Friday Program:
"The Pleasures of a Cruise Vacation,"
Dave Stockert, Holland-America Cruise Lines

Wayne McCaulley introduced Dave Stockert of Holland-America Cruise Lines. Dave is Vice President and Director of Sales and Training at Holland-America. He has obviously done a good job, since he is a recipient of the prestigious American Society of Travel Agents’ Lifetime Achievement Award. Dave has spent over 25 years in the cruise line business.

Holland-America is based in Seattle, but is part of the Carnival Cruise Line empire which provides over half of the cruises in the United States under such trade names as Holland-America, Costa, Princess, Carnival, Canard and Seaborne. Carnival’s closest competitor is Royal Caribbean with 30% of the market.
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Miscellanea

President Salvatori called the meeting to order and turned the program over to Peter Powell, who delivered the invocation and led the pledge of Allegiance.

Tim Leahy greeted visiting Rotarians and guests and, in honor of Oktoberfest, asked visiting Rotarians to identify their favorite beers. Frank Young, perennial visitor, thinks of October not in terms of beer, but in terms of his annual Tarpon fishing trip. His digression cost him $100, the poundage of the Tarpon which he was describing.

Manfred Markevitch replaced his nasty red badge with his beautiful new blue badge. Congratulations, Manfred!

Rourke O'Brien attended the meeting with Jesus and Antonio, from the Nuestros Pequenos Hermanos — Our little brothers and Sisters — network in Mexico. Jesus and Antonio are staying with Rourke and Sayoko for a week.

Spray Playground Ground Breaking, October 19th
Norm Johnson

Nineteen BBRCers and many notable dignitaries braved chilly temperatures and a cold breeze to turn the symbolic shovels of dirt for the Crossroad’s Spray Playground.

The Press release from the Bellevue Parks and Community Services Department can be viewed here.

Jonathan Koshar Classification Talk Redux

Jonathan Koshar is back. Only he and God know how many classification talks he has given, since he has belonged to several Rotary clubs. So, rather than give an orthodox classification talk, Jonathan chose to talk about the various clubs in which he has been a member or which he has investigated.

Jonathan started his Rotary career in a small club in Annapolis, Maryland. He moved to Tampa, Florida, where he belonged to a large club. He employed different strategies to get integrated into his clubs. First, sitting at the same table week after week and second, moving from table to table week after week. Neither of these was a successful strategy.

What got him involved in the BBRC was agreeing to become the club treasurer. He facetiously (I think) said that he had to move away from Bellevue to get out from under the duties of the treasurer.

Jonathan and his wife ended up back in Annapolis where he could not find a club that suited him. They later moved to Bermuda and after that, Barbados. In none of those locations could he find a club that suited him.

Now he is back in Bellevue and we are happy to have him back at the BBRC. What do you think the chances are of having Jonathan back in the role of treasurer — fat or slim to none?

October Student of the Month: Becca King

Larry May introduced Rebecca “Becca” King, a senior at Bellevue Christian High School. Her parents Bob and Jennie were in the audience, as was Bill Safstrom, Principal of Bellevue Christian.

Becca calls herself the middle child, since she is eight minutes younger than her twin brother James, whom she credits with giving her a competitive attitude. She has been an outstanding athlete in soccer, basketball and softball and is looking at colleges such as Colgate, Bucknell, Gettysburg and Claremont for her college career.

Good luck, Becca. We expect to hear good things about you!

Computers for the World

John Martinka introduced Rafet Saltic and his wife Arzu, who were in Seattle for a seminar. Rafet is a Rotarian in the Istanbul club and was the local coordinator with whom John and others in the BBRC worked to get computers into Turkey last year.

After much frustration, Rafet was able to get the computers through customs and proudly announced that 14 computer labs are now operating in various parts of Turkey, with over 600 students using the computers provided by Computers For The World. He said there were six schools in the eastern part of Turkey and two labs catering to students with spinal cord injuries.

An interesting aside is that Rafet is the author of several children’s books, some of which were on display at the back table. Rafet and his wife were enjoying the hospitality of Sadru and Alma Kabani for their stay in the Seattle area.

Proposed Member: Bob Crosby

Bob Crosby is proposed for membership. He is senior loan officer at Stay In Home Reverse Mortgage. His classification will be Reverse Mortgage. He lives in Sammamish with is wife Carol, and he has three children between the ages of 18 and 24. Bob's hobbies include fishing, hunting and raising Labrador Retrievers.

Friday Program:
"The Pleasures of a Cruise Vacation,"
Dave Stockert, Holland-America Cruise Lines

Wayne McCaulley introduced Dave Stockert of Holland-America Cruise Lines. Dave is Vice President and Director of Sales and Training at Holland-America. He has obviously done a good job, since he is a recipient of the prestigious American Society of Travel Agents’ Lifetime Achievement Award. Dave has spent over 25 years in the cruise line business.

Holland-America is based in Seattle, but is part of the Carnival Cruise Line empire which provides over half of the cruises in the United States under such trade names as Holland-America, Costa, Princess, Carnival, Canard and Seaborne. Carnival’s closest competitor is Royal Caribbean with 30% of the market.

Dave said that approximately 12 million Americans cruised last year. And approximately 10% of Americans have been on a cruise, so cruise lines see potential for great growth. Twelve million cruisers compares to 30 million tourists per year in Las Vegas and 50 million who visit Orlando. Holland-America has 13 ships, all in the midsize range, so they can go through the Panama Canal. Three ships are based in Seattle, the MS Oosterdam, MS Westerdam and MS Amsterdam.

Holland-America is the recipient of many awards, but one Dave pointed out as being particularly satisfying is the Seatrade Insider Environmental Reduction Technology Award, which their newest ship, the MS Zaandam got for implementing a new technology to scrub diesel exhaust with seawater which may eliminate 95% of the pollutants in the diesel fumes. Another project of which he is proud is a program with Seattle City Light to connect ships to City Light Power while in port, which eliminates the need for the auxiliary engines working while in port.

According to Dave, Holland-America in 2007 provided Seattle an approximately $455 million economic infusion. This included $130 million in goods and services provided to the ships, $46 million spent by tourists in Seattle, and $5.6 million spent by the crews of the vessels in Seattle.

Seattle has become a significant cruise line port because the new ships on line now are faster, with average speeds of between 23 and 25 knots, which means that they can cover the distances required for successful cruises from Seattle, as opposed to closer ports to Alaska such as Vancouver. The cruise lines are working at approximately 98% capacity, so it is a very popular vacation option. Judging from the number of hands that were raised, well over two-thirds of BBRCers have been on at least one cruise, and Wendi Fischer owned up to having been on 12!

Community involvement is important for Holland-America Lines — each of its 33 management employees serves on a different non-profit board in the Seattle area, and Holland-America has raised over $500,000 for the Susan Komen Breast Cancer Foundation from its program called On Deck for the Cure.

Dave closed by acknowledging that Holland-America Line and the cruise industry was once seen as the domain of the elderly. In fact, he said that the average age of a Holland-America cruiser not so long ago was said to be “deceased.” He was very happy to report that the average age of cruisers on Holland-America Line is now 45. We are not quite certain how he obtained his statistics, but he also claimed that one of the reasons for the popularity of cruise lines was that cruisers enjoy 25% more intimacy on board ship than land lubbers do.

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Paul Harris Presentation

Cary Kopczynski presented Sadru Kabani with his second (sapphire) Paul Harris for having contributed $3,000. Well done, Sadru!

Rotary First Harvest Attendance Report
Saturday, October 12, was Hunger Relief Day, a District-wide event. Howard Johnson reported that a record 50 participants from the BBRC, including friends and family, showed up at HopeLink for the Saturday work party. Unfortunately, the truckload of apples that the volunteers were supposed to repack was unable to unload its cargo. However, BBRC's Juan Hernandez, HopeLink, put everyone to work sorting foods which were on hand.

BBRC By-Laws
President Phil announced that the by-laws which have been circulating will not be voted on on November 2nd as there were proposed revisions which the board will now have to vote on. Please do not fall off the edge of your chairs as you anxiously await the revised proposed by laws!