Rotarians arriving for Friday’s meeting were greeted with a bigger than life-sized photo of Nick on the pickleball court with an appropriate (for the day anyway) message: To: Nick Heriford, Club President A most sincere thanks for taking a shot at being President. We know you tried. Rotary I have to admit that I was smiling and chuckling all the way down the hall to the Michigan Room for the day’s meeting. President Nick called the meeting to order a couple of minutes early. One has to assume that he was anxious to get the inevitable over! After wondering why the 4 Way Test will not be observed for this meeting, he led us through it anyway. A most hilarious reflection was given by Courtney Millbrook, who asked for God’s blessing on and forgiveness for what was about to take place. She was also thankful for our senses of humor and asked that Kevin Schumacher’s free will would be controlled at least for the duration of the meeting. We began singing our patriotic song, “My Country ‘Tis of Thee”, but it was quickly interrupted and all semblance of normality ceased. Lisa Smith insisted that was not the patriotic song for the day and led us all in “Wild Thing” in honor of President Nick. This was followed by a musical tribute to Nick, who Lisa insisted sees himself as a “Wild Thing”. She also said that he looks like every indicted police officer ever shown on the news. Since Nick’s favorite movie is The Sound of Music, and that his favorite song from that show is “My Favorite Things”. What followed was an interpretive dance of sorts, performed by Lisa, Nick and Lolo Robison. Next up was a performance of “Lovin’ You”, which Nick sang to his wife, Michelle, who was called to join Nick at center front. To be honest, Lisa did most of the singing. Nick did help with the “la-la-la” and “do-do-do” sections. After Lisa shuffled through her Presidential Roast Folder, she said she was glad that the nightmare was over and that Nick had made everything groovy, before she realized that she had grabbed a page from Julie Pingston’s roast a few years back. Lisa’s remarks were followed by a few from Katie Krick and Nicole Baumer. At first seemed that they believed the roast was for Ben Rathbun. If you attended this same meeting last year, you might remember that Katie filled in for Ben at the last minute. Ben was unable to attend last year because his air conditioning wasn’t working. Oddly enough, Nicole’s air conditioning was not working on Friday, but she still managed to fulfill her duties, clearly putting service above self. Katie and Nicole characterized Nick as a banker who fantasizes about being a Yooper farmer and excessively plans vacations. With that, a number of Past Presidents along with Nicole and Ben (who did manage to attend this year) reported to the prop room and returned with a number of pieces of cardboard which approximately resembled a car. What followed is hard to summarize, and so I will not attempt it except to say that it was a vacation skit of sorts. Towards the end of the skit, Katie brought out a farmer uniform for Nick to wear for the remainder of the meeting. We all knew that we had seen those overalls before. Fortunately, Nick was allowed to wear them over his street clothes to maintain a modicum of dignity. There were a few more songs. The first was an attempt at a Billy Joel song with Rotary lyrics. It was here that the lack of a rehearsal was more than obvious. There was music and there were some words, but never at the same time. One Past President, whose name shall not be mentioned, was seen to throw his script in the air. Thanks for trying to get those words in there Jeff Crippen! The last song sounded like “Bad to the Bone” and featured Kevin on the harmonica. For this one, Nick was on his own to deliver the lyrics. It took several attempts for Nick to get them just they way Kevin had written them. It seems that Nick is not fluent in Yooper and kept reading the lyrics in English. The shenanigans were almost complete as incoming President Rebecca Bahar-Cook was brought forward. Lisa had a song for her too – “I Say a Little Prayer” – which was delivered with the support of all Past Presidents in attendance. What followed was the most awkward passing of the gavel this editarian has ever observed. Nick declared that he had not been trained on this aspect of his presidential duties. In a last attempt to return to our previously scheduled meeting, It was announced that there is a club fellowship opportunity at the Gilmore Care Museum on August 15th. For details, see the Rotogram or talk to Cathy. Guests, who were probably wishing they had attended last week when we were at the pickleball courts, were introduced. There were several and we will see if any of them are brave enough to return. The guests included: Mark Seabury, husband to Holli Seabury incoming DG for District 6540, Jessie Stipcak, guest of Evan Winters, Alex Hernandez, guest of Ben Bakken and Major Nathan Johnson from the Salvation Army. The passing of the gavel was officially completed with President Rebecca ringing the bell to adjourn the meeting. The email for Linda Lynch is: linda.j.lynch@gmail.com |