New President Lori Rodrigues Chairs the July Club Assembly!
Newly ensconced Club President, Lori Rodrigues, chaired her first meeting as President on July 10, 2025. Lori also starred as presider-in-chief of the meeting’s semi-annual Club Assembly! Lori’s presentation was packed with great information. This year’s Rotary International theme is “Unite for Good.” The Rotary International President is Francesco Arezzo (who has taken over the role in place of Mario Cesar Martins de Camargo, who was unable to assume the title). The District 5130 president is Kristine Redko, a founding member of the Rotary Club of Rancho Cotati. DG Kristine’s District 5130 theme (aka “walk-up song” in baseball terminology) is “Rotary, the Music in Our Hearts.”
Lori introduced the club’s leadership team (which can be found on the Club Runner app). The team includes some new or newish faces, including Max Childs and Dan Rosaschi in their new capacities as President Elect and President Nominee, respectively, Bonny Landers (Foundation) and Rob Sanville (Club Service). We are still looking for Fundraising and Events chairs, so contact Lori if you are interested. Lori’s vision for this year is to grow the club, increase member engagement, and improve our visibility within our community. She has a couple of new activities planned, including “Coffee with the President” and a revamped, improved Progressive Dinner. She also envisions hiring a caterer to provide food for at least some of the Thursday meeting breakfasts. We will continue to offer hybrid meetings.
We also heard several reports about our club programs. Our philanthropy program will have slightly less money to give than last year. We will focus on food insecurity issues and on increasing opportunities to combine our financial resources with service projects for a more coordinated approach to helping small local nonprofits. The Fundraising team needs a chairperson so we can start assembling a planning group and assess future strategies, goals, and events. The Events team also needs a chair. Lori’s goal is to increase the number of events this year. We will be having a holiday party and a raffle party, but the new big event this year will be our 40th anniversary, scheduled for June 27, 2026 at Santa Rosa Golf and Country Club. This is going to be a really big show with lots of invitations to dignitaries and our current and historical partners, including partners from Japan. Because of the late June date for the 4th anniversary party, the debunking will take place in early July.
Lori has a goal of adding 9 new members to the club. To do that, she wants to improve opportunities to meet prospective members, secure at least one new corporate membership, and increase engagement with club members to identify and recruit new members. John Jones provided an update on the International section. Nicaragua is still out of reach. In fact, the Nicaraguan government has banned all Rotary clubs and activities in the country. Our Sabalos clinic, however, is still in operation! John is looking for other opportunities, including El Salvador, to restart our eyeglass program.
