May 10th Meeting Minutes

Posted by Byron Rovegno

Rotary Notes 5/10/17

Pete Landsberger was our greeter.
Sargents at Arms were Al Rezai and Debbie Textor.
The meeting was called to order by President Judy Wilson at 12:14 PM.
Pledge of Allegiance was led by PPDaryl Stow.
Inspiration was by Sabrina Rizk who said she heard a speaker offer a $20 bill to some lucky person in attendance. Everyone wanted it. Then the bill was crumpled and stepped on and everyone still wanted it. The moral is that if you’ve made mistakes in your life or are down and out, you’re still special and inherently valuable.

Visiting Rotarians: None

Rotarians with guests:Jennifer Chen was a guest of John Stubblebine, Keyle Pi and Tian Lin were guests of PP Hung Wei, Ann-Marie Meecham was a guest of President Judy Wilson, Julie Mercik was a guest of Roxana Baker

President’s Club:
PP Steve Rudd recommended visiting the High Line in NYC, a park made out of old railway trestles over city streets for many blocks. He noted that Google bought a city block nearby for two billion dollars. The city is turning Hudson Rail Yard into condos to house new workers. This is the ultimate urban renewal.

PP Richard Lowenthal took the podium to congratulate PP Hung Wei for winning the Karl Stuki Award at the District Conference. Also he was pleased to announce that this was the 25^th year that he brought his team to the golf tournament and that the set up team did the best job ever.

Vardy Shtein then took the podium to thank Annie Ho for a great field trip to Sacramento. It was very informative.

Flag Exchange:
Kim Worrell visited the gravesite of her great grandfather in Bermuda and also met with St. George Rotary whose flag she brought home for the club.

Birthdays: Peter Halperin led us in song celebrating our Rotarians with May birthdays.

Announcements:
Leslie Hay reported that the annual Chili Cookoff will be 5/17@ 6 PM @ Linda Vista Park-sign up through Friday, 5/12 – cost $25/pp. Deadline is May 15th at 6 PM

Karen Morris and Frances Steward mentioned dues are due now. PE John Zirelli reported that dues have increased $10 to $390.

Chuck Harper reported that West Valley Community Services is looking for volunteers on June 10^th, 9-noon, to do spring cleaning of their store room.

PP Wendell Stephens reported that golf training is available for five consecutive weeks starting Friday, 5/12 @ 5 PM @ Blackberry Farm for $125.00. Eight people are signed up. The more the merrier. He also reported that there will be fellowship golf on May 25^th at the San Jose Municipal Golf Course, tee times TBD.

DGE Orrin Mahoney reported on District Conference Highlights. There were 54 clubs represented in Santa Cruz for the annual gathering. This is where PP Hung Wei won the

Helene Davis reported that our speech contest winner, Amita Mahajan, won at the Rickard King Award at the District level and took home $1,000. Photos of the District Conference are posted at https://cupertinorotary.smugmug.com

Diana Ding reported that a meeting with entrepreneurs from China resulted in a surprise $1,000 donation to the club to further our community bridge building efforts.

Induction: Anne Marie Meachum was sponsored by PP Hung Wei and PDG Joe Hamilton and is now a blue badger. Congratulations Anne Marie! Joe mentioned that we had 197 Rotarians at the start of 2017 and now have 225.

Program:
Rod Sinks introduced this weeks speaker- Angela Tsui who is the one person employed to promote Economic Development in Cupertino. Goals include facilitating retaining, attracting and expanding businesses in Cupertino. Check out her full and interesting presentation by clicking here. Below is a summary of her key points.

She is the ombudsperson who coordinates with various permitting activities for the city and county necessary to start and maintain businesses. She considers her job mostly a matchmaker and feels the city is easy to promote as the “pearl in the oyster of Silicon Valley.” Having the world’s most valuable company, Apple, headquartered here makes that statement ring true.

Angela noted that in addition to Apple, there are many other businesses opening in the city—new restaurants, retail, and hotels. This is necessary to support not only our 64,000 residents, but the daily swelling of people inside our borders to 180,000. DeAnza College’s 23,000 commuting students represent a large portion of the population change daily.

She provided interesting statistics on our city: Average home price $1,800,000; Average household income: $173,820; Bachelor’s degrees 33% and Master’s and above 31%; White collar jobs 92% and managerial jobs 28%. No wonder businesses want to locate here.