Kiwanis Club of Cheney - November 6, 2014 meeting notes


The meeting was called to order at 7am by President Tom Whitfield.  Nineteen members plus our guest speaker were present.  There were no birthdays or anniversaries to celebrate; the 50/50 drawing was won by Vonice. 


Harvest Fest report - help was provided by about 12 Kiwanians (and some family members), 12 Salnave K-Kids and a lot of EWU students.  Fred and Gail handed out over 250 servings of cotton candy; there were over 300 total kids at the event.  Kirk was thanked for organizing our role in the event. 


The Easterner, the EWU student newspaper, mentioned Kiwanis for both Harvest Fest and Rake a Difference participation.


George Abrams reported that the State of Washington is asking rental owners if anyone can provide residence for people returning to the US from areas in Africa where Ebola is a present. 


See's candy pre-sell forms were collected.


Programs for the rest of November:  a representative of Honor Flight will speak at the November 13 meeting, on November 20 Sally Shamp of Toys for Cheney will speak and we may also have students of the month.  There is no meeting on Thanksgiving, November 27. 


Our guest speaker was Jim Hayford, head men's basketball coach at EWU.  He is a former Kiwanian and asked us to let him know how he can help us.  He 's lived in the Spokane area for 14 years, is married and has two children and has received a 5 year contract extension as EWU head coach.  He coaches because coaches were a big influence in his life and he wants to make a difference in student's lives.  He said that last year only 1 of the players had a less than 3.0 grade point and the team GPA has been very high in the last 3 years.  He gave us a bit of information on each player.  Players range in height from just under 6 feet to 7 feet 1 inch.  There are 2 from Australia (and more to come) and 2 from Europe.  When asked how he recruits international players, he said the key is relationships.  In Australia he's built relationships with people that work with their national basketball team and that's how he hears about potential athletes.  He focuses on students that he expects will stay at EWU for 4-5 years and complete their degrees; there is only 1 transfer student on this year's team.  Having a top ranked football team has helped with recruiting because students have already heard about EWU. 


The meeting was adjourned at 7:58 am.