Alan Chamberlain attended a community college and five western North American Universities. He has earned five degrees including a BS, MS, and PhD in geology. He has worked for Exxon, Gulf, Marathon and Placid oil companies. Several major oil companies provided him the financial incentive to leave Placid in 1984 and initiate the first Great Basin geological survey. Alan has been directing the survey ever since as president and chief geologist of Cedar Strat Corp.

Dear Rotarians,

Given the topic of today’s program, I thought I would provide you with a bit of information and history on the Great Basin itself. The Great Basin is defined as a hydrographic area 209,162 square miles in size that drains internally. This means that all precipitation in the region evaporates, sinks underground or flows into lakes (mostly saline). As observed by John Frémont, who was one of the early Las Vegas pioneers of European decent, rivers in this area find no outlet to either the Gulf of Mexico or the Pacific Ocean.

Interestingly, the ancient Paiute and Anasazi tribes also noticed this phenomenon and originally named this area “watta-no-flo-outta” which centuries later was somewhat awkwardly translated into “what happens here stays here”. Of course, the Convention Authority creatively adopted this as a global marketing theme which helped transform Las Vegas into the Entertainment Capital of the World and also gave rise to another famous saying – “Bad decisions lead to great stories”.
…and now YOU know the rest of the story!

Tongue firmly in cheek,

David Thorson
President 2016 -2017
Las Vegas Rotary Club

• President David Thorson called the meeting to order.
• Joe Lee gave the invocation. Jaime Goldsmith led the club in singing the National Anthem. The Pledge of Allegiance was recited and the Sergeant-at-Arms was Past President Steve Linder.
• There were (0) International Rotarians, (1) Visiting Rotarians and (6) Guests of Rotarians were introduced.
• The drawing began at $3,279.00 plus this week’s donations. The winner gets half the pot and half goes to the Las Vegas Rotary Foundation. Ticket Winner: Larry Rouse who won $10! Lawry Bucks Winner: Past President Steve Linder.
• President David Thorson announced a $3,000 grant from the LV Rotary Foundation to Rotoplast.
• Arleen Sirois and President Elect-Elect Ed Lepere announced a new procedure that will help save water at the weekly club meetings.
• Erik Astramecki announced that the Super Bowl board is open for bets. Half the take will go toward our $2.0 million Las Vegas Rotary Foundation goal!
• Cheryl Trupe from Beckley Elementary School announced that there were (214) people who received books at Breakfast with Books recently. There were also (61) children at Books with Buddies and we still need more mentors.
• Carolyn Sparks presented Lloyd Sauter and Bob Barnard with Paul Harris Fellow +4 award pins.
• Jim Kohl presented Project 150 with grant for $3,500.
• Rod Tucker provided an update on Tom Thomas’ Antarctic Mountain climbing adventure – base camp achieved.
• Arleen Sirois announced that the next Wine to Water event will be on February 22, 2017 at Dr. Kaz Fathie’s home in Spanish Trails at 6pm.
• Kirk Alexander announced that we need volunteers for RYLA the weekend of April
  28, 2017.
• Chris Bennett announced that the next 25 Club Social will be on January 20, 2017 at 6pm starting at Chayo and moving to the High Roller!
• Janice Lencke introduced the speaker, Chelsea Seegers, the Group Sales Manager for the T-Mobile Arena. Chelsea explained to the club that the T-Mobile Arena is a 50/50 partnership between MGM/Mirage and AEG. The building of the Arena was a
  privately funded $375 million project. It is the home of the NHL Team, The Las Vegas Golden Knights. They also hosted the largest UFC fight in the history of the sport. They have an arrive early and stay late motto! Arrive early and party at the Toshiba
  Plaza, stay late and party at Hyde Nightclub located at the top of the arena. They are a LEED Gold Certified property and are also a nonsmoking facility.
• President David Thorson presented the speaker with a “Sole Power Award” and
  adjourned the meeting.