High Noon Rotary Club of Durango

District 5470

Club 1161

Meet at Doubletree Hotel

Time: 12:00 Noon

Thursdays

Newsletter: April 23, 2009

Program April 30, 2009: Andrea Mull – Durango Downtown

Fellow Rotarians:

• Tami led the pledge and Rick Routh introduced soon to be Rotarian, Steve Pavlik and his girlfriend, Ryan Huggins. Emily Spencer introduced her guests and today’s program, John Cohen, Durango Area Tourism Office (DATO) Executive Director and DATO Sales Manager, Carrie Whitley.

• Announcements: Peter Marshall announced the HNR US Highway 160 West trash pickup on Saturday May 16th. We’ll meet at 7:30 at the Kennebec Café for breakfast and then pick up and talk trash between the Kennebec Café and Durango West II. Please let Peter know if you will be there. Chip Lile needs beer servers for the Motocross up at the Fairgrounds on May 16^th. Proceeds will go to Rotary and should be a good fund raiser as about 1,500 people are expected to attend the Motocross event that day. Our programs budget needs the revenue so please volunteer to help out. Cathy Crum said that we need volunteers to drive to Silverton on Tuesday, 4/28/2009 to pick up our six Irish GSE visitors at 8 AM and bring them to Durango. HNR host families will be Ted Weirather and Niles Bruno. District Governor Elect Roger Ptolemy is coordinating their time here in town so please contact him if you want to participate. Rotarian Rod Barker will talk to the visitors about our area’s tourism industry and they will also visit Fort Lewis College and have lunch with the Bayfield Rotary Club on Wednesday. Thursday the visitors will visit Mesa Verde and attend the pot luck to be held at 6:00 PM in the Durango Public Library meeting room on the ground floor. High Nooners are requested to bring a main dish or dessert to the pot luck. Pagosa Springs Rotary will pick up the Irish GSE visitors Friday morning and take them to Pagosa. Boom reported that the DHS prom wasn’t that much fun but the party afterwards was fun and interesting. High Noon Rotary contributed $500 to the party this year as it has done for as long as the party has been held. Boom did enjoy senior “ditch day” on Monday. Boom was also selling $10 tickets on behalf of the Interact fundraiser to be held at Carvers, Tuesday, May 19^th from 6-9 PM.

• New Member Induction: Rick Routh sponsored Steve Pavlik’s membership and told us in his introduction that notwithstanding that Steve is a Professional Engineer (PE) he has both heart and personality. Steve made 12 visits to our club and several visits to the other two clubs in town before he made up his mind and decided that High Noon meets his expectations for where he wants to make a contribution in our community. Steve hails from eastern Pennsylvania and graduated from Penn State, practiced engineering back there, and then moved to Durango when he was hired by Russell Engineering here in town. Steve loves outdoor pursuits and also introduced us to his girlfriend, Ryan, who reported that Steve has a Guns n’ Roses poster (as does Tim Walsworth). Rick predicts that Steve will make a great Rotarian and stated that a club can’t have too many engineers in it. Welcome to the High Noon Rotary Club Steve! Good recruiting job Rick!

• Sgt of Arms Justin Osborne fined folks $1 who were without their pins and fined one member $5 for not having a pin but was wearing another organization’s pin. Birthdays: Jill Wark reported her 54^th birthday (she looks 45) and paid up with a check. Chip Lile turned 40 two weeks ago and also made the appropriate contribution. Tim Walsworth reported his 42d birthday and told us the check is in the mail. Tim also had a column in the Herald this week but Justin waived the fine because Tim worked in an announcement about the upcoming United Way and High Noon Rotary Golf Tournament. Niles was fined for having his name in the Strater Hotel open house advertisement. Steve Osborne modestly told us about the Home and Ranch radio announcement in which his voice is featured. Jan paid $5 to expand on the announcement as Building Specialties (Steve’s Company) is the oldest company of its type in the area. Leanna Jaworsky got dinged for not remembering her anniversary. Happy $$$: Rick O’Block is happy that Mercy Medical Center (MMC) was just certified as a Sleep Center which required it to meet a number of stringent service requirements. Bud Deering is happy to be back from Minnesota where he attended his mother-in-law’s 80^th birthday (she is younger than Bud). Bud also will soon be a guest of MMC’s Sleep Center. Rick Routh is unhappy that the ski season is over but is happy that back country skiing is still available. Rick also announced that this Saturday, Durango Nature Studies is hosting a Weed and Beer party at their site near Bondad hill adjacent to the US 559 and CR 311 intersection. The weeding takes place from 9 AM – 12:00 noon and the beer quaffing is from 12:00 until 1 PM. HNR has done a number of work parties at the DNS site over the years. Dan Morgenstern gave $20 to let us know about his trip to the Big Bend National Park and to Mexico City and other Mexican cities and towns. Dick Sullivan was happy that daughter Molly scored the only goal for Durango in a 12-1 game against Bloomfield. Dick also reminded us to pick up our 2009-2010 Purgatory ski passes before prices go up next week. Speaking of soccer highlights, Jill Carither’s son scored a goal for the opposing team. Samantha Gallant is happy about her hockey team leading the series. Cathy Crum was selling Durango High School hockey tickets. Tom Brossia was happy and paid to present our Sgt of Arms with a plaque for his achievements with their hunting club. Justin was happy to receive the plaque and paid for the pleasure of same and for spending a weekend in Moab with his son giving their wife/mother a rest in her 9^th month of pregnancy. Bud Poe won the drawing and used his winnings to purchase the Interact’s pasta feed tickets at Carvers from Boom.

• PROGRAM: Emily Spencer introduced John Cohen, Executive Director of DATO since 2006 and Carrie Whitley, Sales Manager at DATO. John announced they would have a drawing at the end of the program to win an Osprey Day Pack for those who put their business cards in a basket. John gave us the history of DATO’s lineage as it was spun off from DACRA in 2003. This enables DATO to focus entirely on tourism marketing and advertising with the Lodgers’ Tax Revenue that they receive from the City and County. Since DATO split from DACRA their membership has tripled. They rent offices from the Chamber at its Santa Rita Park facility and their Board of Directors is made up of 9 members representing various facets of the industry. John introduced us to a few of the myriad tourism acronyms and market niches: SMERF, MICE, DINKS, people over 50, women 50-70, etc., etc. John and Carrie do a great job of promoting DATO around the country on a limited budget. Ward Holmes’ business card was drawn and he won the Osprey day pack. Tami then closed the meeting with the 4 Way Test:

The Four Way Test in everything we do and say:

ü Is it the truth?

ü Is it fair to all concerned?

ü Will it build good will and better friendships?

ü Will it be beneficial to all concerned?

Next Weeks Program: Andrea Mull – Durango Downtown

Yours in Rotary,

Editor

Wayne Bedor