It Was a Dark and Stormy Night...

Well, sir, it appeared that a semblance of normalcy had returned to the Club as Club members noted that President of the month Clarence had returned to rule the roost in his own inimitable style.

 

At the door, we were warmly greeted by Bob McBee and as the meeting began to coalesce, it turned out that Brud Dufficy was selected to lead us in the Pledge, followed closely by Gary Spainhower doing his usual terrific job as choirmaster. 

 

 

Off to a good start...  We had two guests, our speaker from the Roseville Club about whom we will wax in a moment and a guest of Tracy McLinn's Larry Potter, who is the director of Somerset Assisted Living right here in Rancho Cordova.  More about Larry at the bottom of this newsletter.

 

 

In any event, once settled, everyone began partaking of the fine minestrone soup and conversations began to proliferate like nuclear weapons.  Naturally, as Club presidents are wont to do, President Clarence got up to rip off a few announcements.  Here's a few of 'em:

 

1. Club board meeting Wednesday night at Clarence's (it's going on as I write this and the adult beverage concession appears to be a big moneymaker, judging by the sounds and the volume ...)

 

2. Club Charter Night is going to be on the 27th of this month, most likely at the Marriott.  This is a do not miss event, our Club's birthday party, if you will

 

3. Crab Feed is on February 17 at St John Vianney.  We need everyone to sell tickets and if that's not feasible, to ask local businesses to sponsor the feed.  See Tracy McLinn's FaceBook page for inspiration

 

4. Carmichael Rotary Crab Feed is a week later, on the 24th, and we need volunteers to help work their feed, just as they do the same for us

 

5. Last dictionaries are due out on Thursday and if team captain Conrade Mayer calls, be prepared to come over to Cordova Gardens Elementary and help out.  See Conrade for details.

 

That was, gratefully, about it for announcements, so we headed directly into the weekly drawing and this week it was for the princely sum of $208!!!  I know, right?  Well our guest, Larry Potter yanked Brud Dufficy's number from the can, and Brud promptly yanked the orange ball from the coffee pot.  I can tell you that the excitement was almost unbearable as a number of unprintable epithets were hurled at Brud, who managed to hold up just fine under the pressure.

 

 

With that little business out of the way, it was time for the Sarge to rear his ugly head.  As my aunt used to say, "It's time to grab the bull by the tail and face the music."  Aided by bagman Gary Spainhower, the big guy first inquired about pin and badge infractions and PE Paul Schubert continued his almost unbroken string of 'no pin excursions' and he was inexplicably followed by drawing winner Brud who was wearing the badge of a former president, Dennis Frierson.  Easy money.  The Sarge then turned to happy fines and Club Secretary Sharon Ewing almost couldn't contain her excitement when she announced that President Clarence has asked for her hand in marriage.  The nick for such an event can be no less than a C-note and it was recorded thus.  My congratulations go out to the happy couple, both of whom are special people in my book. 

 

 

  Next Ross Johnson paid for his joy at having completed his part of the dictionary project and asked everyone to take home some lemons (I'm not sure about the connection, either) and suddenly the Sarge turned to an old standby: the quiz, to elicit some more cash from the audience.  He asked a series of questions about the projections of a futurist in San Francisco, who predicted six items of modern living that would be extinct within 10 years.  Among his prognostications: keys, telephones, televisions, and cash, to list a few. Somewhere during the melee, Brud was talked into donating $100 to the Club Foundation from his winnings and suddenly everyone felt better.

 

In any event, that wrapped up the Sarge's session and so President Clarence got up to introduce our guest speaker, Art Deardorf, from the Roseville Rotary, whose topic was the electronic  outreach tools available to Rotary Clubs to spread the word about Rotary in their communities.  Art talked about ClubRunner (which provides the software for this newsletter) and then went on to talk about the Club's webpage and Facebook page,suggesting that we can create a Facebook page for each of our events if we want to get the word out.  A little technical in spots for a few of us non-techies, it was a call to arms, so to speak, for us to make the best use we can of these electronic tools.  Good talk and at the end, Art almost got a book to sign for the library.  At that point the room cleared as if it was training day at the bomb factory.  Good meeting.

NEW MEMBER PROPOSAL:  Larry Potter has been submitted for membership by his sponsor, Tracy McLinn.  Larry runs Somerset Assisted Living in Rancho Cordova and lives in Lodi (apparently on purpose).  He is a former Rotarian, having previously been a member of the Lodi Sunrise Club for about 4 and half years.  If you have any objections to Larry's induction into our Club, let the Club Secretary know by next meeting.