Some Surprises 

Well sir, this had to be one of the most interesting meetings so far this year.  First of all, the basics:

 

Presiding: Brett Schreiner

Greeting: Neil Orchard

4 Way Test Reader: Gary Spainhower

Pledge Leader: Marvelene Weier

Song Leader: Ross Johnson

 

 

Guests:

     Jeff Nauertz - guest of Marvelene 

     Joe Galipeau - guest of Ross Johnson

 

 

 

 

At any rate, we began supping after the preliminaries and the minestrone was, as usual, excellent.  As Presidents are wont to do, our Prez jumped in with announcements in order to interrupt what had been some pleasant conversations and he began with a few surprise announcements not on the board.  First one had to do with the similarity between the Oakland Raiders and a salt & pepper shaker (yep, I missed the point of that one...),  and the second one no doubt caught a few by surprise when President Brett announced that this would be his last Rotary meeting.  The Prez is off to become a student pursuing a degree in the medical field.  He did mention that there is a group of past presidents who will be assuming the mantle a month at a time, in order to finish out the year.  When your poor reporter has more details, he will no doubt pass them on to you, kind reader..

 

 

The rest of the announcements were no particular surprise, beginning with the smile.amazon.com thing.  Note that we will be dark for the next two weeks in honor of the holidays and will be re-forming on January 9, 2018.  You can show up anyway, but your lunch is on you (well, to be fair... it's on you anyway...).  RI President Ian Risely - San Jose - January 3.  Crab Feed - February 17 - sell tickets or round up a sponsor or two.  January 8 - the Ross Johnson Jazz Band is joining up with an Australian orchestra to play a free concert in Rancho Cordova and it's free... you should go.

 

With that, it was time for the drawing and in Tracy's absence, Secretary Sharon managed the tickets and everything and advertised a pot in excess of $180!  Sean Twilla drew the lucky ticket, which suspiciously turned out to belong to his coworker Paul Schubert, who then totally flubbed his shot at the riches.

 

 

  Naturally, next came the Sergeant, this time in the person of Ross Johnson, aided in his quest by bagman Jerry Smuts.  Ross started off by fining himself by way of thanks to the Twilla's who had supplied much of the food and comestibles at the Club Christmas party at the Johnson's place last Saturday.  Janel (do not even think the name Sean...) did a terrific job of it and so it was that the Sarge turned his angry glare upon your poor reporter who was forced to confess that he was a 'situational vegetarian' as a result of eating a bunch of Janel's fine cooking.

 

 

  Next on the Sarge's hit list was PDG Clarence who fessed up to leaving his house locked (and unavailable to his Rotary friends) over the weekend while he and Sharon basked in the sunshine in Arizona or some dang place and watched his alma mater become victorious in a football game in which apparently all of the Marshall players were there, either not yet indicted or out on bail.  Paul Schubert paid for being sick and missing the party and suddenly the Sarge started asking folks about happy dollars in their wallets.  Marvelene chipped in as did Pat Orelli who was re-elected to the board of the Dante Club.  Gary Spainhower was happy about some family  things and so was Tom Blinn although I don't think it related to Gary's family.  President Brett was happy as was Secretary Sharon.  Neil Orchard confessed to a Redding trip and paid and finally Ross MacCarty fessed up to being late and not wearing a badge and that, as they say, pretty much wrapped things up.  Game over.  (NOTE: The intuitive reader may note a certain lack of context in the above report.  It's true; it's hard to hear everything going on from the back of the room... workin' on it.)

 

Before anyone could catch their breath, PP Sean got up and strode purposefully to the front of the room and called for a vote on the proposed slate of Club officers for next year.  Here they are:

 

President: Paul Schubert

Secretary: Tracy McLinn

Treasurer: Sharon Ewing

 

Well, someone called for a vote after PDG Clarence moved that nominations be closed and surprise!  It was unanimous.  Congratulations to all selectees.

 

 

Well, with the demise of the Sarge and the vote, it was time for our guest speaker.  Doing the intro today was none other than Ross MacCarty, who many feared might wax poetic, but he did himself proud giving us some background on our guest speaker, Maria Almes, who is the Chief of Volunteer Services at the VA facility at Mather Field.

 

 

  Maria gave us some background on her career and then went right in to talking about the plethora (yes, you heard it here first) of services that the VA provides to former service members.  These include, but are not limited to to, nutrition assistance, clothing, shelter assistance, transportation services, long term care services and suicide prevention.  All of this takes place within their operating area which extends northward all the way to the Oregon border.

 

 

  Maria mentioned two things they need: more volunteers to help with the program and a player piano, in case you might be inclined to provide either one or both.  A very engaging talk by an obviously committed program administrator.  At the end, she got the traditional book.

 

With that, the Prez asked Sharon to locate our server Mo, and ask her into the room, where Brett handed her a fistful of cash that members had donated to recognize her excellent service.

 

 

  'Twas a very nice moment and then the room cleared as if Paul Bunyan had just broken wind over in the corner.