Jim's story for the July 23 Bulletin

 

It was Monday, July 16, 2018, and President Ken Deemer stepped aside as Ed Kushins compared the eating habits of vegetarians, pescaterians, and Rotarians, after which we celebrated Mike Doell’s 50 years of wedded bliss and 40+ such years for Wade Austin, Nelson Gray, Ian Jackson, Dennis Morehead, and Wayne Nelson.  Whereupon the birthday boys were called up and were serenaded by the dulcet tones of Larry “LJ the DJ” Johnson….Ingo Werk returned from the Toronto RI Convention (Wade Austin was also there) with a 6-pack of Rotary beer (the 4-way test is on the can).

 

Cedric Tuck-Sherman promoted two upcoming events:  the July 28 P.S. I Love You Day at the Beach, and the August 18 Culver City Habitat for Humanity build…..David Gendron counted eight members so far attending the August 14 District Breakfast.

 

In a sure sign that Kathleen Terry, a retreat specialist, was in the house, we experienced one of her signature moves—we were randomly assigned to tables and the meeting was divided up into single-table conversations, each with a club director responsible for a particular avenue of service. This was followed by each of us reassigning ourselves to the table/director of our choice.  A flood of ideas flowed from this procedure, with each director assigned to write up what was learned. Some reported their findings to the entire group, with ideas such as mandatory service hours, mentoring new members, mentoring inactive members, increasing Rotary Reads, starting up local literacy breakfasts, returning to Moffett School, engaging more with Interact and RYLA and the International Youth Exchange, partnering with other clubs and non-profits, and a spring trip to Mexico. 

 

President Ken closed out this noisy convocation with this summary:  he heard lots of new ideas and lots of  “In the old days we used to…..”  Something old and something new—it sounded like a club with a history and a future.