Meeting Re-Cap August 20, 2020

Mike Sellers, President and Zoomeister Deluxe

Bob Ricks, Always Humble Zoomologist and Scribbler

John Mlnarik, The real Zoomeister behind the podium

 

Notes from Last Week:  Two tips for those that enjoyed Bob Ray and Tommy James last week. I found two great documentaries on NETFLIX. One is ECHO IN THE CANYON. It is about all the R&R stars that clustered in Laurel Canyon in the 60s to make the music we still listen to today. The second show is about DAVID FOSTER. David produced all this music. The people he produced is a Who’s Who of R&R and modern music. The story of his life is fascinating. Check both of them out. Great way to spend a Covid evening. Both are in color as opposed to the complete TWILIGHT ZONE series.

 

Zoomers for the week: We hit 40 Zoomers online this week. President Mike is starting to invite family members and friends from the lake. We still want to get to the magic 50. We only count Rotarians.

 

Greeting and Inspiration:  Remember the old Maytag repairman ad? Nothing to do? That is how Treasurer CJ Grewal is feeling these days as the checks get fewer and fewer. CJ still gave us a great opening greeting and some words of wisdom from Nelson Mandela: “I am an optimist. My head is facing the sun with my feet always moving forward. Do not give into despair. This only leads to defeat and death.”  I probably messed up the exact quote, but the thought is there as we all face another week of Covid.

 

T-Bone Brown and the Pledge: Another week of negative kneeling. The real test will be when the NFL season starts. T-Bone got us all our feet this week.

 

Guests:  Jenny Flores is starting to become a regular. Welcome back!

 

Marcia Daszko was in the audience. It was great to see this previous member join our Zoom today. She assisted Andy with getting today’s speaker.

 

Col. Doug Adams signed in from Hawaii to watch his wife as our speaker today. Welcome. Doug is an active Rotarian in Hawaii. He also recently biked 18,067 miles through all 50 states to honor our vets. PP Walt Marwitz would have done 18,068 push ups in their honor had he known.

 

PDG Gary Citti celebrated his birthday on August 19 with his family.  It is my understanding he went to Las Vegas.  What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas!

 

PP Randy Atterman, aka Andy Ratermann is celebrating his birthday on August 21 with a great meal with the family. Fair warning about Andy: DO NOT pair up with him on Fitbit. The guy walks to Morgan Hill and back every day. You have been warned. It is too late for me.

 

PPx2 Bill Carver and Carleen are celebrating #43 wedding anniversary today. As Dripping Springs, Texas is well known for its fine French cuisine and culinary talent, Bill will be celebrating by enjoying his French fries this weekend and throwing them down with some Shiner Bock beer served in a crystal canning jar. The DJ will be playing songs of Maurice Chevalier from the hay bail in back. (Millennial members may have to go to Google for Maurice). Congratulations!

 

PP Mike Moul is celebrating 22 years in TGRCITW and 26 total in Rotary as a member of the West Club he closed down. We could hear celebratory noises at the Moul Estate in joyous celebration of this milestone. Someone was singing the Four Way Test as Mlnarik hit the mute button on Mike.

 

PP Anton Morec is again stuck in the desert somewhere with Jeep problems. Never the less he is still celebrating his 18 years in our club by living off geckos while parked next to the only Chili’s restaurant in the Mohave. Customers can also enjoy (night time only) a power point presentation of Anton’s year as our president. Anton is trying to get this down pat so he can be a cruise ship entertainer like Bob Ray. Stay tuned.

 

Update from the Lone Star State:   Myself and Carver visited the Lake Travis Rotary Club on Thursday. They are doing a combo live meeting and Zoom meeting format. The Covid avoidance group can stay at home and the ones with no Covid fear can strap on their mask and attend the live meeting at the country club. Three per table. We learned that their meal charge (free to Guests) is $28 per month……..not week…..per month. We had some great country club salmon, salad, roll and dessert. Not bad! We may return! Plus….we walked away with this gift:

Sweeney was too slow. Charlie Wasser has already swamped every Rotary Club in Texas and a few of his old ones in California.

 

Rotary pitches in:   Tim and Julie Ford plus one loyal dog are now the guests of Nick Streit due to their evacuation from the fires in Boulder Creek. TGRCITW helps out its own. Thanks Nick. Hopefully the fires skip Tim and Julie’s home. (Nick did receive a one year gift certificate at any Armadillo Willys. He tried for two). Tim reported that the fire was heavy in the area but they were hoping for the best. Good luck.

 

Baby Time: President Mike will be known as the Baby King when his year is up. I guess that beats the Zoom King or the Tiger King.

 

First Watana Heang had a baby boy on June 23 named Kihio. If he had been born on my birthday of June 24 I would have sent him a used car. Too late now.

 

Then Heath contributed a baby girl, Hope, on July 16 to be followed up by Nima awaiting the birth of his first child. Once you tell these guys that college will soon be completely free……….Congratulations again to all.

 

Corporate Sponsor Program:  President Mike announced that we have a small team working out the details of our club’s Corporate Sponsor program. He will be presenting the initial draft to the full club in three to four weeks and will be asking for feedback. If we can pull this off we are a long way to hitting our funding goals for the next few years. Call or email Mike at any time if you have a fresh idea that would help us garner sponsors.

 

Rotary International is requesting any input from any member for changes to its legislative bylaws. If you have any ideas let Mike know so he can funnel them to RI. Note: Rotary went from Four Avenues of Service to Five Avenues due to a suggestion by 5170 PDG Ron Seckel a few years ago. This do listen to our members.

 

Happy Hour on August 25:  This week will be a change. Strap on your best mask, not the one you wear to the grocery store, and show up at Jack Holder’s around 5:30. You will be able to drink with and yell at fellow members from a social distance. We may even have the Stammtisch sign for Keech. Mike said he will also have the Zoom cameras going for members that no longer leave their home. So, either show up or tune in.

 

We do need some member feedback on how our Zoom meetings are being perceived as well as any ideas for improvement. This thing will be with us for a few more months at least so we want to have a quality meeting for all. If you have any suggestions…….email them asap to Mike.

 

Speaker:  The silver throated star of San Jose State and Earthquake Soccer, EZ Perez, introduced our guest speaker Zooming all the way from Hawaii…...Colonel Deb Lewis.

 

Colonel Lewis was in the first class of women to be admitted to West Point. She spent 34 years in the Army and also added an MBA from Harvard to her resume. During her time in the Army she served in combat in Iraq and was also on duty at the Pentagon when it was attacked on 9/11. She lost many friends in that attack.