On July 28 the premeeting chatter included a brief update from John Barrie about our project installing solar panels in Guatemala. A longer presentation will be made in the Fall.

President Susan rang the meeting into session and Tom Strode led off with The Star Spangled Banner. Larry Eiler, with enthusiasm and passion, told us about his new business, My Good Grief. It teaches people how to respond positively to loss and hardship, assuring us that hardship done right will lead to a rewarding life. Dave Keosaian pepped us up with Nat King Cole’s rendition of “Lazy Hazy Crazy Days of Summer.”

President Susan asked that members hosting guests use the chat to tell everyone a bit about their guest. She thanked the people who make the meetings run smoothly and announced birthdays.  She then made some announcements:

• Saturday at the Park, an informal coffee hour, will be this Saturday at 10:00am at the County Farm Park shelter;
• Friday July 30 all proceeds from in-person sales at sales at Zingermann’s Mail Order Warehouse will benefit Hire MiVet;
• The memorial for Katie Berry will at at the First Presbyterian Church, 10:00am Saturday.

Sally Petersen reported on the progress of the annual survey. 35% of us responded but she is hoping for more members to weigh in. Lori will send the link again. Please respond – this is your chance to tell the club’s leadership what you would like to see in the club going forward. Deadline is July 31.

Charlie Koopmann, co-chair of the Golf and Tennis Outing, told us more about the outing and encouraged us to participate. We can play golf (or send our golfing friends), enjoy cocktails and hors d’ouvres while browsing (and bidding on!) the auction items, have a good dinner and enjoy a talk by Jack Harbaugh. Auction items are being collected. Contact Kathy Waugh (kathywaugh@gmail.com) or Lori Walters with donations and questions.

Marcia Lane invited us to join the AntiRacism Committee for its second Tuesday planning meeting and fourth Tuesday for the Inside Look discussion. Contact Marcia (mlane0407@gmail.com) to receive the Zoom link. Equipment failure prevented her showing a video, one in the series of Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black man, which will be shown at a later time. She shared the link: uncomfortableconversationswithaBlackman/episode/episode-1.

Notes from the Program

Steve Pierce introduced our speaker, Fiona Tanner. Fiona is from Papua, New Guinea where she grew up in the beautiful natural landscape, free of city confines and developing a passionate, lifelong love of nature. She determined to find a way to save her country from the depredations of extractive industry and monoculture farming. She settled on coffee.

On the Managalas Plateau small farmers were already planting and harvesting coffee on small, unconnected farms. Coffee is the most traded commodity in the world after oil so organization of the farmers seemed a likely avenue. While posted to New York with her first husband, a diplomat, Fiona forged ties with the Rainforest Foundation. With help from the Foundation and other organizations, 2,345 farmers were organized into a coffee and conservation company that was able to increase the quality of the coffee, have it certified organic, and increase prices 400%. The livelihood of the native people was substantially increased and now health care and insurance are available and affordable and education is available and encouraged. After a 32 year struggle, in 2017 the region was declared a Conservation Area, which will protect it from exploitation in perpetuity.

Fiona and her second husband were forced to leave New Guinea after an assassination attempt. Seven years later, Fiona was invited to join others in a similar project in Uganda, working to save the last habitat of the mountain gorillas. She joined the Gorilla Highlands Coffee team and subsequently founded the Noble Gorilla Foundation. This foundation has replicated much of her New Guinea work but also has expanded to include teaching women and girls crafts to sustain the community between growing seasons. The group is working actively on meeting the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals. This is long and expensive work by dedicated people such as Fiona.

Notes by Agnes Reading

Photography by Fred Beutler