Call to Order: President Eric called the business meeting to order at 7:32 a.m. Judith McCaffrey gave the flag salute on behalf of David Velarde, Ellen gave the invocation, and Judith provided the raffle that was won by Oscar Zavala.
Guests: Elizabeth Smith; Brian Schiff, speaker.
Announcements:
(a) Eric pointed out to club members that you may visit other Rotary Clubs’ meetings virtually. Scott Burns recently attended a Baltimore Club meeting where he learned about a fundraiser that made a lot of money. Sandra visited the Seattle club meeting; they have 144 members. Portions of the meeting were prerecorded and there were break-out sessions at the end. Kirk mentioned that you can see ten years’ worth of their meetings on YouTube – they have some great speakers.
(b) Eric heard about a Tucson couple visiting Santa Barbara who want to get the vaccine. He asked if non-residents are allowed to get it here and Kathy Scroggs said there is a special form they have to complete.
(c) The District has changed the criteria for this year’s District Awards because of the coronavirus. He will send it to the Directors.
Committee Reports:
Club Service: Judith will be leading some hikes soon; see the information in the Early Bird Bugle. She has a few sign-ups already. Diana reported that the Happy Hour on February 25th will include a trivial pursuits game. She encouraged members who have not joined in on a happy hour to participate to socialize and get to know our newer members. Invite a friend!
Community Service: Dennis said he is waiting on the dictionary project for the children to be back in school. He doesn’t have a count yet. Because we are meeting twice per month, we will now be putting 30 labels in the front of the dictionaries instead of 15, honoring our speakers. Regarding the laptop project for La Cuesta students, Dennis said we had hoped to do Zoom interviews of potential recipients but the Principal didn’t think this would work well and has proposed submitting videos of students for us to review. This will begin in March.
Membership: please let Hannah know if you attend another club’s meeting. The membership committee will be meeting next Tuesday at noon. Hannah also reported that she and Judith attended the mid-term training by Zoom last Saturday. She met with Group 8 Presidents-Elect in a break-out room. Chris Baxter is the Assistant Governor for Group 8 next year.
Vocational Service: Scott reminded members about the Spark event on February 16 at noon. 100 people attended the first one but the one before Christmas had only 45 people. We need more so spread the word. This particular event is focused on Rotary and Rotarians, and small things with which their kids have to deal.
Foundation: Frank reported that over half the club members have pledged but we need to have 100%. Eric pointed out there is more need than ever.
Captain Brian Schiff vacationing at Big Bear Lake
Program: Captain Brian Schiff, an American Airlines pilot, said he began with TWA in 1989, then they were acquired by AA. In those days they were trained on how to handle hijackings. In particular, they had charts of the distance to Cuba because Cubans would hijack planes because they were either trying to pick up their buddies or return home. Captain Brian said his dad was a TWA pilot and they had the opportunity to fly a plane together.
He talked about seeing the beauty while flying: rain showers, the sunsets look different; it’s a different perspective from the cockpit. There is a bond that unites airmen.
In 1989 Brian was headquartered in Frankfurt, Germany. He was in Berlin when the wall was taken down and he traded hat emblems with an East German guard.
On 9/11/2001 Brian was living in St. Louis and was flying that day from there to New York La Guardia. They took off at 8:40 a.m. At 9:08 they received a message asking if they had heard about a ground stop in New York. They had not, but soon received a message from Air Traffic Control to turn right because an erratic aircraft was headed towards them. This turned out to be United 93 that went down in Pennsylvania.
They received a printed message to return to St. Louis – they had no idea why. They thought maybe war had broken out but they had to stay calm for the passengers. When they approached St. Louis, there was another aircraft on the runway but they were told to land anyway. They sat for four hours in the plane waiting for a gate to open. This is when they heard what had happened and they informed the passengers. They were fortunate to go back home; other flights were grounded for days in places they didn’t want to be.
Since then, changes have been made to the cockpit. Previously, he enjoyed strolling down the aisles mid-flight talking to passengers but he can’t do that now. They have bullet proof doors.
COVID-19 has annihilated the industry. 45% of pilots still have jobs and there is a different type of clientele. He said they pump in outside air that is recycled every 3-7 minutes so it is quite safe. Training protocols have changed because the simulator has to be sterilized between each trainee so it has slowed down the training. The industry needs Government subsidies. Some pilots are trained to be armed. Older pilots are taking early retirement with early-out retirement packages. Mandatory retirement age is 65. Pricing for flights has gone way down now.
Adjournment: Eric thank Brian for his program, informed him of the dictionary labels honoring our speakers and adjourned the meeting at 8:32 a.m.
