Meeting Recap for April 14, 2015
Posted by Mark Huffman
on Apr 17, 2015
President Susan Sheridan opened the meeting by welcoming everyone and thanking Joe Grant for donating the wine for the wine reception. She then introduced Rick Cole, Senior Pastor at the Capital Christian Center who offered a sincere prayer of thanks on behalf of those assembled.
Sargent-at-arms John Lemmon proceeded to welcome our honored guests, after which President Susan introduced the head table: Past President Diane Mizell serving as Chair of the Day, our speaker Dan Spector, Pastor Rick Cole who gave our invocation, Ed Towne to honor his 49 years in the club, Maynard Nelson to honor 33 years in the club, Leo McFarland to honor 28 years in the club, and Past President Jon Snyder to honor 27 years in the club.
When members and guests arrived at the meeting each was given a raffle ticket for tickets to the 2015 US Senior Open at Del Paso Country Club occurring at the end of June. Past President Diane Mizell rose to select the winner, and the winner was . . . Bob Rosenberg! Everyone’s second favorite choice to win.
During the announcements period Rick Davis reported that the building of the Habitat for Humanity house which was the beneficiary of the Sacramento Century bicycle ride in the fall was well underway and on track for a July completion. Volunteers were solicited to help with painting in June.
President Susan reported that the office move was underway and that furniture would be moved at the end of the week and beginning of the next week. She asked for volunteers to help pack up items and to clean the space we are vacating.
President Susan also reported that Tom Chase’s health had taken a bad turn and that he would no longer be attending weekly meetings. Cards and well wishes are welcome. She also noted our recently departed member Bill Stone’s obituary in the Sacramento Bee. It was so classic Bill Stone that it seemed obvious he had penned it himself. A public memorial service is planned for some time in May.
After some fellowship it was time for a little wallet-loosening. District Governor Fred Teichert though in Washington made a long-distance donation of $100 in honor of our speaker, Dan Spector. President Susan called on Past President Jack Bowker and noted that his grandson, John Bowker, a recent addition to the Sacramento River Cats, was recently featured in the Sacramento Bee and wondered how happy that made him. Jack noted that he was $250 worth of happy but that grandson John needed to “start hitting.” President Susan called on Elfrena Foord to congratulate her on appearing in an article in the Sacramento Business Journal about a recent Bizwoman’s Mentoring Monday event sponsored by the Journal. Given Elfrena’s recent generosity President Susan made it clear no fine was in the offing but offered her congratulations. Bob Rosenberg rose to offer $100 in honor of his dearly missed friend Bill Stone.
President Susan then called Past President Diane Mizell
to the podium to introduce the Speaker of the Day, Dan Spector, general chairman of the 2015 US Senior Open at Del Paso Country Club occurring at the end of June. Dan began by describing the process that led Sacramento to host so prestigious an event. It began five years ago in 2010 when Dan began his tenure as president of Del Paso Country Club. It is the practice of an incoming president to outline what he hopes to accomplish, and he announced that he wanted Del Paso Country Club to host a national golf championship. Perhaps a little startled by so ambitious a goal the board nevertheless told him to go for it and wished him luck.
The process began by identifying the person at the USGA in Far Hills, New Jersey, responsible for such matters that they eventually identified as managing director Tim Fleherty. Tim initially asked if Del Paso would be interested in hosting a relatively minor two ball tournament but Dan said they were looking for something a little more ambitious. When asked what he had in mind Dan suggested a US Senior Open. That was met with several long seconds of silence but eventually the USGA made four trips to Del Paso to have a look at the course. The reviews were generally favorable though it was noted that the fairways were way too wide and would need to be substantially narrowed. A factor in favor of Del Paso was the fact that both the fairways and the roughs are the same strain of grass which makes the process much easier. In the end the fairways were narrowed from an average of 52 yards to an average of 27 yards.
The next step was to present a due diligence package that demonstrated that Sacramento could sell enough hospitality and sponsorships, and enough tickets to make the tournament a success financially. Most of the big PGA tournaments actually lose money, but the US Senior Open typically makes money. Dan said that the USGA said of the due diligence package that was eventually delivered that they had never seen anything like it, and awarded Del Paso the tournament.
Sacramento was one of the first places to have a junior golf program, having its own predecessor program before becoming one of the first chapters of The First Tee. In honor of that tradition Sacramento’s First Tee was named the charitable beneficiary of the tournament.
Dan noted that one of the messages of this story is that private citizens can make big things happen. It couldn’t have happened without the substantial help and partnership of the city, county and airport, but the trust is it was an effort initiated not by government, but by private individuals who wanted to help change the way places like Far Hills, New Jersey, think about Sacramento.
At the end of his presentation President Susan thanked Dan and dismissed the membership admonishing everyone to remember to “Be Good Rotarians!”