President Phil introduced District Governor Don Gregory, who was accompanied by his wife, Sharon.

For those of you who don’t know, Don is a Farmers Insurance agent in Kent and spent many years as football and swimming coach in the Seattle public schools. He is a member of the Tukwila Rotary Club, where he was president in 1994-95.

Don put in two pitches: one to attend the International Rotary Convention in Los Angeles next year and the other to attend the District’s convention in the Tri-Cities Convention Center next spring.

Don's program involved the theme for the 2007-2008 Rotary year — “Rotary Shares.” That is, sharing talent, resources, love and dreams. Don’s dreams, which are echoed by Rotary International, are the eradication of polio, universal literacy, clean water for everyone and universal peace.

All of these dreams can be achieved through leadership and teamwork. Don cited the six District projects which involve local leadership and teamwork: the Four-Way Test Program, Rotary First Harvest, Computers for the World, Roto-Care, Partners for Work, and the Dictionary Project.

Don spent some time talking about his goals for the District. He acknowledged that his goals are set high, otherwise there will be no sense of satisfaction when they are reached. He has established District goals of a two-net member increase per club, two Paul Harris Society members per club, and a $1 million donation target for the Rotary Foundation.

Great job, Don!

Preliminaries

Don Salvatori called the first meeting of Fall to order. John Martinka provided the Invocation and led the Pledge of Allegiance, while Chris Monger introduced visiting Rotarians and guests.

Manfred Markevitch Classification Talk

Manfred proved to be our own International Man of Mystery, having grown up in Geneva, Switzerland, the son of an Italian mother; having moved to Germany for his public school years; moving back to St. Gallen, Switzerland, where he attended the University; and then moving to Zurich where he worked for a bank (as Manfred said, a Swiss citizen must either work in a bank or a chocolate factory). After that, Manfred spent four years working on Wall Street in New York City and then six years in the United Kingdom, before relocating to the Pacific Northwest.

While in Switzerland as an adult, Manfred spent 10 years as a Swiss army reservist, where he attained the rank of Captain, commanding a company and was about to be promoted to a battalion slot as Major when he left for New York City. Manfred saw this as service to his community and an opportunity for leadership experience. (Our investigative reporters will be ascertaining the verity of this story by demanding to see Manfred’s Swiss Army Knife.)

We are delighted to have a real Italian speaker in the Club to be able to tell Don Salvatori, “Che cazzo stai dicendo?” when necessary. Benvenuto, Manfred.

Volunteer Mentors Needed

Dr. Ruth Huwe of the University of Washington School of Business Department of Management and Organization Studies is looking for at Rotary mentors for her business motivation class at the UW business school. Dr. Huwe has made arrangements with six companies who will provide employees to be interviewed by students using motivation audit questions. The data will be synthesized and presented during the quarter.

Mentoring involves a luncheon with the students on October 8 and one or two meetings during October 9 and November 4 to oversee the data gathering, with an additional one or two meetings during November 6 and December 2 to oversee the report writing.

Final reports will be due and presented on December 3 and December 5. This looks like a great way to help the business school and learn the science of business motivation. Please call Dr. Huwe at (206) 819-6065 or email her at rhuwe@u.washington.edu if you are interested.

Update — New Club Badges

Sayoko Kuwahara announced that very soon the old tin badges will be replaced with spiffy plastic badges with bar code information on them. This will make record-keeping easier. Plastic badges will be available for guests and visiting Rotarians as well.

Sayoko’s second announcement was that very shortly online payment by credit or debit card will be available for paying BBRC dues. Stay tuned for more information.

Speaking of old tin badges, Tim Johnstone received his blue badge. Congratulations, Tim!

Sergeant At Arms Corner

Tom Harrelson made his first appearance of the fall and levied fines against Cary Kopczyinski and Wayne McCaulley, both of whom are easy targets.

In a somewhat remarkable move, however, Sergeant Harrelson levied a fine against none other than the Spider Monkey, Sayoko Kuwahara. This could turn out to be a risky move indeed!

Spray Park Ground Breaking Ceremony

Norm Johnson reported that all of the funding, except for picnic shelters, has been completed for the Spray Park. Groundbreaking will take place between 3:30 and 4:30 on Friday, October 19.

Norm also reported that Davis Wright Tremaine, in honor of its 25th anniversary of a Bellevue office, has contributed $20,000 to the BBRC Foundation. A big thanks to Rick Klobucher for spearheading this gift!

Web Fun

Attitude is Everything
Courtesy of Wally Mahoney

There once was a woman who woke up one morning, looked in the mirror, and noticed she had only three hairs on her head.

"Well," she said, "I think I'll braid my hair today."

So, she did, and she had a wonderful day.

The next day she woke up, looked in the mirror, and saw that she had only two hairs on her head.

"Hmmm," she said, "I think I'll part my hair down the middle today."

So, she did, and she had a grand day.

The next day she woke up, looked in the mirror and noticed that she had only one hair on her head.

"Well," she said, "today I'm going to wear my hair in a pony tail."

So, she did, and she had a fun, fun day.

The next day she woke up, looked in the mirror and noticed that there wasn't a single hair on her head.

"Yay!" she exclaimed, "I don't have to fix my hair today!"

Attitude is everything.

• • •

The Blue Ribbon
Courtesy of Bob Vallat

A teacher in New York decided to honor each of her seniors in high school by telling them the difference they each made. She called each student to the front of the class, one at a time. First she told each of them how they had made a difference to her and the class.

Then she presented each of them with a blue ribbon imprinted with gold letters, which read, "Who I Am Makes a Difference."

Afterwards the teacher decided to do a class project to see what kind of impact recognition would have on a community. She gave each of the students three more ribbons and instructed them to go out and spread this acknowledgment ceremony. Then they were to follow up on the results, see who honored whom and report back to the class in about a week.

One of the boys in the class went to a junior executive in a nearby company and honored him for helping him with his career planning. He gave him a blue ribbon and put it on his shirt. Then he gave him two extra ribbons and said, "We're doing a class project on recognition, and we'd like you to go out, find somebody to honor, give them a blue ribbon, then give them the extra blue ribbon so they can acknowledge a third person to keep this acknowledgment ceremony going. Then please report back to me and tell me what happened.

Later that day the junior executive went in to see his boss, who had been noted, by the way, as being kind of a grouchy fellow. He sat his boss down and he told him that he deeply admired him for being a creative genius. The boss seemed very surprised. The junior executive asked him if he would accept the gift of the blue ribbon and would he give him permission to put it on him. His surprised boss said, "Well, sure."

The junior executive took the blue ribbon and placed it right on his boss's jacket above his heart. As he gave him the last extra ribbon, he said, "Would you do me a favor? Would you take this extra one and pass it on by honoring somebody else. The young boy who first gave me the ribbons is doing a project in school and we want to keep this recognition ceremony going and find out how it affects people."

That night the boss came home to his 14-year-old son and sat him down. He said, "The most incredible thing happened to me today I was in my office and one of the junior executives came in and told me he admired me and gave me a blue ribbon for being a creative genius. Imagine. He thinks I'm a creative genius. Then he put this blue ribbon that says "Who I Am Makes a Difference" on my jacket above my heart. He gave me an extra ribbon and asked me to find somebody else to honor.

As I was driving home tonight, I started thinking about whom I would honor with this ribbon and I thought about you. I want to honor you. My days are really hectic and when I come home I don't pay a lot of attention to you. Sometimes I scream at you for not getting good enough grades in school and for your bedroom being a mess, but somehow tonight, I just wanted to sit here and, well, just let you know that you do make a difference to me. Besides your mother, you are the most important person in my life. You're a great kid and I love you!"

The startled boy started to sob and sob, and he wouldn't stop crying. His whole body shook. He looked up at his father and said through his tears, "Dad, earlier tonight I sat in my room and wrote a letter to you and Mom explaining why I had killed myself and asking you to forgive me. I was going to commit suicide tonight after you were asleep. I just didn't think that you cared at all. The letter is upstairs. I don't think I need it after all." His father walked upstairs and found a heartfelt letter full of anguish and pain. The envelope was addressed, "Mom and Dad."

The boss went back to work a changed man. He was no longer a grouch but made sure to let all his employees know that they made a difference. The junior executive helped several other young people with career planning and never forgot to let them know that they made a difference in his life...one being the boss's son. And the young boy and his classmates learned a valuable lesson. Who you are DOES make a difference.

ADOPT A HIGHWAY WORK PARTY THIS SATURDAY!
Chip Erickson
Now that summer vacations are over and done with it's time to clean up our adopted stretch of I-405 which is in dire need of attention. Please join us for a BBRC work party this Saturday, 09/29, at 9:00AM. These events usually don't take more than about an hour, depending on how many people show up.

We'll meet at the SE 8th Park and Ride near Greenbaum Furniture, and then fan out along northbound 405 between SE 8th and NE 4th.

Coffee, Krispy Kremes, water, orange vests, bags and hard hats will be provided. Just bring a pair of work gloves, covered shoes and your willingness to help!

Please RSVP by email if you plan on participating.

VILLAGE THEATER OUTING
BBRC has reserved 32 seats for the “Million Dollar Quartet” at 8:00pm on October 12, at the village theater in Issaquah. Roger Allington announced that additional tickets are available if the BBRC sells out the first 34. The evening will start with a no-host dinner at the Shanghai Garden restaurant on Front Street in Issaquah at 6:00.

The “Million Dollar Quartet” is based on a December 4, 1956 jam session at Sun Studios in Memphis, Tennessee involving Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins and Elvis Presley. This is an evening not to be missed. If successful, a theater outing ma become a regular event each Fall.

Reservations with the theater must be made by Wednesday, September 26!

Contact Roger Allington right away.