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Back to Home pageNEWSLETTER Kiwanis Club of Cedar Rapids Wednesday, April 15, 2009 The meeting was called to order by President Bob Hatala, Esq. 25 Members in attendance. Guests: None Birthdays: Doug Dix, Duane Kurrelmeyer Anniversaries: Brian Davis Announcements: S. Charmaine is recovering from illness, and should be back with us next week.; There’s a Big Brothers/Big Sisters dinner on April 28; the Kiwanis International convention will be held in Nashville June 25-27; Four Oaks needs volunteers to work their golf event at CRCC on June 8; June 13 is the date for the Heartland Festival near Kinston Stadium; our Annual Meeting will be at our regular noon slot at Elmcrest – nominees for office are Dan Breitbach, president; Mike Poggenklass, first VP; Pam Landon, second VP, Gerry Kneeland, treasurer, and Sister Charmaine, Secretary. Finally, an event of some sort is planned for May 28 at Mount Mercy – more on this next week. Happy Bucks: Richard Boardman celebrated Tax Day, joined by Keith Sutherland and Chuck Wehage; Don Grimm had a twist on the tax theme – his whole day was made when his underpayment penalty amounted to $1 (this was in a previous year). Let’s hope his luck continues. Pam Landon had three bucks – she’s glad tax season is over, that she can now have a few days off, and finally, had a great time at lunch with her grand daughter; Kelly Moore recalled that in 1985, the KC Royals and another team stood out for something (like Wikipedia, readers can help out the poor celibate scribe by sending expansions and corrections to wehage.chuck@imonmail.com) Upcoming Programs: Speaker: Mike Wilkins, president of United Fire Group, described the ironic story of a casualty insurance company being flooded out of three buildings, the headquarters and nerve center of the company. Of the 650 people employed, 320 were located in Cedar Rapids. A big factor was the inaccurate and late predictions of the level of the high water. They were prepared for a little seepage under the door, but what happened was the water was up the top of the doors. They retreated to rented space in Norway, Iowa. They bought and had Fed-Xed 150 new computers and 6 servers from Dell, and were back up and running in makeshift offices within three or four days. All of their corporate mail is scanned in Cedar Rapids and emailed for action to sites around the world, so the entire operation was shut down until CR could get back up. United Fire uses 40 or so reinsurance companies, and insurance on the facilities paid about half of their $13M loss. Word for the day: Submitted: Chuck WehageDan Breitbach - El Verboso Bloviatoro |