variety of social and cultural events — one was even attended by the wife of the Prime Minister of Japan.

One of the objectives of the GSE is to increase cultural understanding. Sayoko mentioned that in some cases, the experience is life-changing as some of the young professionals re-think their career paths.

John Martinka spoke about the Computers for the World project through which more than 1,250 computers have been distributed to schools, hospitals, etc., in Slovakia, Turkey, and Antigua. It was interesting to note how much the BBRC has leveraged its investment of $30,000 in this program to receive matching grants from other organizations like the Rotary Foundation. John said that the Computers for the World program has received $200,000 in funding to date.

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Web Fun

Fairbanks Ice Festival, Fairbanks, Alaska
Courtesy of Colin Radford

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BIRTHDAYS

Jan Nestler, 02/02
Katherine De Stephano, 02/04
Doug Cameron, 02/06
Mitch Freedman, 02/07
Joe Castleberry, 02/10
Bob Vallat, 02/13
Bill Brooks, 02/14
Ruben Ladlad, 02/15
Alan Bohling, 02/16
Jim Zidar, 02/23

ANNIVERSARIES

John Mix, 24 yrs
Phil Salvatori, 20 yrs
Steve Peters, 17 yrs
Tom Smith, 13 yrs
Bill Spencer, 13 yrs
Alan Pratt, 12 yrs
Cyril Faulkner, 7 yrs
Fred Barkman, 6 yrs
Elena Howell, 4 yrs
Tim Johnstone, 3 yrs
Katherine De Stephano, 1 yr

REAL
• Post Card Virus
• UPS/Fedex Delivery Failure
• reunion.com spamming
• Conficker or Downadup Worm
• Turning on AC when you first get in your car (open windows!)
 
HOAX
• Credit Card-Type Hotel Keys
• Internet Petitions
• Dialing *77 on cell phone summons highway patrol

UPCOMING DATES
Mark Your Calendars!

MARCH 19 - BBRC Annual Retreat at the Tulalip Casino Resort.

MAY 14 - District 5030 Conference in Portland. More Information

JUNE 20-23 - Rotary International Conference in Montreal, Canada. More Information

FRIDAY SNAPS