They're Baaaaack...
Well, my friend, let me tell you a story. It's not neat and clean and it doesn't have a happy ending, but it tells of a Rotary Club that came back from the dead (okay, three dark weeks... so sue me...) and found it's pulse was thready... Yes, my friend, it was the story of a Club meeting that was ("Fred, how do you spell 'disjointed'?") Okay, maybe the bit about the unhappy ending was a trifle dramatic, but it was interesting... Here is the tale...
First of all, the meeting started only a few minutes late, due, understandably to President Sean helping to search for the meeting supplies (raffle tickets, change can, coffee pot, etc), but once we were started we began gaining speed, hindered only by the empty lunch table.
Aaaarrrrggghhh.... where's my lunch???
The Prez thanked Mike Passof for almost being a terrific greeter,and then it was on to Anthony Chacon leading the Pledge, followed closely by former Metropolitan Opera baritone Tom Redmon belting out God Bless America with abandon. So good was Tom's role as concertmaster that he was named Song Leader for Life, a title sought by many Rotarians over the years.
Guests, we had 'em: Sondra Wildman and Kyle MacLachlan from Rotaract were there, as were our friends Sam Anderson and his beautiful bride Pat Braziel. Happy to have all of them.
Debbie and her old man...
Predictably late, Clarence came in the door attended by his lovely daughter Debbie, who is in town for just a few days. Welcome to all of our guests today.
Sam and Pat
As you might imagine, once the food trough was loaded, Rotarians began circling the back of the room like they'd spotted a new Krispy Kreme. Lunch was good, featuring salad, rice, enchiladas and cookies prepared by master chefs Dave and Jan. Naturally announcements had to be made and they may be summarized somewhere in this epistle in a photo taken by the crack Club photog. (Just checked: they're not available... try to remember...)
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"Do not wake me up ever again in the middle of one of these meetings!!!"
An 'other' announcement was made by Brud, reminding us of the B Street Theater project, which will be going to performance in the next several months. If you haven't gone to one of the participating schools to see this, you must go... it is a hoot.
Some folks are born announcers...
The second 'other' announcement was by Sondra Wildman, president of the Sac State Rotaract, who gave us a report on the doings of the Club, including their community service hours, their projects and their fundraising.
Rotaract Grand Exalted High Poobah Sandra
This is one impressive group of people and we are proud of what they have been able to accomplish particularly in light of the fact that they're all full-time students with class loads, etc.
Yep, there was a drawing, and even though there were only 4 balls left in the can, the $134 went wanting (again) as Sondra pulled Navin's ticket number and Navin managed to snag once again a white ball. Hard cheese, Navin, at least a lot of people felt bad about it ... (okay, maybe that's overstating it a bit...)
The Sarge in his formative years as Navin mourns the drawing result
Next on the agenda was Ross MacCarty as Sarge, but since he was not in attendance, our other Ross picked up the slack and began lightening wallets... Ross was most capably assisted by Dr. Bob Adam, but since your earnest reporter was hiding under his table, much of the Sargerly proceedings may go unreported here. Pat Orelli paid for getting fired from his accounting firm; Chapman paid for a trip to Hawaii and his birthday; Jerry Smuts paid for helping out with dictionary deliveries, as did Bob McBee; Clarence paid for his traditional trip to Vegas for Christmas!?!?!?!
The Sarge after being fired by the Prez...
Well, that wrapped up the prelims and so it was on to our guest speaker, Rod Malloy, or so we thought. Anthony's introduction of Rod was lengthened somewhat when our crack team of computer nerds was unable to get his presentation up and running, so Rod, obviously a polished presenter, started anyway and when our Rotarian team ultimately succeeded, he proceeded to tell (and show) us about his passion and work in the area of ecology based community service. He spoke of a number of programs his organization, Breathe California, is running to help us live better with clean lungs.
Guest speaker Rod Malloy
His organization goes down to grade school level to teach conservation and is an offshoot of the American Lung Association. Well done and well received. At the close, he got a firm handshake from the Prez who closed out the meeting by reminding us about the
City Hall rule about no fist fighting in the parking lot. Good meeting.
Sam and Pat after the meeting