Meeting Notes September 19, 2018
President Helene Davis called meeting to order followed by
Pledge: Louisa Roberts
Inspiration: Manisha Puranik shared the nonprofit organization Cake4Kids and how she got involved with them. Cake4Kids engages volunteers to make cakes for sick
Visiting Rotarians:
Mitty Chang from the Rotary e-Club of Silicon Valley
Rotarians with Guests:
Bob Pruitt introduced Tony King, RoseAnn Woolpert introduced Patrick Robinson (today’s speaker) and Roxanne Beltran, Steve Onishi introduced Adrienne Moberley, Padma Chari introduced Shum Muahersee, and Annie Yamashita introduced her husband Robert Yamashita.
President Helene Davis thanked Leslie Hay and her team for the room set-up, and Bill Allen for making the plank.
Flag Exchange: President Helen Davis and Cap’n Clive Roughknuckles (Josh Selo) exchanged the pirate flags.
Presidents Club:
Sabrina Rizk joined the Presidents Club in honor of the publication of her third book, Hannah and Amy go to South Africa. It is based on their family’s travels around the world for six months.
Announcements:
PP Darryl Stow informed club members about the upcoming candidates forum, scheduled for October 3 (CUSD and FUHSD School Board Forum) and October 17 (City Council Forum). The forums will take place during normal meeting times (beginning at 12:10) at Quinlan Community Center. Lunch service will begin at 11:45 - so please plan to arrive early
Colleen Hudgen invited club members to attend the Live Oak Texas Road House BBQ, scheduled for October 6 from 5:30-8pm at St. Jude’s in Cupertino. The cost is $50 per person. Western attire and cowboy hats are encouraged.
Henry Buffalow asked members to volunteer for the upcoming Rebuilding Together program, scheduled for Saturday, October 27. For information, contact Henry Buffalow, Bill Allen, or Barbara McArthur.
Janice Yeh invited club members to a Vista Village volunteer project at West Valley Community Services on October 6 from 9am-12pm. For information, contact Janice at janice.yeh@gmail.com.
Sabrina Rizk provided an update about the TRF Campaign. The club has received pledged/donations form 103 Rotarians (49% of club members) - we are hoping for 100% participation as we head into the final week of the campaign. We have received $40,910 in pledged and donations to date (68% of goal). We encourage all members to participate in this campaign.
Celebrate Successes:
President Helene Davis invited the club to celebrate the following successes made by possible by the Rotary Club of Cupertino.
George Denise thanked all the coordinators and volunteers who helped make Fall Fest a success. Special thanks to co-chair
Peter Halpin. Thought for the day courtesy of George: A goal is just a dream with a deadline. There are great pictures
here.
Bill Allen thanked the volunteers who participated in the Marine Science Institute project. There are pictures of the day
here.
Rotarian Fly-Up:
Karen Morris and Jerra Rowland led a Red Badge fly-up for Peter Landsberger (with his sponsor Pearl Chang) and Janel Breen (with her sponsor PP Hung Wei).
The club enjoyed some pirate fun in celebration of Pirate Day, starting off with a pirate song led by Sam Grinels and his pirate chorus Leslie Hay, Rachelle Sander, Lynn Ching, and Josh Selo.
The club then enjoyed a pirate joke contest featuring PP Bev Lenihan, Bob Pruitt, PP Dave Stearns, and PP Jim Walker. The winner of the contest was Bev Lenihan.
Presidents Corner:
President Helene Davis inducted PP Jim Walker, Geoff Paulsen, and PP Dave Stearns into the Order of the Spoke and Wheel for biking to today’s meeting. Stuart Rosenberg also biked to today’s meeting and is a member of the Order.
Program:
RoseAnn Woolpert introduced today’s program, Patrick Robinson the Reserve Director of the Marine Reserve at Ano Nuevo reserve. He spoke about the Secret Life of Elephant Seals.
Patrick has a Ph.D. in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and a B.S.in Marine Biology from UC Santa Cruz. His primary interest is understanding how marine predators make a living in the open ocean. He has been fortunate to work on a variety of species: northern elephant seals,California sea lions, Weddell seals, crabeater seals, and Galapagos sea lions. Prior to joining the Costa lab, he was involved with two research projects on Catalina Island.
Patrick spoke briefly about the land research that has been done about elephant seals for the past 40 years. Then Patrick segued to speak about the process of studying elephant seals at sea using biologging tags, which are attached to animals and then relay the information back to the researchers. Elephant seals are out at sea for 8-9 months at a time, so the biologging tags have to keep working for a very long time. Patrick shared details from his team’s research about how and where elephant seals forage, their mating habits, and information about the ecology of the northeast Pacific.
To watch the whole presentation, please click
here.
Next week:
RoseAnn Woolpert announced next week’s speaker, representative from Mid-Peninsula Open Space District, about how they support and expand our treasured open spaces.
Peninsula Open Space Trust (POST) is a nonprofit whose mission is to protect and care for open space, farms, and parkland in and around Silicon Valley. Hear from Tonya Treble about POST's 40-year history, successes in protecting over 76,000 acres (contributing to the state and county parks and open space preserves that make our region extraordinary), and updates on POST's five program areas.
Rotary District 5170 Event -Avenues of Service –Leaders Keep on Learning– October 4th, 2018 at the Biltmore in Santa Clara. 
Cupertino Rotary’s TRF Annual Giving Campaign kicked off on September 5th with the help of District Governor Tim Lundell. The campaign is earlier this year due to a full schedule in October. This year our Club goals are 100% participation and $60,000 raised, with a stretch goal of $64,000 in honor of our Club's 64th year.
