Meeting Recap for October 28, 2014
As is well known, there are usually two sure-fire ways to empty a Rotary meeting room -- 1) yell “Fire”; and 2) have the District Governor come to speak. Ah, but this axiom does not hold up when the District Governor in question is our own Past President, Fred Teichert, who held court to a robust crowd at this week’s meeting.
Before Fred, we had the usual pre-gavel confab, with the wine flowing courtesy of the lovely Oleta Lambert, and the music provided by Paul (formerly of Sly & the Family) Stone and PP George Basye. After President Susan (I’m staying at the) Sheridan called the meeting to order, Amin Elmallah introduced our guest invocator, Father Arsanios Rizk, of the Saint Mary Coptic Church of Egypt (which was founded by St. Mark in the first century), followed by the pledge and the introductions by Sarge-at-Arms (and carpenter extraordinaire), John Lemmon.
After introducing the head table (technically, the people sitting at it), Prez Susan put Fred to work early, as he had some Paul Harris Fellows to hand out to Barbara Arnold, Bob Gaines, Ed Willey, Skip Lawrence, Rick Davis, Lev Kaganovich, and Top Gun Tim Pinkney – all of whom have been to the Paul Harris Rodeo before -- several times over, in fact. As for Top Gun, he is one of just three current Rotarians to include our club in his estate plan, donating $10,000 (that’s ten Paul Harrises, yo!) of future life insurance proceeds (fortunately for Tim, they’re still in the future) to the club. Talk about a lovely parting gift! If you’d like to make a huge impact and add the club as a beneficiary to one of your life policies, give the Rotary office a call.
After Rotary’s version of speed dating (also known as three minutes of fellowship), we heard from Dave (he rules) DeRoos, who reported on the trip he and several of our fellow Rotarians made recently to Nepal (Clayton Lee, John Wheaton, John Phair, Diane Schachterle and ED Katrina Salazar among them), where they spent 12 days teaching English to children of the lowest caste system there as part of the club’s World Community Service offering. As Dave explained, the best hope these kids have to improve their circumstances is to learn English, which enables them to find work in the tourism trades -- essentially the only economy Nepal has. What an eloquent example of the power of Rotary. Well done, Dave and gang. By the way, Dave is leading another group of Rotarians back to Nepal next October – ring him up if you’d like to have a life changing experience.
Next up was Meeting Sponsor of the Day, Larry Booth, who spent his “300 and 3” (dollars and minutes, for you newer members) highlighting one of his favorite causes, the job creating Sacramento Employment and Training Agency (SETA). If you’d like to sponsor a future meeting, and spend 3 minutes introducing your business (or a favorite charity) to your fellow Rotarians, contact our Meeting Sponsor Chair, Jeff Curcio, and he’ll get you signed up.
President Susan returned to the mike to lead a richly deserved standing ovation for Todd (I sing like Julie) Andrews, who did a FANTASTIC job chairing this year’s Sac Century bike ride and Oktoberfest. By any measure, this was one of the club’s most successful endeavors in recent history, whether it’s the $60,000 (and counting) that has been raised for Habitat for Humanity, or the 900+ bike riders and Oktoberfestians (yeah, it’s a word….maybe) that attended the off-the-hook party – many of them non-Rotarians (what better way to promote the club), or the over 200 volunteers (most of them Rotarians) who pitched in to make the event a success. While all the volunteers are deserving of recognition, some worked tirelessly for weeks, including President Susan and Todd, Stephanie Foster, Frank Cook, Elfrena Foord, Allison Cagley, Dave McKie, Dennis Smith, Diane Woodruff, Barbara Thompson and that amazing construction trio, Tim Mattheis, John Lemmon, and Past Prez Peter Dannenfelser II (and my apologies to anyone I’ve left out who deserves a similar recognition). We can all be proud of that event, fellow Rotarians. Great job, Todd!
On the tithing front, the Emperor, Wes Yee, gave $400 for several positive life events, including his dad’s 90th birthday (with the elder Dr. Yee in attendance at the meeting), and his daughter’s recent graduation from Stanford Law. Sharing Dr. Yee’s birthday on Monday was Steve Huffman, so noted by scion and fellow Rotarian, Mark Huffman, who ponied up a C-note in Pop’s honor. Diane Schachterle also gave a Benjamin each to her Eddie and Paul Harris, a ritual of hers each time she returns stateside from a Rotary trip abroad.
To the mike next strode Past President Walter (if you’ve lost it all, give me a call) Dahl, who formally introduced District Guv Fred (although Walter opened with the admission that the exercise was largely unnecessary). Fred encouraged all of us to seize an opportunity to B.U.I.L.D. Rotary – an acronym of his that stands for building a sense of Belonging, Usefulness, Influence, Laughter and Do It Now in the club. He also shared a great story, paraphrased as follows: When the Teichert Foundation built the Boys & Girls Club at 12th & G, one of the attendees at the opening was fellow Rotarian, Hardy Setzer, who chastised Fred for not coming to him for some money to build it (you see, Hardy’s dad instructed him to “never forget the Boys & Girls Club”, and Hardy had been sending $100 to the Ithaca, NY chapter of the B&G club religiously for years). So, when Fred set upon building his next B&G Club, he honored Hardy’s request and visited him, and Hardy gave Fred some money -- $250,000 worth. That’s how our Rotary Club rolls. Be well. JBW