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Meeting Minutes
June 11, 2020
President Dave King brought our Zoom meeting to order at 11:05 am and led us in reciting the 4 Way Test. The Pledge of Allegiance was led by Johanna Mullin, who described the flag folding ceremony provided by the military at veterans’ funerals. Phil Warner succinctly (!) inspired us with some thoughts from William Boetcker (1873-1962), first by his definition of the Seven National Crimes:
I don’t think.
I don’t know.
I don’t care.
I am too busy.
I leave well enough alone.
I have no time to read and find out.
I am not interested.
Boetcker also said: “The difficulties and struggles of today are but the price we must pay for the accomplishments and victories of tomorrow.”
We had two visitors today: Barb Crew and Didi Saks. Joel Doss lead us in another Zoom disjointed, but deeply authentic, performance of our much-loved Welcome Song.
President Dave thanked our volunteers: Zoom setup by Mike Fuqua, Bill Angus for doing the newsletter; meeting organization by John O’Neill and these words by your humble scribe, Dave Brooks.
Vern Cook told us that this is usually the time of year we collect socks and underwear for the Veterans Village Stand Down in the first week of July. However, it has been postponed until further notice this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. President Dave said we could collect the items now and he could store them in his garage along with Arilla’s furniture.
Treasurer Pat Chaffee told us that we collected $564 last week, and we have gone over $10,000 for the 12 weeks we have been collecting this way. Jim Hyldahl’s salmon give-away has been a big generator of donations and as that winds down we are looking for other ideas to keep the donations coming in.
Club Foundation President Don Glover announced that the board has decided to fund grant requests related to the pandemic now rather than wait until the usual November start of our grant cycle. The Boys & Girls Clubs of San Diego submitted a $2500 grant request to fund the Summer Camp program at the three sites opened for this program. The board decided to increase that grant to $4000 and give it now. Don will present the check to CEO and Rotarian Danny Sherlock on June 17th at the B&G Club 4S Branch at 16118 4S Ranch Parkway, San Diego, CA 92127. Don invited all members to attend this presentation.
Sandie Dewane updated us on the Care Giver project. They are finalizing the gifts we will be providing and doing all visits by the end of June.
President Dave said the club board will be meeting next Tuesday June 16th. Members are always welcome to attend board meetings. He reminded us that the RI Annual Convention will be held online from June 20th to 26th. More info is available online including registration: https://www.riconvention.org/en/honolulu. Lastly, the final Rotary District 5340 event of the year will be the Virtual Governor’s Celebration held on June 29th. Registration and more info is available here: https://www.rotary5340.org/Stories/virtual-governor-s-celebration
The Family of Rotary from Arilla St. Laurent: we are all chipper!
Finemaster Supreme John O’Neill levied no fines and cheerfully presided over Happy Bucks. Jim Reid gave $20 to call our attention to a guest editorial about the youth vote written by Victoria Dinov in the RB News Journal here: https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/pomerado-news/opinion/editorial/guest-column/story/2020-06-04/guest-editorial-who-runs-the-world-voters. Gary Saks mentioned that she is one of our scholarship recipients this year. Benita Page donated a total of $400 for Jim Hyldahl’s salmon, Mike Fuqua’s leadership award and for all the lunches she didn’t have to buy because we are meeting on Zoom. Bob Vaughn pledged $30 because he is happy about donating Helen’s clothes to villagers near Ensenada. Doug Dawson pledged $25 for two reasons: Skyler Yu contacted him to say thanks for our support last year for the Featheralist magazine. Skyler is a RYLA graduate, was a finalist in our 4 Way Test Speech Contest and will be going to Harvard this fall. Secondly, Doug announced that he is proposing to move the date of the Demotion Party up one day to avoid a conflict with the award ceremony for Mike Fuqua (note: this move was later approved; the Demotion Party will now be June 24th on Zoom).
We had Who Am I presentations today by Charley Crew and Doug Dawson.
Charley was born in Vermillion, SD and celebrates his 73rd birthday today. He moved to Golden, CO when he was nine. His father was a Rotarian. He received the first Adolph Coors scholarship award and went to the Colorado School of Mines. He participated in both track and swimming while there. He got his degree in metallurgical engineering and went to work for the Caterpillar Company.
He met Barb when she was 16 while attending the National High School Student Council Leadership Conference. He always remembers to introduce her at Rotary these days. They will celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary this year in August. They have two adopted children, Heather and Michael.
Various Caterpillar assignments took the family all over the world including Switzerland, Canada, Illinois, Ohio, Connecticut, Texas and finally California. He retired in 2009.
Charley joined RB Rotary in 2002. He was club president 2007-08. The Witch Creek fires took place during his year and he handled many offers of help from Rotary clubs around the world. He has attended 5 Rotary conventions. He is currently the secretary/treasurer of the club foundation and our Youth Protection Officer.
Doug Dawson was born in Taft, CA, an oil town. His father worked for the Standard Oil Company. He moved to Menlo Park when he was young. In high school he was half geek, half athlete, playing both football and tennis. He was president of the student council. He went to Princeton and again played many sports including squash, tennis and golf.
After graduation he went to work for the DuPont Company looking at alternatives to tetraethyl lead. Water worked best but it rusted the engine. He got drafted and entered the Coast Guard Officers Candidate School.
He met Jess as a blind date when he was a junior in college. They shared a common interest in art. They got married and lived in Washington, DC which they loved. After leaving the Coast Guard they moved to Los Altos and Doug went to work for the Container Corporation of America. He worked for them in various positions including manufacturing, sales, and planning at several locations. He retired in 2007 after working for CCA for 37 years.
Doug’s first retirement project was as an author. He wrote a book titled Northern California’s 100 Best Public Golf Courses, see it here on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Northern-Californias-Best-Public-Courses/dp/1616232811. Jess was the illustrator.
He had been friends with Don Glover for many years and Don persuaded Doug and Jess to look at houses in San Diego; they relocated to RB in 2015. He joined Rotary for 3 reasons: so he could contribute his time and money to worthy causes and as a way to meet new people. Doug was club president 2018-19. He loves to tell jokes, some of which are funny.
President Dave adjourned our meeting at 12:15 pm.