President Robert Olmstead III, rang the opening club bell at 12:02 and welcoming everyone to the Best Damn Rotary Club in Arden Arcade.”  This was his second meeting thanks to PP Steve Turner for pinch hitting for him last week.   PP Tim Cahill will be hosting next week’s meeting as Robert will be taking his last vacation before election season starts. He asked Past President, Patrick O’Neil to lead the pledge and Mike Grace to provide the invocation.  

 

Gregg Cotta introduced his parents, Joe and Sherry Cotta. 

 

President Robert Olmstead III apologized for not have time to check his list of birthdays and anniversaries as he just got back from Boy Scout Camp.  What an experience that was!  Twenty kids and five adults chaperoning them in the hills north east of Angels Camp.  It was fun but challenging.  The chaperones were all looking forward to a stiff drink once they got home.  (Editor’s note: Things have changed since the ‘60s when I was in scouts… our chaperones had their stiff drinks while chaperoning, not after.)  Our President is an Egal Scout and he was gratified seeing his son at camp.  None of the boys at camp were on, or asking to be on, an electronic devise.  It was nice and they had a lot of fun.  

 

President Olmstead III asked if everyone was receiving his emails.  If not let him know by sending him an email. Jenny Davini passed around her list of contact information to allow the members to check to see if the club has the correct contact information.

 

Rob Olmstead III noted that John Gabriel wanted Rob to emphasize sponsorships, for the golf tournament.  You are encouraged to buy your foursome tickets very soon as this tournament will sell out.  The same thing goes for securing your sponsorship. The Rotary Charities Open website is up we are looking for volunteers.  You can use this web address, https://birdease.com/RotaryCharitiesOpen to sign up to golf and/or be a sponsor.  The event will be held at Sierra View Country Club on September 19^th.  This event is coming up much faster than we think.

 

Bill Hambrick will be back in a couple of weeks to help coordinate the Great American River Clean-up scheduled for September 17^th from 9:00 am to noon.  This is an adult only event as the environment is not kid friendly.  This is a great opportunity for our club to get involved.  The more volunteers we have the better.   Plans are in the works for a lunch and beverage of your choice right afterwards.

 

Ben Fox rang the bell in honor of his ten-year anniversary with his wife Kate.  In honor of that they took their kids on a 2-, 6-, and 8-year-olds on a road trip through Oregon and Washington.  He and Kate got a couple of days to themselves in the San Juan Islands while the children were cared for by good friends of the family.  The wheel granted him 1 ticket.

 

Tim Cahill was $5 happy because he saw in a publication that Ben Fox is now a rising star and should be congratulated. 

Past President Patrick O’Neil was to be able to sit at the back table and not be up front.

Linda Bigler for Patrick’s recovery and he is back.

Mike Grace was $20 happy for making it back from Alaska after having a great time fishing, watching bears eat salmon, and helping his son recover from covid in the worst $300-a-night hotel in Anchorage, Alaska. The wheel awarded him 5 tickets for his spin.

 

 

President Robert Olmstead III reported that the date for the off-site lunch at Greg Cotta’s Roastery has been moved to August 30^th to accommodate the schedule of the guest speaker the Studio for the Performing Arts.  Th Studio for the Performing Arts was one of our grant recipients that received $1,500 for a drinking fountain.  Lunch will be similar to that of the lunch provided at our CalFire event, sandwiches and such.  A sign-up sheet will be passed around next week. The secret word is "Roastery."

 

Tom Goode is hoping to be back I Sacramento in October when his child is about three months old and is planning a wine tasting event the first week in October at the winery of one of his clients. The event will cost $100 per person and will include wine and food.  More information to follow.

 

 

President Robert Olmstead III introduced John Cleveland, a member of the WeedMaps government relations team for the west coast. He is in charge of the company’s legislative and regulatory priorities for twelve states.  He has more than a decade of experience with federal and state government.  He used to work for the governor of South Carolina.  He now lives with his wife and dog on the Russian River in Sonoma County. 

John provided a PowerPoint presentation for the club to follow. The following are some of the highlights of the presentation.

 

Weedmaps, WM Technology, is a publicly-traded technology and software infrastructure provider to the cannabis industry.  Its mission is to power transparent and inclusive global cannabis economy.  They produce consumer-facing platform (Weedmaps.com and WM App, plus a suite of cloud-based software as a service (SaaS) and data solutions for the cannabis industry.

 

They are a government relations, research, education and public engagement arm of Weedmap.  They are the “Think and Do” tank for the organization.  They produce original research and policy papers; Provide expert testimony at hearings at all levels of government; Organize, host and participate in conferences and panel discussions; Offer expert analysis and commentary to new media; and further good ideas and industry innovation through provocative editorials, essays, social media postings and other thought leadership venues.

 

Taxes are a main benefit for state and local governments.  However, tax rates must strike a balance between generating meaningful revenue and diminishing the unregulated market.  Net effective tax rates (state and local) should not exceed 20%.  Taxes on cannabis should be restricted to the final point of sale and be based on final retail prices (not by weight or the THC levels.)

 

They have developed some policy recommendations that include:

Local governments should have the authority to regulate the time, manner, and location of licensed cannabis businesses, so long as local restrictions do not make it unnecessarily burdensome for a licensed cannabis operator to reasonably conduct business. Local bans lead to a fragmented legal marketplace with restricted access for consumers and patients, propping up the unregulated illicit market, which poses substantial safety risks for consumers.  The best solution is to prohibit local government bans on cannabis retailers at the outset of legalization as in the legalization policy implemented by New Mexico in it 2021 to encourage counties and municipalities to open for adult use.  Governor Newsom proposed a grant/incentive program to encourage counties and municipalities to pen up areas for dispensaries as part of his budget statement.

 

Some of their policy recommendations include:

President Robert Olmstead III thanked John for a very informative presentation and told him to bring samples next time.

 

President Robert Olmstead III queried the club with the multiple choice questions: What symbol did the French Resistance adopt during World Ward II?  Was it

Duane Oliveira was the first to raise his hand and he guessed the Fleur de Lis and he was wrong.  Tim Cahill liked his 50/50 odds and raised his hand to offer up the Cross de Lorraine and he was right, which garnered him one ticket for the drawing.

 

President Robert Olmstead III read off the ticket selected opportunity drawing ticket number and Past President O’Neil was the lucky ticket holder.  In hopes of increasing his luck he opted to have guest speaker John Cleveland pick the card for him.  John drew the 6 of diamonds.  Patrick then chose and envelope that did not have anything in it.  Better luck next time Patrick.

 

President Robert Olmstead III rang the club bell closing the meeting at 1:10 p.m.

 

Respectfully (more or less) submitted by,

 

Mike Grace