Today 45 members and guests met for our annual Club Assembly, where our incoming president, Alan Turner, revealed the strategic plans and ideas for his term.
President Athenea began the meeting with our customary recitation of the 4-Way Test. She then thanked our meeting volunteers; Greeter Cathy Glover, Pledge Ron Hunt, Inspirational Message Gary Saks and John O’Neill Scribe.
Athenea and Alan then passed out separate topics to each table. The instructions were to discuss each topic and present new ideas for consideration. Some of the ideas the teams came up with are:
1. Invite speakers from Fire Station 33 to report on their new comm system and update us on the latest changes at the station.
2. Invite Scott Peters and Brian Maienshein to tell what is going on with political and legislative events in the county and state.
3. Obtain a speaker to educate us on Artificial Intelligence (AI).
4. Since the speakers often lose some of their 25-30 presentation minutes, we should consider changing the speaker slot to the first part of each meeting. The president can then trim the agenda if needed.
5. One table questioned the efficacy of booing the finemasters, and were roundly booed by the members, much to the delight of finemaster John O’Neill.
(There were many more great ideas, but I couldn’t capture all of them).
President Athenea announced that Katie Hunter and Barb Alperts will develop a plan to provide better information and training to new members. Since Family of Rotary reporter Arilla St. Laurent was absent she called on John O’Neill to do the F.O.R. John reported that Arilla St.Laurent is recovering from surgery on her femoral artery. Joanne Hyldahl is on the mend from knee replacement surgery. Terri Hunter recently had eye surgery and felt good enough to join us.
Finemaster John was given his customary chorus of boos and promptly fined a few members who were not wearing a Rotary pin and/or badge. He then revived the Real Men Don’t Wear Pink Shirts prohibition, fining three members with dubious color choices. Next up was frequently fined Bill Brehm, who cheerfully donated to the cause. Many generous members contributed Happy Bucks.
Gary Saks presented a matching grant check to Andrea Breuninger from the PKD foundation to help find a cure for this dreadful kidney disease.
Next week, the speaker slot will feature clarinetist and pianist, Larry Okmin and Kathy Schumaker, playing some jazz for us.
President Athenea adjourned the meeting with the ringing of the bell.
Westwood Clean-Up Day Images by James Kaspar
