MEN’S CLUB
The Eckes Team presented an outstanding Oktoberfest.
Thank you, Eric and Margi, as well as all the assistants. And thanks to Jack Christiansen for providing extraordinary train- ing and guidance to your successors. Niguel Shores Men’s Club continues to demonstrate its strength going into the future.
The Morris/Wollin Team served up breakfast for our October 1 meeting. Those guys can cook! Our featured speaker was Michele Reed, an accomplished storyteller with a new perspective on improving difficult interpersonal com- munications: LISTEN and have courageous conversations that take us through vulnerable places.
Michelle told of her early chaotic life attending eight dif- ferent elementary schools and shuttling between physically brawling divorced parents. Intimidated by her overbearing taciturn father, she chose to live with her crying mother. She grew up tough, always picking fights and altercations. Every other Friday, Dad picked her up in his ‘57 macho red Chevy truck and asked, “How ya doin kid? What are your grades? What do you think of the weather today?” The same three questions every other week for fourteen years. But then came a conversation—a breakthrough. After Michelle went to Hawaii without telling him, Dad called her to say they must talk. And she expressed her feelings, “Yes, Dad. I’m a tom- boy but you never comment on my appearance, my hair, you never say I look nice or not nice.” And so began a conversa- tion. And now Dad is Michelle’s very best friend.
So Reed says, have a conversation. About anything. Read a book and talk about it, notice something different, talk and listen. “Hey kid—your hair—it looks good!” Have courageous conversations even in the face of fear. Reed said the world needs more authentic conversations and someone must lead them.
On October 15, the Glatt/Baker Team prepared a fabu- lous breakfast. Thank you, guys. Our speaker was Skie Bender who runs Wolf Haven International (WHI), a non-profit sanc- tuary for wild wolves and coyotes in Washington State. Noting that coyotes have recently been observed patrolling the streets of Niguel Shores, Skie was quoted in the DP Times: “People can manage coyote problems in their communities by being proactive: securing meat and dairy compost, fencing off animal enclosures, feeding and watering pets indoors, keeping cats and small dogs indoors when not supervised, keeping yards free from thick brush, enclosing porches and decks, eliminat- ing fallen fruit and standing water, teaching children to be still and yell—and remember predators chase things that run!”
To the Men’s Club, Skie added: If faced with a coyote, stand tall and strong. Make and keep eye contact while gently withdrawing. For an urban coexistence we must re-instill in the coyote its fear of humans. Make it run off, all the way off.
Bender described how WHI provides a managed habi- tat for the animals and works with the US Fish and Wildlife Service to reintroduce and provide genetic diversity to native wolf and coyote packs. She said coyotes are scavengers— they will eat any delicacy made available to them, particu- larly all roadkill. Wolves prefer two-toed hoofed animals but successfully catch their prey only one out of ten attempts. Wolves and coyotes engage in scent-marking everything, including urinating on their food. Coyotes provide urban rodent control, going after rabbits, voles, rats, squirrels and mice. The wolf population that once nearly disappeared from the lower 48 is growing again. Wolves and coyotes are rare enough locally, but are dangerous to small domesticated ani- mals, so they frequently make the news. Stand tall.
Next up, Roger Strelow, a former high official at EPA and environmental counsel to GE.
—Robert Saint-Aubin
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