This week, upon arrival at Glendale, the entire BBRC had a big surprise — they were closed for repairs. President Jim made the command decision: we’d cancel our official meeting for the week and not inconvenience our guest speaker and any guests by scrambling for a back-up venue.
Impromptu Breakfast
What do a bunch of Rotarians do at 7:00 a.m. on a Friday morning with no place to go, empty stomachs, and the desire for their weekly fix of fellowship? At least one group headed for the Embassy Suites in Eastgate on the rumor that they had a reasonably priced buffet with lots of room for extra guests.
A few minutes later, 15 determined Rotarians had pushed several tables together and took over a section of the Embassy Suites buffet breakfast area.
Priceless Fellowship
Of course, we missed the normal trappings of our standard venue: nametags, greeters, the hubbub, and the shuffling through the line. We skipped the introductions, invocation and pledge — w e had no visitors, no prepared prayer, and no flag. We even missed the Sergeant At Arms — but not much.
However, we did experience something that we normally miss out on at our traditional breakfasts: the time to sit and enjoy each other's company with extended conversations.
In the Spirit of Paul Harris
Without a guest speaker, discussions turned to how we fared the recent power outages and how we passed the holidays. Eventually, the discussions turned to vocational topics. The turning point was talking about how we fared during the outage without the typical access to the internet, some phone services, and other luxuries to which we have become accustomed.
We pondered the changes we’ve seen in our working careers: the disappearance of the traditional secretary from the workplace, replaced by PCs and word processing. The photocopy machine replaced typing in triplicate on carbon paper, and it also caused extinction of the “Dirty Purple” — that horrible invention call the mimeograph machine that we all loved to hate.
But one theme ran through our little impromptu meeting, the same theme that dated back to the days of Paul Harris, the founder of Rotary: Rotarians still love fellowship and the sharing of ideas about their vocations.
Give any group of Rotarians an excuse to meet and socialize, and there will be a fun and memorable exchange. Friday’s little impromptu meeting was no exception. [We heard that some did the same over at Little John’s Restaurant, but we haven’t had any feedback from them. We’d bet they’d report the same positive experience]. Those who couldn’t join us due to the cancellation missed a fun opportunity.
"The Business Side of the Bellevue Philharmonic," Lawrence J. Fried, Executive Director, Bellevue Philharmonic (Sheeran)
THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK
As we were getting ready to depart, we briefly discussed that prior to the existence of the Embassy Suites, the site was the home of the Bellevue Airfield, the first place the editor ever became airborne during an orientation flight at age 12. Someone also mentioned the old glider and parachute facility about where Costco is today in Issaquah. In closing, someone asked me, “Did you ever try gliding?”
Answer: “Not on purpose.”
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01/07
