We heard from Joanne Drummond of the California Forest Land Owners Association last week. Retired Forestry Professor and Club member Ron Knaus was Joanne’s host and is a former Director of the Association. Joanne has interesting things to say about small forest management, current environmental regulation, carbon sequestration, and fire safety. Interesting program. Thanks, Ron!
Membership Co-Chair Walt Stickel reported on the successful Fireside Chat that he and Co-Chair Austin Farrar pulled together with help from Treasurer Ellen Davis (who hosted the event at the Nevada City Winery) and pP Kim Stewart (who presented the program). It was a good orientation for our new members and a good time for all and included great food and wine. Thanks to all who participated!
International Service Chair and President Elect Nominee (that’s a mouthful!) Carolyn Inglis reported on the Club’s efforts to fund a Shelter Box for Haiti. We are more than halfway toward the necessary $1,000. If you would like to contribute to our effort, 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. If you donate by month’s end, you can deduct it from your 2009 taxes.
We will also need to work on our commitment of $3,000 toward the match of the Gates Foundation $250m donation to RI for polio eradication during Polio Plus Week. Our plan, in conjunction with the other Western Nevada County clubs of Area 4, is to table at a local market on Friday, February 26th to create awareness of the fight against polio and to solicit donations. If you can help with that, talk to Community Service Chair Cathy Wilcox-Barnes. Also that week – which is Rotary’s anniversary – will be an Area 4 mixer, a social event for members of all 6 western Nevada County Rotary Clubs (including the Rotaractors). It will be in the evening at Goomba’s Restaurant in Grass Valley. Time is TBA. Mark your calendars for an evening of good Rotary fun. Youth Services Chair, Sgt. at Arms and pP Kim Stewart also announced that we are recruiting high school students who will enter their senior year next fall for the summer’s Rotary Youth Leadership Academy (RYLA), which is a two-week youth leadership experience at a beautiful camp near Portola. If you know of a young person who might be interested, put them in touch with Kim.
Our annual Radio Auction is March 20th. It will be at the new business incubator on the third floor of the Stonehouse Restaurant. Put March 19th in your calendar, too, for the evening dry run. If you have not yet received your sales packet, please check with Auction Co-Chair and pP Nancy Kemp or Auction Co-Chair 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 club members), 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 – we had to cut it to $12k in this year’s budget to account for expected difficulty raising money this year. Thanks!
Highlights of the meeting included new member Derek Poppell’s fine for missing the Fireside Chat for a birthing class with his expecting spouse (priorities!) and pP Ben Barretta’s recognition of the passing of J.D. Salinger, author of "Catcher in the Rye." Walt got inspired by the quote of the day (lyrics from a Doors song) to regale us with a tale of his visit to Jim Morrison’s grave in Paris. See what you miss when you cannot make a Club meeting!
Our program this Thursday is hosted by Secretary and pP Dave Kenitzer and features Sandra Barrington, President of the Nevada County Rotaract Club (which our Club helped form and sponsors). Come hear how they are doing bringing the gift of Rotary to the next generation. See you at the meeting!
