President Mack Beers called the meeting to order and administered the pledge.
Sid Lammers offered some excellent thoughts of gratitude and reflection sometimes attributed to the late Anthony Bourdain:
You can always tell when a person has worked in a restaurant. There's an empathy that can only be cultivated by those who've stood between a hungry mouth and a $28 pork chop, a special understanding of the way a bunch of motley misfits can be a family. Service industry work develops the "soft skills" recruiters talk about on LinkedIn — discipline, promptness, the ability to absorb criticism, and most important, how to read people like a book. The work is thankless and fun and messy, and the world would be a kinder place if more people tried it. With all due respect to my former professors, I've long believed I gained more knowledge in kitchens, bars, and dining rooms than any college could even hold.
Awesome Allison Beers spoke on behalf of her husband, Sunrise clubber Adam Beers, regarding that club's Superbowl Squares fundraiser. It is their main fundraiser for the entire year, so please be sure to help out!! Squares are $35 or two for $60. For more information on how the game played, see the attached document. Visit www.tcsunriserotary.com to buy squares.
George Powell invited everyone to a virtual wine tasting of O'Brien wine on Feb 18. Participants can go buy the wine at Blue Goat, then join a Zoom meeting hosted by the winemakers to taste the wine with other participants and learn more. Send Kathy an email if you are interested and she'll supply the Zoom link.
Traverse Connect CEO Warren Call introduced the speaker, Camille Hoisington. Camille is Director of Strategic Projects at Traverse Connect, where she leads the charge on talent attraction initiatives, the Scale-Up North awards and efforts to enhance the creative and cultural economy in our area. Prior to joining Traverse Connect, she worked on programs for startups at 20Fathoms and Boomerang Catapult.
Camille gave a detailed presentation on the Creative Coast initiative, which is designed to attract talented, creative people in the prime of their careers (ages 35-49ish) to the Traverse City region. The region has seen a decline in that demographic for many years, and the goal is to shore it up by showcasing the region's offerings and attracting high quality workers. Studies have shown that many younger people put an extremely high emphasis on quality of life, and many times seek out vibrant, beautiful places to live first and foremost before worrying about their careers (where before what, so to speak).
Creative Coast is focusing on the "low hanging fruit" - people who already work remotely and aren't tied down to any particular place. The Covid-19 pandemic has created additional opportunities, as it has spurred an even greater migration of people from populated urban areas to less-populated, rural ones. One study showed Michigan number 5 on the top 10 list of inbound states for Covid-driven moves.
The website (https://michiganscreativecoast.com/) has a job board and tons of information about moving to and living in Traverse City. Visitors to the site can even connect with so-called "Northern Navigators" (local professionals who can answer questions and provide guidance about living and working here).
Head to the website and use the coupon code"greatcreative"for a free copy of the initiative's Creative Coast Guide.
The Social Events Committee, working with the Blue Goat wine shop, has organized a Rotary wine tasting party for February 18th, starting at 5:30 on Zoom. Our hosts that evening will be Blue Goat owner and wine connoisseur Sebastian Garbsch, and Barry O’Brien, owner of wine distributor Select Fine Wines and of his own small vineyard on Old Mission Peninsula. Barry will be guiding us through our tasting of two special O’Brien Vineyards wines – a 2016 Dry Riesling and a 2019 Pinot Noir – giving us the background on the wine and the highlights of his wine-making journey.
Sebastian has provided us with a highly discounted price of just $40 (tax included) for both bottles of wine. Participants will need to purchase and pick up their wine at the Blue Goat -- just identify yourself as a Rotary wine tasting participant and they will have your wine ready for you. Wines are available now. Must pay there, no charging to your Rotary account. Blue Goat is at 875 Front St. at the start of Peninsula Drive.
At our request, the Blue Goat has also identified a few cheeses from their collection to pair with the wines, and they will be available as OPTIONAL add-ons. They have chosen Idyll Farms goat cheese (local -- $4.99) as well as Plymouth Black Truffle artisanal cheddar cheese (from Vermont -- $10.99). These are recommendations only, to complement the wines we will be tasting. Scroll down for the photo.
Depending on the number of participants, we’ll be offering some breakout rooms so that everyone has a chance to mingle and chat with each other. It is a party, after all!
And, please, let us know if you’re planning to attend, just so that we can advise the wine shop and they have enough inventory for all of us. Contact Kathy Bussell at 231-941-5421 or email her at TCRotary2822@gmail.com. Feel free to contact either George or Susan if you have questions.
We will send a Zoom number to you as it gets closer. Join us as we eat, drink and make merry!
(Jayne Mohr, a Rotary Club of Traverse City member for almost 19 years is also the Chair of our District 6290 Global Scholars. She sent this to be put in the bulletin about 3 weeks ago, so sorry for the delay in sharing, Kathy B.)
I just received this Jan. report from our Global Scholar, Flannery Johnson, and thought you’d enjoy her update from her work in Cologne, Germany. I have copied her on the email. It’s amazing what these talented young scholars are doing in our world today to espouse the ideas and values of Rotary!
Kathy & Kathy, will you please share in the District 6290 and local TC newsletters? Thank you.
Rotary regards,
Jayne Mohr District 6290 Global Scholar Chair
Happy holidays! I hope that you all had a wonderful holiday season and a great start to the new year! I am lucky enough to have a sister living in Prague, Czech Republic and was able to go visit her during the winter break before all the borders closed again.
Back in Cologne, the semester is wrapping up and with it our projects. This semester I have been working on a drought analysis of the Yarmouk Basin, in Syria and Jordan, which is hopefully where my Master’s thesis will be based. I have been working in conjunction with an ecological and social risk assessment of the disasters in the area and am excited to continue my work in this area. It is a pivotal region and water management issues play a major role in the cultural and political landscape.
I have also been working on the Clean Tigris project with a team from Iraq focused on water quality and availability in the Euphrates and Tigris basins. We have been working with a team from the German and Iraqi governments doing research and building informational products for the website so that it can be used as an educational and outreach tool. They just did the first focus group with a combination of scientists, activists, and citizens and it seems like it’s going to be a really useful tool in addressing water quality issues in the area. I’ve included the sites below!