Home Page | Rotary Club of Foster City

Newest Member

Welcome Malonia Maxwell, our most recent addition to the club.

She and her husband have lived in Foster City since 1986.

She currently works at Compass, is active in Foster City CYSA Soccer and wants to give back to the community.

Rotary, My Story

(The following narrative is a continuation of a series of how a member was introduced to Rotary and subsequent memories. If you would like Rotary to be part of your life's story, please contact Joyce Cave at caveclan@yahoo.com.)

Jim Goell

Member Since December 4, 2013

March 2021

Most of my active career has been spent as an microwave engineer and manager working on the introduction of Fiber Optics for communication. When I began, few people thought Fiber Optics would amount to anything. Communication with light was years beyond most people’s imagination. Today, we would not have the internet. or low-cost phone and CATV transmission, and Zoom without it.

Initially, there were a few investors and scientists who thought Fiber Optics would be an overnight success. Thus, boom and bust cycles ensued where companies would invest in the field and later terminate the work because success did not come fast enough. Staying at theforefront of the field required that I move quite frequently. For this reason, after starting I started my career on the east coast, I worked my way west to Los Angeles via Roanoke, Virginia, and then back east to Lexington, Massachusetts via Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. In 2013, I moved here with Tammy, my wife of 53 years, to be close to my son Ric and the two of his four children who were finishing high school. My alternatives were staying in Lexington, Massachusetts or moving to Atlanta where my daughter Lisa lives. Climate and proximity to the company in Los Angeles where I was consulting were the deciding factors.

After moving to Foster City, I reconnected with Nancy Gordon, a Rotary club member who was in my class at Scarsdale High School in New York. Nancy and was on the Membership committee; she is the one who introduced me to the club. Early in my career I was very active in my community serving as the Vice President of the board of the 10th largest school system in NJ, a member of the Jaycees, an organization with similar goals to those of Rotary, and Chair of the town’s Human Rights Commission. More recently I was treasurer of two networking groups, one with quite a large membership. My goal was to become an active member of the community again, rather than just living here.

Rotary seemed like a great opportunity. And it was. It gave me a chance to meet many people including members of our local government, learn what is going on in the City, and to contribute. You always get more out of an activity if you put more into it. I have found holding an office is the best way to meet club members, and to become familiar with club objectives and operations.

When Bob Caplan asked, I becam

e Temporary Secretary of the club to fill in for May Matos who had to take time off for personal reasons. Later, when May retired, I became Secretary. In addition to Board Meeting minutes, the Secretary’s job includes maintaining membership records for the Club, District, and RI. This involves a lot of computer data entry. Having many years of computer experience made the work a lot easier, but it is still time consuming. In addition to Bob Caplan, I served under Cyndy Simms, Rick Wykoff, Mark Watson, and Mary Lou Griffin. They were all great Presidents, leading successful years and winning many awards. Each had their own styles and focus. It is interesting style and focus do not determine success as much as hard work, enthusiasm, and commitment.

Having spent much of my career as a leader, I decided that in Rotary I would focus on being a worker. Among other things, I worked the summer concerts, spaghetti feed, pancake breakfast, Samaritan house dinners, and other events. When COVID-19 -safely allows, I plan to restart those activities. One of my major activities is leading the High School, College and Adult school scholarship programs. I think this work is particularly important because it encourages students to undertake community service and promotes our Club. The work includes coordinating with the school counsellors, managing the refereeing process for the High School scholarships, and participating in the award presentations. The refereeing effort includes getting the applications from the schools, distributing them to the readers, and based on their inputs, selecting the winners.

One of my projects was to simplify the process of producing the club directories by generating the content directly from the membership database. I also led the effort to revise the Bylaws. It took a lot of effort to reconcile the views of 75 people, history, and reality but eventually the new bylaws were approved by the Club. Changes included increasing meeting rule flexibility to allow alternate meeting locations and formats, authorizing corporate membership and sponsorship, allowing satellite clubs, clarifying the new member process, and improving organization and clearer definitions. Early versions included associate membership but there was not enough Club support for this item to make it into the final draft.

I believe Rotary is a great asset to Foster City. We contribute labor and/or money to the summer concerts, school scholarships, Scouts, and many other worthy causes. Of course, donating funds requires fund-raising. Our fund raisers are designed to interest a wide range of people in the community.

2020 was not a good year for me. My wife of almost 60 years passed away, my son moved to Carlsbad, and I was limited in what I could do because of the pandemic. Rotary has been a great help. In many ways, it has become like an extended family during this difficult time. I look forward to working events again when COVID-19 is behind us

Join Us

Do you enjoy Volunteering, Community Service, helping families and Children, helping people abroad? If so, you have come to the right place.

Members have an opportunity to volunteer for our many community service projects as well as International projects. In addition, they have an avenue to contribute to our humanitarian efforts through The Rotary Club of Foster City Foundation, a 501(c)(3) organization.

Through our weekly programs and service opportunities, members are able to provide service and make new and lasting friendships through service and fellowship.

The Rotary Club of Foster City was chartered in 1977 and is a member of Rotary International, a worldwide service organization headquartered in Chicago. Rotary International has over 35,000 Rotary Clubs and 1.2 million members in over 200 countries and geographic locations. The Rotary Club of Foster City is part of Rotary District 5150, encompassing Marin, San Francisco and San Mateo counties with a total of 44 Clubs.

We would be pleased to have you attend one of our weekly meetings (now on Zoom) to host you as a guest. For further information, contact Joyce Cave at caveclan@yahoo.com.

"The Club That Cooks"