Rancho Bernardo Rotary October 22, 2015 Meeting Minutes and Images by Gary Saks

Posted by Dave Brooks 
on Oct 27, 2015
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
FLASH NEWS FROM YOUR TREASURER TROY. PLEASE NOTE: THIS THURSDAY PLEASE BRING CASH OR CHECK: OUR CREDIT CARD MACHINE IS NOT WORKING. A BIG EFFORT IS UNDERWAY TO CORRECT THE PROBLEM BUT WE DON'T EXPECT IT TO BE BACK ON LINE UNTIL NEXT WEEK.
THANK YOU,
PRES, ARILLA
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***Ronald McDonald House Volunteer Opportunities in 2015***
Wednesday Dinner November 11, 2015
 
 
 
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Meeting Minutes
 
October 22, 2015
 
President Arilla brought the meeting to order and the Pledge of Allegiance was led by your scribe Dave Brooks.  Past-president Gary Saks inspired us by summarizing an article he saw in the Union Tribune describing the mental and physical benefits of volunteering and being generous.  These include better sleep, less anxiety and dementia and a longer life span.
Our greeter today was Past-president Don Glover and he introduced one special guest, RZ Norris.  RZ has recently applied to become a member of our club.  We welcomed her in the key of G which Don provided with a pitch pipe.
President Arilla thanked our volunteers:  Frances Blair and Joel Doss at check-in, room setup by Vern Cook and Past-president Paul Donick, photography by Gary Saks, Past-president Bill Angus for doing the newsletter and these words by your humble scribe, Past-president Dave Brooks.
 
Past-president Mira Bozanich provided the Family of Rotary report.  She said Jim Edwards was in good spirits and doing much better.  Ed Knight is also recovering well from his surgery last week.
 
President Arilla reminded us that the next TGIX would be the dictionary labeling party at her house. This will be scheduled as soon as the dictionaries arrive.  She also mentioned the RB Community Foundation Thanksgiving Luncheon which is on November 24th this year.  We hope to fill 2+ tables of 10 as we have done in past years.
 
Don Lisio gave us an update on Adopt-a-Family.  Please bring your checks payable to the RB Rotary Club Foundation by next week so we can get the shopping done for our designated families before Thanksgiving.
 
President-elect Benita Page announced the D5340 Foundation Seminar would be on Saturday November 14th at the Escondido Center for the Arts.  This event will discuss the projects our district has done and will be doing, and also describe the grant application process.  Tacos and beer will follow!
 
Arilla read us a letter from District Governor Janice Kurth thanking us for our significant participation in the Millions for Hope Gala last weekend.  We had over 20 attend, and the headcount at the event was 560.  This campaign raised $15.5 million, and in a stunning announcement this was MATCHED by an anonymous donor to bring the total contribution to $31 million!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
New member John Kasser stepped in as Finemaster as a late replacement for Past-president John O’Neill who pulled a muscle in his back while counting all the fines he collected last week.  Tall John did an excellent job presiding over “happy bucks” which included Frances Blair telling us her most recent brain scan showed no cancer and Bill Angus buying a little commercial time to request donations to send Cub Scout popcorn to our troops.
 
Our speakers today were our own members updating us in several areas.  These included:
-Bill Angus on the public relations aspects of our Fairway to Honor fundraiser.  More than money, this event also gets our name out into the community and on social media channels like Twitter and Facebook;
-Mike Fuqua discussed Youth Services including Interact, Rotaract, RYLA, Model UN, MusiCamp, 4 Way Test Speech Contest and Youth Exchanges.  He also mentioned a new D5340 program called the Youth Instrumental Music Contest which is organized like the 4 Way Test Speech Contest but for musicians;
-President Arilla gave us details on the Dictionary Project.  We have spent $7000 on dictionaries and thesauri and will be distributing to more schools, 13 this year; and
-Past-president Jim Hyldahl talked about Membership.  We are at 61 members now including 3 honorary.  We will be adding 2 soon.  Jim’s goal for this year is to reach 75; this will be a stretch especially in the face of attrition, which never sleeps.  To accomplish this, we all must invite quality people to meetings, people you would like to spend time with.
 
John Kasser closed the meeting with an inspirational thought about how to deal with life’s obstacles.  Rather than give into defeat, consider: how can I solve this?