'Twas a Cold and Dreary Night...

I don't know about the night, but it was hot as all get out today, the daytime temps topping 100^o!  Nevertheless, redoubtable Rotarians from dang near every walk of life showed up for their weekly comestible fest and a nice meal it was.  For the third time in as many meetings, we had an Artificial President Of the Day (APOD), and it turned out to be former great, Sean Twilla leading the effort.

 

 

  Young Brud Dufficy was listed as the greeter on the slide, and to his credit, I believe he said 'Hi!' to me on at least one occasion during the event.  As APOD got the meeting started, he selected Merlin Mauk to lead the Pledge, a job Merlin takes to like Italians to linguini.  SFL Gary Spainhower did his usual superb job of squeezing God Bless America out of the crowd and that was it: we were underway.  Seeing no guests/visitors, APOD threw up... a slide with the saying of the day, having something to do with the hours in the day, but my favorite one comes from the IRS, whose motto is, "We're not happy until you're not happy."

 

 

We leapt right into announcing, as we always do.  Here they are: read 'em and weep

 

 

There was some consternation as to what day we're dark following Demotion this Friday.  The crowd convinced APOD  that we must be dark next Tuesday, the 18th.  Stay tuned for the latest version.  (See below)

 

 

The drawing was next and it was Club Physician Merlin Mauk who snatched Neil Orchard's number from the basket.  Neil then proceeded in only 3 or 4 tries to get the orange ball.  The referee called, "Foul!" and Neil was forced to relinquish his winnings which were estimated to be in excess of a lot of money.  Sorry, pal.  Better luck next week.

 

 

 

Following the drawing debacle, it was time for the Sarge and there is none better than Sergeant and former Governor Clarence to wield the sword of vengeance in making people pay for the privilege of attending one of his fining sessions.  First off, aided by baglady Becky Harvey, the Sarge went for pin infractions, and on general principle, Actual President Of the Year (APOY) Paul Schubert threw in some money.

 

 

 

   Following that opening salvo, the Sarge nicked Pat Orelli for having his wedding anniversary this month and so Pat got to pay.  As for anniversaries, not to be outdone Gary Spainhower was recognized for his Rotary anniversary.  Congrats, Gary.  APOD was next in the Sarge's unerring sights for having admitted that APOY had driven the agenda for our upcoming Demotion event at Scott's Seafood  in Folsom, which begins, as we all know at about 5:30 P.M. this Friday.  At this point, the room was thrown into no small amount of confusion when it was revealed that we are meeting next Tuesday as usual, even though we have Demotion this Friday.  So the slide above is correct: we will be dark on the 25th and July 2 following that.  You heard it explained clearly here first...   Next Tuesday will be our last regular meeting of the 2018 - 2019 Rotary Year.

 

 

Neil Orchard was next for returning from his trip to Iceland and Norway on that fine ship that lost its engine a short while ago.  We had some lates, but Bridget Anderson escaped the Sarge's wrath by calling ahead and 'splaining.  Longtime member and former Club President Conrade Mayer was in attendance and he chipped in for some pin infraction.  Good to have you back, my friend.  Gary Spainhower threw down some happy $, and then Navin Naik just happened to mention that he had made up at the Rotary Club of Kathmandu in Nepal during his recent trip.  I really gotta hear about it.  In any event, that wrapped up the Sargerly festivities and we all started masticating. 

 

 

Well, sir, with the dying of the eating lamp, we eagerly awaited the arrival of our guest speaker, who turned out to be the same person as our Sarge.  PDG Clarence got up and enthralled the crowd with a recasting of the beginnings of the Rotary Foundation and then went into the mechanics of how we get matching money from the Foundation as we pursue our projects, both local and international from year to year.  In the arena of District grants, we request matching money for not only Club community service projects, but also scholarships, typically for graduating high school seniors who are going on to college.  It was an interesting history lesson and brought us up to day on how we get and use grant money in carrying out our mission.  Well done.  With that, APOD offered Clarence a book to put his mark in and he called the meeting closed faster than an F-16 in full afterburner going downhill. 

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Following the Club meeting there was a meeting of the Club Foundation board of directors across the hall at the brewery, where the members discussed and voted on the 10 submitted Hometown Hero Grant applications that the Foundation had received.  We'll have more on that when the selectees are announced.