On a regular basis, our resident photo pros Warren Smith and Ross Andress submit 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 and Ross! Link to Meeting Sightings. The most recent are on the last page!
Sonoma County’s Department of Child Support Services
Sonoma County’s Department of Child Support Services supports the economic security, health, and social well-being of children in Sonoma County. The Department provides paternity and child support services to children and families by seeking and enforcing court orders of paternity and financial support. The 97 dedicated child support professionals in the Department manage 13,000 cases and the distribution of over $28 million to Sonoma County families each year.
Today, the Department works collaboratively with local child support agencies, the courts, county health and human services entities, employers and various state and federal agencies. New technology makes it easier and faster to locate individuals and collect child support, reducing delays for families.
Jennifer Traumann is the Director of the County’s Department of Child Support Services. Ms. Traumann has served as the Interim Director since June 2014. Prior to her appointment, she served as the department’s Assistant Director for four years. Ms. Traumann serves on a number of local committees, is active in the State Child Support Directors Association, and volunteers with the Sonoma County Special Olympics. She and her husband live in Forestville and have a son and a daughter, and enjoy hiking with the family dogs and horseback riding.
Peggy Roth joined the Sonoma County Department of Child Support Services in 1999, and is currently the agency’s Attorney of Record. Ms. Roth received her law degree from the University of San Francisco School of Law and was admitted to the State Bar in 1993. Ms. Roth is an annual speaker at the Sonoma County Bar Association’s Family Law New Forms & Law presentation and with the Sonoma County Office of Education’s Law Week Program. Ms. Roth is a long-standing member on several local Bar committees, including the Family Law Steering Committee and the Family Law Local Rules and Best Practices Committee.
Sebastopol Rotarian Jeff Boal opened Sunrise hearts and minds with his ongoing commitment to keeping girls in school in Uganda.
Through a creative partnership with the Anthill Foundation, founded by equally generous and visionary Sebastopol Rotarians Frank and Kathie Mayhew (www.anthillfoundtioin.org) Jeff has leveraged Rotary resources to help girls remain enrolled in better equipped schools. Academic performance has risen as well as health and school sustainability.
In a country with a population slightly smaller than California, 35 million, Uganda is just the area of Oregon, with the average income less than $2US/day. Compounding the issues surrounding this extreme poverty are ones bearing on feminine hygiene: Girls menstrual cycles have been viewed as a sickness, combined with too frequent lack of privacy in school bathrooms, aka, open-door-pit latrines. With such conditions, girls are more inclined to stay away from school once their menstruation starts.
Jeff's Rotary impetus and the Anthill Foundation support build schools with acceptable restrooms, equip classes with desks and provide an atmosphere more conducive to learning. Overcoming superstition, myths and misconceptions has increased attendance and girls eagerness to overcome subsistence based lives. Instead of dropping out of school, marrying in their teens with their parent's hopes of an early dowry, girls now recognize their advantage to remain in school and obtain a substantially better standard of living which also translates into superior security for their parents as well.
Jeff, Frank and Kathie, KUDO's for inspiring dreams, and making them more the norm than exception!!
Some years ago, in the Kano plains of Kenya, a well-meaning development agency took on the task of improving water availability to a rural community. Committees were formed, meetings were held, and the local people were consulted. The main need the community identified was improved delivery of water for irrigation and livestock. A plan to meet this need was created, and the work was soon begun, exactly as the community representatives had requested.
Yet once construction began, it was met by immediate protest from groups of community women, who came to the site and physically blocked workers from building diversion channels. Upon further investigation, the agency realized that the water it was diverting for farming came from the only source, for dozens of families, of water for cooking, drinking, and washing. The entire project had to be scrapped.
Why? Because it had never occurred to a single member of the all-male team in charge to consult the local women. At every stage, it was assumed that the men knew the needs, spoke for the community, and were able to represent it. Clearly, this was far from the case. The women knew the needs of the community, and its resources, far better – but their opinion was never sought.
We have had women in Rotary for only the last quarter of our history, and it is no coincidence that those years have been by far our most productive. In 1995, only 1 in 20 Rotarians were women; today, that number has risen to 1 in 5. It is progress, but it is not enough. It is only common sense that if we want to represent our communities, we must reflect our communities, and if we want to serve our communities fully, we must be sure that our communities are fully represented in Rotary.
Rotary’s policy on gender equality is absolutely clear. Yet nearly one-fifth of our clubs still refuse to admit women, usually by claiming that they simply cannot find women who are qualified for membership. I would say that any Rotarian who makes this argument, or believes it, himself lacks the two most basic qualifications for Rotary membership: honesty and good sense.
A club that shuts out women shuts out much more than half the talent, half the ability, and half the connections it should have. It closes out the perspectives that are essential to serving families and communities effectively. It damages not only its own service but our entire organization, by reinforcing the stereotypes that limit us the most. It leads our partners to take us less seriously, and it makes all of Rotary less attractive to potential members, especially the young people who are so crucial to our future.
To tolerate discrimination against women is to doom our organization to irrelevance. We cannot pretend that we still live in Paul Harris’ time, nor would he ever want us to. For, as he said, “The story of Rotary will have to be written again and again.” Let us see to it that the story we write in Rotary is one of which he would be proud.
A: He wants to dance a sexy salsa, but all he can do is Hip Hop.
Braced by Vicki's walker, Steve Zwick slid into place at breakfast with his brand new, super strength, titanium tough hip. He joins many others who are already members of the Sunrise Highly Honored Hip Hop Society: Nancy Aita, Ralph Harryman, Vicki Lockner, Dicksie Tamanaha... and are there others?
You can make Steve smile again by signing up your golf foursome, twosome or onesie for the Sunrise June golf tournament -- one of the club's two main fundraisers.
The 100th anniversary of The Rotary Foundation will occur in June of next year, and a full year of activities is planned leading up to it, starting with the 2016 convention in Seoul and culminating with the 2017 convention in Atlanta. I remember well the excitement of the Rotary centennial in 2004-05, and I hope that Rotarians worldwide will treat the Foundation’s centennial with the same enthusiasm!
The centennial celebration will launch at the Seoul convention, and the entire general session on Tuesday morning will feature the Foundation’s programs. However, it is the activities of clubs and districts that will determine the success of the centennial celebration. To assist in the planning of centenary events, the Rotary Resource Center in the House of Friendship in Seoul will offer Rotarians helpful materials and ideas.
For Rotarians who are unable to attend the convention, the same materials will be available for download at www.rotary.org/foundation100. The tool kit includes:
Ideas and activities for clubs and districts
Promotional flier and bookmark for the centennial book, Doing Good in the World
Promotional postcard
Sample press release for clubs to promote activities in their communities
History of The Rotary Foundation PowerPoint
Centennial letterhead and PowerPoint template
Centennial video (highly recommended)
Centennial logo
Rotary would not be as strong and vibrant as it is today without the tremendous support of The Rotary Foundation, and it is now time to celebrate its 100th birthday. Rotary is a grassroots organization with more than 35,000 clubs, most of which have directly benefited from support of The Rotary Foundation. Therefore, I truly hope that all of you – and your clubs – will show your appreciation for the Foundation that Rotary created for the purpose of Doing Good in the World.
Presiding past president, Penny Millar, entertained breakfast members by reporting that "She did not know if the coast was clear..." (You had to be there and hear the entire joke.) Blond beauties are blooming in the club as new member, Marina Gacht joins Penny Millar in lighting up our world.
Rotary Club of Santa Rosa Sunrise - Founded June 30, 1986
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