Meeting Recap for June 11, 2012
Ok, so I’m throwing it down right here – if you missed today’s meeting, I am quite certain that you missed the most unique speaker in the 99-year history of our Club – bar none. His name is Alex Honnold, and I’ll prove my case in a few paragraphs. In the meantime, on to the day’s meeting activities.
Deciding this week to run the meeting front-to-back (compared to last week’s creative, back-to-front format), President Ken called the meeting to order after the usual pre-gavel meet-and-greet, and beckoned Bob Rosenberg to the mic for the Thought of the Day, before Robyn DeLong announced our many guests in attendance, and we welcomed our newest members, Ms. Kelly (no relation to Steve and Mark) Huffman, and Mr. Pat Derickson.
We heard next from our soon departing (and ever so adorable) Rotary Youth Exchange student, Abby Lin of Taiwan, who provided us with an entertaining slide show of her year spent with us, which included hanging out at the Gilbert household (as in Prez Elect Elect Thom’s casa), seeing the sights of California, and being a member of the graduating class of C.K. McClatchy High. Abby is everything that is good about the RYE program.
Next up were more enterprising, impressive high schoolers, this time in the form of our Rotary Youth Scholarship winners. Introduced to us by committee chair, Judy Kjelstrom (who should know a thing or two about college scholarships, being the Director of the UC Davis Biotech program and all), this year’s winners are headed to Berkeley, UCLA and similar institutions of high achievement, to pursue careers in the law, nursing, and astro physics, with a few Rotary dollars in their pocket to help buy the pizza.
Don Baird was our Sponsor of the Day, spending his “$300 and 3” sharing with us the many goings on at Fremont Presbyterian, and then the former First Dude (aka Hal Bartholomew) and David Eastis advised that the club is starting a “Rotary Yellow Pages” to make it easier to “Shop Rotary” (good Rotarians doing business with good Rotarians – what’s not to like?). Half-page ads in the Roster will run $150-$175, 1/3rd page ads will run $115 to $140, and links to your website from the member-only roster will run you just $25. Call the club office for more details, or contact David at 877-771-7707 or dmeastis@aol.com (put “ROTARY AD” in your subject line).
Speaking of doing business with good Rotarians, Prez Ken engaged in the act, raising more than a few bucks from Becky Roberts for winning an SBA lending award, Rob Scherer for appearing in about 9 different publications (despite his pleas for financial mercy from El Presidente [which were not met with an abundance of sympathy from the gathered throng]), Past Prez John Hamlyn, for being quoted in a recent Time article on Supreme Court Justice, Anthony Kennedy (after ponying up, John advised that he’s saving the good stuff on Justice Kennedy for the National Enquirer), and (continuing his extractions from the legal community) Judge Brian Van Camp, who returned from a 3-week trip to China, tickled pink to provide Ken with a college hat of the same color that he bought in one of the provinces for 10,000 yuan (about $6.50 if your currency changer is just out of reach) which misspelled the name of the previously-mentioned Hamlyn’s alma mater (Stanford, which came out as Stameferd in translation). A good Cal Bear will never miss a chance to take a shot at a Stanford Cardinal, no matter where in the world he may find himself.
Ok, on to prove my point about our speaker of the day, Alex Honnold (introduced to us by Past President Frank Poelman, who worked tirelessly for months to get Alex in the house). Alex is a Mira Loma High grad, who went on to Brian Van Camp’s UC Berkeley, before dropping out to pursue his passion, which is rock climbing. No big deal, you say? He climbs big rocks, like the 3,000 footers El Capitan, and Half-Dome in Yosemite. Still not impressed? Oh, did I mention, HE DOES IT WITHOUT ANY ROPES! NO SAFETY GEAR OF ANY TYPE! Ok, I don’t expect you to be impressed by my telling it, so watch it here: http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7383158n. If you don’t get sweaty palms just watching him up on Half-Dome, holding on to a crevice in the cliff that he can barely fit a finger in, with nothing to break his fall but the Yosemite Valley floor, 3,000 feet below him, you likely have a glandular problem and should consult one of the club doctors via our new Yellow Pages. Move over, Chuck Norris, the baddest dude on the planet was at our Rotary Club this week, and his name is Alex Honnold (yet he’s as modest as he is fearless). Watch the video, then tell me who we’ve had speak to the club in the last 99 years that is more unique than Alex.