Meeting Notes for November 24, 2020

Announcements

Elections will be held December 8th.  Be at the meeting so you can see the ballot and vote.  The Board has approved to put Jim & Carol Adamson on the ballot as co-vice-presidents for next year.  Unless someone else has the desire to step in, they will continue to co-pres-elect, and co-president in 2022-23.

The Burundi Christmas boxes are doing well.  There is still time to donate $25 to supply a widow and children with a box of practical goodies for Christmas.  Contact Ruth Dagg if you'd like to participate.

The Tuesday, Dec. 22  meeting will be at 6:00 pm (no morning meeting) to celebrate Christmas with Santa Clause (virtual).  Same zoom link.  We are doing white elephant gift exchange.  If you'd like to participate, contact Earl Crowe.  He and his elves will pick up your wrapped gift and deliver one to you on Dec. 5.  This means you need to let him know soon, and get the gift ready for pickup.

Brags & Confessions

Wayne met with his Challenge Scholar mentee.  He also bought a new Toyota Highlander Hybrid, and some living room furniture.

Ruth has had three family weddings in the recent months, all impacted negatively by COVID.

Alan said Community Action Council has helped 432 families with  rental assistance to the tune of $875,000, and they just got an additional $225,000 to work with.  He and Kelly had to cancel another trip due to COVID.

Robin and Richard replaced the Rotary signs at the entrance to Weantchee.

PJ is going to Salt Lake to be with his son in Thanksgiving.

Earl had his identity stolen.  Fortunately, due to some past flags on his credit reports, the hackers were not able to get into anything.

Rotary Moment  

Kevin Love summarized a couple articles from the December Rotarian.  One was about lost leaders and how the failures of some of the world's leaders drove them to succeed. The other related the built in bonus of how stress levels can be lowered by helping others.

Program

Steve Crown, chief of the Wenatchee Police Department, gave updates on what has been happening since he last talked to us in August.

• expanded social media (added Instagram) that has helped solve some local crimes.
• online auctions are creating small police and firefighter parades for kids to the high bidders
• COVID has not affected the budget too much yet, and they hope to hire a couple more officers to bring the force back to the level it was in 2009.
• the new special services division is busy with gangs, drugs, homelessness, and mental health issues
  
• the new strategic plan created from public surveys and internal goals will come out in January

Steve answered questions related to gangs, COVID crimes and affects, and school involvement.  You can contact him at scrown@wenatcheewa.gov if you ever have questions.