Rotogear for February 6, 2008

RI President Wilfrid J. Wilkinson's Website

The Rotogear
of the Rotary Club of Fort Collins

February 6, 2008

Carol Bennis is the Executive of Beet Street. She will introduce that organization to our club.

Beet Street’s web site says that the purpose of Beet Street is to distinguish Fort Collins as an intellectually vital community that fosters, celebrates, and inspires human creativity through diverse cultural experiences and programming. And it continues that Beet Street will create a collaborative learning community in Fort Collins, Colorado, where everyone of every age is welcome to share in discussion, reflection, and creative expression.

Their mission states that by 2011, Beet Street will be a vital, self-sustaining community catalyst with highly desirable programming. The community’s intellectual vitality and creative built environment will be evident as a result of our work as an economic engine.

You can learn more about Beet Street on their web site at: http://www.BeetStreet.org.

Presiding at Last Weeks Meeting

Presiding: Chuck Rutenberg

Invocation & Pledge: Charlie Peterson

Music: Steve Busch

Song Leaders: Steve Busch

Greeter & Introductions: Barbara Jones and Marge Norskog

Sergeant at Arms & Microphone: Melanie Chamberlain

Guests Last Week

Andy Groeger, Lee Jeffrey, Len Motta, Cynthia Murphy, Cody Schopfer, JoshuaDaly, Meagan Flenniken, Christine Hardy, Phoenix Mourning-Star,<br> AND Jennifer Obrosky, Terry Opgenorth, guests of the club

Carol Bennis, guest of Brenda Carns

Virginia Getts, guest of Max Getts

Vickie Battelsmit, guest of Steve Laine

Paul Schmucker, guest of Bill Schaffter

Visiting Rotarians

Charlie Peterson of the Breakfast Club

Member Data Corrections on Web Site

Our clubs new web site has a members section. The member information in that section is the best that we know but could have errors due to changed telephone numbers, new email addresses or incorrect classifications, etc. The information at that site will be used for a new directory and it is currently used for the names and classifications in the print Rotogear. The member data in the print Rotogear will be changed about every month to keep up with the changes in our club. If you do not know how to access the site, do not know what your password is or do not know how to make changes, please contact, Claude Piche, Sankaram Mantripragada, Lannie Boyd or Alan Ashbaugh.

Announcements

Omnia El-Hakim

Judy Boggs

Max Getts

If you have a candidate for Ambassadorial Scholar, notify Omnia El-Hakim. Applications are due February 29th.

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Paul Hudnut invited members to attend the Focus programs being held at CSU.

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Judy Boggs urged us to find persons to write an essay that could lead to a BBB scholarship. See the Committee Spotlight below for more information about the BBB scholarship.

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Judy Boggs also asked those interested in hosting the Potluck Fellowship Dinner in March to let her know.

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Chuck Rutenberg said that The Breakfast Club will be meeting at the Marriott, not the Hilton, starting with their meeting on February 7.

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Max Getts showed a collection of old cameras: Brownie, Ansco Clipper, the Folding Brownie, and the Speed Graphic. (He was interrupted by Chuck, the bookie, receiving a call on his cell phone (obviously not turned off!) which he answered on a football phone brought by Max, Max then showed old flash bulbs, a roll of film, and a one-picture image plate.

Classification Talk

Doug Hutchinson

Doug Hutchinson was born in Billings, MT. His family moved to Ft. Collins when he was 4. He completed his public schooling in Poudre School District. He joined the military, specializing in intelligence and doing a tour in Colorado Springs and then in the Pentagon. His education after Ft. Collins High School included a bachelor's from CSU, a Master's from USC (?), and some work at Colorado Technical University. He has six grandchildren. His hobbies include amateur radio, woodworking, reading, and enjoying the mountains. He became Mayor in 2005.

Committee Spotlight

Lorna Reeves

Betty Seay

BBB Four-Way Test Essay Contest Committee

Co-Chairs: Lorna Reeves and Betty Seay

Meeting time: Call of the Chair

Purpose:
To award a $5,000 scholarship each year to a high school junior or senior in the Mountain States Better Business Bureau (BBB) region for the best essay about "How the Rotary Four-Way Test Impacts My Life."

Guidelines:
      1. Rotary Club(s) in each community of the BBB region need to establish a committee to administer the Four-Way Test essay contest.
      2. The administrative guidelines give timelines for the contest and indicate how the committees will work with schools to publicize the contest and determine each school’s top candidates.
      3. Essays must be the original work of the student and should be 1500-2000 words in length. Content should directly relate to ways in which the Four-Way Test has impacted the writer's life in the past or present, or may impact the writer's life in the future.
      4. Judging criteria has been established to make the judging fair. The criteris is made up of Content, Language, Organization, and a Brief Biographical Sketch of the student. These guidelines will be used at all levels of the contest.
      5. Rotary committees will pick the community winners then a BBB committee will judge essays from community finalists in a blind manner to select the final winner.
      6. The scholarship will be awarded at the BBB Torch Awards Business Ethics dinner each year.

Members can find information about all committees by visiting the online list of all of the club's committees on the web at: FC Rotary Club Committees

New Member Induction

Lenn Motta

Jan Bertholf performed the induction of Lenn Motta as a new member of the club by welcoming him to our club. Jan informed Lenn of the purpose of Rotary and his obligations as a member. Lenn said that it is an honor and privilege to be a member of the club and he hoped to be a strong member by getting involved in some of our activities and committees. Lenn also thanked C. J. Streit for introducing him to Rotary. Lenn's classification is Education - Administration.

Paul Harris Award

After a long introduction, just to string us along with his unusual award, C. J. Streit gave a special Paul Harris Fellow to his late dog, B. B.

Last Week's Program

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Betty Brown

Dr. Regina Brown

Betty Brown introduced her oncologist, Dr. Regina Brown, to give us a presentation with the title, “Stem Cells – A to Z and back to C (Cancer).” The presentation was organized around a series of questions about stem cells and cancer and presented with a series of PowerPoint slides. Dr. Brown described two types of stem cells, embryonic stem cells and adult stem cells (more appropriately called somatic stem cells). Her presentation was all about the adult stem cells and not about the embryonic type due to their emotional and political nature. When stem cells divide, each daughter cell can remain a stem cell, self-renewal, or they can become a more specialized cell in a process called differentiation. The differentiation process usually goes through several stages before the final organ cell is generated. Adult stem cells are responsible for maintenance, replenishment and repair of our body’s cells.

Regina then shifted her presentation to cancer and asked, what is cancer? She discussed the causes, prognosis, diagnosis and treatment of cancer as well as the amount and types of cancer in our society. The heart of her talk centered on what makes cells cancerous. She said that cancer is caused by adult stem cells gone bad. It is not that they grow too fast but that they spend more time dividing and that they do not die as fast as normal cells.

As techniques and instrumentation improved over the years for determining whether cells possess the ability to self-renew, it became apparent that there were only a few cells causing the cancerous growth, thus cancer stem cells and the connection of “back to C.” Conventional treatments for cancer, chemotherapy and radiation, have focused on killing the greatest number of cancer cells. However, these treatments may not kill the cancer stem cells and thus the cancer can reappear.

New treatments for cancer are being developed that can target the cancer stem cells by manipulating the proteins that are involved with their division. Regina described some of the current research. Two recent articles in Scientific American are good references for this important subject. The first is: “The Future of Stem Cells”, in Scientific American, July 2005, a series of articles on stem cells in general. The second is: “Do Stem Cells Cause Cancer?” in Scientific American, July 2006. These articles contain good stem cell process information, outstanding examples and descriptive figures very similar to those shown by Dr. Brown about the differentiation sequence of cells from embryonic stem cells to the final organ cell.

Calendar

Feb. 15 - Rotaract Meeting at Manos Grill, 7:30 pm

Mar. 08 - Black Tie Bingo at the Rio Grande, sponsored by the After Work Rotary Club

May 15 - RYLA, deadline for clubs to submit signed applications to registrar

Jun. 5-7 - District Confernce in Cody, Wyoming, see Don Johnson is interested

Jun. 15-18 - Rotary International Convention in LA

Future Meetings

Feb 13 - Economic Development, Mayor Doug Hutchinson

Feb 20 - Character Fort Collins, Bob Powell

Feb 27 - Rural / Urban Day, Glenn Schmidt and Milan Rewerts

Warren and Genny Garst Wildlife Collection at CSU Click here or on the "tiger."

Rotary District 5440 Home Page - We recommend browsing this page particularly the links to other Clubs in District 5440 as your time permits.

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