President Matt Ross rang the bell to start the meeting and welcomed everybody to "what's going to be your longest Rotary year possible, because there are 53 Tuesdays this year. So, you are stuck with me for all 53 of them."
Pledge:
Bruce Stimson
The newly minted President asked Bruce Stimson to lead the pledge to our flag.
He then asked Mike Grace to provide the invocation.
Invocation:
Mike Grace
President Ross asked Al Frumkin to lead the club in reciting the 4-Way Test.
Drinks are on the Prez
President Ross reminded everyone that he is hosting the bar and that our servers, Sarah and Henry, are taking drink orders.
... and Guests!
There were quite a few more Rotarians present than usual. Many of them were visiting from other clubs.
The Prez was pleased to preside over what has become the signature event of a new President's first day, the auctioning off of the #1 spot on the top left corner of the Bell Ringer Board. Last year's auction winner was Steve Turner. This year the auction got started by Past President Christine Jensen with a bid of $100.
Christine Jensen
Past Treasurer &
Past President
Safe $100
Jenny Davini
Treasurer &
Future President?
Close $500
Steve Turner
Past President &
Past District Governor
Winner $600
Jenny Davini was not going to let the coveted spot go that cheaply and she bid $200. Steve Turner, in an attempt to put an end to the bidding, doubled the bid to $400. Jenny, torn between a desire to unseat Steve from the top spot and her practical accountant side, assessing the cost benefit analysis of increasing the bid, looked as if she had given up the fight. Finally, at the last second, she upped the bid $500. Jenny thought she had Steve at $500 but Steve, fresh from being relieved of his District Governor duties and responsibilities, feeling reinvigorated, and possibly under the influence of the free drinks, was not going to be denied the coveted top spot. Steve quickly bid $600. Jenny's work was done... she successfully managed to manipulate the former District Governor into increasing the bid to a record $600, (The secret word is "manipulate") benefitting the club and saving her dollars for another time.
Jenny Davini - Bell Ringer X 3
Jenny, settled for second place on the Bell Ringer Board by ringing the bell three times for: Successfully holding a fabulous wedding reception at her house. Her daughter and new husband moved out of their apartment and into her house. However they are going to be traveling South America as part of their new jobs and are now moving out of the house... but leaving their belongings in her house for storage.
Past President Christine Jensen- Bell Ringer
Christine was ringing the bell because of her fabulous year and is looking forward to Matt's year. This is in honor of Matt.
Bill Hambrick - Bell Ringer
Bill was ringing the bell because he had a great vacation visiting Hamburg, France and Switzerland. They came back just in time to put on the Western States 100-mile endurance race. He was very happy nobody died or got lost or eaten during the race.
John Gabriel - Bell Ringer X 2
John rang the bell twice, first for Matt's year as president and to brag about his youngest granddaughter ,who had a dive meet in Natomas earlier this year, and qualified for the USA Nationals, a goal she had been shooting for. The second bell ringer is for the Rotary Foundation. Matt helped him set up automatic giving to help him get two more Paul Harris Fellows, one for each of his in-laws-to-be, a new daughter and a new son, in January and June of next year.
Richard Goore - Bell Ringer
Richard is ringing the bell to honor they recent developments at his home. His two grown children had moved away. They were just getting used to life as empty nesters when they both moved back. His daughter arrived last month and will be moving to Berkely to start her new job. His son just graduated and is now an ex-pole vaulter. He is looking forward to a lot of great things.
Lisa Asperger - Bell Ringer
Lisa is ringing the bell because last week she and Don had a great time in Mount Shasta in a little one room condo where they celebrated their 49th wedding anniversary.
Tom Goode - Bell Ringer X 2
Tom announced that it is all over for him and he is ringing the bell in commemoration of his past life. He turned 40 two weeks ago and can no longer call himself a young Rotarian. He also rang the bell for Matt's new term as president.
Rolundia Mitchell - Bell Ringer
Rolundia announced that she is ringing the bell in honor of checking one more thing off her bucket list. She is going to the Hollywood Bowl.
Todd Eichman - Bell Ringer
Todd is ringing the bell, sending Matt good wishes and good luck in the coming year. Todd is very happy Matt is president this year.
Megan Ellinghouse - Bell Ringer
Megan first asked if non-club members could ring the bell. Matt basically said, if it is green we will accept it. She said she wanted to ring the bell for being invited as her very first meeting of her year as District Governor for 2025/26. Also, for Matt being our club President and stepping up and doing an amazing job.
Kyra Ross - Bell Ringer
Kyra took the opportunity to ring the bell in honor of her husband being President.
Michael Caplan - Bell Ringer
Michael Caplan took great exception to the Prez allowing non-Rotarians to ring the bell. However, Michael forgot the spousal exemption clause, and therefore, the $100 fine he sought to impose on every club member, that allowed this departure from the rules and regulations to happen, was null and void. Other than that, he was happy to ring the bell in honor of Matt's Presidency and to be among Rotarian friends.
Matt Ross - Bell Ringer
Matt rang the bell because it is such a great honor to be a president of such a fabulous club, the best damn Rotary club in the world. He went on to say "I know others from other clubs may argue, but right now, because we're giving you free drinks and because you're here with us, I think you can agree this is the best meeting you've been to so far this year."
The Prez announced that the club's Foundation on day one of the year, took in $2,500 in Bell Ringers. Not a bad start to the year.
Al Frumkin - Happy Bucks
Al was in a New York state of mind and had Happy Bucks for celebrating his and Lisa's recent trip to New York City. Al got a horse drawn carriage and champagne and roses and took Lisa through Central Park. We saw Paul Simon (at a concert, not in the park.) We had a wonderful meal at midnight at Carbines, Italian food. They have like 200 seats. There was not one empty seat. It was a great trip!
Linda Bigler - Happy Bucks
Linda is happy to be back. She had been away for a variety of reasons but is back now and is excited to learn she is only $55 away from her next Paul Harris Fellow.
That's a Fine How-do-you-do!
The Prez was planning on launching into a period of assigning Fines... however, since the Bell Ringers were above and beyond, he thought better of his plan and decided to inform the club of his future plans to fine members.Anybody who gets an offer of a fine from the President, can take the option of answering a trivia question. If you get the correct answer, you don't have to pay the fine... if you get it wrong... the fine is doubled? (Editor's note: this is not what the Prez said, but I thought it was a good idea, so I included it.)
TRIVIA
The Prez ran trivia for several years. He has questions from how many counties are there in the state of California to what are the five beaches that were named when they did D Day? There's all sorts of different ones. He has also been pulling questions from Rotarians, and he thought he would just do a test, just so everyone has an idea. Here's a question. Which member was at one time nominated as Sacramento's most eligible bachelor? Big hint to the right.
Tom is the one with the heart on.
Things to look forward to.
Coming Soon!
Recap of the Rotary International Convention.
There will be a panel discussion on the Calgary Convention. Members who attended the International Convention will share their thoughts, memories, slides and home movies of their time in Calgary... spoiler alert, nobody came home with an illegal Canadian.
Next Week's Guest Speaker
John Kabateck from the National Federation of Independent Businesses. Defending all small businesses from regulations and all the state laws that impact all businesses.
First Board Meeting of 2025/26
The first Board meeting of 2025/26 will be held at the Prez's house on July 16th. It is open to all Rotarians, not just the board members. Will there be wine... silly question... it is a Rotary event.
There was a Rotary Foundation meeting following this meeting... there was already alcoholic beverages... so why not have a meeting?
Mike Pereira Battle Fields to Ball Fields
Mike Pereira will be our guest speaker on July 22nd.
He was a former head referee for the NFL, but he's running a great program. Battlefields to ball fields where he takes veterans, gets them a sense of purpose by making them become officials.
Future Guest Speakers
Carlos Rioja will be coming from Rotary in Peru, will give us some updates, what's going on down there.
Evan Gonzalez is the president of the Interact Club at Rio Americano. That's the club we are sponsoring. He's going to run the lunch meeting with a little help from the Prez. That's part of their task. It's going to be great to hear what they're doing. We want to bring the youth into our meetings and the club. This is a great example of that happening.
Golf Tournament
We want to remind everybody about our golf tournament, September 29th. Please start looking to see if you know anybody who wants to be a sponsor or can be coerced into being one. More importantly, start looking for golfers. Based on the past golfers we have had, no golfing experience is needed. We need to fill the roster. We want to have every spot filled. John Gabriel's going to be preaching that until the day of the tournament.
This is a new addition to our meetings. A member will be selected to provide 60 seconds of
information about him/herself. The Prez chose to start things off with his own Member Minute talk. "About a year into joining the club, I felt like I was floundering. I hadn't found my place. I hadn't found the friendships I was seeking. And I was struggling, really, because I was like a wallflower at the time. I just wasn't really engaging with everybody. Then I was thrust into managing the district grant for Encina High School. Let me give you a little picture of the school which aimed at repurposing outdated computers. (Showing a picture of a well-worn computer keyboard) If you look at this picture, it's even missing buttons. That was actually one of the better computers we found there. The place was completely dilapidated. They needed to replace everything in that room. By partnering with two other clubs, we were able to provide new computers, electronics, desk chairs, fresh coat of paint, and did the entire room up. It was amazing. That was my first aha moment because I finally felt like I was giving back. I found my purpose in the club, and I've been doing foundation ever since. As we unveiled the completed Rotary room, I received an urgent text from Steve Turner, of all people, asking what had gone wrong. He sends me this photo, and there was a brief moment of panic where I thought we messed up."
"But soon we realized Steve had just doctored the photo and was pulling a prank on some New Rotarians. That doctored photo was my second aha moment as I began to feel that camaraderie I really was looking for in the club. You wouldn't pull a joke like that unless you started to really care about everybody. So, today I'm standing in front of all of you to remind you, if you're struggling, reach out, talk to people, because we're all here for you. But more importantly, I'm standing here because I've been in Rotary for 11 years, but I consider myself a true Rotarian for the last decade, ever since that photo. And it's thanks to these two aha moments and hundreds of others since then. So that's my member moment. I will be asking for others from everybody."
Oh Linda, we have something for you!
Is it a dude in a cowboy hat?
I didn't get one
while I was in Calgary.
I didn't get you one either.
It's your next
Paul Harris Fellow!
This is pretty cool anyway!
Thank you.
Lisa Asperger
Speaker
Lisa won more wine.
After lunch, Matt turned the meeting into a Club Assembly. He needed to attend to a few business items. He introduced his new Board...
Presented his Goals for the Year... most of which he took right from the input given by the club during the Fireside Meetings. He then turned his sights on the last outstanding bit of business for the new year... Demoting the District Governor, Steve Turner.
As Matt is seen here pointing out the fine points of the District 5180 Bylaws, it states that Steve was still the District Governor and would continue to be until he is either demoted or impeached.
As it would take much too long to impeach him, it was deemed expedient just to demote him.
Matt presented Steve with his Past District Governor pin. He then let the roast begin...
Matt presented a truth-ladened account of just how Steve was able to pull off his very successful year as District Governor... Steve had years of communication experience leading firemen and police officers, getting them to do whatever was needed to be done. He brought those skills to his term as DG. "Do you have time to talk for a couple of minutes?" "We need some help with," "Here's the thing," "Here the plan," even though the plan was never fully baked. Somehow, even with a 12.5% plan he was able to make whatever it was he was planning, a complete success.
Past President Christine Jensen, Chris Lewis and Tom Goode all took turns honoring Steve with notable quips. (Note: the editor failed to record this portion of the meeting, so specific details are missing.)
Christine Jensen provided
a medium Roast but was overall complimentary...
She would have given a
deep roast but
Matt stole her thunder.
Chris Lewis, a newbie at roasting, was mostly complimentary... he is new to how roasting is done in Rotary.
Tom Goode was not holding back. He saw his opportunity to really roast Steve, and he took it. He wrote and submitted the following Wikipedia page for Steve:
Steve Turner is a Sacramento native who attended Christian Brother's HS and later received his Bachelor's of Arts in Management from St. Mary's College in Moraga, CA. If he would have attended a better HS imagine how different his life would be.
Steve Turner used to not have a boat, then had a boat, now doesn't have a boat, and soon wants a boat.
Steve Turner is a retired Fire Battalion Chief from Sac Metro Fire, where he served in various roles for 30 years.
Steve Turner is bad at math.
Steve Turner joined Rotary in 2011 and was his Club President in the 2015/2016 Rotary Year. Notable achievements of his year was getting an MOU in place between the Club and Foundation, the Rotary Car show FUNraiser, and pulling off silent farts without anyone noticing while presiding over weekly meetings.
Steve Turner has served on the Club and Foundation's Board for multiple years. He was integral in setting up the Club's Grant Program, and has volunteered his time for both of the Club's major fundraisers.
Steve Turner owns an extensive sport coat collection from Mervin's.
Steve Turner was District Governor for District 5180 in the 2024/2025 Rotary Year. Notable achievements are District wide membership growth, spearheading a District Public Relations campaign, a joint District conference in Disneyland, and calling Rotarians at the absolute last minute needing a favor.
Steve Turner's hugs are on average 2 seconds too long.
Steve Turner hair is always parted quite nicely, and he is a nice fellow.
Steve Turner did a great job as District Governor in 2024/2025 Rotary Year and made his Club proud!
At the conclusion of the "Tributes" to Steve, a band of Rotary Ninja Warriors descended on Piatti's and dismantled the District Governor banner and took it off with them to the Passport Club, the home of the New District Governor, Megan Ellinghouse.
Megan Ellinghouse
2025/26 District Governor
Out with the OLD... In with the NEW!
May Megan's year be memorable, for all the good reasons!
President Ross rang the bell and closed the meeting at 1:00 P.M. He thanked everyone, especially the Visiting Rotarians, for coming.
Respectfully (more or less) submitted by,
Mike Grace
Reporter, Photographer and Editor
Hellen Weight
Ombudsman and Content Supervisor
DISCLAIMER - Some of the information provided in some of the articles, and possibly included in some of the "quotes" from club members, may have been a fabrication of a demented mind. It is up to you to determine fact from fiction. Individuals objecting to all or any part herein, are encouraged to go to Hellen Weight to lodge a formal complaint.
Club Information
Service Above Self
Tuesdays at 12:00 PM
Piatti
571 Pavilions Lane
Arden-Arcade, CA 95825 United States of America
