DAWN ALIVERTI greeted us. JULIUS GLOVER lead us in singing America and BECKY SCHOLL "invocated" us with a great prayer that she had been saving for a whole year. LINDA HACKETT introduced guests: a partial West Valley interclub of Jerry McLaren, Don Young and Bill Bennett. LYNN SMITH introduced his better half, Kathy.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

December 3rd will be Salvation Army Bell Ringing. There are some sign ups still open, says DON DAVIDSON and co chair JOE KENNISH will be furnishing coffee and Krispi Creme Donuts. Call Don and sign up if you haven’t already. There are even some warm day time spots open. Don’s email is ddavidson@nwinfo.net

LYNN thanked the club for doing 5 interclubs during the month of November. ROGER BELL will be committee person in charge of December interclubs.

FAMILY HOLIDAY PARTY is Tuesday evening, December 17 at Englewood Christian Church. Social gathering at 6 p.m. and dinner at 6:30. Guests over 12 years of age will be $8.75. This takes the place of our meeting on the 17th. The balloon / face painting clown will be there along with Santa so everyone bring your families and come. AMY NEAL and CARLA SAVAGE want everyone to sign up by December 10, so check your calendar. This year unless you cancel your reservations in a timely fashion, you will be charged for those signing up and not attending. We have been a little loose about this in the past and it really hurts the budget since we have to be prepared with gifts and food for all those signed up to attend. This is always a great fun event for everyone so please come.

PRESIDENT BARB announced that the new members/Presidents Project committee headed up by chairperson, KIRSTEN STOFFER, is adopting Martin Luther King grade school with many volunteer opportunities which you will hear more about later.

The Board agreed that the profits from last year’s Song Fest will be donated to the participating schools to buy sheet music for this year. A great project through the joint efforts of our club, Chairperson, SPENCER HATTON, Argus Insurance and the many participating school choirs.

DAWN announced that the YMCA children will be at our meeting on December 10. She is looking for a volunteer for Santa (equipment provided). Email Dawn if you can do it. Her email is _______________
Also she reminded us that if you are not planning on eating when you come to the meeting tell the greeter so the count that the greeter takes will match the number of plates used. She explained that it is the accountant in her that says everything must balance.

A big THANK YOU to VELMA CRAWFORD for sewing on the banner patches. IT is hard work and she does a great job.

MIKE WILSON, Sergeant fill in for missing JON ISON, fleeced the crowd which seemed to be too easy with the recent Cougar loss. Why didn’t those Wildcats have to pay?

RICH LEWIS called one of the greatest games of Bingo ever with PAT DANIELSON (your scribe) winning! It was a good day.

PROGRAM:

Our own LYNN SMITH was introduced by program chairperson, SALLY BALDWIN. Lynn shared his real life experiences working on the Alaska Pipeline and added vivid details to the video showing us the details of the building of the pipeline. Lynn said that it was the most fantastic and challenging project that we as a country have ever accomplished. There were persons from every state and also every Union in the country were working together as a team. The haul road was completed in 1969 as the first project and then the Pipe Line sat in limbo for four years for mainly environmental reasons. The original budget was $900,000 million and after delays the final budget was $9 billion. The Alaska Pipeline goes from Prudoe Bay at the northern edge of Alaska and travels through Fairbanks and at the end of 800 miles ends up in Valdez. It takes 7 ½ days for the crude oil to travel the 800 miles. The pipeline is 7 to 16foot deep in places and goes over ground, under rivers, over rivers, through mountains and just about everything. It is 50% above ground and 50% below ground. The crude oil is 135 degrees when it enters the pipe line so the pipes could not set on the ground or it would melt the surrounding soil and cause damage so it had to be raised above ground level. Supplies and equipment were flown in to lay the pipe. Camps had to be built. There were 30 different camps with 500-1500 men and women. Each camp needed water, sewage treatment and air conditioning systems. Everyone worked 10-12 hour shifts. The workers had maid service and meal service. Expenses were just for personal items. Eating was very good. The work force numbered 20,000 people with 6000 actually doing the work on the line and the rest were support workers in offices, warehouses, cooks and clean up crews, inspectors, delivery people etc. (Lynn’s wife Kathy was a support person in scheduling and that is where they met) The recent earthquake found 0 problems with the project where roads were split 200 feet away from the pipeline. They really did their job. As part of the building process there were to leave it as if they were not there. There was not one animal killed during the building of the pipeline. Bears were a large problem as were arctic foxes. Lynn shared the story that the bears even figured out how to get food out of truck by popping the windshields! The coldest temperatures he experienced was -80 degrees. During the cold vehicles where never shoot down but left running 24 hours a day.

This was another great program from one of our members. Thank you, Lynn.

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