BACK TO THE FUTURE: Everything seemed pretty routine at the meeting Thursday. Lots of laughs and good conversation, some lame jokes, some travel talk. But then the room began to grow dark and suddenly everything was spinning. And all was quiet.
 
BACK TO THE FUTURE: Everything seemed pretty routine at the meeting Thursday. Lots of laughs and good conversation, some lame jokes, some travel talk. But then the room began to grow dark and suddenly everything was spinning. And all was quiet.

It was like we had jumped into the future. Adam Bellingar had gray hair. Rob Lee had long ago stopped wearing sandals. Eric McRory was reminiscing about the good old days when he still was able to ski in the winter, not just in his dreams from the retirement home. 

Then Jack King began to speak.

He talked about a new era, when Sunrise Rotary members might simply go to a computer and see photos of fun times at Rotary parties or sign up for events online, rather than on paper pass-arounds at meetings. Jack told how members might communicate with each other using an email message center, rather than old-fashioned methods such as talking or asking secretary Jack Keith to forward a message. 

It was all wondrous and disorienting.

THREE THINGS: Thursday's speaker was our own Jack King, who has been working on reviving the Sunrise Rotary's old website. He's still got more work to do, but he gave an electronic tour of some of the things we can expect:

1. Our new look is hosted by ClubRunner, which has built a Rotary template used by our district and many other Rotary clubs. It offers lots of information about Rotary in general, but it also gives our club an easy way to add our own flavor. We will be able to provide an events calendar, upcoming speakers listing, club history, etc.

2. Like most sites, this one has a public viewing area and then a members-only section where we can provide contact info, emails, member background details, etc. Jack also noted that we can add things we want, such as photo albums of past club events, like the hoedown, and contact info for businesses that donate to our Oysterfest fundraiser so we can easily reach them the following year. Jack said the site currently has a few glitches that he's trying to clean up, including a duplication of names for many members.

3. Homework assignment: Jack asked club members to go to the site, www.clubrunner.ca/bellinghamsunrise, and check it out. (Note that this uses ".ca" not ".com" -- it's a Canadian import.) As part of our assignment, he wants everyone to load a photo onto their bio page (or send your photo to Jack and he will upload it). He showed a few pictures that are still on our member information sheets: faces that sort of resemble Randy Carroll (in official chief of police pose), Mike Smith (in "Hey, it's the '90s, man" pose) and Scott Mihelich (oddly without a cigar). Get up-to-date photos and load 'em up.

To sign on to the site, use your name for an ID with a period in the middle, such as "jack.king" and then click on the item that let's you ask for a password. They'll email you a temporary one, and later you can change it to whatever you want. One future need will be to have one or more people updating the content to keep this fresh. For now, Jack King is taking charge, but please contact him if you have some interest in helping out.

Article from November 8 Eye-opener.  Authored by Jack Keith