President Dave "Movie Production" Gendron
-by Mark Burton
 
With our first heat wave of the fall blowing in this week, it was a refreshingly cool morning for our MB Rotary Club meeting.  In fact, it’s the “coolest” way to start off your week!  Bill Bloomfield came in from the bullpen to give us a Thought for the Day.  Bill shared two thoughts, one having to do with Elks club members being more “active” than Rotary club members?    After several years of being dormant, our MB Chamber brought back the “Best of Manhattan Awards.”  Congratulations to Kelly Stroman for hosting this spectacular event.  Hilary Mahan took home the honors for “Making A Difference.” And, Hilary does make a profound difference in our community as the Executive Director for the Manhattan Beach Education Foundation.  Hilary is also designing and arranging table settings for VetFest.  Don’t you just love the positive energy and enthusiasm that our Community Services Director, Annie Hendrickson, brings to the job!  Great work this year Annie!  Finally, VetFest is almost here with so many of our club members stepping up to support this very worthwhile event that benefits our veterans.  For example, Mike Doell, a proud veteran, bought four tickets even though admission for veterans is free! 
 
“Late Start” is Coming to Mira Costa High School
Club member, Dr. Mike Matthews, has been leading the reform effort to have California high schools start their school day at 8:30 a.m.  Mike explained that teenage bodies are going through significant changes and their circadian rhythm changes, so that they go to sleep later and wake up later.  Thanks to Mike’s leadership, the MBUSD was the first school district to support the late start reform, which will begin in the 22-23 academic year.
 
Celebrating 100th Anniversary of Women’s Suffrage
Jane Guthrie, Chair of the Manhattan Beach Conservancy, spoke to our club about the 100th anniversary of the passage of the 19th Amendment to our US Constitution, giving women the right to vote.  The women’s suffrage movement worked tirelessly over a long period of time to accomplish this goal. Jane informed us about the Rose Parade Float which will  celebrate the centennial of the passage of the 19th Amendment.  “Upon their shoulders, we won the vote.  Upon our shoulders, we protect the vote.  We celebrate and build for the future.” 
 
DeeHOP!  USC Dental Students
We learned about DHOP, the Dental Humanitarian Outreach Program, from tUSC Dental School students Leila Hakim and Samareh Nikookar.  Thanks to  Bob Lanahan for bringing this project to our club last year.  This program has been in existence for 10 years, making trips to Nicaragua, Panama and the Philippines to provide dental care to those desperately in need of it.  There are now 60 students and 15 faculty participating.  MB Rotary is proud to be a sponsor.
 
Guest Speaker:  Eric Briggs, MACRO
OK, we have had some very intelligent speakers talk to our club. However, Eric Briggs, the chief strategy officer and chief financial officer for MACRO, has to be one of the very brightest and dynamic!  Of course, Eric is one of the many newer residents who have chosen to call Manhattan Beach home.
 
Eric was enrolled in UCLA’s MBA/PhD Program and his first love is statistics and finance.  Also, he was a professor at USC. 
 
Since MACRO is a media company, Eric came to speak to us about TV finance and production.  So far, MACRO has 12 feature films to its credit with nine Academy Award nominations to date.
 
Eric explained the dramatic change in TV production from the “Seinfeld” model of success to the new “Netflix” platform model.  In essence, under the new model, producer financing is made easier by pitching a season concept to a platform model, which can buy a entire season at the front end.  Eric showed us a video of “How Do I Raise a Superhero” as an example of a concept that impressed MACRO, which then pitched it to Netflix.   Under the old “Seinfeld” model, producers had to comb the globe to find financing.  In the next five to 10 years, Eric predicts that content platforms such as Netflix, Disney, Apple Plus and Amazon will have great success in bringing programming to viewers -- viewers who are winners because they will pay less and get more!  Thank you Eric!
 
Raffle
Dave “The Booch” Boochever won the raffle for a bottle of wine.  He was slow to claim the wine; maybe he needed a second cup of coffee?  And, yours truly, Mark Burton, was blackballed in the raffle.
 
Have a Great MB Rotary Week!