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.

Regular Meeting, September 23, 2009

A couple of years ago, I was slated to be president and Dan Dalquist was to be my vice president. At one of our luncheons, I explained this arrangement to my wife, who was a guest, and she said, "Well, there you go: Dumb and Dumber," Thanks Betty.

Well, folks, Dumb and Dumber have teamed up again: we are jointly producing the CLK Rotary Blog. Dan will write the words and I will take the pictures and put it on line. Than at some point, Dan will take over the whole operation. To mark the occasion, there is a new format for the Blog. We hope you enjoy it.

(Below is a picture of our speaker guests: Sgt Philips of the CLK ROTC Cadets, Rochelle Miller, Junior at CLK High School and Katie Miller, Junior at Lake Linden Hubbell high school.)

President Jim Lowell called the meeting to order and introduced Sgt Frank Philips – CLK ROTC and Linda Grahek (Dave was out of town) . Sgt Philips was accompanied by two ROTC Cadets: Rochelle Miller – Junior at CLK High School and Katie Miller – Junior at Lake Linden Hubbell high school. Jim then read the names of two prospective members: Scott See and Keith Stenger.

The fall Highway pickup date will be determined at the monthly board meeting – most likely early October.

After our meal and Happy Dollars, from 5 Rotarians, Sgt Philips took the floor. He explained the CLK ROTC program had nominated students for the annual RYLA training every years for the past 12 yrs. CLK Rotary sponsors this program at $250 per student per year.

RYLA students attend a weekend Leadership training program at Camp Manitowish in Wisconsin. Students experience a variety of leadership development skills including a variety of teambuilding games and a high ropes course!

The girls described their experience as “Amazing!”. Both have been asked to return next year as instructors at RYLA. Katie and Rochelle said they use the leadership skills in their daily activities with ROTC.

CLK Rotary should be proud of our continued sponsorship of such a worthy program.

(President Jim presents the highly valued CLK Rotary mugs to the young ROTC ladies.)

Regular Meeting, September 16, 2009

(CCISD Superintendent Dennis Harbour accepts the coveted CLK Rotary mug as a gift for his interesting and compelling presentation.)


Attending the meeting were 13 members and 3 guests. Guests were Dave & Linda Grahek from Breckenridge Rotary and Dennis Harbour, Superintendent of the Copper Country Intermediate School District.

1. President Jim announced that due to the press of his business, Ole van Goor has tendered his resignation to the club. It was accepted with deep regrets and the hope that in the future as time permits, Ole will re-join the club.

2. Jim noted that three members have signed up for the training session to become mentors to students in the Calumet and Lake Linden high schools; they at Tom Scanlan, Tom Tikkanen, and Kevin Store. Thank you, gentlemen. There is still time for others to sign on to this important mentoring task. If interested, call Jim Lowell ASAP.

3. In terms of the all-important membership committee, Jim decided that there would be no specific committee assigned; rather, he said, we are all responsible of the growth and survival of this club and any ideas for increasing and retaining members are welcome.

4. Finally, he announced that "category" programs are welcome. If any member wants to talk about his Rotary category, please see Jim.

After lunch, our speaker, Dennis Harbour, was introduced. Though much was discussed about the need for state action on a budget, his primary message was explaining the difficulty school districts have in setting their budgets. For example, the school district budgets must be set by the beginning of their fiscal year, July 1. Unfortunately, the state budget must be set by the state's fiscal year beginning October 1. It doesn't take rocket science to realize that school districts are budgeting blindfolded, with only guesswork for what the state will contribute to their undertaking.

Compounding this problem, Harbour said, was the absolute fact that no further cuts in program can be expected, cuts as little as 5% were to Harbour unachievable.

The solution should expenses exceed revenues? The districts will operate at their basic minimum until the money runs out and then simply close the school. As Draconian as this sounds, it is a real possibility according the Harbour.

The entire program was interesting and thought-provoking. We need an angel of some sorts (an improved economy or auto business) to appear on the horizon. Good Luck!!

Business Meeting, September 2, 2009

(Having taken no pictures, I decided to put up some old ones from the film archive. Here's the CLK Hockey Team of 2009)


This was one of the rare meetings at which no guests were present. There were 16 members in attendance and a good deal of business was discussed:

1. President Jim reminded everyone to update their personal data for the club archive. This is important and is used by the district when calculating benefits, etc.

2. Treasurer Joel announced that there was a total of $9,341.18 in our checking/savings accounts.

(Two pictures from one of our annual fund-raising dinners held at the Miscowaubik Club.)


3. July attendance was 51% and August 59%. We can do better!

4. In January, 2010, the CLK Rotary Club will be 60 years old. President Jim is looking for ideas to mark the celebration of this event. Patricia was elected chairman and she will need committee members to assist her to plan the action. Come with ideas.

5. Tammies Chairman Dan announced that the club made a net profit very close to $2,000 and he reminded everyone that just a slightly better effort next year will produce an enormous increase since all the expenses will remain the same. The results of the ticket sales were: Keweenaw, 50; Calumet/Laurium, 48; Southside, 36, and the winners were Da Valley, 54. Kilpela was awarded 12 golf balls for his efforts in sales. He expects that will get him through 9 holes easily.
6. Jim asked if there is anyone interested in being a mentor and speaking to a couple of 9th grade classes at Calumet and Lake Linden. If interested, you will receive some training and a power point demonstration to use. See President Jim.

(The ribbon cutting at the new Rotary Clock.)


7. In addition, if the club is interested in the "visionary" project, the Houghton club's Elden Johnson is the point man on the project. This is a program whereby a facilitator will conduct a meeting to seek and develop visionary goals for our club.

Finally, we were reminded that the board of directors meets the third Tuesday of each month.