Regular Meeting, October 21, 2009

(The CLK Photo Archive contained a photo of the late Mr. Perona [left] playing his accordion at our first community spaghetti dinner, Mr. Perona, who was also a wonderful spoon and bone player, died recently and will be missed by the community.)


Today’s guests were Linda Grahek (without Dave as he is downstate for 2 weeks) and visiting Rotarian John Weting from Marquette, accompanied by his wife, Marny. John is our District Rotary Foundation chair.

Several announcements were made including Amy Roberts announcing a Wine Tasting Party sponsored by the Keweenaw Business & Professional Women. President Jim Lowell announced his nephew owns the Lockheed Electra 12 airplane used in the new movie Amelia.

Multiple Happy Dollars were collected.

John Weting presented a program focusing on our Rotary foundation. John provided handouts about the Foundation as well as statistics on Rotary and our District 6220 Foundation giving. He asked our club “Why did you join Rotary?”. Answers included the fellowship and dedication to the community, participation in the Rotary Youth Exchange, the fight against polio and many others items. One comment was “…to have fun!!”.

Most local service clubs support their communities. Rotary is the leader of International involvement. Contributions to the RIF (Rotary International Foundation) are held for 3 yrs and then 50% is sent to the district Foundation Funds and 50% is routed to the international Foundation. The foundation is operated off the earnings of the RIF. We have many methods of giving to the RIF – our Club has two 5X5 groups where members are contributing $200 per yr for 5 yrs and each yra a new Paul Harris Fellow will be recognized.

John gave the following information about the world population and the USA: 1/6 of the world population lives on $1 USD per day or less. Americans are perceived to be benevolent people who freely give to many charities and organizations. However: the USA spend $32 billion/yr on coffee, $35 billion/yr on beer. $60 billion/yr on soft drinks and $103 billion on fast food.

Americans have money that can be used to support those who are in need and Rotary is the key service club to facilitate those contributions using the Rotary International Foundation.

Regular Meeting, November 14, 2009

The October 14th meeting was kicked off by the induction of a new member – Keith Stenger (Picture attached.). Keith works for VSI/Goodwill as a Work Force Development specialist. After being introduced to the Club and presented with a badge, pin and membership certificate Keith gave a brief bio to introduce himself to the Club members.

This was followed by a presentation by Bob Sharkey. Bob talked about membership and how to grow and retain members. His points were as follows:

Membership is everyone’s job.

The Club might develop a list of member prospects. Houghton club did this and came up with over 100 possible new members.

Invite prospects to attend a meeting, get a sense of whether they are interested in becoming Rotarians.

Ask them to join. Bob pointed out that he had volunteered for Rotary functions for years before he was asked to join. Membership if by invitation – don’t hesitate to ask if you want a person to join.

Quality is important. Prospective members should be leaders in the business community and decision makers in their jobs.

Procedures for proposing a member are well defined and on the Rotary web site.
Have and “Elevator Speech” ready. An elevator speech is one where you tell someone what Rotary is about in a minute or so – the time an elevator takes to get to its destination.

Thanks Bob for this interesting and timely presentation. We all realize that there are as many reasons for joining as there are members of our club so let's get our heds together and bring in our life's blood: membership.

Business Meeting, October 7, 2009

(What's wrong with this picture? Check out the one below for a hint.)

Attendance: 19 including Guests David & Linda Grahek. Scott See also attended as a prospective member.

President Jim called our monthly business meeting to order. Several Happy $ were collected and fines assessed for not wearing the Rotary pin. CLK Rotarians need to wear a Rotary lapel pin or tie tack when attending a Rotary event.

Birthday greetings to Jim Lowell and Rich Schaefer!

Highlights of the meeting:

· Treasurer Joel Keranen announced the checking balance of $7547 and savings balance of $4646.98. He also distributed a financial statement. Motion to accept the Treasurer’s report was made and passed.

· Upcoming programs: Oct 14 is open; Oct 21 is John Wetting on rotary foundation, Oct 28 is Rebecca Crane from Dial Help.

· August attendance = 59%. Sept attendance = 55%

· Remember to make up meetings! One alternative is to make up on line www.rotaryeclubone. Or attend the Hancock Club (Mondays) or the Houghton Club (Thursdays).

· CLK Rotary Club 60^th Birthday Committee report – making plans and need help from our longest serving members on identifying CLK rotary alumni

· The effort to design a new club banner was resurrected. President Jim to follow-up.

· Eve Szilargy resigned due to demands of her business – opening soon in Houghton.

· A brief discussion occurred regarding recruiting new members.

· The CHOICES program was discussed. CLK Rotary has committed to hosting the program in the CLK and Lake Linden/Hubbell and Alternative Schools. More Rotarians are needed to help fulfill our commitment.

· Rich Schaefer won the raffle!

When this settle down, we hope to see Eva back in the fold. Meantime, her resignation was accepted with regret.

Meeting adjourned at 1pm.

(If you haven't figured out the answer, check out the uneven distribution of women.)

Regular Meeting, September 30, 2009

(This week's pictures from our archive are meant to remind everyone that the highway cleanup is scheduled this month. Experience has proved the adage that "many hands make light work.")

Attendance: 26 total including 2 guests, Dave & Linda Grahek, and our program speaker, Ned Huwatschek.

Our Club enthusiastically gave Happy Dollars – Joel Keranen gave $2 in honor of Joel and his wife both completing a ½ marathon on Sept 26. Joel reported Mindy beat him by a 2 tenths of a second. Also, a number of Rotarians were fined $1 each for not wearing their Rotary lapel pins! Lesson learned = Wear Your Rotary Pin!

Ned Huwatschek, our speaker, presented a program on the history of the Smith Fisheries. He began by asking how many Rotarians had visited Smith Fisheries to which approximately 2/3 indicated they had. Ned explained that the owner was Mr. Lamorand whose first location was at Keystone Bay. He relocated to the current location after determining the logistics getting supplies and fish to market. After moving to Smith Fisheries, Mr Lamorand burned the Keystone buildings.

Ned’s family bought the Fisheries in the early 1940s and operated it until 1968. At its peak, the Fisheries had 17 buildings and operated 2 fishing boats. With no road until much later, access to the Fisheries was by water – year round.

Ned’s family also owned fisheries in Grand Marais, Oscoda and Port Washington WI. The family business shipped whitefish and lake trout to restaurants they owned in Wisconsin and in California. Imagine ordering fresh Lake Superior Lake Trout in a California restaurant.

The Huwatshek family sold Smith Fisheries in 1988 to a MTU grad: Hal Baldauf. He still maintains the road and several buildings.

President Jim Lowell thanked Ned for his presentation and presented him a Rotary mug.
Meeting adjourned at 1pm.