R O T A R Y G R A M

 

High Noon Rotary Club

June 17, 2004

 

“I love being a CPA!!”

Our Person of the Week

 

 

President Chessa promptly initiated our meeting with the Rotary Invocation and Pledge.

 

Guests:

 

We welcomed two visiting Rotarians:  Mark Friis from Frederick MD and Bill Black from Midland, TX.  Steve Govreau bought lunch for two of his sons, Brian and Tistan.  And Sherry Taber introduced one of our scholarship winners Jennifer Howell.  BTW, Sherry has carried a lot of water with her Scholarship Committee!

 

Happenings and Announcements:

 

Tim Walsworth has bravely taken upon himself to lead our major Golf Tournament this year, and this is not a one-person job!!  Call him to simply ask how you can help.  The event this year is August 14th.  They have secured four hole sponsors already.

 

Member Arvella Higby (Chessa’s mom) remains quite ill and is in our thoughts.

 

The Relay for Life (that major Cancer fundraiser) earned more than $150,000 – of which members of your Club contributed some $4,000.

 

 

Person of the Week:

 

John Beekmann, our incoming Treasurer, was born to a CPA dad in Detroit and grew up in Michigan.  Following the 1968 race riots, the family wisely moved to Denver.  Following High School there, John attended CSU where he met his wife Tina.  He aspired to work on Wall Street but, hey, that’s back east.  So they moved to Seattle where he gained many clients working or living in Vancouver, B.C.  Hence his CPA specialty of expatriate’s taxation issues.  After a stint in Denver, John and Tina moved to Durango, home of John’s sister.  He now works for FredrickZinkElliot. 

 

Program:

 

Our guest speaker, Pauline Ellis of the San Juan Public Lands (an intra-agency group of both USFS and BLM folks), was introduced by Ellen Roberts.  Pauline is a field agent responsible for more than 90,000 acres, including Missionary Ridge.  He talk was titled “Ten-Year Strategy to Reduce Fuels and Restore Watersheds”.  The strategy has two basic thrusts:  first, a serious campaign to thin the forest, and second, a shift in policy away from massive fire suppression.  On thinning, a major problem the Feds have encountered is that there simply are no loggers any more!  (Anyone else remember the major sawmill in Pagosa?)  So they are more dependent on the rather expensive mechanical thinning machines.  And to avoid major “high density” fires, they are permitting more small low density fires to clean out the forest and indeed even promoting prescribed burns.  By examining extensive tree ring data, they have documented the occurrence of low density fires every 6 to 14 years.  Other major threats to our forests are drought, insects and disease.

 

 

Next Week:  Roasting Time!!

 

Program:  Roasting Chessa

Menu:        Pot Roast

 

Yours in Rotary,

 

 

Spencer, your Scribe

 

PS:  Your correspondent always welcomes your comments:  mailto:pearse2827@sisna.com