Volume IV, Issue 11   March 15, 2018 Editor: Todd Brewer

 

 

 

 

Speaker:  Tim Jackson - President/CEO of the Colorado Automobile Dealers Association. Tim has a goal of visiting as many Rotary Clubs as possible. Based on the pace of his presentation, he's not wasting time doing it. Tim gave a rapid tour of the history of the Automobile Dealer Network in the United States started by Henry Ford in 1908. Growing to 50,000 dealers across the US with multiple dealerships even in the smallest communities, today there are 17,000 dealerships/superstores that focus on one brand and ever increasing amenities. Tim also covered Colorado Automotive history starting with the Denver Auto Show which began in 1902 with 27 cars on display, including the Colorado made Stanley Steamer. Tim finished his talk covering the safety, efficiency and longevity of today's automobiles. He touched on the alternative power sources like electric, compressed natural gas and hydrogen fuel cells. Tim covered the future of Autonomous Vehicles, from parking assist to fully autonomous, even auto take off and landing vehicles and the potential impacts on traffic.

 

Tim even brought his own guests! Introducing to the Club George Billings - Founder of Clear the Air Foundation. An organization who's goal is to solicit donations of old polluting cars to remove them from the road, salvage the parts and use the proceeds to pay for scholarships to train mechanics. Since 2011, Clear the Air has removed 3200 polluting vehicles from our roads.http://www.cleartheairfoundation.org Tim also introduced Brad Appel of Wish for Wheels, an organization that partners with corporations through team building and community service events to provide bicycle to in need k-2nd grade kids in Colorado, to date they have donated 6000 bikes to kids in our communities http://www.wishforwheels.org 

 

* Answer - Yes, 5.6mil people v. 5.98mil registered vehicles.

 

Guests: Brad Appel, George Billings & Michelle O'Connor (Tim Jackson - speaker), Michael O'Sullivan (Roger Nicholson), Jeff Barrow (Justin Barrow)

 

Visiting Rotarians: District Governor Chris Peterson - Carbondale, David O'Grimes - County Greensborough.

 

 

 

Scholarship Committee - We have given 105 Scholarships totaling $698k since 1984. Currently reviewing applications contact Steve Seyffert if you are interesting in helping with the process or joining the committee.

 

Fundraiser for Doug Kidder - former Manager at Rustique, Doug had a stroke which resulted in a clot in his brain. He is currently at the University Hospital in Denver. Rustique and the Cooking School will be holding a benefit dinner for details contact Rob Ittner. There is aslo a gofundme page for donations to support Doug and family http://www.gofundme.com/dougkiddermedicalfund.

 

New Member Committee - Deborah Breen gave a new member update. We currently have 6 new members in the pipeline. Deborah reminded members to reference the new procedure for proposing potential members. Invitations to join must come from the Club.