Busy Rotary Day

Believe it or not, there were not one, not two, but three Rotary meetings today and I'm going to tell you a little about each one, but just the interesting stuff...  First on the day's calendar was the 11:00 A.M. meeting of the Club Foundation Board.  The dull stuff was mostly the recap of the year's events and how the Foundation made us all look good, funding scholarships, baby food for needy families, B Street Theater workshops and a few other notable projects.  This includes the new Hometown Hero Grant program, which saw us present the Sac Valley Live Steamers with a check for $3500 a short while ago to help fund a badly needed tractor for their organization.

 

 

 With the receipt of $7500 from the Rancho Cordova Community Golf Classic, the Foundation will hold total assets in the neighborhood of $130,000.  If you've not been to a Club Foundation board meeting, I encourage you to go to one.  They occur quarterly and are normally held on a Tuesday morning/afternoon at City Hall prior to or following the regular weekly Rotary meeting.  Chase Armer got re-elected to another 3-year term as Foundation President and Brud Dufficy is the Secretary and Paul Schubert is Treasurer.  Various and sundry other past presidents, etc are members and at this meeting Tom Redmon became a de facto board member, due to his new status as President Elect of the Rotary Club in a few weeks.

 

Well, so much for meeting #1; it was on to the penultimate meeting for our very own President Sean and he did not disappoint.  Ray Wyatt was the scheduled greeter, but Bob Adam graciously took his place and did a fine job.  Brett was scheduled to lead the Pledge and Brett did a fine job.  Ross Johnson, who is away seeing his son Mark whip his combat aviation brigade into shape couldn't lead the song as he was scheduled, so Brett stepped forward once again into the breach and did a fine job.

 

 

 Fine jobs all around.  Lunch turned out to be a very tasty chicken and rice dish with salad and fruit and chocolate chip cookies and your reporter was observed going back for seconds...  Nuff said...

 

 

 

You know what comes next... yes, announcements.  With only one meeting left on his watch, the President managed to fill the screen with stuff.  First was a reminder about Demotion, which will be at Clarence Parkins' house on Saturday, June 24 and is a potluck that will run from about 1:00 P.M. to about 4:00 P.M.  Chapman is nailing down the guest list and agenda.  July 3 will be the day/afternoon that we decorate the Club float for the 4th of July Parade and that decoration will take place in the traditional location, B&J Body Shop, courtesy of Mike Passof.  A signup is going around.  August 26 will see us co-hosting our next Texas Hold 'Em with Community Council and the Cordova Lancers Leaders & Legends.  We need everyone to be involved in this fundraiser in some capacity.

 

That was about it for announcing, but the Prez shocked everyone by holding up the giant $7500 check presented to the Club Foundation by Julie Belka, our take from the recent charity golf tournament she instigated.

 

 

With that, it was time for the drawing and with Ray Wyatt absent, spirits soared.  Tracy McLinn pulled the number and it belonged to Paul Schubert and the rascal managed to yank the orange ball from the can, thereby garnering a $110 payday.  Needless to say, there was great excitement rippling around the room, accompanied by comments such as, "Is he still a member?" and "True happiness doesn't come from money, but it's a close neighbor..."

 

 

 

With the regular Sarge absent, President Sean asked if anyone wanted to step up.... you know... volunteer... to come up and piss off their fellow members.  Failing in this, he fell back on a time-honored tactic: he auctioned off the prize package that Chase Armer and his team won at the golf tournament, which included some moderately nice crap.  The fierce bidding war that ensued saw Paul Schubert, still feeling guilty about his win in the drawing, outbidding Conrade Mayer at the $45 level to take home the bacon, I mean moderately nice crap.

 

Today would be the last Club Assembly of the Rotary year and we spent the bulk of it recapping our successes and failures during the year.  Chapman opened the bidding by confessing that his goal for membership came up short on execution.  Club Secretary Tracy summarized our membership at 27, with two to drop off at the year end due to the loss of Anthony Chacon and more recently Melody Mayer, who we are very sad to see leave the Club.  Pat Orelli summarized our financial situation as being somewhat better than Somalia's and then Brud got up as Services chair and hit the high points on our fundraisers and projects.  Tom Redmon recapped Public Relations with some recommendations for next year  and he was followed by PE Brett Schreiner talking about some changes in Club operation going forward, not the least of which is that the teams will be responsible for speakers during their months in charge, a practice we employed with some success some years back.  There was considerable discussion on a number of topics, including attendance, and the meeting finally ran down about 1:45.  Good, informative meeting.