July 28 Meeting Notes

President Earl Crowe opened the meeting at 7 am with the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag, and Milt Herman lead the Club Members with the Invocation.

Announcements:

Kathleen McNalty announced that on Saturday, August 1st, 7-11 am. our Goathead Warrior volunteers will meet to cut and pull the goathead weeds in South Wenatchee (exact location is TBD, and you will receive an email if you put your name on the volunteer list. Volunteers should wear sturdy shoes or boots, and  bring heavy duty gloves (The goatheads are sharp!). Shovels are provided. Be prepared to be outdoors for a few hours with sun protection and water bottles. It might be beneficial to have your hands free, so a small day pack or fanny pack comes in handy to carry a water bottle. To volunteer, contact Kathleen McNalty. More information on the exact location will be provided prior to Aug. 1st. Wear your Wenatchee Sunrise Rotary Club "Rotarian At Work" T-shirt! (If you need one, let Earl know.)

Kathleen also said she attended the Wenatchee Valley Farmers Market at Pybus Public Market this last Saturday to get a sense of what we'd be doing as volunteers there. She helped hand out face masks on Saturday, but said there might be more to do later on (post CoVid). She and Taro Masuda are asking other Rotary Clubs to join ours as volunteers assisting with carry-outs, clean up, etc. It would get the Rotary name and logo in front of the public. Our dates for Rotary to "take over the market" are Saturday, Aug. 22nd, Saturday, Sept. 19th, and Saturday, Oct. 17th. Wear your Wenatchee Sunrise Rotary Club "Rotarian At Work" T-shirt! (If you need one, let Earl know.)

Jim Adamson asked for club volunteers to be mentors for our 9 selected Challenge Scholars for this year. We have had mentors previously vetted and trained and would like those will mentoring experience to step forward again to help out. Those who have not been trained will get trained by Jim A.  President Earl said he has been talking with the Washington State Patrol to get free background checks for our mentees to work with our scholarship recipients.

Brags and Confessions:

President Earl Crowe said his daughter Lucy got a letter from the Wenatchee School District saying there would be no in-person classes this Fall; only on-line classes. His daughter Emma is attending Central Washington University in Ellensburg, is living on campus in a dormitory, and is attending on-line classes there. Kaity VanWeerdhuizen, Earl's daughter, recently bought an Ellensburg toy store's inventory and is now selling it online.

Carol and Jim Adamson had been in Oregon to attend their oldest grandson's graduation party. He has been accepted at Linfield College in McMinnville, Oregon.

Wayne Massing sold his 1995 Ford Explorer (called the "Exploder") that had 219,000 miles on it. He's owned it for over 20 years! A Vietnam Veteran is the newer owner!

Rotary Moment:

Wayne Massing, Club Sargent-at-Arms, presented the Rotary Moment on "Rotary Action Groups". The RAGs are independent, Rotary-affiliated groups made up of people from around the world who are experts in a particular field, such as economic development, peace, addiction prevention, the environment, or water.

Action groups offer their technical expertise and support to help clubs plan and implement projects to increase our impact, one of Rotary's strategic priorities.

Some examples of the Rotary strategic priorities and related RAGs are: Promoting peace, Domestic Violence Prevention RAG; Fighting disease, Addiction Prevention RAG, Alzheimer's/Dementia RAG, Diabetes RAG; Providing clean water and sanitation, Water and Sanitation RAG.

Probably one of the most notable Rotary Action Groups is the one to eradicate Polio.

Program:

Sam Mack introduced Nicole Begin, a local realtor, to give a prospective of the real estate market and sales of the Wenatchee Valley during the CoVid-19 pandemic.

Nicole Begin has been a realtor with the local John L. Scott Real Estate office for 3 years. Her background in interior design and construction.

Wenatchee Valley real estate inventory is down slightly; possibly because of the CoVid crisis. New construction is up over 51% from this time in 2019. Recent property sales have resulted in bidding wars.

Sales of the most sought-after Wenatchee properties are in the $360k median price. Properties in the $550k-$850k range have increased 180%. Most of those buyers are from the Seattle area, and are older retirees! Most homes sales have been in the 1800 square foot size with a 2 car garage. The trend is for builders to build homes in the 1300-1800 square foot range, as opposed to the "McMansion" built 10 years ago.

The rental market in Wenatchee has been as low as 1%, but is now up to 4%. With low interest rates for home sales, many renters have become buyers.

The current CoVid phase requirements only allows 2 persons to be in a home for a showing. That can be the realtor and one buyer, or two buyers. In the future, relaxed regulations may allow 3 people at once into a home showing.

President Earl presented Nicole with a children's book, donated in her name to the North Central Regional Library for the presentation she gave to our club.

Meeting was adjourned at 7:45 am.

July 21 Meeting Notes

President Earl Crowe opened the meeting at 7 am with the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag, and Jim Adamson lead the Club Members with the Invocation.

Announcements:

Carol Adamson said our one of our September programs would be an Apple Blossom Update by Darci Christopherson, Chairperson for the Apple Blossom Festival.

Robin DeRock announced that tomorrow was her birthday! Happy birthday, Robin! She received a new unicorn costume, and will be wearing it to a ZOOM meeting with the Kamloops Aurora Rotary Club.

Taro Masuda and Kathleen McNalty contacted the "Goathead Warriors", Ariahna Jones and Doug Pauly, to see if they need any help. (They gave a presentation to our club on June 9th. See this blog on that date for more information about them and their program.) They would like some volunteers to remove goathead noxious weeds in South Wenatchee on Saturday, August 1st, 7-11 am. during the cool of the day. Volunteers should wear sturdy shoes or boots, and  bring heavy duty gloves (The goatheads are sharp!). Shovels are provided. Be prepared to be outdoors for a few hours with sun protection and water bottles. It might be beneficial to have your hands free, so a small day pack or fanny pack comes in handy to carry a water bottle. To volunteer, contact Kathleen McNalty. More information on the exact location will be provided prior to Aug. 1st. Wear your Wenatchee Sunrise Rotary Club "Rotarian At Work" T-shirt! (If you need one, let Earl know.)

Taro and Kathleen also are planning to get other Rotary Clubs to join ours at the Saturday farmers' market at the Pybus Public Market. Volunteers from the clubs would help out at the farmers' market, assisting with carry-outs, clean up, etc. It would get the Rotary name and logo in front of the public. More information in the future!

Program:

Chris McDarment re-introduced our speaker from last week, Brett Stoffel, a former U.S. Air Force B-52 and B-2 pilot. Last week Brett spoke about his military career, and this week, Brett spoke about Emergency Response International, Inc. (ERI).

ERI has specialized in Global Survival, Search and Rescue (SAR), and emergency preparedness training, publications, consulting and products since 1978.


Brett touched on trying survival skills, rather than reading about them. There are many publications and reality TV shows that preach survival, but few teach the basics of survivability. You can survive 30-40 days without food, but your body needs 3 quarts of water daily for you to live.

If you have the Necessities of Life and Survival Skills, you can survive! For more information about ERI, click on this link: Emergency Response International
For more information of their products, click this link: ERI Publications and Products

President Earl Crowe presented Brett with two children's books, donated in his name to the North Central Regional Library for the two presentations he gave to our club.

Meeting was adjourned at 8:05 am.

July 14 meeting notes

Announcements

Kory Kalahar, President of the Wenatchee Rotary Club, announced their club will have a 100th Birthday "Biggest Party Event" on January 15, 2021.  Save the date.

Board Minutes

• We had 9 applicants for the Challenge Scholar program (8 WSHS, 1 EHS), and will fund all 9.  That means we need 9 mentors to connect for the next 2 years. Contact Jim A is you'd like to mentor.
• online giving, fines, brags, etc. may be done through a new process in the near future
• Tom Utigard has been named an honorary member of our club.  He has been a faithful, contributing member for many years, and can no longer attend meetings like he used to.

Brags/Confessions

• Robin was excited that her pro hockey has resumed
• Carol was convinced to sign up for the club's virtual race because of Earl's wife, Joy
• Erik also signed up for the 10K, and challenged our past YE student (Joseph) to do the marathon

Program

Brett Stoffel, a retired Air Force Officer, talked about his experiences from ROTC through his career as a Stealth Bomber pilot.  After completing 4 years of ROTC at a university, Brett went to pilot training in Lubbock, TX in 1995.  From there, he attended B-52 bomber school in Louisiana, and survival school in Florida. He spent 4 years of active duty as a B-52 pilot out of North Dakota, and did life support school, search and rescue school, and officer's school.  Brett spent combat time in the Dessert Storm and Allied Force campaigns.  He then was selected as one of 155 pilots for the elite B-2 Stealth Bomber program in Missouri, which was still in the testing phase at that time.  He said each plane cost $2.2 million.  After he left the Air Force, he studied law and became an attorney in the Portland area.  He now runs the Survival Search and Rescue business with his dad out of Cashmere.

Brett will be our program on July 21st to talk about the search and rescue aspect.

July 7 Meeting Notes

Announcements

Board meeting next Monday at 7:00 - zoom (ask for the link if you want to join in).

Stuff the Bus food drive brought in over 23,500 pounds of food and cash donations.

Brags & Confessions

Earl's daughter, Emma, was accepted to the CWU Honors College
Robin is now officially the District 5060 First Lady, and will be visiting clubs and other district events with DG husband Richard.
Ruth is now president of the Columbia Chorale, but with COVID, has no group or concerts to oversee.

Program

Earl introduced Shanley Crane, the Assistant Governor for our 7 area Rotary clubs, who then
introduced 2020-21 District Governor Richard DeRock.  Richard, who is no stranger to our club since his wife Robin is a member here, was our program today.




Outside Rotary, Richard is the CEO of Link Transit, and past-president of the Washington Transit Association and Wenatchee Chamber of Commerce.  He came to Wenatchee from the Los Angles area where he headed the area-wide transit system.  In Rotary, Richard was a member of the Wenatchee Rotary Club, Past-president of Rotary North, and the charter President of Wenatchee Confluence Rotary Club.  He served 11 years on the district youth exchange committee, 4 of those as chairman.  He is a Paul Harris Fellow and TRF Benefactor.  He is married to Robin, and has two adult children.

                RI President Holgar Knock of Germany

Richard discussed the direction of Rotary International, and the focus he has for our district this year.
The RI theme this year is Rotary Opens Opportunities, which was selected by RI President Holger Knack of Germany. Part of the Rotary's vision is "together people create change", and RI and our district have settled on four priorities:

1. increase our impact
2. expand our reach
3. enhance participation and engagement
4. increase our ability to adapt

Richard talked about our district expanding youth activities, rebuilding youth exchange after the program being cancelled for this year, maintaining our strong Polio Plus contributions, getting more of an online presence during and after COVID, creating at least three new models for clubs (examples - e-club for former youth exchange students, hybrid club for small communities), quarterly district business meetings, a junior RYLA program, and making sure every program in the district can be done in a virtual platform/

June 30, 2020 Meeting Notes

Current President Taro Masuda opened the his last meeting of his Rotary year at 7 am.

Announcements/Brags/Confessions:

"Stuff the Bus" event brought in over 20,000 pounds of food and cash donations to provide for our hungry through Community Action Couincil and Serve Wenatchee Valley.  The event was sponsored by LINK and the area Rotary Clubs.  Jim & Carol Adamson and Alan Walker helped out on Saturday.

Jim and Carol Adamson helped celebrate their grandson's 11th birthday! He's a leukemia survivor, too!

Alan and Kelly Walker have settled down into the condo life and are enjoying the pool there. "No pool maintenance!", they said!

John Schapman seconded the appreciation of the condo pool that Alan and Kelly enjoy. His mother-in-law lives in the same condo complex, and John and family also enjoy that pool!

Kevin Love finally returned to the Wenatchee Valley after extensive travels to Yellowstone National Park, Cody and Jackson Hole, Wyoming. His temporary job has ended.

Wayne Massing announced that, after a short visit to the Wenatchee Veteran's Clinic in early June, he was contacted by them to report that he may have been exposed to CoVid-19 while at the clinic. They recommended a CoVid test at Wenatchee Confluence. Even though, he had no symptoms, he took the test, and the results were NEGATIVE! Yeah!

Incoming District Governor Richard DeRock and wife Robin were inducted Tuesday evening.  Past District Governor Peter Schultz was complimented by various Rotarians for a great year. Valerie Wafer, Rotary International Director from Ontario, Canada, was the featured speaker.

On Thursday, June 25th, club members grouped together at Foothills Middle School, and then drove by Adele's home to wish her farewell before her return to Switzerland on June 27th. We are going to miss her smiling face and fun attitude!

Alan Walker was asked about the Washington National Guard troops helping with the distributions at the Food Bank. He said the 30 guard members had been cut to 15 through the end of July. He also said that the Community Action Council had been given funds to buy face masks for the low income residents of the Valley. Alan reminded the club that volunteers are still needed Monday through Saturday, from 7 am to 3 pm for food distribution.

Leonard Noss underwent minor surgery on his ear. He is home and recovering.

Program:

Courtney Tiffany, Senior Branch Manager at the Wenatchee Public Library was our speaker at Tuesday's meeting. She spoke about the North Central Regional Library (NCRL).

Courtney has spent most of her life here in Wenatchee; leaving only to complete her degree in Library Information Science. She is married and has 3 children between 5-10 years old. She has worked in the fund-raising field and management of construction of the renovation of the Wenatchee Public Library.

The Wenatchee Public Library is the largest of the 30 libraries in the NCRL region. This library usually gets over 21,000 visits per month, during normal operations. Courtney told the club that the area that NCRL services is the size of the states of Massachusetts and Connecticut combined (About 15,000 square miles). It stretches from the town of Mattawa to our South to the Canadian border to the North.

Each month, the NCRL processes over 35,000 items, provides 28 bilingual children's story times, and has over 7,000 logins to their electronic library. NCRL recently received a $20,000 grant to increase the WiFi connectivity at each of the 30 branch libraries to provide connectivity within a 600' circle around each library.

The renovation of the Wenatchee Library is proceeding. Their lease on the building is ending where the books are being stored during this construction, so they have been given special permission to move the books back into the remodeled library. They are not allowed to use volunteers for this event.

The newly renovated library will have a more central circulation desk, more electrical outlets for patrons' electronic devices, an expanded mezzanine seating area, and a lower floor café' for coffee and some foods. A future event to be added to the Wenatchee Library's operation is author talks. Book author will give readings and answer questions. Attendees should register for these talks.

Courtney also encouraged club members to sign up for E-Cards that allows for electronic check out and download of materials. CreativeBug provides children and educators with thousands of arts and craft tutorials on line.

Contact the NCRL online at NCRL or contact the Wenatchee Public Library on their Facebook page: Wenatchee Public Library

Questions she was asked:

Q: With the increase in the WiFi service areas around the libraries, are additional parking areas going to be provided?

A: Since the 600' circle around each of the 30 libraries and the NCRL headquarters building will be about two city blocks, plenty of parking already exists for that connectivity. This should get people farther from the libraries, and allow other library patrons to have closer, physical access to the libraries.

Q: Does the NCRL have reciprocal library access with other Washington libraries?

A: Yes! If you have a King County library card, and a NCRL library card, you can access the huge library system in King County. This is a plus when downloading electronic books, as King County may have a bigger selection. (Courtney also said if NCRL patrons used "Hoopla", they would not have a waiting period to check out books.)

Q: When is the Wenatchee Public Library to open?

A: It is unknown right now. The reopening would be coupled with the Phase 3 openings of businesses and services during this CoVid-19 period. There is a huge backlog of mail-order books to process before reopening that service, which might be during Phase 2. Curbside pickups may also be available during that same period.

Q: Is the library still taking donated books?

A: They will be accepting them probably during Phase 2, depending upon their backlog and storage capabilities.

Incoming Club President Earl Crowe and current Club Treasurer Kathleen McNalty have been in contact with Pybus Public Market regarding when our club can restart having physical meetings there. Watch this blog for future information!

Club President Taro Masuda, in one of his last official acts, thanked Courtney for her presentation, and said the club would present to NCRL a children's book dedicated in her name.

Meeting was adjourned at 7:50 am.