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Vol. 19, No. 18, OCTOBER 31, 2006 |
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| THE FRIDAY PROGRAM: Simplicity in Home Electronics (Craig Face) | The Prologue | BBRC Annual Dinner | Student of the Month: Nathanael Crum | BBRC Thanksgiving Food Baskets | Walkathon, No, Rotary Walk — A Hike For Healthy Kids | Update on the BBRC Spray Park | Call For DG Nominations | Web Fun | ||||||||||||||||
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The Main Event: Before launching into his presentation, Craig related some of the challenges of growing up with a name like “Face.” Of course, we have had much fun with Andrew, who, for example, gets plenty of “Face Time,” and with other equally juvenile plays on words. But Craig observed that with a name like “Face,” there are certain first names that are probably not appropriate. Before Howard Johnson could sit down, President Jim presented him with the Rotarian of the Month award for September for all of the good things Howard does, including chairing the Rotary First Harvest Committee. Continuing with awards, Dick Brown, of the Rotary International Foundation Committee, presented Larry Gill with his Paul Harris Fellow award. Congratulations, Larry! David Bolson and Evelyn Cogswell then reported on the BBRC’s Dictionary Project. The BBRC has provided 320 dictionaries that have been donated to the Bellevue School District for use by third graders in six elementary schools. This Rotary project started in Petaluma, California, and there are currently 60 Rotary clubs in the United States have participated and this is a focus project in District 5030.
Nick Paget introduced BBRC Student of the Month, Nathanael Crum. Nathan attended with his father, Francis, and quite an impressive resume he has at Sammamish High School. At the age of 17 he enjoys a 4.0 grade point average, has 11 advanced placement classes under his belt and is a National Merit Commended Scholar. Nathan finds time to compete in varsity cross-country and track, engage in several community projects, and works 20 hours a week at REI. Nathan hopes to attend the University of Santa Clara, where he intends to major in environmental engineering and Spanish. Incidentally, he has exceeded the Spanish courses available at Sammamish High School and is currently involved in the Spanish immersion program at Newport High School, a class populated by students who have been educated in Spanish since kindergarten. As one of his counselors has stated, Nathan is “one of those young men who leaves one feeling as though life has improved just through knowing him.” Congratulations, Nathan, and good luck in the future! Walkathon, No, Rotary Walk — A Hike For Healthy Kids
Not to be outdone by Howard Johnson, our resident lyricist, Jenny penned a few lines which were sung to the tune of "Rock Around the Clock." For those of you who were not there, the lyrics are provided below. You may print this page, have it plasticized, and sing it in the shower to your heart’s content.
BBRC’s goal of $520,000 is very close to being realized. The State of Washington has provided $250,000; BBRC, through major gifts, has provided $85,000; $50,000 has been contributed by SRO; $45,000 by King County Park Department; $4,000 by the McEachern Foundation and $27,000 has been raised from BBRC members and employers in the last two weeks, including an additional gift of $1,000 from Tim Moriarty. This leaves less than $60,000 to be raised so that construction can start in spring 2007. Jim urged BBRCers to consider additional contributions (perhaps those which used to be made during the raffle campaign). If you are interested, see
This letter is the official call for nominations for the office of District Governor, District 5030, for the Rotary year beginning July 1, 2009, through June 30, 2010. The applications should be sent to PDG Kathy Johnson, no later than January 3, 2007. This is in accord with recent changes in the Rotary Manual of Procedure AND will gives future leaders more time to prepare for their positions.Principal duties of the District Governor include:Act as the officer of Rotary International in the District.
These duties are discussed in more detail in the Manual of Procedure, and in the by-laws of Rotary International, Article 15.090.Another way to look at it: the Governor’s job is motivating, leading, creating, building a team, training it, raising money for wonderful causes, and helping clubs be even more successful.Principal qualifications for a District Governor include:
These basic qualifications are discussed in more detail in the 2001 Manual of Procedure, and in the by-laws of Rotary International, Article 15.070 and Article 15.080.To place a nomination, a club must take the following actions:
The club will then send the following documents to the Chair of the Nominating Committee:
Each nominee will be asked to complete:
The Main Event : Before launching into his presentation, Craig related some of the challenges of growing up with a name like “Face.” Of course, we have had much fun with Andrew, who, for example, gets plenty of “Face Time,” and with other equally juvenile plays on words. But Craig observed that with a name like “Face,” there are certain first names that are probably not appropriate. He claimed to have researched the Face family genealogy and found no evidence that any of the Face brothers’ forefathers had ever been named Richard. (This reporter has had his own share of challenges dealing with his last name and remembers only too well the pitfalls involved in assigning first names to children. There was no Heidi or Ida in my family.) In making his introduction, Andrew also let it slip that the Face brothers had slept with each other, albeit as youngsters. Sometimes you hear more than you really wanted to know. Having the two brothers together afforded another opportunity for another bad pun: the program was “Two-Faced.” Craig’s real presentation was a primer on a few often used, but poorly understood, technologies in the home electronics business. Craig did a commendable job of de-mystifying some of these terminologies; this reporter being something less than a “techie,” was praying that he could get the gist of Craig’s presentation reasonably accurate. Fortunately, President Z had the presence of mind to ask Craig to put his comments in writing. They are included below. Craig started off with High-Definition technology. High-Definition Television has three principal attributes. First, it is wide-screen technology; that is, the screen has a ratio of 16 wide to 9 tall. To compare this ratio, an old television has a ratio of 4 wide to 3 tall. Thus, High-Definition TV has approximately 1/3 more width, something that Craig points out is ideal for watching sporting events. Second, the picture quality is substantially different. Old television has 480 interlacing lines, and only half of them, or 240 lines, are visible at any given time. HD TV has at least 720 lines, progressively presented, so that you are seeing them all at the same time. This gives a superb depth-of-field impression.
Craig gave some pointers on how to compare products once you have decided what you want and have gone to the bank for a second or third mortgage.
Craig correctly observed that the installation, hook-up and preparation of all of this technology is over the heads of most consumers and recommends paying for a custom installation. Finally, Craig highly recommends that any such system be provided with a very simple end-user remote with only a few buttons on it, like On, Off, TV, DVD. Otherwise, for the technologically challenged, it is an impossible task to sort out which remote does what, etc. Thank you, Craig, for de-mystifying this high-tech stuff! Some photos just cry out for special captions ...
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Chuck Barnes wants you to pay for turkeys. No, this doesn’t mean make another political campaign contribution before the election. It means that BBRC has a goal of distributing 150 turkeys to assist needy families on the Eastside for Thanksgiving dinners.
Just when you thought your wallet was safe from the clutches of the Sergeant at Arms, we meet Andrew Face’s brother, Craig, who wants to take an even bigger bite out of your budget. Craig is the Washington/Oregon Regional Manager for Magnolia Hi-Fi, and he delivered a simplified version of home electronics for dummies (and there were plenty of them).
President Zidar called the meeting to order, and because the agenda was full, he moved things right along. Colin Radford delivered the invocation; and Howard Johnson, fresh from a long trip to Turkey (Merhaba, Howard!), greeted the visiting Rotarians and guests.
Student of the Month: Nathanael Crum 
This will not be the last time you have heard it, but Jenny Andrews, Chair of the newly-named Rotary Walk Committee, says you better mark your calendars now for April 28, 2007, the date of the first BBRC Rotary Walk. 
Jim Owens provided a funding update for the Spray Park. The total project cost is expected to be $1.725 million. Of that amount, the City of Bellevue is contributing $1.2 million, including the land, design, construction and maintenance of the park. 
Just when you thought your wallet was safe from the clutches of the Sergeant at Arms, we meet Andrew Face’s brother, Craig, who wants to take an even bigger bite out of your budget. Craig is the Washington/Oregon Regional Manager for Magnolia Hi-Fi, and he delivered a simplified version of home electronics for dummies (and there were plenty of them).
Craig overcame the adversity of the Face household and has become a senior manager in the Magnolia Hi-Fi organization. He has spent 23 years with Magnolia, which now operates 20 stores from Everett to Los Angeles and one in Atlanta. Magnolia Hi-Fi was purchased by Best Buy in 1999, which had the good sense to leave Magnolia Hi-Fi as a stand-alone retailer of high-end electronics. Craig announced that by the first of next year, there will be 347 Magnolia Hi-Fi departments in Best Buy stores, including one in China.
Third, sound quality is essentially the same as in a theater with something called 5.1 Surround Sound. Five Point One Surround Sound involves a center speaker under or over the screen that carries most of the dialogue, in a movie, for instance. There are forward, left and right speakers which provide stereo sound. Typically these speakers provide the movie music score and special effects. There are two rear speakers which incorporate a slight delay and reverberation to give a sense of depth and space. And then