Three weeks down and only 49 to go in the presidency of John Lemmon (Knox, Lemmon & Anapolsky, LLP) and the 104th year of the Rotary Club of Sacramento.
President John called the meeting to order and quickly took care of the formalities, thanking Jim Craig for the Wine Reception; Elfrena Foord (Foord, Van Bruggen, & Pajak) for playing the piano, and Theresa Rogers (St. Francis Catholic High School), John Goralka (The Goralka Law Firm) for greeting everyone at the door.
Kiefie Brewer provided much more than a Thought for the Day, she provided a Thought for a Lifetime about the values of Rotary. Before leading us in the Pledge of Allegiance, President John took a moment to thank (complete with photos) Hal Bartholomew (Bartholomew & Wasznicky LLP) and Beverly Brautigam (Brautigam Financial Services) for hosting the annual Swim and BBQ at their “Hawaiian type” backyard resort. Sergeant-at-Arms Callee Setzer (Setzer Forest Products) introduced a few guests of Rotarians and a couple of prospective members. Following introductions, President John announced that it was Diane Mizell’s 39th birthday, once again.
John introduced the head table, which included Elfrena Foord, Brue Hester (Colliers International), Dr. Dick Wertz, Laurie Rood (Benefits Done Right Insurance Agency) and Rita Gibson (Rita Gibson Insurance & Investment Services Inc.).
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Our meeting sponsor was Dr. Dick Wertz who provided a recap of his career in medicine and as an entrepreneur.
It is always a pleasure to welcome a new member to the Rotary Club of Sacramento and after a brief introduction from Rita Gibson, we welcomed Laurie Rood with the classification: Insurance – Employee Benefits as the newest member of the club. Laurie was sponsored by Rita and Wes Yee (Yee Dental Care).
We then had the pleasure of hearing from Clayton Lee (C.K.L. Trust) and Kneath Heard, CEO of “Journeys Within Our Community” (JWOC). JWOC has been an international partner with the Rotary Club of Sacramento for more than 10 years on projects in Cambodia.
After four quick minutes of Rotary fellowship, President John stepped back to the mic and asked those with announcements to line up. First up was Bob Daly (Financial Network Wealth Advisors), and Dick Osen to promote Golf 4 Kids. Less than 2 weeks away and we need golfers! Barbara Thompson (Sky Ridge Ranch) made a pitch for volunteers for the Sacramento Century Ride. Clayton Lee provided a quick glimpse of upcoming international project trips during the next year, including Literacy in Nepal; a Water Project in Ethiopia; and a Medical Mission to Jamaica.
Joining President John in “Building Something Together” were: Jeff Setzer (Setzer Forest Products Inc.) celebrated four generations of the Setzer family as members of the club and his daughter Callee as the Sergeant-At-Arms; Barbara Thompson celebrated her newest grandbaby; John Frisch (Cornish & Carey Commercial) recognized Julia Ciano (Ciano Chiropractic) for helping out his mother; Robyn DeLong (Coldwell Banker) honored her son Michael on the Angelversary of his passing; Lev Kaganovich (Energy, LEED & Commissioning Consulting) recognized his son who spoke to the club last week; Steve Ruland (Ruland's Office Furnishings) thanked and recognized President John for 30 years of friendship, and Bob Gaines donated in appreciation of the work we will be doing in Ethiopia.
Elfrena Foord introduced the speaker of the day and assured us that he was more than qualified as a speaker and an authority on the subject to appear before this distinguished group. So, with little fanfare she welcomed her husband Bruce Hester to the podium.
Bruce started by explaining that he has three major interests, Science, History and Travel and his presentation today would cover all three of those areas. The Topic is The History of Glass. He began by introducing us to Peter Diamondis, the founder of the X Prize Foundation and its $10-million prize for flying to space twice, with the same craft, in a two-week period. That prize was won by Bert Rutan, who was financed by Paul Allen of Microsoft to the tune of $20 million to win the prize. He shared how over the last 100 years our life spans have doubled, per capital income has increased three fold, cost of food is down, child mortality is down, and global literacy is at an all-time high. Most of this was the results of the work of optimists such as Diamondis. He shared Moore’s Law of technology about technology doubling every 12 to 24 months, and with that law, he demonstrated the difference between arithmetic and exponential growth. Through all of that, he found a way to weave a common thread of glass. In addition, as he said it all started more than 30,000 years ago in the Sahara Desert when a bolt of lightning struck a sand dune and resulted in an unknown glob that today we would call glass. Bruce shared numerous tidbits on glass throughout history. Stops along his journey included King Tut, the Roman Empire, Venice, Murano, the creation of lenses, and the Gutenberg Press; as well as Dutch telescopes and microscopes, the Hall of Mirrors in Versailles, the creation of fiber optics and ending with silicon chips. Which brings us back to Moore’s Law.
Callee Setzer ended the meeting letting us know that next week we will be back at the church to hear Buck Busfield from the B Street Theater.