Alan's Angle 
                                     Highlights of the meeting of Tuesday, August 28 

 a

Tuesday morning dawned bright and sunny and the Sammamish Valley Grange was filled with fellow Rotarians and honored guests. Guiseppe (Joe T.) led us all in the flag salute, Daryl E. "remembered" to lead us in our invocation, and Ms. Puckett (with students present, I better get into school 'mode') led us in a rousing rendition of "God Bless America".

The students I mentioned above were all guests of Ms. Puckett. Lindsay is president of Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA), Kari is treasurer of FBLA, and Alia is Community Service Representative of FBLA. These three seniors joined us for breakfast this morning to tell us about their trip to Chicago earlier this summer to attend the national conference. They were very grateful to Woodinville Rotary for helping them defer part of the cost for the trip. They were able to learn and gain valuable experience on the trip. Lindsay, Kari, and Alia, thank you for sharing your experiences with us and good luck in the coming year! Also, please remind Mrs. Puckett about the football games, so she can remind us on Tuesday morning.

Jorge formally introduced our guest speaker for this morning (Ms. Puckett & Dr. Al M. did an "informal"  introduction by giving everyone a few bars of the classic Peter, Paul & Mary tune "Leaving on a Jet Plane") Jay Schaefer. Mr. Schaefer is Vice President - Finance and Treasurer for Alaska Air Group. Alaska Air Group encompasses Alaska Air and Horizon Air. Through a slide show, Mr. Schaefer explained to us that the 75 year old company is basically a "North-South" airline, in that, for the most part their flights go only those directions from their 2 Hubs, Seattle and Anchorage, AK. Alaska Air is an employee-focused company because, in their opinion, there is definite link between a happy employee and good customer service.

 

However, Mr. Schaefer, being the "bean-counter" that he is, pointed out that Alaska still needs to become more efficient to compete with the low-cost airlines, i.e. Southwest Air. Alaska, being the first airline to offer internet airline tickets and ticket kiosks in terminals, is usually on the cutting edge of technology, as Snappy pointed out with his correct answers. Alaska will further that reputation by eliminating ticket counters at SeaTac Airport and going with ticket and baggage kiosks. During a brief Q & A session, our resident Chief of Police noted that the present CEO of Alaska spoke to our group a few years ago and offered a flight simulation session for our charitable event. Not to be outdone, Mr. Schaefer readily agreed to match that item and possibly even do better.

Jay, thanks for the update on Alaska Air and good luck with all that changes that are coming.

Well, unfortunately, my pen ran out of ink at this point of the meeting, thus my notes for the rest of the meeting are from memory. And, with my memory being sketchy, at best, I’ll end my summary now. It is wonderful being back in these pages and I look forward to the next time.

Thanks for viewing. 

                                                   Respectfully submitted by Rotary Reporter Alan Nelson