Invocation and Pledge

New Rotarian and Patent Attorney Glenn Foster gave the invocation and pledge. Mixed into the invocation was a vague reference to his similarities and differences to Washington and Lincoln. His big differentiator is that he is better looking. Well, since the other two aren’t around to argue, I guess we’ll have to take Glenn’s word for it.

Christine Rose introduced visiting Rotarians and guests. Following that, she donned her Santa hat and led the group in an a cappella rendition of “Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Rotarian,” tying it to the need for all of us to kick in and donate to the giving tree project.

Club Business

John Martinka presided over our annual elections. The slate of officers and directors were unanimously elected.

Returning officers are Lee Smith, Mike Ralph, Kim Shrader, Colleen Turner, John Martinka, and President-Elect Chris Monger. New directors will be Girish Bhatia, Katherine DeStephano, Ruben Ladlad, Bob Holert, and Morris Kremen. President-Elect for 2013-14 is Scott Sadler and for 2014-15, Wendi Fischer.

Classification Talk: Jeff Kaiser

Jeff Kaiser’s classification is Fly Fishing Guide. Jeff grew up in Scottsdale, Arizona, where he and his bride bought their first house in 1979. Afterward, they moved to Colorado, where they stayed for 27 years.

They moved here about a year ago, their motivation being that both of their children came to the area for school. The bigger motivation is that their grandchild was born here last December 24th, which also happens to be Jeff's birthday.

Holiday Breakfast

Wendi Fischer and Paul Chapman announced that our annual Holiday Breakfast for Rotarians and our families will be December 16th. Please sign up as soon as possible so that we’ll know how much breakfast to order.

Sparkle Queen

Wendi Fischer brought three of our newest Rotarians (Ivan Komashinsky, John Cherry, and Martin Clavijo) in front of the club and tested us to see what all three had in common. The answer? They were all invited by somebody.

The message is that if we want new people to join us, we need to proactively go out and invite them.

The Rotary Foundation

Past-President Kim Shrader provided an update on the status of “Every Rotarian Every Year.” During Foundation Month, participation was up and BBRC members reached deep and contributed a lot. Coming up soon will be the raffles for the gift baskets – if you donated, your name is in the hat.

Remember that our goal is to have EVERY Rotarian donate this year – that elusive goal is a challenge that our club has never met, but if we pull together, we can do it this year.

Golfing With the Elves

The BBRC Annual Golfing with the Elves will be held at Mt. Si Golf Course, at 9:00 AM, on Saturday, December 24th. If you can ski in June, there is no reason not to golf in December.

Contact Norm Johnson for your tee time.

Rotary First Harvest Work Party

Howard Johnson announced that the final work party of this calendar year will be December 10th. For those who wish to carpool, the group will leave the south Bellevue park and ride at 8:30.

PROGRAM

“The Passion of Sports and How it Works for Business,” Rick Scott, RSA Sports International, Ideas, Insight, and Results … Sports Radio and Digital Sports Programming, Sales and Marketing

Jim Gordon introduced Rick Scott of Rick Scott and Associates. Rick’s vocation is sports radio and sports management. Prior to this endeavor, Rick directed the format team for KJR Radio.

Rick started his discussion by summarizing the mood in Philly the night after the Seahawks win — he called it Black Friday II, because they are selling record numbers of TVs and radios after all the loyal Eagles fans destroyed theirs out of frustration. Rick shared with the club his rich collection of sports anecdotes:

In Michael Jordan’s rookie year, he smacked a tee shot 310 yards and put it through the roof of a golf cart, causing the two riders to bail out. In Chicago, he almost hit an older man and his wife in the crosswalk. It turns out the man was Harry Caray. Luckily, he missed hitting the sports broadcasting legend. In Hong Kong, he walked into a pharmacy, and the owner came up to him with a shirt yelling “BNA, BNA!” He initially didn’t understand, but it finally dawned on him that the man was trying to say “NBA, NBA” due to Rick’s 6’ 5” stature. To keep from letting the man down, he did the only thing he could do: he autographed it “Larry Byrd, #33.”

How did he get started in sports broadcasting? As a young boy, he got tired of getting up at 3:30 for his paper route, so he went to the local radio station and begged for a job. A week later, the owner called him and asked him to come down to the station the next day. When he showed up, the man handed him a pile of pages and told him to go into a small room and read them out loud.

When he came out, the owner told him, “You’re hired.” It turns out he was live on the air, and the owner was having him read the news in his first-ever broadcast. After that, he immediately obtained his third class license and entered the business.

Since that time, he moved to Grand Forks, North Dakota, where the station owner had just taken in $1.1 Million in revenue the previous year. That owner taught him the ropes of what makes a radio enterprise commercially successful.

Eventually, Rick made his way to Seattle, where he convinced the owners of KJR’s AM station to switch from rock and roll to an all-sports format. His vision turned KJR into an overwhelming sports radio success. What’s his secret? He pushed the concept of “REAL” — relationships, emotion, attitude, and loyalty. His bottom line is: No matter what you do, have a passion for it.