President Casey Blair (Financial Services: Private Trading | KCB Trading, LLC) convened the Club’s “virtual meeting” at 12:15 PM. Sixty-one participants joined the meeting via Zoom, including eight guests. In light of the current protests focused on racial equality, President Casey cited Rotary’s longtime commitment to peace and conflict resolution and presented a quote from the late Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.: “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”
Recent and Upcoming Events
President Casey highlighted several recent volunteer and community engagement activities for our members as well as some upcoming events:
President Casey highlighted several recent volunteer and community engagement activities for our members as well as some upcoming events:
See’s Candies: The See’s factory in South San Francisco (along with all of their retail stores) have been closed for several months due to the COVID-19 crisis. As the factory and stores re-open, See’s contacted local Rotary clubs to donate excess and unsold inventory. See story for this activity coordinated by incoming Vice President of Community Service Bob Hermann (Information Technology: Administration | Retired).
Catholic Charities: Carol Laughlin (Nonprofit Management | Catholic Charities), Volunteer Services Manager for Catholic Charities, announced that Catholic Charities is assisting in the distribution of 8,000 debit cards to eligible clients. The organization needs translators. See information here.
Neeraj Miglani (Hospitality: Restaurants | Zingari Ristorante) has established a “Go Fund Me” page in conjunction with Episcopal Community Services (“ECS”) of San Francisco to raise money to provide meals to homeless and low-income residents. With the money raised, ECS will purchase meals from Zingari Ristorante, helping Neeraj keep his staff working during these challenging times. See here for more information.
Next week’s e-meeting will feature Holger Knaack from Germany, President-elect of Rotary International. Please note that the meeting will start at 11:00 AM.
Attention members over 60 years of age: President-elect JT Forbus (Accounting | Bogdan & Frasco) has scheduled a Special Meeting via Zoom on Friday, June 5, 2020. JT is soliciting input from our older members as to how they envision interacting with the Club in the coming months, especially in light of ongoing concerns with COVID-19. Do you anticipate attending in-person luncheon meetings once restrictions are relaxed? Or do you intend to wait until medical advances on COVID-19 are implemented (e.g., vaccines, treatments, etc.)? When in-person meetings resume, would you prefer to participate via an online platform (e.g., Zoom)? Everyone (regardless of age) is welcome to participate and offer input, but JT is especially interested in hearing from our older members.
Attention members over 60 years of age: President-elect JT Forbus (Accounting | Bogdan & Frasco) has scheduled a Special Meeting via Zoom on Friday, June 5, 2020. JT is soliciting input from our older members as to how they envision interacting with the Club in the coming months, especially in light of ongoing concerns with COVID-19. Do you anticipate attending in-person luncheon meetings once restrictions are relaxed? Or do you intend to wait until medical advances on COVID-19 are implemented (e.g., vaccines, treatments, etc.)? When in-person meetings resume, would you prefer to participate via an online platform (e.g., Zoom)? Everyone (regardless of age) is welcome to participate and offer input, but JT is especially interested in hearing from our older members.
District 5150 Awards Regatta: At 10:00 AM on Saturday, June 13, 2020, District 5150 will convene for a virtual Awards Regatta. This is a great opportunity to learn about the activities of other clubs in the District. Everyone is welcome.
2020 Interact Scholarship Awards
Brian Lan (Information Technology: Financial Services | DocuSign) announced the winners of this year’s scholarships. From the Interact Club at George Washington High School, the winners were Eric Chen (planning to attend UC Berkeley) and Christine Lum (slated to attend San Jose State University). Winners from Lowell High School were Kellie Chan, Lauren Tran, and Caroline Wong, all of whom will attend UC Berkeley in the fall. Each winner received a $2,000 scholarship from the Rotary Club of San Francisco Foundation and an award certificate. Congratulations!
Brian Lan (Information Technology: Financial Services | DocuSign) announced the winners of this year’s scholarships. From the Interact Club at George Washington High School, the winners were Eric Chen (planning to attend UC Berkeley) and Christine Lum (slated to attend San Jose State University). Winners from Lowell High School were Kellie Chan, Lauren Tran, and Caroline Wong, all of whom will attend UC Berkeley in the fall. Each winner received a $2,000 scholarship from the Rotary Club of San Francisco Foundation and an award certificate. Congratulations!
Guest Speaker
Christopher Wiseman (Event Planning | Glaucoma Research Foundation) introduced Jennifer Forbeck, Chair of the 2020-2021 Bouquets to Art (“BTA”) program at the de Young Museum in San Francisco, as today's guest speaker. Begun in 1985, BTA is a week-long, annual exhibit at the de Young, in which 125 local floral designers each select a work of art displayed in the museum and then interpret it in flowers. The exhibit typically draws over 50,000 attendees annually and has raised over $7 million for the museum. It is the single best-attended event at the de Young. BTA is organized by the San Francisco Auxiliary of the Fine Arts Museums and involves a team of over 100 volunteers working with the museum staff to execute the exhibit.
Christopher Wiseman (Event Planning | Glaucoma Research Foundation) introduced Jennifer Forbeck, Chair of the 2020-2021 Bouquets to Art (“BTA”) program at the de Young Museum in San Francisco, as today's guest speaker. Begun in 1985, BTA is a week-long, annual exhibit at the de Young, in which 125 local floral designers each select a work of art displayed in the museum and then interpret it in flowers. The exhibit typically draws over 50,000 attendees annually and has raised over $7 million for the museum. It is the single best-attended event at the de Young. BTA is organized by the San Francisco Auxiliary of the Fine Arts Museums and involves a team of over 100 volunteers working with the museum staff to execute the exhibit.Unfortunately, this year’s BTA (scheduled to run this week) was canceled due to COVID-19. Jennifer presented a stunning collection of photographs of past BTA exhibits. Many included dramatic and eye-catching interpretations of well-known art works in the museum’s permanent collection.
One of the highlights each year is “wearable floral art”: students at City College of San Francisco create stunning gowns and other clothing pieces which are modeled during the opening night gala.The BTA floral designers are given wide latitude to present their interpretation of a particular art piece, but the program has strict guidelines as to materials used (e.g., no artificial flowers or feathers) to protect the art works and to stay true to the event.
Due to COVID-19, the “live” BTA was canceled, to be replaced by a “virtual” BTA. That was postponed due to recent events, but Jennifer indicated they are hoping to reschedule BTA (at least in a “virtual” form) later this year.
Due to COVID-19, the “live” BTA was canceled, to be replaced by a “virtual” BTA. That was postponed due to recent events, but Jennifer indicated they are hoping to reschedule BTA (at least in a “virtual” form) later this year.
$20 for Twenty Seconds
Those pledging today included:
David Dye (Management Consulting | Retired), who pledged $40, acknowledging the wonderful group of scholarship winners and noting that he and Dora Dye (Education: Community College | City College of San Francisco) are “guinea pigs” for the first-ever Districtwide virtual Learning and Leadership Development Assembly.
Heidi Kuhn (Peace Building | Roots of Peace), who pledged $20 in appreciation of BTA and in recognition of her mother-in-law, who is a longtime member of the San Francisco Auxiliary of the Fine Arts Museums.
JT Forbus who pledged $40 in honor of the scholarship winners.
Rhonda Poppen (Grant Writing | GRANTdog) who pledged $20, and announced that she and John Mathers (Management Consulting | eVo Associates) are in contact with District leadership to evaluate ideas as to how Rotary clubs in our area can facilitate discussion and positive change around the issues of racial justice and equality. Rhonda thanked Scott Plakun (Management Consulting | The Plakun Group) for encouraging her to take action.
The meeting was adjourned at 1:25 PM.
Photos and editing by Dora Dye