Soundings (3/15/11)

Posted by Stowe Talbot 
 
 
Flag Salute & Invocation by Art Runestrand

Visiting Rotarians: None

Guests: None

Rotary club trivia:  Cookstown Rotary Club, Ulster, Northern Ireland.

Announcements

Group Study Exchange: Four Rotarians are coming from Ireland to Bellingham during April 13-16. We need to find them accommodations / homestays, and we need ideas for tours and activities.

Membership:  Bill Geyer says the Fireside will be on Thursday March 17th, at 7pm at the Village Inn (Fairhaven). New members please attend, as well as sponsors of new members. It will tell you about Rotary and what is expected of members.

Lisa Boxx put together "thank-you plaques" for Grape & Gourmet restaurants.

Eddie is working on fellowship events for this year, please see Eddie if you have ideas. Golf round at Lake Padden & crab feed for sure.

Thank you note from student of the month Erin Flint.

Anna says the annual District Assembly is coming up, always recommended to attend if you have the time.

Stowe says our proposed "Bham Bay Rotary" Ski to Sea team has 5 people and we need 2 or 3 more. Mountain bike and cross coutry ski in particular. If we can't get any interest from Rotarians, we will fill the last spots with non-Rotarians.

Bucks in the Bay

  • Bill Gorman says he was honored to be chosen as one of the candidates for Biz Person of the Year (John Ferlin ultimately won)
  • Tonja Myers for missed meetings, out of town then sick, bought a house! and offered role in the Tempest (as the bad guy Antonio!)
  • Bob Jones and Bill Geyer for Ohio State basketball (?)
  • Catherine Reis-ElBarafor 17 years of marriage, missed meetings, and both daughter & son won their last athletic games;
  • John Templeton for closing a sale, attended seminar in BC on investing in Whatcom County;
  • Chuck Walters for recent ski trip on which his recuperating knee cooperated, and for Ohio State;
  • Donny Rubinak had some torn knee ailment (?), and celebrated the birth of a daughter!
  • Donna $20 for buying Anna's necklace (?)
  • Dick Stark for a Boys & Girls Club fundraiser event and the Husky game;
  • Curt Smith talked about "bucks for grass", and a Husky basketball game;
  • Pete Rittmueller and Steve Kimberly for trip to Hawaii.
 

Sergeant at Arms by Pete Rittmueller
Richter Scale and earthquake trivia, then March Madness trivia,

Program
Dennis Archer introduced Max Kaiser of Hand Crank Films. Max is the brother of Jane Carten. Max talked about how he got starting in the film and video business, helping companies and organizations share their stories.

One of his first projects was a commission from his dad's company, Saturna Capital.

Also early on, he also made "On a Wing and a Prayer", a documentary which won a lot of acclaim and was shown around the country.

Then hard times hit: The recession, a big rent increase, their main video camera was stolen, and market financing for independent films just dried up. He realized the local market (Bellingham) was very small; not enough to keep the company busy. He laid off all but two employees, and focussed his marketing work outside of Bellingham. Fortunately, their ads were getting noticed, because last year they were suddenly approached by a Bill & Melinda Gates funded project out of Washington DC to do a short film called "Millions Fed", about strategies for fighting hunger and poverty in the developing world. That success in turn got them exposure to the broader national market.

Max showed several clips he has done over the past few years:

  • A trailer for a proposed sci-fi film called "The Order", which won, then lost funding.
  • He showed the short video they did at the behest of the City for the Google "wired city" campaign.
  • Recently he did a spot about tolerance for CAIR. That led to several international projects; for example he showed a recent project, still in-process, about Uganda for an upcoming international conference.

Although Hand-Crank does plenty of commercial projects, Max said the most fun projects are for non-profit organizations that try to change perceptions.

Pete Rittmueller wins the lottery.

Respectfully submitted,
Stowe Talbot