January 28, 2010

TODAY'S PROGRAM
California Landowners Association
Speaker: Joanne Drummond
Host: Ron Knaus

Last week’s meeting provided an interesting program with retired banker Fred Buhler (also recently retired from Friends of the Nevada County Military) presenting an interesting overview of his service to the Coalition Provisional Authority in reconstructing Iraq’s banking and monetary systems after the fall of Saddam Hussein’s government. Interesting, indeed! Nevada County attracts so many retirees who have led (and lead) interesting, accomplished, and productive lives. Thanks to George Foster for bringing this most interesting program to us.

Cathy Wilcox-Barnes announced the Club’s effort to respond to the crisis in Haiti by purchasing a ShelterBox – $1,000 buys a tent, cooking gear, and other survival equipment, delivered to Haiti from a charity formed by Cornish Rotarians (and no, those are not smaller than typical Rotarians). If you would like to contribute to our effort to buy a ShelterBox, write your check for $50 or more to the Nevada City Rotary Club Foundation or for $49 or less to the Shelter Box (either way, it’s to a 501(c)(3) non-profit and tax-deductible) and bring it to a meeting or mail it to our P.O. box. Put "Haiti" in the memo field. More information about ShelterBox and their response to Haiti and other crises is at www.ShelterBox.org. Many other Rotary Clubs have donated one or two Shelter Boxes for Haiti and the three Rotaract Clubs in District 5190 have committed to donating one box (and are working on a second box). Help us match that level of commitment!

A real highlight of the meeting was a report from Tor Erickson regarding his participation in our 3-H grant-funded project in Bwindi, Uganda. pP Don Fultz made it possible for us to recognize Tor as a Paul Harris Fellow, and it was a privilege to surprise Tor with this honor. Congratulations, Tor! Thanks, Don!

Put March 20th in your calendar for the annual Radio Auction. Put March 19th in your calendar, too, for the Dry Run the night before. If you have not yet received your sales packet, please check with Auction Co-Chairs Nancy Kemp or Gary Gustafson. We ask that you try to land again the donations we received from your contacts in the past (if you are a new Club member, we have assigned you donors recruited by former members of our club), and that you try to land at least one new donor this year (or become one yourself). This is our key fundraiser for the year and we're counting on it to raise $25k of our $60k annual budget and we cannot sell what is not donated. Please do your share so we can restore our scholarship budget to $15k this year – we had to cut it to $12k in this year’s budget to account for expected difficulty raising money this year. Thanks!

Another highlight of the meeting was Nicole Dillard’s presentation of our annual Vocational Service Award to long-time Rotarian pP John Woodford. John, a CPA, serves on our Foundation Board and does the Club’s tax filings every year. His email address features the word "abacus" so, in addition to the perpetual plaque which we will display at an upcoming meeting, Nicole presented John a handsome wooden abacus to note our appreciation for all he contributes to our Club. Thank and congratulate John when you see him.

Our program this Thursday is hosted by Ron Knaus and will feature Joanne Drummond of the California Landowners Association. Don’t miss it. See you at the meeting!