Meeting January 7, 2016

Joe Strohman led us in the Flag Salute.

 

President Bruce welcomed Nicole Kruetz back. Nicole has been on a maternity leave for the last several months. Nicole said that her son Colton is 3 months old and it's time to get back to work!

 

President Bruce introduced guests and visiting Rotarians. Past President Joe Amandoli visited today to say hello and goodbye. Joe and his wife Shawn will be moving to Santa Rosa, CA to be closer to his daughter and family. Guest of Husam Hishmeh was Chris Figueroa. Chris cycles to raise money for healthy living programs. Chris is sponsored by many Rotary clubs and is planning a trip from the Black Sea to Everest. Guest of Jordan Eller was former member Michelle Mercado.

 

Midge announced that our raffle prize was a Nordstrom gift card donated by Laura Shannon.

 

President Bruce spoke a little about his visit to his family in Australia. President Bruce told us what a good time he had explaining Donald Trump to his family!

 

Jim Word spoke about our recent rain and the effect it had on Casitas. Basically Tuesday's rain did not generate any visible flow in the Ventura River. Wednesday's rain showed a little flow, but not enough to divert water into the lake. So we had a good rain storm, but there was no effect on the drought. Jim said that we only need 900 inches of rain to fill the lake.

 

Jordan Eller said that he has received is first inquiry about scholarships. Scholarship applications will be available in March.

 

Bill Spellman reported that we did mock interviews at Buena High School this morning. Husam Hishmeh, Vance Thompson and John Borneman participated and next week it will be Bill Spellman and Joe Strohman.

 

Bill Spellman also reported that we are doing good with RYLA registrations. We are waiting on the two from Buena to complete their registrations.

 

Tom Swan gave a speaker update. Next week we will here about how to teach kids to find merit based scholarships.

 

Back to RYLA, Husam Hishmeh told us that he is having his twin daughters go to RYLA through the Downtown club and one of his daughters was accepted and the other was an alternate. 

 

Husam Hishmeh also told the club we still do not have a PEN. President Bruce said that he was ashamed that nobody will step up and become PEN.

 

Rich Stewart and Laura Shannon spoke about the tutoring at ATLAS school and how much fun it was. Rich urged everyone to sign up and help out. We need volunteers to keep this program going.

 

President Bruce said that the Breeze is online and to talk to Jeff Hata about getting your advertising in the Breeze and on the website.

 

Bill Spellman reported on Interact. The club has taken on a project to work with the special needs students on campus. This is turning out to be a good program because many times the special needs students are forgotten. Interact is working with the special needs students on crafts projects that they distribute to local assisted living facilities.

 

Midge Stork conducted the raffle and our lucky winner was Husam Hishmeh.

 

John Borneman led us in a song.

 

Our speaker was Doug Ridley, Esq. who spoke to us about the science of a DUI.