Posted by David A. Dye on Jan 13, 2021
President JT Forbus (Accounting | Bogdan & Frasco) welcomed everyone to the January 12, 2021 meeting held virtually at the Tadich Grill. He began the meeting with an inspirational poem, In Spite of War, by Angela Morgan. The message was that life continues even when terrible things happen and we are encouraged to look at the best surrounding us and not focus on the negative things in our world. President JT also announced that Disneyland would be transformed into a COVID-19 vaccination super site.
 
Visiting Rotarians and Guests
In today's audience were Past District Governor Chris Gallagher, Csongor Czezar from Hungary, and Geoff Cochran, an Annual Giving Officer with The Rotary Foundation.
 
New Member Inducted 
President JT and our Vice President of Membership Terry Pickering (Financial Services | Retired) inducted Margaret Miley (Hospitality: Hotels | Handlery Hotels, Inc.). Through Rotary, Margaret is hoping to give back to the community and to form new friendships. Welcome, Margaret!
 
Grant Season Has Begun
Dan Joraanstad (Financial Services: Advising | Retired), President of the San Francisco Rotary Foundation, kicked off the 2021-2022 Grant Season. He showed us where the new grant template and final form were housed in our Club's website. For more information, please read this announcement.
 
A Report from the Ending Human Trafficking Committee
National Human Trafficking Awareness Day is recognized each year on January 11. In recognition of this important day, and throughout the month of January, Chris Eggers (Building Security | Clavus Group) spoke on behalf of this Committee and gave an update on upcoming events.
 
Service Opportunities and Announcements
Bob Hermann (Information Technology: Administration | Retired UCSF), Vice President of Community Service, called for more volunteers to help distribute 300+ dictionaries with TogetherSF to third and fourth graders on January 16, 2021.
 
PDG Chris invited everyone to attend the next District 5150 International Service Committee Meeting to hear our Club's Chair of Ending Human Trafficking Committee speak. 
 
Brian Lan (Information Technology: Financial Services | DocuSign), Vice President of PR and Communications, reminded everyone to register for the Second Annual ALPS Gala. William Funkhouser (Financial Services: Advising | Wells Fargo Advisors) added that one of the auction items at this gala can be seen here and was made possible by Miranti Ojong (Financial Services: Advising | Team Armada). 
 
$20 for Twenty Seconds
  • Anita Stangl (Medical Services | Alliance for Smiles) and Jessica Hansen (Nonprofit Management | Alliance for Smiles) donated to honor our newest member, Margaret Miley, while Margaret donated for joining our Club today.
  • PDG Sue Rokaw (Law: Insurance | Deans & Homer) and President JT donated to celebrate today's speaker, Geoff Cochran. President JT had met Geoff at the Far West President-elect Training Seminars on March 6-8, 2020.
  • Bob Hermann donated to thank Maureen O'Shea (Governmental Relations | Retired) for her work with the San Francisco-Marin Food Bank.
  • President JT mistakenly called on Kaushal Chokshi (Management Consulting | Scaale Inc.), but Kaushal decided to make good on the call and made a donation.
Today's Speaker
Christopher Wiseman (Event Planning | Glaucoma Research Foundation), Vice President of Development, introduced today's speaker, who was Geoff Cochran (pictured), an Annual Giving Officer with The Rotary Foundation. Geoff told the audience about his background and his role as an Annual Giving Officer. He described the mission of The Rotary Foundation ("TRF"), discussed some of the TRF projects worldwide, broke down the funds (Annual, Endowment, PolioPlus, and others), and went over the levels of giving (Every Rotarian, Every Year; Paul Harris Fellow; Paul Harris Society; and more). President JT thanked Geoff and announced that 100 children would be inoculated against polio in his name.