Meeting Recap for Tuesday, December 2, 2014

President Susan Sheridan opened the meeting by welcoming everyone to the annual Foundation Day meeting, and recognized Marilyn Park for donating the wine for the wine reception.  She then announced the sad news that Past President Tom Hammer passed away after a long illness, and a moment of silence was observed in his memory.

Foundation Trustee Vice-President Doug Crumley was then invited to the podium to give the Thought for the Day, reading a quote from George Bernard Shaw inscribed on the back of the Rotary Club of Sacramento Foundation’s Annual Report:

“I am of the opinion that my life

belongs to the whole community,

and as long as I live, it is my privilege

to do for it whatever I can.

I want to be thoroughly used up when I die,

for the harder I work, the more I live.

I rejoice in life for its own sake.

Life is no 'brief candle' for me.

It is a sort of splendid torch which

I have got hold of for a moment,

and I want to make it burn as

brightly as possible before handing

it on to future generations.”

Kapellmeister-in-residence Dick Osen then led the throng in a rousing rendition of “My Country ‘Tis of Thee.”  Sargent-at-arms John Lemmon proceeded to welcome our honored guests.  President Susan took a moment to recognize member Dave Stewart, Senior Director, Graduate Programs in Business at Drexel University and a number of Drexel University students who have indicated an interest in starting a Rotaract Club at the Drexel University Sacramento campus.

Finally, President Susan announced that the Club had hired a new Executive Assistant, Shelley Mathews.  Shelley has a long history with Rotary and has herself been a member of the Rotary Club of Fair Oaks.  Welcome Shelley!

Speaking of new blood in our ranks, President Susan invited Mik Miklaus to the podium to introduce the Club’s newest member, Callee Setzer, daughter of member Jeff Setzer, and granddaughter of very long-time member (since 1952) Cal Setzer.  That’s three generations and counting!  On behalf of the family Jeff Setzer rose to congratulate Callee and in her honor to made a generous contribution to both his Eddie Mulligan and Paul Harris.

Jim Leet was introduced as the Sponsor of the Day and made a few impressive comments about his law firm, Boutin Jones, and the high quality legal services provided by its experienced and capable attorneys.

Jim Culleton then announced that the dictionaries the club gives to every third grader in the Sacramento school district were in and ready for delivery.  Thanks for your efforts Jim!

Sacramento Rotary Club Foundation President Heidi Hershenhouse was then introduced as the meeting’s Chair of the Day.  Heidi introduced the Foundation trustees, many of which were at the head table. 

As her first order of business, Heidi explained that according to the Foundation’s by-laws, the investment manager for the Foundation must be placed out to bid through a formal “Request for Proposal” process.  A Committee of trustees reviewed numerous proposals and had in person interviews with the finalists.  In the end it was decided to remain Past President Tim Pinkney and Sharon Morrison of BGM TruNorth Wealth Partners.  Past President Tim rose to thank the Foundation Trustees for their continued support and noted that when he first began managing the Foundation’s investments it had less than $1 million in assets, and that as of the previous day, it had a balance of $3.65 million.  It was managed to a 70% Equity – 30% Fixed Income allocation, and has consistently met or beat its benchmarks.

Finally, Heidi honored the following Eddie Mulligan recipients:  Heidi Hershenhouse (1), Linda Geery (1), Past President Beverly Brautigam (5), and Past President and Past Foundation Chair Ken Noack, Jr. (5 and 6).

Heidi Hershenhouse then introduced the Speaker of the Day, Jean Irwin Hatfield.  Jean earned a master’s degree at Nottingham University in England.  A Rotary Ambassadorial Scholarship in 1989 allowed her to do research into reading and deafness under Professor David Wood.

In 2009, Irwin received the “Service Above Self” award from Rotary International. She has spoken at more than 250 conferences to both Rotarians and teachers of the deaf about what she learned as an Ambassadorial Scholar.  She worked for many years working with deaf students in the classroom to help them learn to read.

Irwin helped coordinate passage of a bill making testing of hearing mandatory before a newborn baby leaves a hospital in Nevada. That state moved from 36th to eighth in the nation for children tested at birth for hearing loss just two years after this bill passed, resulting in the early intervention that is so critical to language development.

She noted that when the typical deaf child graduates from high school, he or she reads at a fourth grade level, and only 5% graduate from college.  That’s because the English language is a sound based system, and it is very difficult to learn it if it cannot be heard.  This is why it is so important for young children, even infants, to be read to.  Prof. David Wood had a key insight when he looked at the results of efforts to teach computers how to communicate in English.  Computers of course cannot hear and what they were coming up with resembled in many ways what deaf children were communicating when they tried to convert a heard language into a written one.

Understanding that, Irwin developed a method of teaching deaf children that helped overcome those difficulties.  The result was that 80% of her students ended up graduating from college, an amazing accomplishment.  She noted that her methods have also proven effective with children who have other obstacles, for example children who were never read to as children because their parents either would not or were unable to. One child in particular she mentioned went from having a good deal of difficulty even expressing himself verbally, to learning how to read well enough that he started reading to his little sister.  Jean went on to describe other contexts where her methods have proven successful.

With that she dismissed the membership admonishing everyone to remember to be “Good Rotarians!”