Kevin Chambers discusses Bitcoin.

“Bitcoin: How It Works, How To Get It, Should You Care” was the title of last week’s fascinating presentation by Kevin Chambers from the McMinnville Noon Rotary Club. Kevin is with Headwater Investment Consulting, an independent wealth management company.

Kevin said the movement toward a digital cash system was originally started by “cypherpunks,” who were into freedom and lack of government regulation. He said Bitcoin specifically was started in 2008 by Satori Nakamoto– and what a story around that guy! Apparently that may not be his real name, he owns a huge amount of Bitcoin, and no one knows where he is now or if he is even alive.

The basic goal with Bitcoin, according to Kevin, is to use thousands of computers instead of institutions to verify transactions. “It is a public ledger system that takes out the middleman,” he said. “You can see all transactions and once made, they are unable to be changed.”

ACCESS

Bitcoin is accessed through a “key” system. Your private key is a long (64-digit) random number that provides anonymity and is very secure.

MINING

Mining serves two purposes: It provides a process to verify all transactions and it creates new Bitcoins. “You use your computer to check transactions,” said Kevin. “Mining is also being done by big server farms now.”

BLOCKCHAINS

THIRD PARTIES

While third parties go against the founding concept of no middleman, you can pay a company for a “Wallet” to remember your 64-digit key for you. You can also use an “Exchange” to buy or sell Bitcoin.

Where can you spend Bitcoin? Kevin mentioned Subway, Overstock.com and some other companies. “It’s a medium of exchange, but not as easy to use as some others. ”

“People are willing to invest in Bicoin because they think there will be future value.” he said. “As an investment, you are betting that the price will go up. If you want to buy some Bitcoin, but you don’t want to mine, go to an exchange to buy.”Auction Chair Denise Bacon, who was still battling pneumonia, gave us an update on some possible changes in the auction for next year, including the venue. Due to rising costs at the Allison Inn, it is being proposed that the club hold the auction at the Chehalem Cultural Center instead. She said the ballroom (where our club currently meets) could be decorated in such a way as to be very appealing and upscale. She asked for club members with concerns or comments about such a change to email her at: denisebacon@aol.com.

PDG Mike Caruso received acknowledgment from our Club for his getting the well-deserved Rotary International Distinguished Service Award for exemplary humanitarian service at the District Conference in Salem. Mike then told us about his recent trip to Lebanon to attend a Rotary conference, and the issues that a small country of 5 million people are having absorbing 1 1/2 million Syrian refugees. In strategizing with the Rotary Club in Tripoli on ways to help, it was decided to try a Peace Village camp, which teaches children conflict prevention and resolution skills. The camp is being scheduled for late Fall in Tripoli, and will utilize club funds normally used to support Peace Village Newberg, which is on hiatus this year. This will be the first international Peace Village.

GUESTS

Kim Abraham from Director’s Mortgage joined us for the second week in a row to check out our club. Welcome, Kim!

Tommy Sherwood from the McMinnville Club and Headwater attended to support our speaker.

MISCELLANEOUS

Please be sure your calendar is marked and highlighted for Thursday, June 14. That’s the date of our annual Installation Dinner–always a nice affair at Methven Vineyards. 5:30pm – 9pm. Current President Todd Engle will turn over the reins to Om Sukheenai.

Painting of the club’s Rotary mural on the side of the Steve’s Auto Body building on Highway 99W began last Friday! Our four George Fox student artists are working collectively to design and paint it. Should be done by the end of June.

THIS WEEK’S PROGRAM

Come hear from Newberg Rotary’s international exchange student from Argentina. See you on Wednesday at the Cultural Center.

Rotarian Dan Sockle.

“This will be like drinking from a fire hose.” That’s how our guest speaker last week, Dan Sockle, a Rotarian Peacebuilder from the “Three Creeks” Club in Vancouver, Washington, described his presentation, and he wasn’t kidding!

Dan’s goal was to explore what Rotarians can do to build peace by collaborating more within and beyond Rotary. He outlined some of the challenges we face and possible solutions. He had tons of thoughts, ideas, and suggested projects, and discussed them in rapid-fire mode.

He touched on “Mediation 101,” and addressing the challenges of hate and divisiveness in our society today. He covered foundational communication skills, like listening, that can help turn the tide on politically and media-driven “tribalism” that has furthered extremism and taken it to new heights.

Among the many other ideas: to partner more with those on the “front lines” of conflict: Rotary Peace Fellows, Rotarian veterans, active law enforcement and even chaplains. He advocated sharing the 4-way test beyond Rotary.

Another concept he is working on is a “Guest Speakers Bureau” to serve area schools. He is close to having a functional website for receiving both volunteer speaker input and search capabilities for educators and club program coordinators. He hopes this initiative will serve several purposes, including:

• Increasing a general awareness of real life experiences, bringing more role models, representing various professions and life experiences, into our schools and classrooms.
• Opportunities to bring a “value-added” to Interact and comparable school clubs (like Kiwanis’ Key clubs), potentially growing existing clubs and/or developing new clubs – especially as opportunities arise to extend Interact down to the middle school levels.
• Elevating knowledge and dispelling a few myths regarding what Rotary is and does.
• Complimenting/enhancing/growing District 5100’s existing “Speakers Bureau” serving area Rotary clubs.
• A little more cross-fertilization and collaboration among both Rotary clubs and other civic organizations with similar values and service to their immediate and broader communities.

He also briefed us on the “Better Angels” initiative, a bipartisan citizens’ movement launched in 2016 to try to unify “red” and “blue” Americans. “‘Better Angels’ is building new ways to talk to one another, to participate together in public life and to influence the direction of the nation,” he said. For a copy of Dan’s presentation, email me at liondogfarm@msn.com.

MIKE CARUSO HONORED AT DISTRICT CONFERENCE

This just in — Congratulations are in order for Mike Caruso, who was honored as a recipient of Rotary International’s Distinguished Service Above Self Award at last weekend’s Rotary District 5100 Conference in Salem.

Special thanks to Judy Robinson’s husband, Marvin (above), who donated the time and equipment to pressure wash the side of the Steve’s Auto Body building on Highway 99W where our Rotary mural is going to go (and saved the rest of us from a work party!) SERVICES PLANNED FOR BILL DOLAN

A Mass of Christian Burial will be offered for Club Past President Bill Dolan at St. Paul Catholic Church in St. Paul this Friday, May 25, 2018 at 11:00 a.m. A Celebration of Life reception will follow.

VARIOUS AND SUNDRY

Auggie Gonzales will miss this week’s meeting, as he is in Mexico for the wedding of his son Benjamin. Ben is a dentist and participates in our annual Guatemala dental mission.

Sharing our stories through Classification Talks provides a wonderful way for Rotarians to get to know each other better. Patrick Bancke even said so himself in his humorous, heartfelt presentation last week when he started out, “I’m going to share who I am so we can do life together. It should only take 8 or 9 hours if we go fast.”

Patrick grew up in a middle class family, but said there was “alcohol abuse” in the household. He started drinking at age 15, and it eventually created issues with getting into college.

“I pursued a life of justice and equality, and at age 21 went into law enforcement.” He became a firearms instructor, suffered some injuries, and said he is now the proud owner of a new shoulder.

With a wife, a child and a baby on the way, he realized he had to quit drinking. He decided there had to be something better, and “I found my faith in Christ,” he said.

“I found I had a passion for real estate. I actually bought my first house at age 19, and was very blessed where I landed in real estate. I was led to a mentor” and life was good. And then came the August 2008 crash.

“I saw people lose everything….homes, money, their livelihoods. So I started a volunteer ministry to try to help.”

Post-2008, he was tired of working 60 to 70 hours a week and decided to build a team to work smarter and faster. “We now cover the Portland metro area, Yamhill County and Central Oregon,” he said. “We have a great structure–I’m a huge fan of systems. We take care of every client and make sure they are served to the highest standard.”

His goal is a system that would offer every person a luxury real estate experience no matter if they are purchasing a $150,000 starter home or a $3.8 million estate. “But what drives us now is different. Our goals have evolved. We give 10% of all proceeds to heavily vetted nonprofits,” he said. “We are looking for vessels to give back to the community.”

Patrick said he now personally places a larger value on growing his business to help support local families through well-paying skills and jobs.

Someone asked Patrick what he likes to do for fun. “Fly small aircraft, ski,” he smiled. Someone else asked why he joined Rotary. “I had family members in Rotary,” he said, “but before this, I never had time.”

Last week we met two of the four artists who are working on a concept for our club mural project. This week, Geoff Gilmore hosted the other two artists: Sierra Ratcliff and Annabelle Wombacher.

Sierra, left, is a junior at George Fox University (GFU) from Olympia, WA. She is an artist, designer and illustrator, and said she was self-taught in art until coming to college. She started drawing at about age 6 and “realized I was good at it” at about age 12. She enjoys oil painting, and painting people in a way that is “not normal. I have some weird art that I do to provoke a double-take, like four-eyed ladies.”

She said she gets inspiration from books, and loves illustrating things from nature and things that matter to her. And she really enjoys doing large-scale pieces.

Annabelle, right, really likes to draw insects. “A large body of my work is bugs,” she smiled. She gets inspiration from photos she has taken and especially likes beetles. She decided she wanted to be an artist her senior year in high school. She does a lot of drawing in ball point pen and pencil, and showed us some bees, a fly and a spider she had done.

She has completed larger scale projects, including a 4-foot-tall drawing of an ant done in graphite. “I really enjoy taking something average or ordinary and making it beautiful,” she said.

Kimberly Abraham, left, a mortgage specialist with Director’s Mortgage, attended our meeting for the first time as the guest of Shannon Buckmaster.

HERE AND THERE

Don’t forget–the District Conference is this coming weekend in Salem. Please go to the District 5100 website for more info and to register.

Deborah Cathers-Seymour invited us to attend the grand opening of a new YOOP facility in McMinnville from 3 to 5pm on May 16. Please RSP to her if you are planning to attend. She also reported her daughter, Sky, has qualified to run the Boston Marathon later this year.

Corey Zielsdorf reported that his daughter has chosen the University of San Diego, where she has received an offer for a full scholarship, for her college experience.

Terry Coss, Dan Sperling and Newberg Robotics are announcing a Newberg High School Machine Shop Open House on Tuesday, May 22, at 11:30am at Newberg High School. They will be showcasing the newly student-renovated Robotics Lab, Tiger Manufacturing partnership with A.R.E. Manufacturing and student projects in Mr. Coss’ CADD/CAM class. Cookies and coffee will be served, but please RSVP at www.newbergrobotics.org/open-house.

THIS WEEK’S MEETING

Dan Sockle, self-described “retiree and proud, active member of the Rotary Club of Three Creeks, the Community Military Appreciation Committee, and the Military Officers Association of America/Columbia River” will be our speaker. Dan is also a member of the District 5100 Peacebuilders Committee and Mediators Beyond Borders International. His presentation is titled, “If Everyone’s SCREAMING, who’s listening?”

Dale Welcome introduces our speaker.

In introducing our speaker last week, Dale Welcome said Shelly Winterberg was a former co-worker and family friend, as well as the Director of Field Engagement for “Every Child,” an organization offering care and support to both foster children and the Oregon Department of Human Services (DHS).

According to Shelly, “Every Child” has four main objectives:

1. Radical hospitality
2. Provide a counter narrative to negative stories about DHS; tell the hopeful, determined, positive stories
3. Provide onramps to partnerships
4. Foster parent recruitment

Shelley Winterberg tells us about “Every Child.”

“Every Child” began in 2012 as “Embrace Oregon” in the Portland area. The first projects were preparing welcome boxes for children entering foster care and offering hospitality at the child welfare offices in the region. The welcome boxes were a huge hit, and offered the kids not only supplies, but a “You Are Special” message.

• 14,000 Welcome Boxes delivered
• 3,550 volunteers engaged
• 750 tangible needs met
• 100 businesses and 90 faith communities connected

The next step was offering tours of the DHS offices. As volunteers saw the stark, white rooms, they stepped up to decorate, paint and supply new furniture. As a result, interest began to pour in from other counties in Oregon asking, “How can I start something in my community?”

GUESTS

Benjamin Cahoon discusses his background.

Two of the four artists working on the concept for our club’s upcoming mural project were introduced by Geoff Gilmore. Benjamin Cahoon, from Florence, is a sophomore at George Fox University (GFU). He is a dual major in Studio Arts and Arts Administration, and works in a variety of mediums. He said he uses “natural, urban and spiritual themes.” His work has been displayed in the U.S. Capitol.

Jared Mar.

Jared Mar is a junior at GFU. He was born and raised in San Francisco. “I grew up in an urban setting,” he said, so graffiti, tattoo and religious art were big influences on his “whimsical, fun and very messy” style. Jared said Rodin, Frank Stella and Vincent van Gogh are among the artists he really admires. The other two artists will be introduced at this week’s meeting. Geoff also announced the location for the mural. It will be highly visible on the side of the Steve’s Auto Body Shop building on Highway 99W. An application for a city permit is in process now.

Shannon Buckmaster introduced Albert Eschler, who has decided to become a Rotarian. He is currently deciding between the EarlyBirds and our club.

AUCTION FUN

After all the prep work, lots of Rotarians let their hair down in the photo booth at the annual benefit auction April 28 at the Allison Hotel. Corey Zielsdorf, left, and his wife, and Bob Ficker, right, and his wife were among those acting goofy for the camera.

But not so fun, Auction Chair Denise Bacon is now recovering from pneumonia. Please feel better soon, Denise.

MISCELLANEOUS

Remember, May 31 is the deadline to get RYLA candidate applications to Aaron Lewis.

Our District Conference is the weekend of May 18-20 at the Salem Convention Center. Still time to register on the District 5100 website.

The Scholarship Committee, led by Dave Parker, is busy reviewing applications. Thanks to all, including Becky Ankeny, Marge O’Connell, Judy Robinson, Beth Pent, and Krissy Lookabill for the time they are donating to this project.

Last Thursday night’s Club Visioning session was well attended and generated lots of ideas for what our club should look like five years from now. Paula Radich sent out a summary, so be sure to look for that in your email. Here are some photos Auggie Gonzales took at the event.

NEXT MEETING

It’s been awhile since we had a Classification Talk as our meeting topic. This week, come to the Cultural Center to learn more about new member Patrick Bancke.