Due to apparent email issues, the BBRC ended up minus one Reveille this past week. Fortunately all BBRC members do not suffer from CRS, and Norm Johnson stepped up to the plate yesterday with his amazing recall. President Phil, Sayoko Kuwahara and Larry May also added their input.

David Isett, President, Concordia Coffee

David Isett, President, Concordia Coffee Concordia Coffee Systems offers a range of Commercial Espresso Systems to meet the unique needs of your operation. Moderate to high volume locations, multi-tasking attendant operations, 24/7 self-serve venues, even vended espresso options are available. They have elected to focus on the commercial market and will not address the home market.

Quality and simplicity are built in to the Concordia commercial espresso systems. Everything needed to make a freshly brewed espresso beverage is designed into each of our systems. At the touch of a button, our espresso systems automatically grind fresh whole espresso beans to make a perfect espresso shot, while fresh cold milk is steamed to make a world-class cappuccino, latte, Americano or black coffee in less than a minute — no special training required.

David Isett gave a rather inspiring and griping presentation with a number of key points on how to run a company with your own, rather than someone else's money. He mentioned that Concordia was one of only two manufacturing companies left in Bellevue.
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Preliminaries

President Phil Salvatori opened the meeting, welcoming the assembled back to the Glendale Country Club after two weeks off-site at Newport Yacht Club and Newport High School.

Tim Johnstone gave the invocation and led the pledge to the flag. Curtis Cummings introduced visiting Rotarians and guests.

Club Administrator Sayoko Kuwahara showed off the new BBRC badge with barcode saying,“We will switch to the new, fashionable badges this Friday, January 25th." Sayoko also admonished members to "keep the old badges! Ten years from now, we will have an old badge party.”

Computer Trip to West Indies

John Martinka talked about his computer trip the island of Antigua-Barbuda in the West Indies the week of April 7. Accompanying John on this trip will be the John's wife Jan and the entire Lingenbrink family. Several other members have also indicated interest.

The group is shipping approximately 200 computers and will work Monday-Friday, maybe weekends if necessary. One of the labs is a school for the blind.

Steve Lingenbrink and I, along with our wives and Steve’s daughters, are going on this years project. Sadru has indicated he is going and a couple others have inquired. If you are interested in more information about this trip, please contact John Martinka or Steve Lingenbrink ASAP.

Student of the Month: James King

Larry May introduced Eastside Christian student James King, the January Student of the Month. Also in attendance were James’ proud parents, Bob and Jeannie.

James was the starting pitcher on the baseball team and quarterback on the football team. He also conducted a baseball mission trip to the Dominican Republic, and he plans to go to Middlebury College in Vermont.

James’ twin sister Rebecca was the Student of the Month for October.

Valentine Dine Around Promotion

The Not Ready for Any Time Players, led by Wendi Fischer and including Evelyn Cogswell, Margie Burnett, Ron Black and Tim Johnstone, did a sketch regarding the Valentine Dine Around.

The Message:
Please sign up for the February 9th dinner, and DON'T worry about a thing! These people are Rotarians and they will wear/eat/drink anything.

Now, the only problem we have is finding Norm's house in the middle of the night on Mercer Island, a seemingly GPS dead zone.

CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP. DEADLINE IS FEBRUARY 1.

SAA Reaps $200 For Foundation

Sergeant at Arms Tom Harrelson asked Diane Gamche to come forward and explain why she wasn't mentioned in the previous week's Reveille. Diane said the first release didn't mention her, but the second release did mention her Classification Talk.

Tom asked what happened and Diane said she was simply forgotten in the first issue. Tom asked who the reporter was and Juan Hernandez raised his hand sheepishly. Tom asked Diane what she thought Juan should be fined for such a gross oversight, and she said $50. Everyone gasped, but Juan stood up and said he would make a donation of $200 to the Foundation to atone for his error.

Everyone applauded! Thanks, Juan.

New Member Proposed: Erik Paulson

Erik Paulson is a co-owner and general manager of Toyota of Bellevue. His office is located on 148th Avenue, near Eastgate. He has been in automotive sales for over 20 years and has been active in community service through organizations such as Detlef Schrempf Foundation, Cystic Fibrosis of Seattle, Youth Eastside Services, just to name a few.

Erik lives in Samammish with his wife Teresa and their three sons, Michael, Hunter and Connor.

Jenny Andrews Reports from Indonesia

After three very long flights, (10.5 hours, 7.5 hours and 3.5 hours) I arrived in Jakarta. Flying in at dawn was beautiful. The sun was just rising over the most lush green landscape I've ever seen. It makes Hawaii look barren and dull. The houses are quite small and remind me a bit of African compounds except they all have beautiful red tile roofs. Those, combined with the deep greens of the trees and the pink and gold of the sunrise made my entry into Indonesia really special.

The Rotarian who was to pick me up from the airport was a little late so I was bombarded by taxi brokers eager to help (i.e. take my money). One adopted me and for $5 walked me all around, helping me exchange US dollars, toted my luggage, waited with me for my Rotary escort and taught me the Indonesian language (Bahasa Indonesia). When my Rotary escort arrived, we had breakfast — AT KENTUCKY FRIED CHICKEN! I had a fish sandwich and orange soda for BREAKFAST!

Got up today and went for a long walk and discovered it's HOT here! After that, another Rotarian and a tailor came to measure me for the required kebaya (traditional Indonesian costume) that we have to wear when we attend Galungan, a cultural festival held in Bali. The rest of the group is supposed to arrive this afternoon. There is a welcoming party tonight with local Rotarians then tomorrow we dive into research and work. I hope the others find time to rest — they're going to need it!

Since you last heard from me we visited Banda Aceh, where the tsunami hit, Medan, a large city in the northern part of Sumatra and now we're in Yogyakarta in the southern part of Java. Banda Aceh was fascinating. The devastation of the tsunami is incomprehensible. We walked all around a large ocean going ship that now sits in the middle of a town 5 km away from the water. It was washed ashore and took out hundreds of homes as it passed. I talked with a little boy (9 years old maybe) whose home sits under the ship now. He has scars on his arms from the injuries he received in the tsunami. He lost both parents. On the flip side, the relief efforts have been amazing and there is new construction EVERYWHERE. The new homes are very nice - much nicer than what they had before tsunami.

The water and sanitation issues in Indonesia are SO different than other places I've travelled. Here they have plenty of water. Wells only need to be dug 3 meters deep because the water table is so high. The problem is sanitation is unheard of. People use the bathroom directly (and I mean DIRECTLY) in the water they are swimming in, drinking from and washing their clothes in. The simply do not connect sanitation with health. It's off their radar screen. They also have very strong cultural ties to the ways of the past and they don't seem willing to change. One man told us he cannot do his "business" unless there is water touching his rear end. They are so used to doing in in the rivers and streams that they can't do it anywhere else. Nice latrines built by NGOs sit unused. Even if they are provided clean water, people still boil it, using precious resources like oil or wood. We've been told even by the Rotarians here that they will always boil their water, even if it's bottled. Weird.

It's UNBELIEVABLY hot and humid here — 85-90 degrees daily and 95% humidity. It's practically suffocating. The people here are in sweaters. We're outside most of the time but we do have air conditioning at night. Currently in a homestay situation which is pretty basic. Not Africa standards but rough. I'll be glad to get to Bali and have a few more amenities.

We're still just as busy as before - NONSTOP! People on the trip are great. The poverty here is of a different kind than in Africa. This is much more like Mexico but with a lot dirtier water and a LOT more garbage on the ground. Doesn't move my heart as much as Africa.

The food here is INCREDIBLY rich and they eat the SAME damn thing three meals a day – everyday. Ugh. Last night I had a piece of deep fried cow skin in my mouth before I realized what it was and spit it out. Yech!

Yesterday we visited a temple called Borobodur. It's one of the 7 wonders of the world and it was incredible! Of course it's hard to appreciate it unless you're here. It's a Buddhist temple in a Muslim country and, miraculously, it hasn't been destroyed. Today we finally have a little time for shopping in the afternoon.

The landscape here is just like photos you've seen of Vietnam. Lush, green, wet. Been through a lot of rice paddies. Kids here are as cute as everywhere and love weird white people.

Chris Monger is a total party animal and we're all having a hard time keeping up with him. More on that at our presentation.

FRIDAY PROGRAM:
David Isett, President, Concordia Coffee

Concordia Coffee Systems offers a range of Commercial Espresso Systems to meet the unique needs of your operation. Moderate to high volume locations, multi-tasking attendant operations, 24/7 self-serve venues, even vended espresso options are available. They have elected to focus on the commercial market and will not address the home market.

Quality and simplicity are built in to the Concordia commercial espresso systems. Everything needed to make a freshly brewed espresso beverage is designed into each of our systems. At the touch of a button, our espresso systems automatically grind fresh whole espresso beans to make a perfect espresso shot, while fresh cold milk is steamed to make a world-class cappuccino, latte, Americano or black coffee in less than a minute — no special training required.

A privately held Bellevue company, Concordia was formed in September 2004 as an evolution of Acorto, a U.S. manufacturer of superautomatic espresso machines since 1990. Concordia's products are noted for their stringent quality control standards that also meet the safety requirements of international regulatory agencies. Gold list customers include Compass and Sodexho, Mayo Clinic, Harvard University, InterContinental Hotels and Resorts, and DreamWorks to name a few. Approximately 50% of the company’s business is in international markets.

Espresso machines were installed on Thursday with the assistance of the Glendale staff. All BBRC members enjoyed freshly brewed coffee drinks before, during and after the meeting. It was discovered that non-coffee drinks, like hot chocolate, are a bit more problematic for the automatic device. A friendly Concordia sales representatives stood by for assistance.

David Isett gave a rather inspiring and griping presentation with a number of key points on how to run a company with your own, rather than someone else's money. He mentioned that Concordia was one of only two manufacturing companies left in Bellevue.

David stressed the importance of quality being designed into the product rather than inspected in, or "serviced" in. After an initial meeting with the engineering staff and being told that his vision of a service free espresso machine could not be designed, or built, he thanked the engineers for their time and informed them that they were no longer part of the staff. "I did not need nay sayer's spending their working days proving that they were right and I was wrong." As it turns out two of the engineers had some good ideas and they remain on the staff to this day. As a result service calls have gone from 11.2  per year per machine to 1.7 per year per machine.

David mentioned that there is a huge profit margin in espresso. The actual cost of the cup, coffee, milk  and stir stick might be around $.48. To then sell the product at $4.00 gives them a lot of incentive to develop a self-service machine. Another interesting fact is that fully 50% of specialty coffee drinks are ordered "to go." Not everyone stays to enjoy the ambience and wi-fi connection of the local Starbuck's.

A serendipitous design element of their machines is the placement of pictures of the coffee drink on the push buttons so customers can see what they are ordering. This resulted in an immediate increase in sales.

The company has a bare bones philosophy about it and will make moves this year to fully staff and build a succession line of managers for future company growth — and growth is expected. A partnership with Seattle's Best Coffee, Coinstar and Concordia will introduce self-serve espresso stands in 2008. These designs are now under going testing. "It is a lot more cost effective to open a self serve stand that a full service coffee shop"  David has visions of these self-serve units being at such places as airline departure gates and convenience stores.

David also said that they "fired" their non-profitable customers. Those are the ones that are never satisfied and create more expense than revenue. That got everyone's attention. I think we all have customers, or clients, that we wish we could fire.

When the company was experiencing problems they also went to the supplies, bankers, and customers and told the truth.  David was very happy to see the way all of these stakeholders responded to support the company in it's darkest days.

For those of you that have a "taste" for more information regarding this privately held company, visit Concordia’s rather extensive website. 

Web Fun

Vinny and Sal are out in the woods hunting when suddenly, Sal grabs his chest and falls to the ground. He doesn't seem to be breathing; his eyes are rolled back in his head.

Vinny whips out his cell phone and calls 911. He gasps to the operator, I think Sal is dead! What should I do?"

The operator, in a calm soothing voice says, "Just take it easy and follow my instructions. First, let's make sure he's dead."

There is a silence ... and then a shot is heard.

Vinny's voice comes back on the line:
"Okay ... now what?"

BBRC ANNUAL RETREAT
It is that time of year again for the Annual BBRC Retreat, this year April 4-5, at the Inn At Gig Harbor. There will be the customary golf outing and the Retail Therapy Session.

As Norm Johnson said, holding an all club retreat for the past 20 years is one of the reasons that the BBRC is the best darn club in the world. Members who have not attended a Retreat — especially new members — should plan to attend this fun and extremely worthwhile annual event.

Online sign-ups will be available soon.