Posted by John Dean on May 22, 2020
President Casey Blair (Financial Services: Private Trading | KCB Trading, LLC) called the meeting to order at 12:15 PM. 49 members participated on this Zoom meeting.

John Mathers (Management Consulting | eVo Associates) made a brief presentation on behalf of the Rotary Climate Action Team (“RCAT”). He noted that the media has been full of photographs and commentary recently showing the very positive environmental impacts of the COVID-19 shutdown. He presented several photographs showing wildlife roaming our cities, clean(er) air in major metropolitan areas from Los Angeles to Beijing, and fish returning to the waters of Venice. Hopefully, we have learned how much we impact our environment, and how altering our behavior can positively impact our environment. RCAT will be sponsoring a number of educational programs in the coming months. Stay tuned and get involved.
 
President Casey recapped several recent events:
 
Salvation Army food distribution for frontline workers and for the homeless: The Salvation Army continues to operate several emergency food programs in San Francisco and surrounding communities. Many Rotarians have volunteered to pack meals, load trucks, and handle the distribution of the meals. More volunteers are needed. Sign up on the Salvation Army website.

Bored Bread Heads: Students in the Oakland Technical High School Action Leadership Program for Students (“ALPS”), calling themselves the Bored Bread Heads, baked and distributed over 100 loaves of bread to Oakland-area food pantries and meals programs as well as a senior center. Local television station KTVU-Fox 2 covered the project and interviewed Connor Krone (Education: Management | Connor Krone, Inc.), who is the ALPS Director. 

Nonprofit Roundtable: Vice President of Vocational Services Mary Liu (Real Estate: Sales | Vanguard Properties/JM Real Estate Group) is hosting via Zoom an educational and networking event for those working in the nonprofit sector on Friday, May 29, 2020 at noon. This will be a great opportunity for those working in nonprofit organizations to discuss common challenges and share ideas as we move through these uncertain times.

Awards Regatta:  The District 5150 Virtual Awards Regatta will be held on June 13, 2020 from 10:00 AM until 11:30 AM. Join in and meet other clubs in the District. 
 
Bylaw Changes 
President Casey presented several Bylaw changes. These changes are intended to formally recognize our new Corporate Membership program and authorize the Club Board to set mandatory dues for the Corporate Members. In addition, our Club Bylaws still reference an “initiation fee’ to be paid by all new members, although the Board discontinued imposing such an initiation fee in the early 1990’s. Accordingly, the proposed Bylaw changes included elimination of the new member initiation fee. Club Secretary Dora Dye (Education: Community College | City College of San Francisco) certified that a quorum of members was present at the meeting today. The Club Board previously approved these Bylaw changes, and today, the membership unanimously approved these Bylaw changes.
 
Club Assembly
President-elect JT Forbus (Accounting | Bogdan & Frasco) then led the Club Assembly. He began with a brief overview of his plans for his term of office. JT indicated that he believes our Club is “better together”: his goal is to help the Club continue to move forward, continue the momentum we have built in recent years, and, at the conclusion of his term, hand off a successful Club to his successor. While the current challenges of the pandemic leave us facing uncharted waters, we can—and must—accept the challenge and continue to grow and evolve together.

Citing recent demographic information, JT noted that our Club has added 43 net members over the past five years, while the District-wide membership in Rotary is essentially flat during the same period. In other words, given a choice of clubs, prospective new members are choosing our Club. While membership District-wide is 70% male, our Club is almost equally divided male/female. 
 
JT also described how to know that we have selected the right President for the Club:
 
 
JT then described his goals for the coming year:
  • Drive Membership: Continued growth in membership is essential to any Rotary club. In this regard, he would like us to consider developing an online “e-club”.
  • Deepen Membership Engagement:  Let’s look at ways to get and keep members engaged. Rotary should be more than a weekly lunch.
  • Support Youth Programs: Our youth programs clearly need more structure to succeed, and we need to get more Rotarians involved as mentors.
  • No Committees of One: We work better together. Let’s build teams and avoid the pattern of burnout which seems to repeat itself.
  • Make Rotary Effortless: It should be FUN to be part of Rotary. Work has to get done, and projects have to be completed…but we need to strike a meaningful balance.
Terry Pickering (Financial Services | Retired), the incoming Vice President of Membership, added that the goal of the Membership Committee is not just to focus on growing the number of members. While more members translate to more resources (in people and in dues income) to assist the needs of the community, the Membership Committee hopes to continue to increase member engagement. The Committee will host a series of learning and development events so members (both new and old) can learn about Rotary and opportunities available to give back to our community.
 
JT re-capped the results of the recent membership survey. The majority of the members believe our Club is moving in the right direction, and that the social and service opportunities available through the Club meet their needs.
 
$20 for 20
  • Rhonda Poppen (Grant Writing | GRANTdog) donated $60 in honor of Bill Poppen’s (Banking: Management | MUFG Union Bank) birthday.
  • Casey Blair added $20 in honor of Bill Poppen’s birthday.
  • Lisa Stark (Communications and Media) donated $20 in honor of her own birthday. The members sang “Happy Birthday” to both Bill and Lisa.
  • Anita Stangl (Medical Services | Alliance for Smiles) donated $20 in honor of Valentina Sacchi Beccarini (Student), who recently graduated from the LLM program at the University of San Francisco School of Law.
  • Jim Patrick (Retail: Office Supplies | Patrick & Co.) donated $20 in recognition of a very well-done leadership message from incoming President JT Forbus.
The meeting was adjourned at 1:30 p.m.