High Noon Rotary Club of
Durango
District 5470
Club 1161
Meet at Doubletree Hotel
Time: 12:00 Noon
Thursdays
Newsletter:
January 21, 2010
Program: January 28, 2010 Tom Crabb Non Political
Topic to be Announced. February 4,
2010 – Tracy Cornutt – Director of Habitat for Humanity February
11, 2010 –Richard Mason and Liz Mora – Women’s Resource Center.
February 118, 2010 – Amy Podolsky Durango High School – School
Based Health Services.
Fellow
Rotarians:
President Mark led us in the pledge and
then Don Freemyer introduced the only guest, Dr. Brad Bartel, FLC president,
who was also the program for the day.
Dr. Bartel is also an honorary High Noon Rotarian.
Announcements: Mark then extended an apology for our program presenter last
week who was supposed to have made an unbiased presentation on health care
reform. Instead his presentation
was very partisan and quite a rant.
He had told us that he
would be giving a balanced view of the current proposed health legislation but
it was anything but fair to all concerned. Thanks Mark for clarifying that Rotary’s position remains
unchanged. Mark reminded us of the
March 20th Big Brother & Big Sisters’ bowling tournament. The intent is to get a team from each
Rotary Club to compete in the tournament.
Melissa Caskey passed out flyers on the DFEE DMR ski benefit day on February
15th. Melissa also
announced the upcoming La Plata Open Space Conservancy wine tasting benefit to
be held at the Doubletree this year instead of the Bank of Colorado. Contact
Cathy Roser for additional information.
Rich Kolb is still looking for an additional $70 in door prizes for the
Red Ball Express. He will be
asking for cash at next weeks meeting if he doesn’t have it in hand by
then. Dan McCarthy reminded us of
the exchange students’ and Interacters’ involvement in Snowdown including
walking in the parade and attending a pot luck and dance at the Boys and Girls
Club on Saturday night. Dan said
they are still looking for folks to provide food for the pot luck. Chip Lile and Jim Duke have been
organizing the effort to place out of town kids. Ted Weirather is taking two girls and Dale Machem is housing
two boys. Ted Weirather then
reported on Frank Valen’s health issues which are to numerous to mention. In short, Frank has been quite ill with
various ailments and could use a get well card or two or more from his Rotary
colleagues. Jill Carithers had
dire predictions for the Red Ball Express fund raising as of two weeks out we
have only about $1,700. Members
need to push the ticket sales in the community or buy them up personally. In the spirit of Snowdown, Mark would
like everyone to wear shirts with a Hawaiian theme to next week’s meeting or
suffer the consequences. Nacho
reported on his pond hockey experience last week and a trip to Farmington. Nacho also can’t wait to get out all
the fresh powder this weekend and do some serious boarding.
Sergeant of Arms (SoA) Ted Weirather
thanked everyone for being at the meeting in spite of all the snow. Ted asked
how many people knew of the significance of January in the Rotary calendar
year. As it turns out, Cathy Crum
answered that it is “Rotary Awareness Month.” Talk up Rotary in the community: oldest, biggest and most
prestigious service club. Dick
Pearson was fined for being late …again.
Also, he surreptitiously stepped out of the room to answer his cell
phone. Steve Osborne finally
wrote the check for his long past most recent birthday. Mark Donohue wrote a $100 check for being
with his five year old granddaughter.
Walter Nowotny was happy about his recent family visit which included a
toddler granddaughter who has stolen his heart. Bill Cartwright was happy about skiing with a long lost
friend at Vail and with his children as well. Scott Mathis was happy about a trip to Window Rock being
cancelled. Moni is happy to have
her new garage roofed just in time for the snows. Dan McCarthy took a girl’s basketball team to Ship rock and
Window Rock. While Dan was there,
he became enthralled with hay futures.
Dan was later educated on the difference between a $9.25 hay bale and a
$5.00 hay bale. One astute
Rotarian offered the answer to this advanced math problem: $4.25. Also, Dan’s out of work daughter in Washington
D.C. just had a job interview which Dan hopes will morph into employment. Lee Ann Hoven is happy that her
daughter just turned 13 and that she had the $$$ with her to pay for the happy
event. Tom Brossia is happy that
there is plenty of snow for water and skiing. Dick Pearson happily played golf in the sun while in Las
Vegas with his son. Dick Sullivan
is happy about daughter Molly being healthy again. Samantha Gallant paid $10
for Dave Farmer’s recent award for his business’ success in the community; Dave
also just celebrated 27 years with the HNR Club! Don Freemyer was happy about
skiing Beaver Creek with a friend and his recent engagement to Catherine. Lee Ann Hoven won the ticket drawing. Wayne
Bedor paid three happy dollars for garnering three volunteers to do the
newsletter while he is in Africa: Samantha Gallant - 1/28/2010, Peter
Marshall – 2/4/2010 and Dan McCarthy 2/11/2010. Wayne also paid
a happy dollar for his 1st year anniversary and $2 for his Africa
trip next week.
Program: Dr. Brad Bartel gave us a run down
on the financial woes of Fort Lewis College. The State’s executive branch has a three pronged attack on FLC
which includes passage of HB 1067 that abrogates a 100 year old agreement
between the State and FLC for paying the tuition of Native American Students to
the tune of a $2 million reduction to the school’s budget. FLC also took a $500,000 hit by a
change in the formula by which out of state students’ tuition will be
reimbursed. Finally, FLC’s funding
is being reduced 31% while the rest of the State’s colleges are experiencing an
average 21% cut. Write to the
Joint Budget Committee and the Education Committee on these inequities in an
effort to mitigate the negative impact of these reductions. Dr. Bartel said he would forward a form
letter we could use to write to the Joint Budget Committee and the Education
Committee on this topic; however, it was never sent.
Mark Prouty closed by leading us in “The Four Way Test”: of the things we think, say or
do:
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?
Yours in Rotary,
Editor
Wayne Bedor