Bill will speak of ShelterBox’s origins as a Rotary Club’s project, how Rotarians around the world partner in their efforts, and a deeper dive into the current global pandemic, why shelter is critical for refugees, and what ShelterBox is doing to help prevent the spread of the corona virus.
A member of the Rotary Club of El Dorado Hills California since 2004, Bill Tobin has served in several club and district leadership roles. He is a Past President of his club and in 2016-2017 Rotary District 5180 awarded Bill “Rotarian of the Year” for his active and dedicated service to Rotary, and for his commitment to ShelterBox.
Bill began as a volunteer for ShelterBox after the 2010 earthquake in Haiti. Since then Bill has shared the ShelterBox story to thousands of Rotarians, organized fundraisers and awareness events for ShelterBox USA and helped lead the team of USA Ambassadors in raising over $1.4 million for ShelterBox in 2017. For his volunteer efforts with ShelterBox Bill has received the United States Presidential Volunteer Service Award seven times.
After a 30-year career as a nuclear power plant inspector, Bill earned a certification in Non- Profit management from the University of the Pacific and joined the staff at ShelterBox USA as Rotary Relations Manager in January 2019.
Bill is married to Sherie for 36 years, an Assistant Governor in District 5180. They have two sons and a daughter in law.
President Paul’s first meeting as President was July 9, 2020, a Club Assembly. Paul gave us some brief personal historical comments, asked members of the Board of Directors to speak to us about their plans and goals, and then herded us into separate meeting spaces to address key questions of grave importance to the Club, such as how to deal with the weekly raffle! What a wild morning!
Paul joined the club four years ago and jumped into active participate immediately (sort of - he tagged along on with 2-time Rotarian of the Year Penny Millar for 10 years before he decided to make his membership formal)! Paul loved Rotary from the start despite the fact that he had to team up with Don Floriani picking speakers for an entire year! Paul says that he "joined for service but stayed for fellowship."
Rotary’s international banner this year is “Rotary Opens Opportunities.” Paul’s own presidential goals are flexibility, valuable service projects, irresistible and lively meetings, quality fellowship, finding income to give to our charitable causes, and increasing membership.
President-Elect and Service Chair, Jennifer, outlined her key goals this year as increasing our service projects and interacting more with our Elsie Allen Interact group. Marty’s goal as Membership Chair is to increase membership from our present 62 members to 70 members. Roy is in charge of fundraising, which is a tall order since we will probably not have any in-person fundraisers. Roy mentioned that new member Debra Robertson has major experience in fundraising, including chairing South Lake Tahoe’s golf tournament! Randy provided an update on the Foundation. Did you know that since its inception 34 years ago Sunrise has contributed $494,000 to the Rotary Foundation? Last year we contributed $68,000, which was 4x our goal! John Jones gave us fantastic news about Surgery Clinic in Sabalos, Nicaragua. The center should be up and running by the end of 2020! John, you are a miracle worker! Sunrisers, we are going to start saving lives in Nicaragua! John’s next project: bringing potable water to the area.
We met in cool Zoom groups to discuss three issues: (1) how do we improve the Zoom meeting experience; (2) what type of auction items should we try to get for online auctions; and (3) what to do with the raffle – leave it at $250 or bump it up? Paul and Board members will be providing us with a summary of the suggestions provided at the meeting in the near future.
Well done Paul and thank you for taking the job. We appreciate your hard work, dedication, leadership, and organizational skill. We know you are going to do a great job. Remember, one of your goals this year is “flexibility.” You are going to need it!
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!
An army (platoon?) of masked and socially distanced Sunrisers turned out Sunday morning to install 1,000 sf of sod at Brittany Rossi and Craig Worthen’s fire-rebuild home in the Larkfield area. Getting an early morning start to avoid the 95-degree heat projected for mid-day, the team lugged 40-50 lb. rolls of fescue grass from pallets to the yard where they were gently olled out and fit tightly together to create most of a football field (or so it seemed). A glitch in calculating exactly how much sod would be needed left the job 90% complete, so there’s a little left for next Saturday morning (see Peter Hoberg). Leroy Carlenzoli and Brittany capably led the team, accompanied by Peter and Mary Banks, Peter Hoberg, Jim Moir, Don Floriani and Paul O’Rear. Flo’s experience at Santa Rosa Country Club and Fountaingrove Country Club gave him an invaluable level of expertise at installing grass, which he willingly shared with any and all. Everyone got a complete body workout. The project was an auction item purchased by the couple at last year’s Sunrise Fundraiser.
As Max Bridges hands off the torch, we recognize his fine work over the years as Editor of the Santa Rosa Sunrise Weekly Bulletin!
Under Max’s tenure, we are the proud recipients of a self-awarded Pulitzer Prize for our Weekly Sunrise Bulletin. Rich Randolph and Doug Shureen submitted nominations, we all voted and Dicksie presented the award!
It would not have reached this level without the amazing contributions from a number our club members. Special thanks to Rich Randolph, Doug Shureen, Dicksie Tamanaha, Max Bridges, Dave Lorenzen, and our past and present presidents, Marty and Paul! I encourage you all to answer Marty’s call to increase our subscription by sending him a couple of names and email address to add to our friends list. I would also invite other club members to get involved. We have some great ideas in which to build and entice our readership!
Solid footing: In the two years since its founding, this club has already matured into a high-profile member of the Tunisian Rotary family by focusing on the development of young professionals. Data-driven could be a byword for a club that taps the technological proficiency of its members. The club tracks member involvement by Excel spreadsheet, and it developed an internet platform and database shared by clubs across the country. But it’s not all analytics and geekiness; a reputation for hands-on work and cultural outings is what really computes.
Club innovation: The founders contacted acquaintances, mostly young professionals, to join them in a new club that would meet two evenings a month. A major appeal was its attention to skills development and service, an emphasis that broadened its appeal to collegians. The club keeps annual dues very low (about $135) and gives students a discount.
Club members enjoy a trip to Harqalah, where they visited religious sites and zip lined.
Picking a name with a punch helped set the tone for the Rotary Club of La Marsa Impact, says member Eya Chaouch. “In the meetings to plan the club, our idea was to work on long-term projects that had an actual impact on improving people’s situations,” hence the appellation for the French-language club.
“During the creation of our club, we thought of integrating students in community life to let them benefit from the experience of the other professional members,” says Khaled ben Hafaiedh, the club’s charter president. “Our student members are highly motivated and dedicated to learning, especially when it comes to volunteering.” But all benefit from the interplay among students, financiers, marketers, engineers, lawyers, art managers, event managers, accountants, and other young professionals.
Karim ben Ammar appreciates the opportunity to enhance his leadership, public speaking, planning, team-building, and fundraising acumen. “As a student, being part of the club has brought me a lot of experience and know-how,” says Ammar.
All members are expected to serve on two club committees. For students, this is a chance to learn from more experienced members. In addition, five members are professionally certified job coaches. “They focus on soft and hard skills, budgeting, personal development, ‘elevator pitches,’ practical philosophy,” says Mohamed Mehdi Nafti, the club’s president.
The club gets a hands-on lesson in Japanese cooking.
The abundance of talent helps other clubs as well. Hafaiedh, Ammar, and fellow club member Selim Bousbih created a database and web platform, dubbed Raconnect, which is already being used by several clubs.
The club boasts a robust lineup of projects that address community needs and cultural interests: La Marsa Impact Rotarians have held an autism awareness seminar, hosted a “supermom” class that delivered expert advice on the care of newborns, and helped coordinate a blood drive that involved more than 20 Rotary clubs.
The club, two-thirds of whose members are women, sponsored a screening of Papicha, a controversial film focused on religious fundamentalism and women’s rights in 1990s Algeria. The event’s box office proceeds have been donated to equip and refurbish the pediatric surgery department of the Institute of Neurology. More recently, 10 club members joined members of the organization Tunisian Campers to plant 4,000 pine and eucalyptus trees in the Dar Chichou forest near El Haouaria.
The club also puts an emphasis on nurturing friendships, with outings to musical events and Moorish and Roman sites. “Through brainstorming sessions, our members come up with new activities,” Hafaiedh says. “The most important thing is to frequently meet, whether it is for a coffee or an evening out.”
— BRAD WEBBER
• This story originally appeared in the July 2020 issue of The Rotarian magazine.
Rotary Club of Santa Rosa Sunrise - Founded June 30, 1986
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