I hope you were able to join us this week for our Rotary meeting. Dan Schnur was our guest speaker and this was another outstanding meeting. Please read Bob Ricks recap and watch the recording of our meeting.
The recap and zoom link are attached.
Mike Sellers
President 2020-2021
Rotary Club of Santa Clara
https://zoom.us/rec/share/Gmk61QWjlH-CkkulD01FJMR6xbJUK8wkBH7Ty_WWo_XhGSq0-EzAl123ifckFaE.L-T0Db3K8ec2w1hM
Passcode: CHc+M27=
The Greatest Rotary Club in the World: Santa Clara, California
Club Zoomers Get Together: February 18, 2021
Mike Sellers, President and Bell Ringer for the Zoomers
Bob Ricks, Humble Scribe with Frozen Texas Fingers
John Mlnarik, Zoomesiter and Chat Room HQ
Zoom Count: 37 Involved Rotarians were online today from four different states.
The Greeting and Inspiration:
He’s back from Hawaii! Tan and rested. Mario asked all of us to keep those Texan Rotarians in your thoughts. He also wished for a time when the club could all get together again but reminded us that “Tough times don’t last, but tough people do”. Hang in there and this too shall pass. It will be one crazy meeting when Covid is over.
PP and PDG Gary Citti led us in the Pledge with no microphone but we were able to read his lips. Someone needs to buy some flowers from Gary…..he may be slipping.
Visiting Rotarians:
Along with your Humble Scribe we had PP Bill Carver, PP Joe Sweeney and PP Steve Rainbolt checking in from Texas, Arizona and Washington. TGRCITW is getting cosmopolitan! Welcome to all. I thought our snow in Texas was bad until Joe reported his 24 inches in Prescott. Hopefully the Arizona team actually had equipment to move it out of the way. Austin only has this one truck: 
It was high school football stadiums or snow plows. Maybe they need to spend less money on High School Football stadiums and more on infrastructure.
February 20 is a big day! Not only Easy and Caren have the 20th as their birthday as well as Betty Ricks. Happy Birthday to all.
We missed Deborah at today’s meeting. She is celebrating 7 years with the club on February 20 but has put in 14 years worth of work. Thanks Deborah!
Ted Keech talked to PP Stan Chinchin. Ted reported that Stan sounded good as he started to cuss at him again. The Stanford doctors reported they have Stan’s heart in good shape. He now needs to recover from the broken ribs on his fall. Stan’s wife, Diane, is also on the mend. Keep them both in your thoughts.
Don Skinner is still in the hospital. His heart attacks were more major than first revealed. Keep Don in your thoughts. If you need some hot tips on the market, text him. He would love to hear from you. Don got Warren Buffett into Verizon stock this week and turned that market on its head.
Steps for Success:
Dan Winter still needs some volunteers for the March 19 Steps. The link to sign up is above.
Scholarships:
Betty Carmody has agreed to liaison with the schools this year to help us identify potential scholarship recipients. After we compile a list we will need a team to conduct interviews in the spring.
Happy Hour…...Live!
Mark the date: Tuesday, February 23. Time; 4:30. Location: Jack Holder’s Restaurant. Dan Holder guarantees another great event. $30 pp will cover the meal, wine and beer. We have now secured Sweeney’s credit card number so any overages can be handled. Social Distancing will be the norm so wear your favorite mask and keep 6 feet away. Come one, come all. Bring the spouses!
PE Bill Kelly and Dr. Stella Kemp put on a great Presidents Dinner. Thanks to their efforts all attendees on Zoom had a great time and cooked some fantastic food. Well done, team. The cook in Red is President Elect-Elect Teresa Williams…….Gonna be a red year in 2022-23……
Speaker: PP Dan Holder (and Current Secretary of State) introduced our speaker today. 
Dan Holder pointed out that this is the 9th time Dan Schnur has spoken to our club. His last time to visit was March 20, 2020 and that was our last live club meeting. Mr. Schnur also pointed out that that talk was his last live speech also. He is always a much anticipated visitor to this club.
One interesting thing about registering to vote in Texas versus most states. You are not asked about your party affiliation on your voter registration card. You are just a voter. Most states ask you to declare.
Definitely go online to watch Dan’s presentation. He called his talk: THE CHALLENGES OF THE TWO PARTY SYSTEM….OR WHEN TWO MAY NOT BE ENOUGH.
One comment he left us with is that politics is too important to be left to the politicians. Get involved in your community! He applauded our club for its efforts in making a difference where we live.
Dan had a special shout out to Harbir Bhatia for her recent effort to get elected to the Santa Clara City Council. She was what Teddy Roosevelt called “in the arena” where all success and failure occurs versus the critic who knows neither. Harbir is not done yet.
PP Rod Stafford brought up a recent article from Time Magazine about how the Election of 2020 was gamed. Dan Schnur recommended it as an interesting read. Go to this link:
I used the link and read the article by Molly Ball. Fascinating stuff whether you agree with it or not.
See you next week. Until then, Keep Zooming!