Friday 2.19.10

South Lake Union Rotary Club

The South Lake Union Rotary Club meets on Fridays at 7am at the Center for Wooden Boats. Due to dock construction at the CWB, this morning’s meeting was held at the Amory Building next door. Breakfast was served--coffee, donuts, bagels and fruit! The members gathered around, nibbling and chatting, conference style and Betsy called the meeting to order. She'd already set up the computer and projector. The group put special thought into my visit and had poets and poems to share. How nice. After a few introductions, we were directed to the screen and watched a TED Talks video of a poet doing a performance piece on the value of a good teacher. A second TED Talks video, Rives on 4am, was shown. This one was more entertaining and comical. Afterwards, someone in the group gave a hoorah for the quality of the talks on TED. After that, the committees gave their reports. The work the reported on spanned from the assembling of water purification thermometers for nations in need, to organizing scholarships for high school students wanting to attend business week at a local university.


Key Note Speaker

Russ introduced me by reading a poem of mine he'd found online. He did a perfect reading of roof of air. Very impressive! I was asked to come and talk about my work as a corporate-poet. I’d prepared a little slide show of the installations I was doing at NBBJ. I just barely got through the show when my time was up. Alas, the questions would have to wait. I was thanked and presented with a bag of mandarins and a gift donating, in my name, 100 pounds of food to local food banks. Very thoughtful. I stayed and chatted with a few members. I'd never before been to a Rotary Club meeting and was intrigued to know what they looked like. This group is small in comparison to some, I am told. Most surprising to me was the cost of membership and the monthly dues. I certainly couldn't afford to join, even with the stimulus plan they are offering (no dues for the 6 months). I suppose that’s the point though, a group of people with means coming together to help those without. I am thankful to the Rotary Club for inviting me, for their hospitality and for the opportunity to consider the whole of my work at NBBJ.