June 1, 2006
Rotary Dial
Our friend Liz invited my husband and I to join her at the Waikiki Yacht Club for dinner. Always eager to compare other yacht club menus with my own offerings at the Kaneohe Yacht Club two years prior, we accepted. We arrived at the club and rather than Liz were greeted by Liz’s boyfriend. As he offered a round of cocktails he informed us that Liz would be joining us after “the meeting”. He then further confused matters by ushering us to a check-in table where we received name tags, that, rather than titled “Waikiki Yacht Club”, were headed “Waikiki Rotary Club”. We accepted our tags, sipped our cocktails, and chatted idly until someone suddenly started ringing a bell and announcing the start of the meeting. We were seated at our assigned table, and over far-too-salty, flour-thickened clam chowder listened to President Liz announce the clubs achievements over the past year. Over an iceberg lettuce salad with thick Ranch dressing we were asked to stand up and introduce ourselves, state our professions, and explain why we were interested in joining the Rotary. During dried chicken breast over yellow rice and limp green beans we watched as club members passed a hat, and won the right to say something nice about someone else in the club by putting money in it. We skipped the chocolate cake as the meeting was adjourned and were immediately swarmed by eager Rotarians coming in for the kill. At long last we spoke to Liz. “Well,” she said, “are you at all interested in joining the Rotary?” We muttered an excuse about being off island all summer, thanked her for the opportunity, and fled.
1) We like our friend Liz. You should not, however, trick people into attending club meetings of any kind.
2) My husband and I do good deeds. We also donate good funds. What we don’t do is talk about it. We specifically don’t join clubs to talk about it.
3) Our friend Lora is very active in a different Rotary Club. If we were going to join a Rotary (which we’re not), years of friendship would obligate us to join hers.
4) If we were going to join a club (which we’re not) whose meetings were held during mealtime, we would join a club that met where the meals are good.
5) I was the best damn chef of any yacht club on this island.
Rotary Dial
Our friend Liz invited my husband and I to join her at the Waikiki Yacht Club for dinner. Always eager to compare other yacht club menus with my own offerings at the Kaneohe Yacht Club two years prior, we accepted. We arrived at the club and rather than Liz were greeted by Liz’s boyfriend. As he offered a round of cocktails he informed us that Liz would be joining us after “the meeting”. He then further confused matters by ushering us to a check-in table where we received name tags, that, rather than titled “Waikiki Yacht Club”, were headed “Waikiki Rotary Club”. We accepted our tags, sipped our cocktails, and chatted idly until someone suddenly started ringing a bell and announcing the start of the meeting. We were seated at our assigned table, and over far-too-salty, flour-thickened clam chowder listened to President Liz announce the clubs achievements over the past year. Over an iceberg lettuce salad with thick Ranch dressing we were asked to stand up and introduce ourselves, state our professions, and explain why we were interested in joining the Rotary. During dried chicken breast over yellow rice and limp green beans we watched as club members passed a hat, and won the right to say something nice about someone else in the club by putting money in it. We skipped the chocolate cake as the meeting was adjourned and were immediately swarmed by eager Rotarians coming in for the kill. At long last we spoke to Liz. “Well,” she said, “are you at all interested in joining the Rotary?” We muttered an excuse about being off island all summer, thanked her for the opportunity, and fled.
1) We like our friend Liz. You should not, however, trick people into attending club meetings of any kind.
2) My husband and I do good deeds. We also donate good funds. What we don’t do is talk about it. We specifically don’t join clubs to talk about it.
3) Our friend Lora is very active in a different Rotary Club. If we were going to join a Rotary (which we’re not), years of friendship would obligate us to join hers.
4) If we were going to join a club (which we’re not) whose meetings were held during mealtime, we would join a club that met where the meals are good.
5) I was the best damn chef of any yacht club on this island.
posted by Kristin Van Bodegraven @ 5:21 PM
1 Comments:
At 9:20 AM,
Anonymous said…
Where's the Kool-Aid???
Seriously, what a way to potentially put a bad taste in someone's mouth about such a great organization (Rotary). That said, any friend of W & K's would have done that unintentionally, of that I am confident.
Thanks for your good community support, in your own styles, which does in fact make a difference!
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