Flag Salute & Invocation by Bill Geyer 

 Visiting Rotarians: Mayor Kelli Linville, Hilary Black (Boy Scouts of America) 

Guests: Tyler Byrd (Red Rokk Company) 

 Announcements

• Bill Geyer says the membership committee meeting will be rescheduled; 

• Steve Brummel says Thursday Jan 24th next fellowship basketball game at WWU; 

• Brent Walker says our Foundation has $189K, we might make a limited distribution to the club this year; 

Bucks in the Bay 

• Stephanie Sadler spent the holidays in Dallas (it snowed), and celebrated a recent wedding anniversary; 

• John Templeton hopes to see our Foundation reach the $1M mark before he kicks the bucket; 

• Anna Williams announced she is running for one of the positions on the Chuckanut Mountain Parks District board (part of new taxing district just south of the city); 

• Bill Gorman had some info on the new tv season; 

• Denise Bosman is very busy at work, will try to attend Rotary more often! 

• Terry Brown thanks Stan for birthday card; 

• Eddie for $100 to Foundation, went to Sun Peaks, fun over the holidays, thanks Terry Brown with help on one of his projects, will be going to Caribbean for next three weeks; 

• Christine Palmerton helped her son pick out an engagement ring and plan a marriage proposal! 

• Stan with $100 for Foundation went on a cruise from LA through the canal to Florida. 

 

Sergeant at Arms by Frank Chmelik 

Fines for Stan, Steve Brummel, Bill Geyer, Eddie, Flo and Bill Boyd, and all the warm weather vacationers. 

Program 

Bob Moles introduced our speaker Roger Van Dyken. Roger lives in Lynden, is married to Marlene, and they have four adult children. He is a past member of the state legislature, he and Marlene own San Juan Sailing. He is author of a book "Barging in Europe". 

Roger, a veteran of the Vietnam War, talked about his experience with modern Vietnam which he now considers his second home. Roger described the geography of Vietnam. Roger mostly travels now to Quang Binh province, one the coastline and the province that divides north and south. It has a population of about one million people. During the war, the province was a funnel for supplies and troops from North to South Vietnam, and suffered more bombing by US forces than any spot in history. Dong Hoi is the regional capital city with a population of 100,000. In the late 90's Roger took his first trip back to Vietnam since the war. He returned again two years later. In the course of these trips, Roger befriended a man and his family from Dong Hoi, and they have become quite close. The man, 18 years younger than Roger, is an entrepreneur, and Roger stays with that family now when he goes to Vietnam. This man was three years old during the bombings and narrowly survived one bombing incident. Having fought off foreign invaders for centuries, most Vietnamese harbor no ill will towards the US, in fact they feel quite close to Americans: The second language is English and the second currency is dollars. 

Some history since the war: During the Chinese invasion of 1979 (Sino-Chinese War), more people were killed than during the ten year war with the US. In the 1970's and 80', Vietnam endured very harsh times under communism. Then in 1989, Vietnam transitioned from centrally plan economy, to a "Moi Doi" (renovation / economic reform) society. Over the past decade standard of living has gone up dramatically and much progress occurred. 

Roger showed slides about this beautiful part of the world from his many trips there. He is working on several goodwill projects there including construction of kids' playground. 

Frank Chmelik wins the raffle! 

Respectfully submitted, 
Stowe Talbot