The 'official visit' to your club by the District Governor. The purpose of this Governor's visit is to address the club regarding Rotary International and the district's goals, objectives, and issues that are important to the club and its membership. You are encouraged to invite spouses to attend this meeting.
Rotary Opens Opportunities!
This year’s theme “Rotary Opens Opportunities” could never be more relevant than now. Our new Rotary year starts off with most clubs holding online meetings and facing challenges with fundraising and community projects as we all practice social distancing. But it has also taught us new methods to connect with each other and given us new opportunities to serve our community and world. The humanitarian service Rotary brings is needed now more than ever.
I look forward to a great Rotary year with each and every member!
YOU BELONG (At SRJC)! Dr. Frank Chong, President and Superintendent of SRJC
Last Thursday’s presentation featured the amazing President and Superintendent of Santa Rosa Junior College, Dr. Frank Chong. It is impossible in this article to summarize all the information Dr. Chong provided in his remarkable presentation, but perhaps Dr. Chong’s theme tells the story: YOU BELONG! In other words, everyone is welcome at SRJC and the school backs up this promise with programs that help students throughout their SRJC education.
Some amazing statistics and facts about SRJC: SRJC was founded in 1918. Last year’s enrollment was nearly 30,000 (18,000 full time equivalent). 45% of Sonoma County high school seniors attend SRJC. The school has 3,000 employees. Dr. Chong is only the 5th President in SRJC’s history. SRJC has the highest acceptance rate to University of California schools among the California community colleges. SRJC has increased the diversity of its workforce by nearly 50% in the last 8 years.
Covid-19 has hit SRJC hard. Student enrollment is down 19% from fall 2019. 97% of classes in the fall of 2020 are being conducted through distance learning (compared to 15% distance learning in 2019). Course offerings declined this fall by 12%. The greatest change is in the reduction of STEM (mostly lab classes), and career classes such as automotive, welding, technology, culinary and similar classes. The lab and other classes that are still being offered have fewer students and more distancing. SRJC has determined the distance learning will continue through the Spring of 2021.
SRJC backs up its promise that everyone belongs with specific programs that foster diversity and multi-culture acceptance. SRJC received the Higher Education Excellence in Diversity Award and is a member of the LGBTQ presidential advisory committee. It has a “Dream Center” with free legal services and is a designated safe haven for all students. It also has a new Intercultural Center and an expanded Veterans Center. The school also welcomes new students and those seeking transfer to a 4-year university with strong support programs, including the Transfer Center and Welcome & Connect. The IGNITE program helps SRJC’s goal of increasing the enrollment of incarcerated individuals and helping them earn college credits while incarcerated. Research shows that programs such as IGNITE significantly decrease recidivism.
Construction at the JC is flourishing. It has a new state-of-the-art 400-seat theater, a new math and architectural building, and new athletic facilities (including an Olympic sized track and rebuilt football field). It is in the process of building an Olympic sized pool and a center for STEM classes. Tauser Gym is being renovated, and a new 400-bed Student Housing Center is, or will soon be, under construction. The Petaluma campus is growing too, with plans to build a campus for 5,000 students. SRJC just received a $7,000,000 grant for new construction at the Petaluma campus!
Sustainability is also a key factor in construction and maintenance of the campuses and in student lifestyle. The school’s goal is to be 100% energy self-sustaining in 2040. It is saving $1,000,000/year in energy costs as a result of new energy efficiencies.
Dr. Chong also gave some kudos for our Club members who so actively support SRJC and it’s foundation, including Kent Seegmiller (long-time SRJC Foundation Board member and Chairman), Ezbon Jen (educator extraordinaire), and Harry Coffey (husband to Judy). What a remarkable school for our community! What a remarkable leader! What great accomplishments! Well done, Dr. Chong, and thank you for such an amazing contribution to Sonoma County (and for giving us such a wonderful presentation)!
On a regular basis, our resident photo pro Warren Smith, submits pictures of what is going on at the weekly meetings. You can always find the most recent pictures at the websites photo journal called "Meeting Sighting" Please note that all the meeting photos for the entire Rotary year are at this location with the most recent on the last page.
Thanks for all the great pictures Warren!Link to Meeting Sightings. The most recent are on the last page!
Three greyhounds are sitting at a bar, bragging about their racing days. First greyhound: I raced 25 times. Won 15 times and minor places in the remainder. Second greyhound: If you think that’s good, I had 55 races, won 33, second in 10 and minor places in the remainder. The third greyhound looks at the other two laughs and says he ran in 60 races and won 50 of them. Up at the other end of the bar is an old horse. He whinnies in a mocking way. You greyhounds think you're so good. When I was racing I had 100 races and won every one of them. The three greyhounds look at each other in amazement. The first one says to the other two: "How about that? A talking horse.”
I am the second officer on a large cruise ship that normally carries about 1,200 passengers and almost 900 crew members. We were cruising from South America to Antarctica when the COVID-19 outbreak started. At first, we felt lucky — there were no cases on board, so we felt like we were the safest place in the world. But after the cruise line announced we would be pausing all operations fleetwide, we docked in Buenos Aires. Before arriving in Argentina, everyone on board had their temperature checked and we were confirmed healthy, so they allowed some passengers to disembark; some of them planned to fly home from there. At midnight the following evening, Argentina imposed a national quarantine. Its borders were closed and all flights canceled. At the time, we had 200 passengers ashore who had to come back from the airport to the ship or they would be stuck in Argentina.
People started getting sick a few days after these passengers got back on the ship, and no country would allow us to dock and disembark. We tried Montevideo, Rio de Janeiro, and then Barbados. Barbados allowed one critically ill passenger to get off and be medically evacuated to the United States for treatment. Finally, after almost a month of sailing, we approached Miami, where we were allowed to dock. Sadly, two passengers died a few hours before we made it to Miami. Others who were in critical condition were immediately taken by ambulance to nearby hospitals.
“People started getting sick a few days after these passengers got back on the ship, and no country would allow us to dock and disembark.”
The process of disembarking all but 13 international guests took five days in total. During those five days, we would periodically call ambulances so ill passengers and crew could be transferred to area hospitals for more care. The remaining passengers and crew members had to stay on board for a 14-day quarantine before the United States would allow the passengers to disembark. In total, six people died, including one of our crew members, a guy in his late 40s. As you can imagine, that really rattled the crew’s morale. It’s hard on many of us mentally. We’re stuck in a steel box with the virus — there’s nowhere we can go.
Once our quarantine ended, the rest of our passengers were allowed to disembark, but five unlucky guests on board still can’t get flights to their home countries. We also still have hundreds of crew members from all over the world. So the cruise line came up with a solution to get everyone home: Later this week, five ships are going to meet in the Atlantic between Florida and the Bahamas and use our lifeboats to exchange passengers and crew. Our ship will sail to Asia, another will go to Europe, another to South America. We’re essentially going to operate a bus service to get people back home.
I was supposed to go home to Scotland about two months ago, but now I’ll be on the ship until at least the end of June. My mum is worried about me, as any mother would be. She asks if I’m eating and sleeping well, and while it’s not ideal to be stuck here, I know others have it much worse. I have a warm bed, enough food, and a job. I’m also glad I can be of service and help other people get home.
I usually work on the ship for three months, and then I have three months off. That’s why I joined Rotary — when I’m at home, I like to spend my time volunteering. At 24, I’m the youngest person in my club by far, but I really enjoy it. I’ve been attending our meetings from the ship via Zoom. It’s good to see the faces of the other members, and they are always eager to hear my updates. It provides me with a welcome bit of home.
• This story originally appeared in the August 2020 issue of The Rotarian magazine.
Rotary youth exchange — one of the many programs for youths and young adults that we celebrate this month — was my path into true engagement in Rotary. My wife, Susanne, and I began hosting exchange students soon after I joined, and the experience helped me go from simply being a member of my Rotary club to being a true Rotarian. Now Rotary Youth Exchange is a family tradition, and a strong one: Over the past 24 years, we have hosted 43 students!
From the start, we loved it so much that, in addition to hosting students in our home, we became involved with the program by helping to organize student summer camps. During one such camp, I met Christine Lichtin, who was a German high school student at the time and whose father is a past president of my Rotary club. To try something new during this year of embracing change, I am turning this space, normally reserved for the president of Rotary, over to Christine so she can share her story.
My first contact with Rotaract was about 13 years ago, when I was with Susanne and Holger at a barbecue for the summer youth camp. Holger turned to me and said: "Why don't you visit a Rotaract club? You'll meet a lot of great young people who come together to have fun and to make a difference."
A few years later, when I was at Trier University, his words came back to me and I decided to give it a try. That was more than eight years ago, and I'm still at it. Once you are in Rotaract, you just don't want to get out. Rotaract has accompanied me everywhere, starting with the Trier club and then on to a club in Bologna, Italy, during the year I studied there. When I was in Kiel for my master's degree, I got involved with Rotaract there before landing at the Rotaract Club of Hamburg-Alstertal as I began my career. Each of those clubs has its own identity and focus, but all have the same intrinsic motivation.
I am now taking on a senior advisory role in my Rotaract club, which I really enjoy. I carry Rotaract in my heart, and it shapes my values, even as my interests evolve. One day, as if she had sensed this evolution, Susanne knocked on my door, wanting to introduce me to a young, modern Rotary club located between Hamburg and Mölln, my hometown. The E-Club of Hamburg-Connect, which Susanne helped charter, holds e-meetings, all of them very relaxed and personal. With members of different ages, everything just seemed to fit, so I thought, why not try it out? After all, time is precious and should be filled with fun whenever possible; the rest happens by itself.
Now I am in both worlds — a proud member of Rotaract and a Rotarian. And my small personal goal is to build a bridge between these two parallel worlds. All of us have very similar reasons for being part of the Rotary family.
It took some persistence to persuade Christine to become a member of Rotary, but it was well worth the effort. It is our duty to put in this kind of effort with youth program participants and Rotaractors so we can keep them in the family of Rotary. I hope you were inspired by her story. It's up to each of us to ensure that more young people like Christine can experience the many ways Rotary Opens Opportunities for us and for the people we serve.
In late 1914, Europe was divided by hundreds of miles of trenches. British and French forces on one side were within shouting distance of German troops on the other. The pope made a plea for a Christmas truce, but the shooting continued.
Then, on Christmas Eve, soldiers from behind British lines heard an unexpected sound — not gunfire, but singing. Next, they heard a single voice shout out, "English soldier, merry Christmas!" followed by "English soldier, come out to join us!"
Both sides cautiously emerged over the parapet into the no man's land between the trenches. Before long, the soldiers realized that it was a real truce. They fraternized, singing Christmas carols, exchanging souvenirs and whiskey, and even taking up a friendly soccer match.
The cease-fire continued only two days before the troops returned to their trenches, resuming bloodshed for nearly four long years. But the story of the Christmas truce reminds us that peace is possible, if we choose to accept it. If peace can last a few days, could it not also last months or years? And how do we prevent conflict in the first place?
In his Nobel Peace Prize lecture in 1964, American civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. said, "We must concentrate not merely on the negative expulsion of war, but on the positive affirmation of peace."
With Positive Peace, our society's structures, policies, and everyday attitudes and actions promote justice at all levels, sustaining a peaceful coexistence. It's an answer to the calls for justice and peace we have heard on the streets in protests from Minneapolis to Paris this year.
Positive Peace, studied at our Rotary Peace Centers around the world, is not just an academic idea for the Rotary Peace Fellows. Through Rotary's partnership with the Institute for Economics and Peace, the Rotary Positive Peace Academy offers free training to every Rotary member on how to wage Positive Peace in every project we do at the grassroots level, including Foundation grants.
Positive Peace resonates at all levels of The Rotary Foundation. Our literacy projects help children gain equal access to literacy, so opposing sides on an issue can understand each other better. Through our Foundation grants that provide clean water, communities gain stability, as more children stay in school rather than fetching water for hours on end.
Our role as civil society leaders who wage Positive Peace will continue to expand, not only through partnerships and more grants, but also through our hearts, minds, and hands as we offer our gifts to make the world a better place.
Rotary Club of Santa Rosa Sunrise - Founded June 30, 1986
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