President Mike Pollen

2014-2015

Volume 15, 7

Welcome to the Club

Meetings: Thursday’s at 12pm Westmark Hotel 813 Noble Street

Fairbanks AK 99701

February 19th, 2015

Rotary Club of Fairbanks - PO BOX 72114 - Fairbanks Alaska 99709 - 907-458-4222 - rotarctic@gmail.com

Dr. Romel Wrenn, M.D., FACC

Life Span is the number of years that we live;

however HEALTH SPAN is the number of

years that we live disease free. Thursday’s

program will highlight how you can determine

if you are free of cardiovascular disease and

how to use current guidelines to determine

your 10 YEAR RISK of developing cardiovascu-

lar disease. Shortened health span, nutri�on

plans and examples of how the role of

exercise affects your life will be discussed.

Romel Wrenn, M.D., FACC is Board

Cer�fied in Internal Medicine, General

Cardiology, Interven�onal Cardiology, and

Cardiovascular CT. Dr. Wrenn shares his years of experience and a

passion for pa�ent focused care at the Porter Heart and Vascular Center

at Fairbanks Memorial Hospital.

February Birthdays

Thomas Gross 4th

Dale Yoder 7th

Skip Cook 8th

Bella Gerlich 11th

Patricia Silva 13th

Marti Buscaglia 14th

Daniel Bergeron 17th

Gary Lewis 18th

C.B. Bettisworth 21st

Jim Hage 21st

Robert McCoy 21st

Bill Mattson 24th

Jim Lund 25th

Jennifer Imus 29th

Club Officers (Below)

Vice President Doug Schrage

President Elect Aisha Tinker Bray

Secretary Wayne Clark

Treasurer Michelle Maynor

Treasurer Elect Bill Wright

Past President Jo Kuchle

Sgt. At Arms Mike Shultz

Deputy At Arms Mike Ferguson

Club Service (Below)

Structure Bill Satterburg

Operations John Ringstad

Fun & Recognition Emily Drygas

Community Service Lisa Gentry

Vocational Service Tim Jones

International Service Karen Lundquist

Rotary - Suicide Preven�on Training

Our Rotary Club is joining a statewide Rotary effort to combat sui-

cide. Every Rotary Club in Alaska has agreed to do suicide preven�on

training in this Rotary year. Our involvement will include a program at

one of our regular mee�ngs followed by a two-hour training offering to

interested members and guests. The training is being done is conjunc�on

with the State of Alaska and is called Ques�on, Persuade and Refer (QPR).

More details to follow!!

ROTARCTIC PRESIDENT’S CORNER

February 19, 2015

2015 District 5010 Planning and Leaders Meeting

On February 7, 2015, the D5010 Planning and Leaders Meeting was held in Anchorage.

Peggy and I attended the meeting, as did Rachel Oldfield from our Rotary Club. Here

are some of the highlights of that event, which is usually attended by all of the District

leadership and committee chairs:

• The D5010 Nominating Committee has selected Harry Kieling from the Rotary Club

of Anchorage as the District Governor Nominee Designate. Harry was the GSE

Team Leader for the water and sanitation focused Group Study Exchange team that

traveled to Brazil during Peggy’s year as District Governor. His selection will be

voted on during the District Conference in Girdwood on May 7-10, 2015. The current

leadership lineup is: DG Dick Sutliff (Anchorage), DGE Brad Gamble (Eagle River),

DGN Michelle O’Brien (Ketchikan), and now DGND Harry Kieling. Peggy is the cur-

rent PDG.

• District Public Image Chair Ken Miller described an ad campaign that is currently

airing in movie theaters in Anchorage and that will be airing here in Fairbanks in

the near future. Watch for those as you head to your favorite movie, popcorn in

hand. Ken also recruited Rachel to serve on the District PI Committee. Thanks to

Rachel for stepping up to that. Having more of our Club Members serve at the Dis-

trict level was one of my goals for this year and we are making progress.

• One of the major focuses of the meeting was membership growth and retention.

Harry Kieling is the current District Membership Chair. His presentation was a prel-

ude to PDG Jackie Hobal’s keynote presentation on membership. Jackie is from

D5370 in Alberta, Canada, and is an Assistant Zone 24 Coordinator (Zones are the

next level up from Districts). Although Rotary’s membership is growing slightly

globally, it is declining in North America, Australia, Europe, Japan and South Ko-

rea. Emphasis is being placed on expanding membership to younger, more diverse

groups and on member retention. The Rotary Club of Fairbanks growth in member-

ship caught the interest of the meeting. A tip of the hat to Jo Kuchle for leading our

very successful membership recruitment and retention program this year.

Continued on Page 3

TBD - Chena River Run Sponsorship Follow-up Phone Calls - Stay Tuned for more

Information!

May 2 - Chena River Run

February 25th—Rotary After Hours Lavelle’s *See advertisement for details*

• One way to increase interest and member retention in the clubs is to have a

variety of interesting projects with opportunities for member involvement. DG

Dick Sutliff described the wide variety of amazing projects that he has en-

countered during his visits to the Rotary Clubs of D5010 this year. He will be

visiting the Fairbanks area clubs from March 9-13. During that week he will

attend every Fairbanks area Rotary Club and Rotaract meeting and each

Club’s Board meetings. He will be the featured program for our meeting on

March 12, and will attend our Board Meeting on March 13, which will start ear-

ly at 11AM. Dick and his wife, Page Spencer, are looking forward to seeing the

Fairbanks area club’s projects as well as the restart of the Iditarod Dog Sled

Race. On March 10, the Aurora Borealis Rotaract Club will host Dick and Page

for an evening at the Ice Park to see the sculptures.

• The District 5010 Grants program Chaired by Woody Angst is looking for its

third year of fully distributing all of the available District Grant funds to clubs.

We need to get our application in before the end of March to qualify for a Dis-

trict Grant, which helped fund our Pin Screen Project last year and the Raven

Landing Library Project this year. Our Belize School Sanitation Project is only

the second Global Grant in the newly organized D5010 (without Russia), and

caught the attention of the group. There are a lot of Rotary Clubs in D5010

that are excited to see how this rather large ($95,000) project unfolds Many

would like to emulate our success with their own global grant projects.

Finally, during Jackie Hobal’s presentation on membership she emphasized the

value that every Rotarian brings to that effort by citing the Dalai Lama: “If you

think you are too small to make a difference, try sleeping with a mosquito!”

Mike

President’s Corner Continued

Being a Rotarian has its re-

wards. For Jim Little, that in-

cluded winning this week’s

50/50 drawing AND winning

the Joker Pot. Congratulations

Jim!

Another new Member! Tracy

Vanairsdale was inducted at last

week’s meeting and jumped right in

with her new member talk. Tracy is

architecture and design principal at

Bettisworth North. She was born and

raised in Fairbanks, and you could say

she was destined to be a Rotarian.

While in high school the College Rotary

Club sponsored her on Youth Exchange

to Argentina. She later participated in

a Rotary Group Study Exchange to

Sweden. She loves to travel and volun-

teer whoever gets her on their commit-

tee will be very fortunate!

Our Club’s major community

service project this year was

to build and install a library

shelving unit for the Raven

Landing Community Center.

Ryan Tinsley handcrafted the

beautiful shelving you see

here. Ryan has since finished

the door hardware, lighting,

and other details, and the

shelves are being filled with

books. Last Friday we formal-

ly dedicated the library unit

to Raven Landing. Thank you

to all the Rotarians (and Che-

na River Run Participants)

that made this project possi-

ble!

Rotarctic Trivia

Where is Jackie Hobal from and what did she talk about?

Answer:______________________________________________________

Name: _______________________________________________________

Rotary After Hours

Join us for a Rotary After Hours Wine Tasting At Lavelle’s Bistro. Eight wines selected by Kathy Lavelle and light appetizers will be served throughout the

tasting.

February 25th 5pm to

7:30pm

RSVP Today

• $25.00 per person

• Call Lavelle’s and RSVP w/

Credit Card BY February 23rd

• Wine, Appetizers & Fellowship

Tel: 907-450-0555

Lavelle’s Bistro

Rotarians–its that time again to roll up your sleeves and tap a vein for those who need your life-

saving blood! Our club’s turn out for the past blood drives has been so incredible that the Blood

Bank of Alaska will be sending staff here from their Anchorage office just to deal with us!

It all happens on March 5th from 8am to 4pm at the Westmark. Sign up for your time slot

through VolunteerSpot. Just type in the link below, provide your email address and pick you fa-

vorite time slot!

http://vols.pt/wCwoow

Biz Bee 2014 – The Spelling

Bee for “Adults”

Help support Rotarians Dan Bergeron, Bren-

da Riley, and Roger Smith as the defend

their titles at the Literacy Council’s 2015 Biz

Bee.

DATE: Thursday, February

19 7:00 p.m. at the

Westmark Gold Room

How Fairbanks Rotary

supports the event:

The Literacy Council of Alaska promotes lit-

eracy for people of all ages in the Fairbanks

North Star Borough. The Biz Bee is the Lit-

eracy Council’s biggest fundraiser, and

brings in about $25,000 for the Literacy

Council annually. Can you spell Rotary?

Fairbanks Rotary sponsors the registration fee for our team of spellers who compete against up to 24

other teams in an elimination-style spelling bee. Downtown Rotary is the longest, continuous sponsor of

the Biz Bee. And we have champions in our midst!

The more the merrier. Join us the night of the event. Our team

gets a free word throw-out if we have the most supporters

present!!

Do you have stuff or talent? Help support the silent auction the night of the Biz

Bee. If your business has services or products, consider a donation. If you have a

special skill, like you could teach a cooking class or lead a special tour, consider a

donation. Items can be dropped off at the Literacy Council on Gaffney Road or by

contacting:

Ashley Yeats

ashley@literacycouncilofalaska.org

School Age Coordinator

(907) 456-6212

Hope to see you there!!