Owego Rotary Club Rotateller

SUZANNE reported that she and Mrinalini had not shopped the week before, but went directly from Rotary last week to shopping.

MUSIC:

Carl and Carolyn led us in “America, the Beautiful”. I know that I have shared this before, but it is one of those thoughts which keeps returning. Many years ago, when singing one of our patriotic songs, Damir Lazaric, who was a member and was born in eastern Europe chastised the members for having to read the words of a song he knew from memory.

FINES: Judy

EXCHANGE:

Laura reported that she has heard from Marco Gomez, who is teaching his family to speak English.

GSE:

Al thanked John Spencer for the wonderful job he did with the team and for hosting the party.

BOARD OF DIRECTORS:

PLANNING MEETING:

SUZANNE did go shopping with host-brother Jeff at the Salvation Army, met friends in Ithaca, and went to Lancaster with Karla, Kevin and the boys. She really enjoyed seeing the Amish.

PROGRAM:

Karla spoke about being an Interior Designer and how it is different from being an interior decorator. She also explained her credentials. Interior design is primarily related to space planning, both for esthetics and function. They will look at moving furniture, fixtures and walls as long as the wall are not load-bearing. They need to know codes and when to consult an architect or an engineer. Karla gave us an idea of the types of courses she has taken in this education including drafting, psychology, design history, and color theory. Much of what she does is research.

It is interesting that the first state license for interior design was in Illinois in 1898. For comparison, medical education was very primitive at that time with most of the schools still being proprietary. It wasn’t until 1910 that medical schools and licensing became more professional and consistent. Karla’s presentation was interesting and informative in a area most of us probably know little about – although we have probably all seen poorly designed kitchens. Having office space designed to be efficient, pleasant to work in, and welcoming is a significant challenge.

I would recommend this book for those of you who are interested in American History. This book looks at America as a participant on the world scene and how international and domestics issues coincided or clashed. I found it to be very interesting and a different orientation from books which assume that the US was independent from the rest of the world. It also points out how we have been perceived by other nations over the years, which is often not how we perceive ourselves (or how our actions have been portrayed in our history books).

It was in the first year of the (Benjamin) Harrison administration that the United States turned decisively toward a battleship fleet. The deadly forces of nature played a part when the typhoon at Apia pulverized the wooden-hulled American pacific squadron that Cleveland had sent to keep an eye on the Germans at Samoa. That year Secretary of the Navy Benjamin Tracy delivered a report to Congress calling for two fleets of battleships, one for the Atlantic and one for the Pacific.

Tracy’s 1889 report put the battleship at the heart of the U. S. Navy and shifted naval doctrine from passive coastal defense to an aggressive, offensive strategy. “A war, though defensive in principle,” he argued, “may be conducted most effectively by being offensive in its operations.” The shift was controversial. Many Democrats argued that an offensive strategy ran contrary to American traditions and would likely lead the United States to war.

Rotary Club of Owego, NY

GUESTS: