October 19, 2000

This was a club assembly day. The day proved to be even more interesting as we had our first Presidential discussions. This will be covered in greater detail later. Tom did open the meeting. He was resplendent as he filled the rostrum. He asked Joe Thompson to open in Prayer and Pledge. With this traditional Rotary function dispatched we moved to the welcoming of guests.

Chessa had her mom with her this day, Arvella Higby. Bill Rutter joined us from Bend, Oregon. John Anderson joined the crew for lunch. Jeremy Litow was introduced by his dad, George. The introduction was great as George said Jeremy could stay as long as he liked but no longer than two weeks. This young man has been in Japan where he spent a year teaching English. We had two young ladies from the Interact club join us for lunch; they were Karen Whittaker and Song Dustin. They were looking for help with a fund raiser from the El Pomar Foundation out of Colorado Springs. Steve Wheeldon figured out a way to help by asking each table to give twenty bucks to the effort. We did even better than that and they raised enough matching funds. We had a rather storied Rotary couple join us for lunch, Jack and Charlotte Walls. Jack is a Past District Governor of District 5470. He followed Roy Crow as Governor in 1984 to 1985. This couple started out in Aspen moved to New Zealand and are now from Durango.

Pam Copeland mentioned the Harley ride that will be traveling the roads around Durango this weekend. Ellen Stuart Roberts mentioned the Health Care My Way community education project being undertaken by the Southwest Bar Association and others. Do you need a living will or a medical power of attorney, then attend these meetings. The one in Durango will be on the 8^th of November at the Fairgrounds at 6:00 p.m. We got a room for the last GSE team member when John Marshall volunteered.

Tom then gave an overview of the District conference. He felt the Breakout sessions were a weak point. He did feel that the networking and meeting people was great. Tom felt that the speakers were great. Ron Fogelman dazzled the audience with his speech about integrity, commitment, service and how this all fits within Rotary. Victor Belendez gave an emotional speech about the successes of Rotary. Kent Rominger an Astronaut from Del Norte gave an appeal to young and old with stories of his success. Tom Hopkins gave a talk about starting a preventable blindness program in Guatemala. Eddie Blender rallied the troops with his stories of what Rotary can do. Tom said networking was at its peak as the heavy weights from Mexico were there. He and the board members got to talk to the District Grants people and he spent time with the evening club President to talk about joint projects. We were singled out for two awards; our Breakfast Grant with the La Villa club and a Presidential Citation for meeting the requirements of the District Governor this year. Seems we did this along with Grand Junction. Congratulations was given all around for these successes. Tom then read the accomplishments we have had since he began in July. Tom mentioned that 11,000 dollars had been raised for Polio Plus and that this would be doubled with a matching grant from the District.

St. Columba Playground Equipment - $500

Girls Fast Pitch Softball - $250

Vacuum Cleaner for Soup Kitchen - $300

Polio Plus - $300 as a Club

Ride-along lunch program

$19,000 toward Park project - $50,000 total

Built trails at Durango Nature Studies

Shipped baseball gear to Bosnia

Shipped computers to Honduras

Sustaining Projects

Added members to Mentoring program

Soup kitchen

Hosted

Brazilian GSE group

English Rotary Friendship Exchange

Mexico GSE coming week

Up With People

$2000 by changing to Email bulletins

Recreation

Climbed Handies

Horseback rod Molas

Motorcycled the San Juans

Sponsored

GSE Team leader Joe Colgan

Proposed 4 candidates for GSE

Israel/Mexico

Grants Submitted

Working on

Literacy Exchange Grant to Durango

Locks for Life

Scholarships in the spring

More Computers to Honduras

Immunization Grant to Durango

Service Chairs

We covered a few business items such as the contract we have with the Doubletree for meals. This contract is up for renewal. We are anticipating a price rise in meal costs. We had a request for a leave of absence from Jack Cassidy. Jill also reported we have three new members in the works at this point. Marv Collentine mentioned that if anyone had a speaker they wanted to speak to Rotary, get in touch with the Speakers committee. Marv also mentioned that next Thursday at 3:00 another training session will be held in regards to the Mentoring program. Call Marv if you want to be involved. Tom Brossia then mentioned that they will be interviewing the GSE team members next Thursday at 10:30 in the morning.

Steve Wheeldon then introduced the five candidates for President. The winner of this run off election will take office July 2002. The candidates are Jeff Brown a member since 1997. Jeff has served on the Board. He has worked on the endowment committee and served on the Park Project. Jeff, Steve said, has a focus on the community. Jeff was sponsored by Petra Lyon. Chessa Gill was introduced as having been in the club since 1998. Chessa has served on the Board. She has served on the Scholarship Committee with a focus as an advocate for Kids. Chessa was sponsored by Jeff Brown. Len Goebel was introduced as a man with a sense of humor who has been in the club since 1993. He has served the club in working on past Air Shows and building the Riverwalk. Len currently serves on the Caring Committee. Len was sponsored by Jim Williams. Steve Redding was introduced as having been in the club since 1998. Steve, recently retired, has served on the Board and was instrumental in getting the network system installed at La Plata Youth Services. His focus is about kids. Bud Poe was his sponsor. Jim Williams was introduced as having been in the club since 1987. Steve said that Jim epitomizes a Rotarian. When you see him he shows that he is a Rotarian. He also wears a suit.Steve feels that Jim has the skills and the ability to be a great president. His sponsor was not mentioned. They were each asked a question and they had great answers. As to why they are in Rotary, it is about giving back to the community.

Name: Kelley Davidson

Sponsor: Len Goebel

Classification: Real Estate-Development

Kelley was a charter member of the Angel Fire Rotary Club of Taos, NM. He moved to Durango on 6/1/00 to join the Land Properties, Inc. in real estate development for the Vista de Oro Ranch development. He came highly recommended by the President of the Rotary Club of Taos. He is married and previously was VP of Marketing for Copper Mountain and Angel Fire Resort. After nearly 30 years in the Ski industry has decided to reinvent himself with a new career and new move to Durango. Any comments please e-mail Jill at jbruce@frontier.net.