Since 2000, Pamela Jeane has been the Assistant General Manager of Operations at Sonoma Water - responsible for the continuous operation and permitting of Sonoma Water's potable water and wastewater treatment and reuse facilities. Ms. Jeane is a registered civil engineer in the State of California and a Sonoma County native.
Dustin Littlefield, District Governor for District 5130!
The speaker and special guest for our July 15, 2021, meeting was Rotary District 5130 Governor, Dustin Littlefield. Dustin is a member of the Rotary Club of Arcata Sunrise. He works in property management and real estate in Humboldt County. Dustin joined Rotary in 2014 and almost immediately assumed a leadership role in his club by joining and ultimately leading committees. He is also very interested and involved in music. Dustin met with our Board of Directors and came away impressed with our club’s projects and energy.
District 5130’s theme for 2021-2022 is “What is Rotary?” Dustin believes that Rotary means many things to many people. For example, Dustin might answer the question “What is Rotary” by explaining his interest in surfing and discussing Rotary’s Surfer’s United Rotarian Fellowship. His father, however, would say that Rotary is about raising money for wheelchairs. Both are right! Dustin wants to help make Rotary a meaningful experience and increase Rotary’s impact on members and the public. We need to find ways to share our experiences, not just the numbers, but the activities that actually enhance our Rotary experience. The goal is to share and promote our experiences in our social and professional interactions.
Dustin’s talk focused on three areas: Hybrid meetings, membership, and projects. Hybrid meetings were virtually unknown prior to March 2020. Now we meet together as clubs and in smaller groups using a variety of technological media, including Zoom, Facetime, and What’s App. Even PETS 2020 was a virtual format. Training resources are now being digitized and club sites, including the Rotary International site, are becoming more useful. The goal is to resume in-person meetings, but online meetings can and should be an important part of our Rotarian communities. We should take a creative approach to hybrid meetings and focus on the many aspects that make those meetings helpful. Clubs need teams of experienced people to put these meetings together.
As to membership, the numbers are not great. Crises take a toll on club membership, and Covid-19 is no exception. Rotary has identified a few factors, including increased competition from other organizations offering business advertising. Another factor is the difficulty in retaining members. Dustin wants us to create leadership pathways for young professionals and allow them the space to develop their leadership skills. Rotary is the original LinkedIn, and we need to keep it relevant for professionals. Dustin referenced Rotary International President Shekhar Mehta’s approach to membership: “each one, bring one.” If each of us introduces a new member to our club, Rotary’s membership problems will be solved. New clubs and new formats, such as completely online and/or cause-based, would add value to the Rotarian experience.
Dustin is impressed with our projects. He was humbled by our tenacious achievement building and staffing a medical/surgical center in Sabalos, Nicaragua. He wants us to dream big! There are lots of projects that stalled during the pandemic, and we need them to restart; this gives us opportunities to participate in life-changing projects throughout the world. He also advises that we increase our involvement in social media, such as Instagram, and take and post lots of pictures of our projects as a way to interest potential members.
Many thanks to District 5130 Governor Dustin Littlefield for providing the District’s message for the upcoming Rotary year and for giving us his perspective of Rotary’s future. Well done, Dustin!
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!
M.J. Girard is currently an on air personality on KOWSfm.com His “Roots of Rock” is broadcast every Sunday morning at 7 AM
The eleventh studio album from the Beatles was a soundtrack for the animated feature film “Yellow Submarine” released in January of 1969. The actual film was released in London during the summer of the previous year. The collection contained six selections, four of which were new, two from previous recording sessions. The flip side of the album contained orchestral renderings produced by George Martin. The sessions for this project were completed prior to the sessions for the self-titled double L.P. “The Beatles”.
This special project was the contractual obligation made with United Artist of Hollywood. The Fab Four did not consider this release as a significant one, although some critics agreed, it still reached the top five positions in both the U.S.A. and U.K. album charts. The sessions were made alongside the sound track for the “Magical Mystery Tour” the B.B.C.’s less than stellar television film. These two soundtracks were considered by some as a “continuous low-intensity workaday project” which was a further indication that as a group, the Beatles were bound to disintegrate.
The two previously released cuts, “Yellow Submarine” was issued as a single reaching number one in the U.K. as well as being included in the “Revolver” L.P., and “All You Need Is Love” heard on the internationally broadcast program “Our World” completed the “A” side of the album.
Harrison wrote the first new cut, “Only A Northern Song” to express his dissatisfaction with being considered only a “contract” songwriter to the Beatles publishing company Northern Songs.
“All Together Now” Paul’s recollection of how in his youth, everyone was encouraged to “sing along” whence ever folks gathered in their homes to celebrate.
As George continued to experiment with LSD, the bands session for the next original tune was conducted at Central London’s De Lane Lea Studios. Reflective of the “Summer of Love” and the philosophy therein, this original composition ran over eight minutes. “It’s All Too Much” was edited to complement the soundtrack.
The final “fresh” composition was Lennon’s “Hey Bulldog” which was in fact, a reworking of a tune originally intended to underscore a promotional film about “Lady Madonna.” The fadeout evolved into a jam session…Lennon later said, “It was a good-sounding record that means nothing”.
The flip side of the Long-Playing record was re-recordings of the symphonic film score. Entirely composed by George Martin, the consummate producer of the Beatles. The 41-piece orchestra completed this task in two three-hour long sessions at Abby Road.
Incidentally…
“Abbey Road” is up next…as we near and hear the final collaborations of the Band that Changed the World!
We'd finally built our dream home, but the contractor had a concern: the placement of an atrium window for our walk-in shower. "I'm afraid your neighbors might have a good view of you au naturel," he said.
My middle-aged wife put him at ease. "Don't worry," she said. "They'll only look once."
After hundreds of Rotary clubs in Zones 33 and 34 provided millions of meals to community members in need during the inaugural year of their Feed 10 Million initiative in 2019-20, District 6910 in northern Georgia is serving up a generous portion in the food drive’s second year. As of late April, the district had provided more than 2 million meals. District 6910 coordinated with the Farmers to Families Food Box program of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which was designed to address the waste of produce that was left to rot in fields as a result of the COVID-19 crisis, says Randy Redner, a past president of the Rotary Club of Duluth, Georgia. “The food is paid for by the government. We provide the organization, the volunteers, and the connectivity in the local community to make sure it goes to the people who need it.”
Nicaragua
In the city of Chinandega, impoverished children scavenge at a garbage dump in search of items to resell. Frank Huezo, now a member of the Rotary Club of Kingwood, Texas, introduced his former club, the Rotary Club of Lake Houston Area, to the work of a local nonprofit called Fundación Chinandega 2001, which helps the children. Rotary members helped build a trade school, which trains students in practical skills such as woodworking, metalworking, welding, digital photography, and sewing. Funding from an expanding network of Rotary members in Texas and elsewhere also supported a hospital, a shelter for pregnant women, and a group home that helps blind children transition to mainstream schools.
Lithuania
To lift the spirits of health workers responding to the pandemic, members of the Rotary Club of Vilniaus sv. Kristoforo treated the staff of Vilnius City Clinical Hospital with pastries “to make them feel appreciated and, hopefully, make them smile a little more often,” says club member Giedrius Sulnius. Over the course of 10 Fridays concluding in late March, the club ordered 600 pastries, at a cost of $825, from a local bakery. “We cannot visit medics, but we can help them feel appreciated,” Sulnius says, while noting that documenting the “Smiles for Doctors” project proved to be a challenge. “As soon as someone tried to take a photo, the pastries were already gone.”
Rwanda
The Rotaract Club of Kie is devoted to helping schoolchildren. The club, which has raised money for the Rwandan unit of SOS Children’s Villages through T-shirt sales and a charity walk, heard about pupils whose families were having a hard time meeting the expenses of public school; although education in Rwanda is ostensibly free, costs still add up. The club donated books, pens, a mathematics set, and a schoolbagfor each of 15 students at the GS Gahanga I School, and covered fees and school uniforms, says Musa Kacheche, club president. The club also does smaller projects, such as street cleaning and building toilet facilities for senior citizens.
Jordan
The Rotary Club of Amman Jordan River is making beautiful music. Club member Rana Rizkallah, maestro of the Youth Orchestra at the National Music Conservancy, assembled talented musicians for a Rotary-sponsored orchestra. For musicians who do not read music but can play by ear, the orchestra offers special classes in music reading, which Rizkallah notes might open up career opportunities. For the time being, all the members are Rotaractors, but Rizkallah hopes to open the orchestra to non-members in the future. Socially distanced rehearsals began in early 2021. With its repertoire of both Western and Arabic pieces, “the goals of the orchestra include offering in-house entertainment for all events and activities we organize, to save the cost of getting outside entertainment,” says Rizkallah.
Rotary Club of Santa Rosa Sunrise - Founded June 30, 1986
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