Rotary Gram

Durango High Noon Rotary Club

April 24, 2003

"A man who wants to lead the orchestra must turn his back on the crowd." - Max Lucado

PE Chessa Gill opened the meeting in Jeff's absence, again on the "other side of the wall". Charlie provided the invocation. An excellent Rotary meeting was off to a fine start.

Guests:

Out guest speaker, Katharine Roser, was introduced by Steve Wheeldon while Melissa introduced new member-in-waiting Duffy McKay and her husband Clark. Karen L'A welcomed visiting Rotarians from Newberg Park (CA) Eddie and Nancy Cheung, who promptly added to our banner collection. David Dennis was Jay H's guest, only to be outdone by Terry Price who introduced two guests: returning Clair Lodahl and Carol Hirsch who is a designer of fine jewelry. George Litow had fun introducing Rotarian Jessie Formwalt from Pagosa Springs. Finally, the club welcomed Emil's guest Dan Morgenstern, a newly retired business owner from Cleveland and Tami Graham was a guest of Jenny and Ellen R.

Business:

1) The Club welcomed our 106th member! She is Duffy McKay and is the responsibility (!) Of Melissa Caskey. She and hubby Clark began living in Durango, off and on, some two decades ago. They have three children and she works at First National Bank. [I don't know what category Jill put her in since we long ago burst that category -- my guess is "serious volunteer" which she is definitely]. Welcome Red-Badge Duffy -- see you rolling burros Wednesday night!

2) New Board of Directors. Steve Wheeldon, with great pride and pleasure, placed President-Elect Chessa Gill's proposed Board of Directors before the membership. They are, applause please:

Jill Bruce, Ward Holmes, Bill Wright, Jennifer Simon, Russell Parker,

Jay Hwang, Melissa Caskey, Bess Maisel, Bud Deering, Frank Valen,

Pam Moore, Terry Lee, Paulette Church, and of course (ex) Jeff Brown and

(To be) Mike McGuire.

Such a terrific slate could find no "Nays" and we will have a great Centennial Year! Other appointments, which the Club did not vote upon, were Bud Deering and Bill Wright as Sgts at Arms. Note Bene: The Board Breakfast meets the 3rd Tuesday of each month, and all are welcome to participate.

3) New Avenues of Service appointments. They are the real people who actually do the heaving lifting for the Club! and these heroes get their names spelled in full!: Programs (Mike Sandberg, Burt Coleman, and Laura Webb), Website/PR (Ward Holmes and Bob Chaput -- duh!), Vocational (Tami Coddington and Jay Hwang), Interact (Tami C. And Jennifer Simon), Mentoring (Steve Redding and Marv Collentine), Scholarship (Sherry Taber and Bob Salzer), Membership (Jill Bruce - yeah!), Community (Tom Brossia and Keoki Sears), Capital Projects (Dean Brookie, Chair, with Kevin Schneider, Wayne Bedor, Brian Kimmel, Laurie Forbes, George Litow, and Keoki Sears), Fundraising (Frank Valen, Melissa Caskey and Russell Parker), Service Projects (Bess Maisel), International (Chip Lile and Ken Fusco), Fellowship (Arvella Higby and Susan Sanders), Paul Harris Foundation (Jeff Brown), and last but not least Highway Baggers (Steve Redding and Pam Moore).

All of this achieved and it is still April! Take note Mike McG. How did we get such a terrific CEO?

Announcements:

- Sherry T. and the Scholarship Committee have been busily culling the applications.

- Mark P. and the Mexican Food Committee are ready for Next Thursday.

Food prep next Wednesday at DoubleTree, people with pickups Thursday 9:30 AM, and food coolers needed for Ward's delivery crew.

- George L thanked Walter, Jeannie, Jay, Keoki and Wynn for their help with "Destination Imagination" project.

- Chessa announced something is going to happen July 20, too far in the future to note.

- Bess reminds us the ACS "Relay for Life" is June 13th and 14th, 8:00 pm to 8:00 am at Escalante Middle School.

- Tami called out attention to the Habitat for Humanity fundraiser at Trimble Hot Springs, with music and cool things, happening This Saturday, April 26th.

- Karen L'A is seeking recipes for a cookbook to benefit Manna Soup Kitchen.

- Burt thanked all who supported the Crow Canyon fundraiser April 24th.

Program:

Kathy Roser from the La Plata Open Space Conservancy presented a delightful program on protecting open lands in our region, vividly illustrated with a slide show. She outlined the many benefits and threats to open land. A conservation easement is an agreement between a landowner and the agency to protect open land with conservation values.

By providing tax credits only a CPA could love, the easements are an attractive means to conserve open space. Much of the land is currently agricultural. She noted that more than half of these lands are owned by longtime ranchers and farmers over age 55. With little agricultural interest from their children, that means half of our current open space will change hands. This review is way too short, so visit their website at www.lposc.org for more info on this excellent program.

Next Week: Mexican Food Fiesta!!

Yours in Rotary,

Spencer Pearse