Posted by Brian Lan on May 02, 2019
President Rhonda Poppen opened the meeting by welcoming visiting Rotarians from Finland and Honduras. The visitor from Honduras is the father of Sophia Valverde (Consulate Management; Consulate of Honduras). We also had several visitors from Support for Families of Children with Disabilities (“SFCD”) in San Francisco.
 
President Rhonda welcomed all visitors, members and guests. She then invited Christopher Wiseman (Non-Profit Administration; Glaucoma Research Foundation) to share with everyone his experiences at the Friends Like Me dinner at The ARC of San Francisco. Chris spoke about how much the dinners mean both to him and to participants from The ARC.
 
Rhonda then announced several upcoming events, including:
  • Bike Build on Saturday, April 20.
  • Bocce, Beverages and Bites on April 30.
  • District 5150 Conference and Rotary Four-Way Fest starting May 17 in Reno.
President Rhonda then asked member Heidi Kuhn (Peace Building; Roots of Peace) to share a few comments about her recent trip to Afghanistan, where Gary, her husband and fellow Roots of Peace executive, was a keynote speaker at a conference in Kabul. Roots of Peace has been working diligently in recent years to eradicate both polio and landmines in Afghanistan.
 
Following Heidi’s comments, Rhonda led those in attendance in a spirited game of “Guess the Member” as everyone tried to identify facts about the participating members: Peter Logan (Law—General Practice; Peter Logan Law Offices), Jilma Menses (Non-Profit Administration; Catholic Charities), Scott Plakun (Management Consulting; The Plakun Group), and Stephanie Schmautz (Retirement Living; The Carlisle). Each member received a gift for participating in the contest.
 
Bill Poppen (Banking Management; MUFG Union Bank) introduced and inducted two new members: Sonya Brunswick (Pastor; Brunswick Consulting (Self-Employed) and Greater Foursquare Church) and Maurice Rivers (Non-Profit Administration; Node). Sonya and Maurice were given official Rotary Club name badges, Rotary pins, copies of our Club’s history, A Tradition of Fellowship and Service: The Rotary Club of San Francisco at 100, and certificates evidencing a contribution in their honor to the Rotary Foundation. Rhonda and Bill encouraged the new Rotarians to serve and be an inspiration to their community.
 
Those members donating “Twenty for Twenty” included:
  • Tim Hornbecker (Human Services; Pursuant Legal Consultants LLC) highlighted the importance of accessibility issues in San Francisco and invited Sally Swanson (Architecture; Sally Swanson Architects) to share about her recent experiences at a transportation conference in Taipei. Sally spoke briefly about the need for improved accessibility as the population ages. She has written an article about the Taipei conference, which is available here.
  • Christopher Wiseman announced that the Merola Opera Program has commissioned the world-wide premiere of “If I Were You”. The opera will run August 1 through August 6 at the Herbst Theatre in San Francisco. Tickets are available at www.merola.org and at www.sfopera.com.
  • Tom Brunner (Non-Profit Research; Glaucoma Research Foundation) donated $100 in recognition of Heidi Kuhn, her family and the organization they founded, Roots of Peace, for all of their good works.
Today’s speaker was Club member Melissa Galliani, Vice President of Sales for Cumulus Media (KGO810, KSFO560). Melissa had an amusing and insightful presentation about how radio – which she described as “the original social media” – remains relevant today, even with so many choices available for corporate and business marketing dollars. Melissa explained that radio is often considered the “theater of the mind” due to its impact on the listener’s imagination. She also spoke about radio advertising, radio’s changing demographics and forces impacting modern radio.
 
Today’s door prize winners were Lisa Stark (Video Production Services) and Jim Bradley (Property Insurance) who received a Crane Radio and a bottle of wine, respectively, donated by our guest speaker, Melissa.
 
 
Photos by Christopher Wiseman
Edited by John Dean (Attorney; Dean Dispute Resolution)