Meeting Notes
November 17, 2020
President Paul welcomed everyone to today’s Mountain View Rotary Meeting. The Rotary International theme for this year is “Rotary Opens Opportunities.” Our Club theme is “We Open Opportunities For Everyone in the Community.”
Mandy is our Rotary Foundation Chair this year and the goal for the Club is to have 100% participation in this year’s contributions to the Foundation. You can send your donation for The Rotary Foundation to Mandy Andrei at 2934 Vivian Lane, San Jose, CA 95124. If you prefer, you can also make your donation to The Rotary Foundation on line at https://my.rotary.org/en/donate. If you make an on line donation, please send a message to Mandy to let her know. Feel free to give Mandy a call if you have any questions at 650-281-4356 or email her at mandyandrai@gmail.com.
Paul welcomed Sheila, Sanjay, and Thomas as the newest members of the President’s Club. For those who would like to join the President’s Club, please make your checks out for $150 to the Mountain View Rotary Club and send them to Mountain View Rotary President’s Club, PO Box 390280, Mountain View, California 94041.
Sanjay and Roger also made very generous donations to the Club’s Endowment Fund.
Paul informed the Club that the Board voted to make a $10,000 donation to the Community Services Agency from the Club’s Operating Funds.
From Heather: If you have speaker ideas for the upcoming year, please sign up for a week(s) or month via this spreadsheet or contact me by email (hsten@me.com) or phone: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1yWN7DTtzVo5i8Zk8lAeZFM8f6fZ0D5-b/view?usp=sharing.
We welcomed Jim Cochran and Lizzie Anumitha, a good friend of Heather’s, to the meeting.
Sanjay was congratulated for his recent re-election to Mountain View Los Altos Union High School District Board of Trustees.
Heather asked that the Club be informed the Cupertino Rotary Club is hosting a virtual meeting with Rotary International President Holger Knaack on December 9th at 9:00 am (early time due to the time difference). Cupertino asks that each person registers only himself or herself and that they do not share the Zoom link. To join the event, click the link below, enter some basic information and mark your calendar: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZUoc-GvpzguHNwJcJopYU-inIAkrG_YXaYN?fbclid=IwAR3glpbCF9S8pzZ5Rbwcd-W97_6setk3JsiGcWZnj4H5IvR_qZ4DUCpXs4w
If anyone knows of any of our members in distress or that need anything, please let President Paul or one of the Board Members know. We want to make sure everyone knows that we are here to take care of each other.
Today’s Speaker
Heather introduced our speaker, Bridget Johns who is the CMO of RetailNext.
RetailNext uses technology to gather instore shopping behavior data to assist with operations management including staffing and details of how merchandise is displayed. It has become even more useful during the pandemic as it provides information about the store’s occupancy level in regard to the regulations in effect.
Things are likely to change in the post COVID world and RetailNext will be able to assist businesses with the transition. We will find:
1) Retail sales is everywhere
2) There will be fewer, but improved malls
3) The instore experience will remain important
4) There continues to be many functions of a store
5) Brands can go directly to the consumer
6) Transparency is important
RetailNext offers real time information to consumers
1) How busy is a particular store?
2) If there is a wait, how long is it?
3) Can establish a virtual que.
RetailNext has the ability to determine efficiency of the new normal shopping experience.
Ernie’s 95th Birthday
Our members met early before the regular meeting to celebrate Ernie’s 95th Birthday. There were many great memories with Ernie shared and everyone wished him a very Happy Birthday and continued happiness. Roger ordered Ernie a special Birthday Meal from Chef Chu’s with his favorite dishes. Bert serenaded with a very fine version of Happy Birthday on his fiddle. And Heather created and outstanding pictorial tribute to the many years of service that Ernie has given to Rotary. We closed the celebration with one of the Club’s most memorable singing renditions of a Zoom Happy Birthday. Ernie was most thankful to all for a wonderful time. And a special thank you to Sanjay for organizing it.
Here are a few photos of Ernie over the years:
Next Meeting
Tuesday, December 1, 2020, via Zoom. Social time will start at 12:00 pm with the meeting beginning at 12:15 pm. Our speaker will be Justin Le on the topic of “Rise Against Hunger and Rotary.”
For our meeting on December 15th, Heather is organizing a Holiday Celebration with more details to come.