August 5, 2009 - Lunch

A warm welcome from our friendly greeters Jim Walborn and Burt Lundquist provided a welcome respite from the unusually high temps. Max Link and crew efficiently prepared our meeting room and Ray Arnold provided his usual thoughtful invocation. Our musical selections were handled by Lloyd Meyer and Richard Saunders. The SW District Key Club Governor, Amber Porter, was visiting from New Mexico and led us in the pledge.





Joe Gilleland and Elaine Adrian (again) were the lucky drawing winners and will handle the greeter duties next week.

Wellness Report – Nancy Carpenter reported that Bill Chester is recovering from a knee replacement and Bob McBreen is recuperating from surgery. Don Parks continues his battle with cancer and would appreciate cards and support. John Voss is another member with medical issues.

Guests – Gerry Samos brought his wife Bobbie, Seth Jorgensen hosted Bonnie Wills and Herb Hayde introduced Morgan Keil and John Lorge. Bob Hesselgesser hosted Hope Ozer and scholarship recipient Jessica Befort was the guest of Richard Saunders.
Key Club members were well represented with Lt. Governor Ariana Caraffa, and Pinnacle members President Michelle Lim, Treasurer Catt Lovins and Editor Emma Frey.

ANNOUNCEMENTS

Golf Tournament - Bob Kroyer reported that the Club’s golf tournament, coming up on September 21st, is progressing fairly well with obtaining sponsors and items for the silent auction. However we now need to fill out the field of golfers and members and guests were asked to submit their registration form to Bob, Howard Dicke or Carroll Vanik. Bob also noted that the August edition of the City Sun Times contained an article on the tournament and the Publisher, Hope Ozer, is donating additional advertising space.

PROGRAM

The speaker was John Hall, a retired U.S Foreign Service Officer. He stated that the Foreign Service has 6,000 employees, out of 4 million total federal employees, that support 300 embassies and consulates through out the world. Mr. Hall stressed that the Foreign Service depends on people to accomplish its mission versus hardware and tangible things. Thus a critical skill is the ability to learn a foreign language and officers are not sent to a foreign post until they have a reasonable command of the language spoken in that locale.

Our speaker made some observations regarding U.S. Foreign Aid, which is an important tool of foreign affairs. There are two “pots”, the smaller of the two being funds for economic development and humanitarian projects. The other is military assistance. A good deal of the foreign aid ends up coming back to the U.S. to purchase goods and services, which is particularly true with the second “pot”.

In response to a question, Mr. Hall commented that President Obama is approaching foreign affairs from a different starting point than previous administrations. He is trying to be more willing to talk to, listen and consult with foreign governments rather than just doing what we, as a country, want to do when we want to do it. He believes other countries are still trying to assess the President’s approach.

Next Meeting – The program will be Our Gang, with Wayne Fulcher and Hans Thiele presenting.