Rotary Meeting Minutes of April 1, 2021
Meeting started with President Alex ringing the bell to begin.
Russ Haskell shared with us a bit of history of the flag and led us in the pledge.
Terry Heck was our person delivering the Inspirational Message. Today is the first day of April, also known as April Fool’s Day, and we recognize another cultural heritage for the month. This month Terry introduced Arab American Heritage Month and he highlighted an Arab American who is a writer. Aside her many accomplishments and courage, Terry shared with the Club some quotes that are attributed to her which was inspiring. A few of those quotes are:
Everyone has complicated stories to deal with in life, even though we would like to move on and not have to think about our problems anymore. However, let us not forget that without problems there is no joy.
In order not to let bad things take over, we must remain optimistic which is not easy.
It is easier to complain and be sad than to realize how lucky we are.
And in particular, during tough times during COVID she as this to say:
“What is coming is better than what is gone”.
“Mistakes make you wiser and pain makes you somber”.
“Nobody can destroy your dreams”.
“When the world says give up, hope whispers try one more time”.
Jim Hyldahl was our greeting today and he came out pretty easy, there were no guest or visitors attending the meeting. However, Jim did make it a point to tell the members he was able to personally greet all members attending today.
Our resident troubadour, Joel Doss, entertained us with his musical prowess singing the Club’s Welcome Song.
President Alex recognized those members who made the meeting possible this week. These are the unsung heroes of the Club that work behind the scenes.
Our Zoom set-up and administrator this week was Alan Turner.
The literary genius this week who authored the minutes was the Knight of The Pen, John Goodrich
As always, the newsletter publisher is our elusive Bill Angus
Announcements:
Reminder for members to respond to the short two question email you received from John Goodrich, chair of our Diversity Committee.
A special Board meeting was held last Tuesday for the purpose of discussing COVID issues and how to keep Club members informed. One of the outcomes was President Alex will be developing and sending out every couple weeks to each member updated status reports on how to handle gatherings during this COVID period.
President Alex met with PE Athenea and Doug Dawson through video with Calexico Rotary Club. The purpose was to explore writing a global grant to address agricultural field workers and assist in education. We are considering partnering with a company that has developed software for people to be educated over via the internet and even achieve high school certificates.
Our Club go-to person for all things healthy, Arilla St. Laurent shared with the Club the status of our members and family members who may be going through some suffering.
Bill Angus’s mother’s memorial service will be held in May.
Brian Flaherty had to take his wife to hospital this morning with heart issues.
John O’Neill will be going into surgery on the 7th.
Please be reminded, if anyone hears of another member's health issue, report to Arilla so she can disseminate to all the members appropriately.
There was unusual chatter and cat calls for the introduction of our Fine Master, John O’Neill, the man we love to hate. As is mostly the case, John was successful in stealing pocket change from many of our members under the pretense of Happy Bucks. Some of those members particularly happy today included:
Joe Leverthal, Jan Goldsmith, Doug Dawson, Don Glover, John Goodrich, Sonny Googins, Bob Vaughn, Alan Turner, President Alex, Charley Crew, Dave King, and probably a few others I missed.
We do want to congratulate Dave King on his announced engagement to marry again…………….April Fools.
For those members not so happy today, let us know how we can make you happy, our Club treasury grows as the needle on the Happiness Scale moves up.
Joe Gandelman introduced our speaker, Gregg Gross, former Union Tribune journalist.
Following each speaker, Terry Heck presents a book to the Bernardo Heights Middle School under the name of our speaker. In the past, the books our Club presented to the middle school are the only new books they received.
More Announcements:
Our banding committee, headed by Jim Hyldahl, is updating the RI brand to our members and engaged in securing shirts for all members at no cost. Jim will reach to members to submit your size. Please be responsive with your reply so that Jim can get them ordered.
Don Glover announced Blood bank on April 16th , the Club will be supporting the drive from 10 am to 3:30 PM. He will be sending out email to all members for volunteers.
Don Glover spoke on behalf of Cathy Glover, all ten schools have been assigned and dictionaries will be dropped off at the schools. The schools will distribute to individual students.
Our RYLA chair, Jim Reid, announced this year RYLA will be virtual and only one day, April 17th. He announced that RYLA accepted all the students submitted by the clubs in the district.
Next Meeting Date: April 8th. Note starting time is 5PM. Speaker will be SD Mayor Todd Gloria
Meeting Close/Bell
