Invocation: Kat Klowes
Flag Salute: Jeff Johnson
Song: Star Spangled Banner
Greeter: Scott Hamilton
Roving Mics: Jorge Barrientos
Guest Editor Superstar:
Ken Beurmann:Ken is the CEO of TERRIO Physical Therapy & Fitness. TERRIO provides outpatient physical therapy services out of 14 clinics spread across Bakersfield, Tehachapi, Delano, and Fresno.
Club Highlights:
President Kristen Beale-Watson was absent today, and her replacement was Joe Hay’s Secretary Shawn. Past President Joe Hay finally showed up to the meeting (late, as usual), and then proceeded to remind us why he is a significant downgrade from President Beale-Watson (and quite honestly, a downgrade from Shawn).
Sgt. at Arms Jason Cater was replaced by Past Sgt. at Arms Nik Boone, which made no sense because Sgt. at Arms Jason Cater was in the meeting. Most in the crowd seemed to enjoy this upgrade, but Jason Cater seemed incredibly irritated by being benched and having to sit through Nik’s subsequent antics.
Past President Hay presented a check to Honor Flight of Kern County, to help send WWII, Korean, and Vietnam Veterans to Washington DC.
Our Rotary Club is collecting food items throughout the month of September – which we will then donate to The Mission at Kern County. So clean out your pantry!
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Gingers get a hall pass
Past President Hay also announced one free make-up for all Red Heads in our Rotary Club (I’ll be cashing in on this next week).
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Visiting Rotarians:
- Scott Begin – East Rotary
- Christine Diaz – East Rotary
- Winn Eaton – Northwestern Rural Rotary Club of the Republic of Oregon (and notably, his cell phone went off during the meeting).
Guests:
- There were a few guests, but I missed their names. This was because I could not recover from President Elect Jeff Gutierrez trying to introduce his guest – while his guest was in the middle of what must have been a very, very important phone call.
Good News Announcements:
Jorge Barrientos had a few good news announcements. One included thanking Mike Willis for saving hundreds of lives at the Village Fest by figuring out how to ensure Uber safety for all attendees, and sticking with the theme Jorge announced the Mothers Against Drunk Drivers (MADD) Walk is this Saturday.
Andrea Hansen announced this Saturday is National Dance Day.
Aaron Falk announced he’s a terrible dancer, but he was happy to report Kern Community Foundation had distributed $30k in relief funds for the Borel Fire.
New Member:
Our newest Downtown Rotary member, Dr. Jerry Fliger, was inducted during today’s meeting. Dr. Fliger is the President of Bakersfield College.
During the induction, Past President Hay quipped that Notre Dame destroyed Dr. Fliger’s Alma Mater, Purdue, this past weekend in football. Past President Hay failed to mention that Notre Dame lost, at home, to Northern Illinois University the week prior (and if I’m not mistaken, I believe Northern Illinois is a Junior College team).
Program:
- Kern Community College's newest Chancellor, Dr. Steven Bloomberg, gave our Club his presentation entitled: “Empowering Potential: Kern CCD Paving the Way Forward.”
- Dr. Bloomberg began by giving the Club an overview of the California Jobs First program, and said within this program Kern County is its own region (which is significant given our unique economic engines).
- Dr. Bloomberg encouraged the audience to use the words such as “Reinvested Communities” rather than “Disinvested communities.”
- Dr. Bloomberg said one of our unique challenges to Kern County is in the declining Petroleum industry, and he and KCCD are working hard to come up with ways to replace the $70k/year jobs that high school graduates could get in the Petroleum industry with other high paying jobs that don’t require a 4-year university degree (such as jobs in Automation, Warehousing, Logistics, and Alternative Energy).
- Dr. Bloomberg said that over the next 10 years, 675k jobs will be created in the Hydrogen Fuel Cell Technology industry.
- Dr. Bloomberg highlighted the dual enrollment program at BC that partners with the Kern High District, where students can graduate with their high school diploma and their AA degree at the same time (so essentially at 18 years old).
- Dr. Bloomberg said when he asks employers what their biggest hiring needs are, he hears the same three responses: “we need employees who show up, show up on time, and can pass a drug test.” Dr. Bloomberg encouraged us to raise the bar as employers, and that KCCD is working on improving “soft skills” training (which he renamed as “impact skills”).
- Dr. Bloomberg said the current student loan debt in America is $1.8 trillion, and that he and his team at KCCD are working hard to ensure students can graduate debt-free from KCCD colleges.
- Dr. Bloomberg reminded the audience that all KCCD colleges are open enrollment – meaning they accept everyone from everywhere.
- Dr. Bloomberg expressed the need for businesses to remain profitable, because without profitability in the private sector our overall capitalistic society will fail.
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