Archives for September 2017

Rose’s Ruminations – August in Review

August 3, 2017 – Month 2 – only 10 left!! But who’s counting? During May and June of this year Paul Andrus and I put together my first Survey Monkey. We had 57 responses from the club – over half the members responded! I took a minute at the club meeting to review the results of the Survey Monkey. (See slides and comments further on in the Pinion). Our program this afternoon was Paul Andrus reviewing our Web Site and informing club members how and what they can do on our site. Paul also had forms available for you to customize your log in information. If you were not at the club, shoot him an email or catch him at a meeting. He can make access to Club Runner through the Web Site really easy.

Following a relaxing Friendship Friday hosted by the Kearns (thank you Audrey and Mike for opening your home and yard), it was off to Angus’s first social of the year. On Saturday night Rotarians attended Star Struck Theater’s play Footloose. About 20-28 club members enjoyed a lovely dinner at Gael Stewart’s Mission Coffee and then met with a few additional Rotarians at the Smith Center for the play. Reports are that the play was great as always but the fellowship at all three events was the highlight.

Monday August 7 was our quarterly mentoring meeting hosted in the lovely home of Geeta Kadambi. Thank you so much for hosting, Geeta. A great group of committee members, mentors and mentees gather for a bonding evening of good wine, good food, good fellowship, and great club information shared with all. The Membership Development Committee is on a roll and starting the year strong. Thank you all especially for making this a priority and for your many hours of work to make membership development happen.

Our Club Assembly was on August 10 – What do you do when MOST of your Board blow off Club Assembly? (Not really – they all had solid reasons they could not attend). You STAY CALM with one of the funniest people I know – PP Angus. Angus and I wore many hats as we sped through everyone’s goals with MY GOAL met – Club Assembly in one meeting. The main goals reviewed were Membership (9 new Rotarians), Rotary Foundation Goals ($18,000), continued strong relationships with our Interactors and Rotaractors, diverse speakers, and hands on with the Sight Now International project. (Editor’s note: I plan to have the PowerPoint slides from the Club Assembly in a future Pinion).

The August 17 meeting was an agenda packed meeting. Chief Rich Lucero gave his highly anticipated icebreaker – thank you Rich for all you bring to our club, and it was so much fun hearing about your beautiful family and meeting your AMAZING wife. Right on the heels of Rich’s icebreaker we exchanged not 1 but 2 Red Badges for Blue. That was Rich’s last to do on his Red Badge list, and Martin Herter’s badge had been waiting for a week or so. Both were given their Blues and the club celebrated them in song.

The BIG announcement was that the 17^th marks the beginning of 11 weeks of animated announcements about the Hot Chili Pepper Challenge by our spirited Daren Young. A new aspect was added to this year’s challenge. Last year we could eat a hot chili pepper or take a shot of hot chili vodka. This year our Hot Vodka connoisseur Margaret Thornberry found??? Are you ready??? Hot Chili Tequila – WHO KNEW that even existed? Well, it was not wasted as Daren and Margo Hood took the first official shots of Hot Tequila, and the Challenge is off and running. Daren’s challenge to the club is that EVERYONE donates – the goal is to raise $40,000.00 that will be split among 8 LOCAL charities. Niles Rotary’s recipient will be Life ElderCare. WE can do this!! We enjoyed a great program about Successful Aging. Our speaker was Penny Vittoria from Acacia Creek. She was very interesting, and gave information we all could use. Primarily – be Positive, seek socialization – MOVE, any exercise – Spiritual – Seek Balance through your church, meditation or quiet time, and last but not least use your Brain – read, brain games. Great information for us all, no matter what age. Thank you Penny!

We swooped into the weekend with a District Membership Conference that was the best I have ever been to with Branding being a main topic. Niles Rotary was very present at this meeting with 5 Rotarians in attendance. Thank you to Chuck Canada, Rick Hood, Sophia Ahmad, and Maggie Guilbeaux-Chambers for giving up your Saturday morning. It should be noted that as they were discussing the value of the Web, three sites were highlighted and our site was one. Very proud that our membership team is so far ahead of most clubs, but we came back with some more great ideas.

On the same day another group of our Niles Rotarians was hard at work building a fence for LEAF. This project was headed by Manuel Franco and Paul Andrus. Ten Rotarians were present to assist in various jobs but most of all to get the fence up. They spent collectively about 55.5 hours in the hot noon day sun. Thank you Manuel, Rich Godfrey, Paul Andrus, Steve Cho, Jeff Schinkel, Almos Adorjan, and Rakesh Sharma. We also had some non-Rotarians join the group – Guillermo Martinez, Bill Magoon and Steve Legraffe; it’s always great working with folks with likeminded hearts.

On August 24, the Family Fun Meeting kicked off on a high note as we inducted our first Niles Rotarian of the year. Linda Anderson and her husband Curtis were called to the podium – we all got to meet Curtis and hear a little about Linda and her family. I am her sponsor and have known her to be a leader and a giver with a special heart for kids. I have told her for years she should join Rotary. I’m so excited for you all to get to know her better. Congratulations Linda – welcome to our club. Linda is the Director of Curriculum and Instruction for Fremont Unified School District – Curtis is a professional photographer. Following Linda’s induction, I named my July Rotarian of the month – Paul Iannaccone – for his amazing work with the Rotary Foundation giving. Paul is one with Evanston and our District, and we are reaping the benefits. He is cleaning up, organizing, and most important, teaching us about the Rotary Foundation and our giving opportunities.

Thank you Paul for your hours of hard work and commitment to our club. Paul awarded a Paul Harris Plus 2 pin to Rich Godfrey, a Plus 3 pin to Rosemary Ashley, and a Plus 4 pin to Sandra Young. The rest of the meeting was dedicated to ice breaker candy fun games and fun fining using random facts. There was a lot of laughing either because people were having fun or everyone was on a sugar high!

To keep the fun going a large group of Rotarians met at the home of Gary & Jean Basrai for Fellowship Friday on August 25. As usual it was a pleasant evening for all that attended.

Welcome Teacher Day on August 22 began with 40 grade school students in line before 9:00 AM. Students came from all the schools in Fremont to receive a flower to give their teacher on the first day of school. The Partners Project launched last year by District 5170’s Governor Jeff Orth was completed. Mission San Jose Rotary Club’s Past President Ruth Wenzel, Linda Anderson from FUSD, Cabrillo School Principal David Thornley, Mayor Lily Mei and I were on hand to formally present the FUSD and 5 schools with book selections made by Jeff Orth’s wife. Each 5^th grader will get a book of their own to take home. The schools include Durham, Cabrillo, Blacow, Brier and Grimmer. A formal presentation was filmed; Rose and Ruth will work with the principals at these schools to formally distribute the books at school assemblies. Of course on hand to facilitate the day were the Niles Rotary shining stars Dirk and Lisa Lorenz, as well as many Niles Rotary volunteers to check in the students and give them their flowers. We saw a consistent flow of about 1,400 children all very excited with their flowers and their first day of school. Teachers also stopped in to pick up donated school supplies for their rooms.

The last meeting of the month was coupled with my favorite Rotary project, Feed the Hungry. We had a great meeting that began with an icebreaker from our new soon-to-be Blue Badger Maggie Guilbeaux-Chambers. Maggie has quite a story and has spent most of her career in healthcare along with her husband at Washington Hospital. Maggie had completed her Food Handlers Certificate, so she joined us at Feed the Hungry and completed her last TO DO on her Red Badge list. Good Job Maggie! PRIP Richard King was on hand as we honored Mary Lynn Pelican and Paul Andrus as Paul Harris Society members, as well as an already Paul Harris Society member Sam Forbes with his first Paul Harris. Our speaker was Dr. Gari Browning President/Superintendent of the Ohlone Community College District. She gave us a very interesting view of where Ohlone has been and its amazing growth and great expectations for the future.

Following the meeting a group of us headed over to the Centerville Free Dining room to prepare and serve dinner to the hungry residents of Fremont. Thank you Orlando Tavares, Mary Contois , and Maggie Guilbeaux-Chambers for your help with pre dinner prep and dinner service. We were joined for dinner service by Stephen Allen, Terri Landon, Sandi Pantages Sophia Ahmad, Martin Herter, Rakesh Sharma, Steve Cho, Kimberly McFarland, Merna Morse, Mary Lynn Pelican; at the door was John Dutra, and taking the census was Margo Hood. Thank you all for your service – we served 134 people over 225 meals.

Well that’s all folks – On we go to our 3rd Rotary Month!

Fondly

Rose