President Jordan’s Introduction of New Members and Past President Tim Hageman's Recap of the Year
- By John Hugunin
The early birds were having a great time socializing with one another prior to the start of the meeting.
Duke Winser, Jay Harkenrider, and Dave Harris were talking about the first women in Rotary and the five female Presidents we have had in the MB Rotary Club. Edie Webber was our first president. Followed by Jan Rhees, Kathleen Terry, Shannon Ryan, and Jordan Holbert.
Sue Vogl and Vinny Fazzino were having an intellectual discussion about our MB Rotary Book Club. If you are interested in joining the book club, contact John Hugunin (huganun@gmail.com)
Ken Deemer, Richard Burton, and Keith Sultemeier were talking about grand-kids and government.
Jim McFarland and Lynette Chiabai were sharing stories about their children. Boy did they make this writer feel old. My grand-kids are as old as their children.
While everyone was talking, Norm Levin was busy setting up the A/V stuff and also teaching Scott Yanofsky how to set it up. It's good to see Norm is getting a back-up.
Meeting Called to Order
Dan Saks called the meeting to order.
Dave Harris led us in the flag salute and shared two quotes for the “Thought of the Day.”
He introduced the quotes by saying: “As we move deeply into summer, the beach and ocean may be more a part of your life. Here are two quotes centered on the sea:
1. Whatever we lose in life, it's always ourselves we find in the sea. - E.E. Cummings
2. The cure for anything is salt water: sweat, tears, or the sea. - Isak Dinesen, pseudo name for Danish author Karen Blixen who wrote “Out of Africa”, “Babette's Feast”, “The Immortal Story”, and more.
President Jordan Holbert recognized our one “guest.” What a great feeling to see past member, James Kennedy. He is visiting the US for a few weeks and then will be returning to Puerto Rico.
New Member Recognition
President Jordan Holbert welcomed 6 of our newest members; Dan Graham, Jeff Serota, Tarek Shaer, Sandesha Singh, and Jesse Torres. Debbie Goldberg was also recognized; however, she was not able to attend our meeting this morning. Each of our new members were asked a question about how many of our members had the following first names: Steve, Dave, John, Richard, and Jim. A big shout out to Dan Graham who guessed the correct number of Jims in the Club (five).
Dave Gendron had some friendly advise for our new members. Just say “YES.” He had a humorous video of someone being indoctrinated into an organization and being advised to just say “YES.”
Election of MB Rotary Club Foundation Board Members
Ian Jackson announced that there will be an election for 2 open positions on the board of the Manhattan Beach Rotary Club Foundation. So far, Ken Deemer and Robert Stephenson have been nominated. Ian explained that addition nominations will be accepted prior to next weeks meeting.
Rotarians of the Year
Because of the pandemic, we had some catching up to do recognizing the “Rotarian of the Year.”
Past President Dave Gendron was proud to announce Keith Sultemeier as “Rotarian of the Year” for 2019 to 2020. Past President Tim Hageman followed up with the announcement that Jim Schlager, Program Director, was the “Rotarian of the Year” for 2020 to 2021.
Recap of the Year 2020 – 2021
Past President Tim Hageman opened his presentation with the recognition that the success of last year was a result of all of our Club's members working together with his Board as a team. His thanks went out to all of us.
His specific thanks went to the following members:
President Elect – Jordan Holbert
Immediate Past President – David Gendron
Senior Advisor – Ian Jackson
Membership – Dave Long
Technical Support (Zoom Meetings) and Newsletter – Bob Lanahan
Meeting Note Takers – Sue Vogl, Jim Hallett, Ron Sokol, John Hugunin
Go To Man – Tom Zimmerman
Treasurer – Russ Samuels
Social Events – Lisa Hemmat-Lupercio and Lynette Chiabai
Vocational – Annie Hendrickson and Jim McFarland
Youth – Shannon Ryan
International – Nina Patel
Community Service – Harrison Clay and Marcus Chang
Each of those who were recognized had their picture taken with Past President Tim. When it came time to have his picture taken with Shannon Ryan, there were two pictures taken: One with Shannon bending her legs to make her shorter and one with Tim standing on a chair. It was all done with good humor and well worth the laugh we all had.
David Gendron's message about saying “YES” when asked to do something paid off for all of the above members. We all received a cookie box filled with yummy chocolate dipped Hawaiian cookies. Well, there goes the waistline.
Happy Dollars
Wade Austin expressed his joy of being married to Wanda for 44 years.
Dr. Chris recognized the work of our two Westdrift waiters. They have been working for 30 years and 32 years providing food service to large meetings in the hotel.
Lisa Hemmat- Lupercio shared that her father is returning from overseas to the US after being away for over a year and Lisa's daughter is just celebrating her third birthday.
Dan Saks is celebrating a “double whammy.” His son got married and so did his daughter. Dan can hardly wait until those grand-kids start arriving.
Nelson Gray's son is visiting him after being away for 3 ½ years.
Wine Time
Hillary Mahan won the wine drawing. Maybe she will save the bottle for the next Ed Foundation Wine Auction.