BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//wp-events-plugin.com//7.2.3.1//EN TZID:America/Los_Angeles X-WR-TIMEZONE:America/Los_Angeles BEGIN:VEVENT UID:286@usrotary.org DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20250612T070000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20250612T083000 DTSTAMP:20250611T174939Z URL:https://usrotary.org/events/program-classification-talks-lee-raaen-and -joseph-thomas-june-12-2025/ SUMMARY:Program: Classification Talks: Lee Raaen and Joseph Thomas\," June 12\, 2025 DESCRIPTION:\nJoin the University Sunrise Rotary Club for a program featu ring Founding Members Lee Raaen and Joseph Thomas.\n\n\n\nThe \;progra m will be presented on Zoom on Thursday morning with the Zoom line opening at 7 a.m. \; The formal meeting including the program runs from 7:30- 8:30 a.m. \; \;No registration is required\, and the program is fr ee.\n\n\n\nThe meeting will be available via Zoom. \;Click here to joi n the meeting Thursday morning. \; The Zoom line will open shortly aft er 7 a.m.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nLee Raaen is a Founding Member of the Uni versity Sunrise Rotary Club. He has been a Washington State lawyer for ov er 42 years.\n\n\n\nHe serves as a Hearing Examiner for cities in Western Washington including Kent\, Des Moines\, Mukilteo\, Lacy\, and several oth ers. He has often been appointed as an arbitrator for the King County Supe rior Court. He also serves as an expert witness in attorney fee dispute l itigation.\n\n\n\nToday\, his practice consists primarily of civil litigat ion (attorney's fee disputes\, plaintiff's personal injury\, business and real property litigation).\n\n\n\nJoseph Thomas is also a founding member of our club. Today\, he live in Mexico and is a recently graduated lawyer . At the time of the cataclysmic eruption of Mt. St. Helens\, Joseph Thom as was the public information specialist for the Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie Nati onal Forest based in Seattle. He had previous volcanic experience from pla nning the Forest Service response for the potential eruption of Mt. Baker at the head of the Skagit River. That would have impacted the Puget Sound area\, Bellingham\, Vancouver and the British Columbia growing area as wel l as Vancouver Island. It gave him the experience before the Mt. St. Helen s eruption of working with the seismology and volcanology scientists at th e University of Washington.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nAs well\, during his previous y ears as a paratrooper and Public Information Officer of the 82d Airborne D ivision\, he had parallel experience in events with wide national and inte rnational attention. He as well\, graduated from the Defense Department´s specialty course for such officers\, called DINFOS.\n\n\n\nHe applied tho se skills as the information manager for the Forest Service’s Regional w ildfire fighting team and as an instructor for training information specia lists at the national wildfire center in Boise\, Idaho.\n\n\n\nThere are o nly four American Citizens in Mexico now with the ability to practice law in Mexico\, and presently\, Joseph is the only one known living the Valle y of México that has 100\,000 Americans living there full time and appro ximately 2 million in the country.\n\n\n\nJoseph has current cases dealing with recovery of American citizenship and other issues impacting American Citizens.\n CATEGORIES:Speakers END:VEVENT BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:America/Los_Angeles X-LIC-LOCATION:America/Los_Angeles BEGIN:DAYLIGHT DTSTART:20250309T030000 TZOFFSETFROM:-0800 TZOFFSETTO:-0700 TZNAME:PDT END:DAYLIGHT END:VTIMEZONE END:VCALENDAR