Observer for March 26, 2013
AT THE GONG
President-Elect Jeff Engstrom (Jeff’s words, Prez Tony was away) hit the bell at 12:15 sharp. Dick Kuhn led the pledge and gave the thought for the day, which was to try something new to master and you will be the better for that effort. Then we started our chicken Caesar and pasta luncheon accompanied by some good looking mini dessert options for those whose glycemic levels needed enhancement.
VISITING ROTARIANS AND GUESTS
There were three visiting Rotarians including two past district governors, Holly Axtell and Riki Intner, as well as Ron Harness from Novato who was the guest speaker.
WHAT’S GOING ON IN THE CLUB
Holly Axtell spoke about a recent 5150 project in Columbia and a forthcoming micro credit project for Ecuador which will be detailed at a later date.
There will be a clothing drive party sponsored by Novato Rotaract on April 3 from 6 to 8 pm at Rickey’s in Ignacio.
Jeanne Friedel plugged the Marin County Earth Day Cleanup from 9:30am to noon on April 13 at Mt. Tam. Please see the CALPARK website ( http://calparks.org/programs/earth-day/ ) for details.
The Marin Evening club will host a Surf and Turf fundraiser on April 13 at McInnis Park Restaurant (The Club) for $75. per person.
GSE Finland team will be in this district from April 20 to May 18 and will be in Marin from April 26-30.
If you haven’t yet registered for the District Conference, May 3 and 4 in SF, then Irwin Taranto can assist you in registering for that annual event at the next club meeting or you can register online. Cost is $195.
Save the date for the Project Amigo Fiesta on May 11 from 6 to 9 pm.
After the April 2 club meeting there will be a club confab about future club procedures and planning to which all members are invited.
Karen Koster spoke about a fundraiser for the Precious Life World Community Service Project in Zimbabwe which is scheduled for Sunday April 21 from 4 to 6 pm and will feature jewelry by Leslie Lawton ranging in price from about $80 to $200 with 25% of the proceeds going to the project. For more info on Leslie go to http://www.leslielawton.com .
MEMBER CONTRIBUTIONS
Irwin Taranto contributed $100. to the Rotary Foundation in honor of family highlights including his mom’s 102nd birthday.
Dick Kuhn gave $100. for the Precious Life Project in celebration of a recent trip to Africa, a wedding anniversary and family birthdays.
Karen Koster celebrated her birthday.
Jeff Moss gave $25 to Paul Harris and $100. to the Club Foundation in recognition of a 17th club anniversary and a fun trip to spring training where you get a chance to see the players up close.
RAFFLE/MARBLE
Wally Chipman had both lucky tickets and won the raffle prize but then picked a green marble.
PROGRAM SUMMARY
Ron Harness of Global Strategic Resources gave a screen presentation on global warming/climate change which he has given to other Rotary clubs. The Climate Reality Project delivered information which confirmed that climate change is caused by people on earth and is not merely a cyclical phenomena unrelated to the activities of our planet’s inhabitants He maintained that all of the other countries of the world, through their National Science Academies, including the USA’s, accept that there is a problem caused by human activity which requires global attention but the USA does not have the necessary political will to focus on the problem. Some suggestions made were to push more clean energy, tree planting, eat less beef and dairy as well as to tell your legislators to increase spending on solutions to the climate change/global warming problems. (While this author personally agrees with the message presented by the speaker which seems to be the majority view, some members may not agree and they can certainly propose a speaker to Marty Malkin to express any contrary view.)
Dick Kuhn