Half-year Club Report - Lenore Romney

 

            Jan. 14: Rotary Connects: Gathering starts at 4:30 p.m. at Saranac Public House, 21 W. Main.

 

            Jan. 21: Martin Luther King, Jr. federal holiday.  No meeting.

 

            Jan. 28: Lunch meeting at Nectar in Kendall Yards. Speaker TBA.

 

            Feb. 4: Lunch meeting at Nectar in Kendall Yards. Speaker TBA.

 

            Feb. 11: Rotary Connects: Gathering starts at 4:30 p.m. at Maryhill Winery Tasting Room, in Kendall Yards (just east of Nectar’s).

 

            Feb. 18: Presidents’ Day Holiday. No meeting.

 

            Feb. 25: Lunch meeting at Nectar in Kendall Yards. Speaker is Kate Reed, Director of Development at Spark Central; a tour of Spark Central follows Kate’s talk.

            Note: Rotary Serves:  Because of federal holidays in January and February, luncheons and speakers are scheduled Jan. 28 and Feb. 25.  Stay tuned for a February hands-on service project.  Suggestions are welcomed.

 

           

            Club President Lenore Romney reported two versions of Spokane-North’s half yearly retort at the Jan. 7 meeting:

 

            The “tweet” version: “Where we’ve been – really great!  Where we are going – really great!” Romney said.

 

            In her longer version of the report, Lenore listed service projects, including cherry sorting at 2^nd Harvest, supply cabinet filling at Holmes Elementary, volunteering at two stores during “Tom’s Turkey Drive” family Thanksgiving meal efforts and buying, shopping and delivering to Holmes holiday gifts for 40 needy kids and their families.

 

            Semi-monthly luncheon meetings included programs on the school and library bonds, the Downtown Partnership update, efforts to help ALS victims, the Spokane auditor’s election process report and a detailed report on the stagnation air with pervasive smoky skies from forest fires.

 

            Most importantly, the quickly-developed wine-tasting fund-raiser at the Kalispel Golf and Country Club, generated $13,000 for various Holmes projects.  Some 105 people attended the November event, compared with 75 people at the previous Dine Out event at The Backyard.

 

            Rotary International events included providing for $500 for the Club 21 effort to provide a Kenyan water filtration project and discussion with all area clubs about pooling global grant possibilities.  With our 20-member roster, our share likely would be about $400.

 

            On personal notes, Lenore mentioned that John Maillard achieved his second ruby Rotary pin for reaching the “Paul Harris Plus 7” level.  Each Paul Harris award denotes $1,000 gifts to the Rotary Foundation.  She also said that veteran Colville Rotarian Ron Noble joined our club.  

 

            Romney said board officer and director spots for the next Rotary year need to be filled by Feb. 22, when President-elect Melinda Keberle attends PETS (the President-Elect Training Seminar) in Seattle.

 

            Romney also discussed the possibility of our club joining other clubs with organizing a Rotaract club with undergraduates at Gonzaga University.  Three area club sponsors would sponsor the GU group and Spokane-South has expressed interest.

 

            At the luncheon meeting, a brief written survey, among other items, asked the 14 members attending to rank their most important Rotary issues and whether the club should again consider merging with a larger club.

 

            Noble told the group he has been a Rotarian since 1975 and during his tenure in Colville during three of those challenging years “a member had to write a personal check to keep the club out of debt.”

 

            Now, he said, the Colville club is one of the district’s fastest growing clubs and has produced three district governors from its ranks.  Rotary North originally sponsored the Colville club.

 

            “I am amazed how much you have done with 20 people,” Noble said.