Friday Program: "Transformation of AAA of Washington & Transportation Issues," Charlie Liekweg, President, AAA of Washington" | The “One Year Minute" (Bob Bowen) | New Members Inducted: Shulman & Markevitch | BBRC Member Recovers From Surgery – Remains Tight Lipped About the Subject | Club Administrator Update | New Member Proposed: Jonathan Koshar | Washington Business Week | Steve Lingenbrink Back from Africa | Travel to Indonesia for WCS Projects in Jan 2008 | Web Fun

Friday Program:
Transformation of AAA of Washington & Transportation Issues
Bob Holert introduced our guest speaker, Charlie Liekweg, the President of AAA of Washington. Bob summarized that AAA is one of the 100 best companies to work for in state of Washington. Charlie is a former Marine who has three children, and who has coached with Bob on a number of sports teams.

Charlie moved here 20 years ago from Hawaii. Before that, he lived in Los Angeles.

Previously, the AAA had over 500 clubs in the U.S. Through mergers and attrition, there are currently only 55. The national organization is headquartered in Florida, and it provides support service to the AAA organizations throughout the country.
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Preliminaries
Collie Radford suggested 30 seconds of silence. However, during the “silence,” the BBRC listened to the background music of 60s greats “Deep Purple” playing their hit “Hush” over the PA. Those of us who remember the 60s were tapping our feet irreverently and humming the “Na, na-na, na, na-na, naaaaaa ...” with the recording. Sorry, Collie, I got the music in me.

Roger Allington introduced visiting Rotarians and guests. We were honored to meet for the first time John C. McDarment from Wenatchee Rotary, whose claim to fame is that he invented the Rotary Dine Around that the BBRC does now every Valentine’s Day.

Phil Noble, from Bellevue City Council, also visited. Phil is running for reelection for Bellevue City Council. Rumor has it that he has strong support from the Hopelink quarter.

The “One Year Minute”
Bob Bowen gave a short speech called “the One Year Minute.” A year ago, he came to this club after trying out several others. He decided on BBRC because: 1) he was invited; 2) the high energy and synergy in BBRC. Bob stated that it’s been a great year. He has visited many clubs in the area through his work, and he has confirmed that we are indeed “ the best darn Rotary Club.” He looks forward to coming Fridays to get charged up about what the next great thing is that we will be doing together.

Bob’s big recommendation is that new members go to the new member committee meetings, join other committees, and get involved.

New Members Inducted: Shulman & Markevitch
President Phil inducted two new members into the club: Connie Shulman and Manfred Markevitch. Phil is now using the newly expanded and more comprehensive induction ceremony. Connie’s sponsor is Craig Groshart; Manfred, who was accompanied by his wife Patricia, is sponsored by Steve Szirmai.

New Member Proposed: Jonathan Koshar
Jonathan Koshar, a residential production builder and developer, is a returning member of the BBRC. He has come back to the Puget Sound area from Tampa, Florida (Good move!), and he is presently the COO of Soundbuild Homes in Puyallup, whose principal activities are building and sales of single family residential homes.

Jonathan lives in Sammamish with his wife, Lauren, and his 4.5-year-old son, Theodore.

Washington Business Week
Steve Hyer visited the BBRC on Friday to tell us about Washington Business Week. Business Week is a program that provides high school students the opportunity to have a week of concentrated experience in a conference about business leadership with high power, inspirational speakers.

Steve introduced student Lea Fantel, a junior at the International School in Bellevue, who spoke to the club about how meaningful the experience was for her.

Steve then summarized the results of the Business Week organization. It has been in existence for 32 years now, and over 46,000 students have attended in Washington. This year, Bellevue High School had 39 participants, the highest of any school. The International School had 15. The overall average is about two, so Bellevue schools are well represented.

Steve Lingenbrink Back from Africa
Steve went to Africa with Curtis, his wife, and a member from the Rotary club. While in Kenya they participated in a water project, and sanitation projects at schools. Additionally, they introduced 1500 students to chess through an extension of the program headed by Rourke O’Brien.

Steve described several interesting developments in their country, and he promised a fuller presentation in September. He was excited to inform us that there is now a ground facilitator there in Kenya. To support that, we’ll need to raise funds outside the club.

To that end, Steve brought back several carvings by the children in the local villages. There will be an auction on the 31st of August to help the Kenya Relief Fund of the BBRC.

Transformation of AAA of Washington & Transportation Issues
Bob Holert introduced our guest speaker, Charlie Liekweg, the President of AAA of Washington. Bob summarized that AAA is one of the 100 best companies to work for in state of Washington. Charlie is a former Marine who has three children, and who has coached with Bob on a number of sports teams.

Charlie moved here 20 years ago from Hawaii. Before that, he lived in Los Angeles.

Previously, the AAA had over 500 clubs in the U.S. Through mergers and attrition, there are currently only 55. The national organization is headquartered in Florida, and it provides support service to the AAA organizations throughout the country.

The brand name is an excellent one. It has a reputation for trust and providing peace of mind. A rigorous certification process protects that brand name by providing consistent quality throughout the country. The national organization is also responsible for lobbying and emphasizing highway safety. Charlie emphasized that one current is the status of the highway trust fund; it is projected to go negative by 2010, which in turn spells trouble for mobility and safety in the US because modernization and maintenance programs will be severely impacted.

In Washington, membership has grown from 500,000 to over 950,000 in the last 10 years. The organization is a not-for-profit corporation dedicated to three activities:

1. Emergency road service,
2. Insurance, and
3. Travel support

In emergency road service, the company dispatches 650,000 trucks calls a year. The worst days are Monday, with up to 5000 calls per day. The company is moving away from towing to instead help people get going again.

In insurance, AAA is the largest independent insurance agency in the state, and insurance remains the fastest growing part of the business.

In the travel arena, AAA’s products include cruises and tours. Alaska is extremely popular, and so are Hawaiian tours. Maps and counseling for are also available for road trips. AAA in Washington issued 55,000 “trip tics” last year, and they expect to be in the travel business forever.

Charlie closed with remarks about the importance for continuing to push for mass transit in Washington. His belief is that will go a long way to solving the overcrowded transportation network we currently experience.

Web Fun

The Prescription
A calm and respectable lady went into the pharmacy and walked right up to the pharmacist, looked him straight in the eye and said, "I would like to buy some cyanide."

The pharmacist asked, "Why in the world would you need cyanide?"

The lady replied, "I need to poison my husband."

The pharmacists eyes got big and he explained, "Lord almighty, I can't give you cyanide to kill your husband. That is against the law. I would lose my license and they'll throw both of us in jail. ABSOLUTELY ... NOT ... you cannot have any cyanide!"

The lady reached into her purse and pulled out a picture of her husband in bed with the pharmacist's wife.

The pharmacist looked at the picture and replied, " Oh, you didn't tell me you have a prescription."

AAADD: Age Activated Attention Deficit Disorder
Courtesy of Bob Vallat
Last week I decided to water my garden. As I turn on the hose in the driveway, I look over at my car and decide my car needs washing. As I start toward the garage, I notice that there is mail on the porch table that I brought up from the mail box earlier. I decide to go through the mail before I wash the car. I lay my car keys down on the table, put the junk mail in the garbage can under the table, and notice that the can is full.

So, I decide to put the bills back on the table and take out the garbage first. But then I think, since I'm going to be near the mailbox when I take out the garbage anyway, I may as well pay the bills first. I take my check book off the table, and see that there is only one check left. My extra checks are in my desk in the study, so I go inside the house to my desk where I find the can of Coke that I had been drinking. I'm going to look for my checks, but first I need to push the Coke aside so that I don't accidentally knock it over. I see that the Coke is getting warm, and I decide I should put it in the refrigerator to keep it cold.

As I head toward the kitchen with the Coke a vase of flowers on the counter catches my eye--they need to be watered. I set the Coke down on the counter, and I discover my reading glasses that I've been searching for all morning. I decide I better put them back on my desk, but first I'm going to water the flowers. I set the glasses back down on the counter, fill a container with water and suddenly I spot the TV remote. Someone left it on the kitchen table.

I realize that tonight when we go to watch TV, I will be looking for the remote, but I won't remember that it's on the kitchen table, so I decide to put it back in the den where it belongs, but first I'll water the flowers. I pour some water in the flowers, but quite a bit of it spills on the floor. So, I set the remote back down on the table, get some towels and wipe up the spill. Then I head down the hall trying to remember what I was planning to do.

At the end of the day: the car isn't washed, the bills aren't paid, there is a warm can of Coke sitting on the counter, the flowers don't have enough water, there is still only one check in my check book, I can't find the remote, I can't find my glasses, and I don't remember what I did with the car keys.

Then when I try to figure out why nothing got done today, I'm really baffled because I know I was busy all day long, and I'm really tired. I realize this is a serious problem, and I'll try to get some help for it, but first I'll check my e-mail.