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Friday's Program: Kevin Mather, Seattle Mariners Executive Vice President, Finance & Ballpark Operations
Kevin grew up in Madison, Wisconsin. He is a CPA and began his career in Public Accounting where he met his wife. His career in sports management began doing management operations reviews for the legendary Carl Pohlad who owned many companies including Pepsi and the Minnesota Twins Baseball Team. His review of the Twins noted that there was a lack of financial controls. His four-week review turned in to 8-weeks and then 4 months and six months and two years. In 1989, he became the CFO of the Twins. During his tenure, the twins won twice in the World Series (1987 and 1991) under the leadership of Mgr. Tom Kelly, with players: Kirby Puckett, Kent Hrbck, Bert Blylevn, Frank Viola, Jack Morris, Kevin Tempani, and Scott Erickson. READ MORE • • • MONDAY, JULY 30: Golf Tournament!
Dick Brown Comes Through Again!
The Wild Goose Chase The Golf Round Nobody won the Rolex. Nobody won the trips to Las Vegas. Nobody won the luxury cars parked by the par 3 holes. Nobody won the $5,000 cash prize for the 50 foot putt. But EVERYBODY had a blast! The judges were in place at all the strategic spots to validate the winnings that never occurred. They didn’t waste their day, despite never having to answer the call of verifying miracles. Their vigilant service was just in case lightning struck. Their reward was getting a nice tan and saying hi to all their friends as they passed by. Lunch & Prizes The accounting told us what we already knew: the winners of scramble tournaments finish about 12 or 13 under. Margie and her crew won the best in the ladies category. Some traditions are best unchanged. We mere mortals, who were in foursomes that scored anywhere between “even” and 9 under knew there was another reason for the day: to observe the rituals of this weird game called golf in perfect weather and outstanding company. It doesn’t get any better. We didn’t come to win. We came to enjoy, and enjoy we did! Success! In turn, the club raised a ton of money to fund our various service activities. Special thanks go to the sponsors at all levels, plus everyone who contributed by simply playing (and paying) in the best annual tournament around. If our members or guests have suggestions for improvements for next yea,r as well as recommendations to keep doing something, please contact The Committee or President Phil. CLICK HERE FOR THE • • • THANK YOU TO OUR TOURNAMENT SPONSORS: Golf Pin Flag Sponsor: $5,000 • Kirkland The Pontiac Buick GMC Eagle Sponsor Level: $2,500 • Seattle Boat Golf Umbrella Sponsor: $2,000 • Kornfeld Trudell Bowen & Lingenbrink Golf Ball Sponsor: $1,000 • Powell Development Company Birdie Sponsor Level: $1,000 • Chase Home Finance General Sponsor Level: $500 • Standard Insurance Complimentary Hole Sponsor Level: $200 (Non-Golfers) • Peace Of Mind Estate Organization & Management Golf Postscript
FRIDAY, AUGUST 3 President Phil Salvatori opened the meeting, followed by the Invocation and pledge by Craig Groshart: “Dear God put your arm around my shoulder and your hand on my mouth.” Steve Vincent introduced visiting Rotarians and guests.
Classification Talks: Tim Johnstone & John Hillock
Happily married, Tim recently celebrated his 25th Anniversary to Brenna with a trip to Scotland to visit Johnstone and his ancestors. Famous cattle rustlers in the history of the area as the cattle were from England. Johnstone is a suburb of Glasgow. Therefore, on this enlightening and fun trip, the Johnstones walked down Johnstone Street and across Johnstone Bridge. Tim has a varied professional and occupational background. He is an experienced banker who has survived several mergers. He has also owned a shoe company, and that is where he met BBRC member and sponsor John Martinka. Tim, a CPA is a consultant to start-ups and merging businesses. • • •
Rotarian of the Month: Ercan Turkarslan Share the Give First-year BBRC member Ercan Turkarslan produced a video called "Share the Give" as part of Microsoft’s effort to encourage its employees to support local and global charitable causes. They are also encouraged to give time, money, talent and expertise to their charitable causes during the Microsoft’s Annual Giving Campaign. To further promote a giving spirit, this year employees could submit a 4-minute documentary about their favorite charitable cause. General Managers take employee participation percentage as a sweet competition between groups and sets prices for participation goals. For example, last year 80% participation was enough to dunk a general manager in a tank full of ice-cold water. In 2006, Microsoft employees donated $39.2 million dollars during the campaign and more than 3,600 employees participated in the Day of Caring. Visualizing a video to show what BBRC does, Ercan shared the idea of creating a documentary on Rotary and BBRC with other Microsoft Rotarians. They started working on it, and the idea spread very quickly, with Jenny Andrews, Bob Bowen, Kevin Jewell and Shelley Noble, and Steve Szirmai all helping with the script. Kevin and Shelley also volunteered to do the voiceovers. Jim Kindsvater, John Martinka, Larry Gill, Norm Johnson, Steve Lingenbrink and many others provided photo and video content to cover different BBRC projects. As Ercan tells the story, “When I opened my Internet Explorer, I noticed a little note on our internal website which is my homepage. What I discovered was information: 'Share Your Giving Experiences' and show other employees how you help change the world. Create a video documenting your efforts for a chance to be seen at the Company Meeting.” “I thought ... giving? Changing the world for good? That’s what we do as Rotarians every day, one way or another.” I shared the idea of submitting a video about BBRC to other Microsoftie Rotarians. Curtis Cummings reminded me of the golden rule of ideas. “If you come up with an idea, you have to drive it!”
See the video at: Share the Give - Bellevue Breakfast Rotary Club Ercan Turkarslan was surprised, following his presentation on Microsoft’s Share the Give Video, when President Phil honored him with the well-deserved award, Rotarian for the Month of July.
Friday's Program: Kevin Mather, Seattle Mariners Executive Vice President, Finance & Ballpark Operations
Kevin grew up in Madison, Wisconsin. He is a CPA and began his career in Public Accounting where he met his wife. His career in sports management began doing management operations reviews for the legendary Carl Pohlad who owned many companies including Pepsi and the Minnesota Twins Baseball Team. His review of the Twins noted that there was a lack of financial controls. His four-week review turned in to 8-weeks and then 4 months and six months and two years. In 1989, he became the CFO of the Twins. During his tenure, the twins won twice in the World Series (1987 and 1991) under the leadership of Mgr. Tom Kelly, with players: Kirby Puckett, Kent Hrbck, Bert Blylevn, Frank Viola, Jack Morris, Kevin Tempani, and Scott Erickson. In 1993 he left the Twins for two years to work on Major League Baseball’s “Revenue Sharing” committee. After refreshing his resume, Kevin conducted a job search that included a meeting with Mariner President John Ellis, who Kevin had worked with during the revenue sharing initiative.
Kevin Mather can be reached at kmather@seattlemariners.com
For example, let's say you want your husband, Steve Smith, and your mother, Jane Simon, to be called if there is an emergency. Your cell phone entries might be: ICE-Steve Smith and ICE-Mom Jane Simon. Always place ICE before more than one name in your cell phone in case the first person doesn't answer right away. You can even use ICE1, ICE2, ICE3 ... to designate the order you'd like the paramedic to call people. Added benefit: If you lose your cell phone and someone honest finds it, they'll have more options of whom to call to get the phone back to you. Most paramedics now know what ICE means and they look for it. This saves them time, so your loved ones are contacted more quickly. • • • Two robins were sitting in a tree. "I'm really hungry," said the first one. "Let's fly down and find some lunch." They flew down to the ground and found a nice plot of newly plowed ground that was full of worms. They ate and ate and ate till they could eat no more. "I am so full, I don't think I can fly back up into the tree," said the first one. "Let's just ly back here and bask in the warm sun," said the second. "OK," said the first. So they plopped down, basking in the sun. No had they fallen asleep, when a big fat tomcat sneaked up and gobbled them up. As the cat sat washing his face after his meal, he thought ... "I JUST LOVE BASKIN ROBINS." Bah dump bum ...
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A graduate of the other UW (U. Wisconsin), Kevin joined the Mariners in 1996 after a varied career in business and professional sports. Kevin was honored as a CFO of the year in 2007 in Washington State (January).
This week the “standard” Reveille makes way for a double issue to cover the annual BBRC Golf Tournament. We skipped our weekly Friday morning meeting on July 27th in lieu of a Monday morning golf outing at Willows Run, Redmond, Washington. 
Every Detail Meticulously Planned
At start time, the course marshal led the players in their golf carts on a parade starting at hole 18, consecutively passing to each hole until each foursome was dropped off at the appropriate point. When our foursome arrived at 10B, we were surprised that Jimmy Z’s foursome had already played their 9A hole and were wondering what the heck our delay was. Little did they know we had just received an early morning tour of the Redmond Valley that few people had seen, and fewer cherished. However, that short tour taught your illustrious Reveille editor that the golf cart he was driving was badly in need of a tune-up, and could be made to backfire almost at will. Devious thoughts of causing noises in Jimmy Z’s backswing fleetingly passed through our minds. 
The next 5 ½ hours were filled with moments of the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat. Some of us became generous donors of numerous golf balls to the marsh gods. Some hit shots so amazing that they cannot be described in writing, let alone duplicated in future rounds. 
After the sins and successes of the day, there was an accounting, but not before we all had an excellent barbecue lunch, complete with beans, salads, hamburgers, chicken, and desserts. 
The BBRC did it again. Ted Ederer, Kim Shrader, and the rest of the Golf Committee put on the finest ever tournament, keeping the tradition of raising the bar higher yet for their successors. 
Preliminaries
Tim Johnstone’s classification talk was limited to 5 minutes and not the 15 requested, as Tim was going to use the extra ten to entertain the club with music from his group. “Tim we are looking forward to being entertained at another meeting as this one was full of great talks and presentations!” 
John Hillock was born in Toronto and grew up in Southern California. John graduated from Cal State Fullerton with a degree Hotel Management. The best advice he received at the beginning of his career was when he worked at the Embassy Suites: find a life and look for a new career. Graduating also with technology skills, John decided in 1990 to look for computer jobs in San Francisco, Boston and Seattle. After a diligent and lucky search, he found Attachmate (Factoria) and worked there for 9 years as he and the company grew. John moved from support sales and marketing to the role of Product Manager. His next job was a 5-year stint with NetIQ in Bellevue. As the company was gearing up to be acquired, John proposed that NetIQ license a product that he had been marketing to the IRS, US Postal Service, and several large customers. John is having great success now with his own business. He has been married for 14 years and has a six year-old son. Mike Ralph is John’s sponsor. 
I said “Sure.” I feel myself fortunate that I said “Sure.” As a new member, this was my first time to see the Rotary wheel in motion from the front seat. It is amazing to see “Group Genius” at work. “Kevin Jewell and Shelley Noble volunteered for the voice over. Trust me it is a success because I did not do any of the talking. As we wrote the script, the ideas started flowing. Curtis jump-started the scenario and Steve Szirmai came out with the draft script. Steve, Jenny, Bob Bowen, Kevin and Shelly edited and perfected it. Others involved in providing photos and video or advice included: Morris Kremen, Bill Spencer, Hopelink (Shelley and Glen Miller), Norm Johnson (Spray Park), John Martinka (Computers 4 the World), Larry Gill and Jim Kindsvater (Rotary Walks), Steve Lingenbrink (Romania), Humberto Acevedo, a Microsoftie Rotarian with the Bellevue Rotary Club (Nepal Project.” The video will be posted on Microsoft’s internal web site and presented to employees at Microsoft’s Annual Company Meeting on September 6.
A graduate of the other UW (U. Wisconsin), Kevin joined the Mariners in 1996 after a varied career in business and professional sports. Kevin was honored as a CFO of the year in 2007 in Washington State (January).
Kevin joined the Mariner’s in 1996, and during his tenure, Kevin’s stewardship and the leadership of executives Lincoln and Armstrong, the Mariners have established a financial structure which has enabled the organization to be one of he most financially successful in Major League Baseball. One of the organization and community’s greatest achievements is the funding and construction of Safeco Field. Opened in 1999, revenue for attendance and TV-Radio has grown from less that $100 million to more than $200 million. Mather rates Safeco as one of the finest in major league baseball due to not just its construction and setting but because employees are focused on service, family fun, and fan satisfaction and safety. During the past couple of years Mariners have become profitable. In July, the club signed Ichiro for an $18 million 5-year contract. And they recently hired new Manager John McLaren to replace Mike Hargrove, who retired this past month. Kevin predicts Ichiro will play until he has 3000 hits and he has just passed the 1500 mark.
Bob Holert, who recruited Mather, “… came through again ... by getting us (the BBRC) speakers of very high quality,” stated President Phil Salvatori. “This man is a Who's Who of knowing people and seems to have a link to everyone you can possibly imagine. I never gave much thought to the group that gets us our speakers each week, but I have gained an unbelievable amount of admiration for Bob since taking on the leadership of the BBRC. He comes through EACH AND EVERY TIME!”
