January 9, 2013 Bulletin

DIGITAL EDITION     No. 11     January 9, 2013     EDITOR: Jim Johnson     PHOTOGRAPHER: Nicole Le

Our Program For January 16th:

MEET THE NEW PRESIDENT OF SRJC

Dr. Frank Chong president #5 in almost 100 years years!

Dr. Frank Chong, only the fifth person in almost 100 years in the history of Santa Rosa Junior College to be president, celebrates his first year by speaking to Sonoma County’s first Rotary Club, founded only two years later. Coincidentally, Dr. Chong’s old boss will begin his second term of office as U. S. president this month. Chong was Deputy Assistant Secretary for Community Colleges in Washington for the past few years. He formerly was president of Laney College in Oakland and Mission College in Santa Clara. Dr. Chong succeeds Robert Agrella, who retired last year after 21 years as president of Santa Rosa Junior College.

UPCOMING PROGRAMS….

January 23, 2013: Redwood Empire Food Bank
January 30, 2013: Rotary’s Public Safety Awards
February 6, 2013:   Update on World Community Service

OPENING CEREMONIES

President William called the assembled Rotarians and guests to order and asked the extremely shy Jack Tolin, spectacularly dressed to stand out in any crowd, to lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance. Then Past President Ray Dorfman thoughtfully suggested we all take our seats while he proceeded to prove that Abe Lincoln had the right idea about short speeches.

FELLOWSHIP

Thank you to the following members who fulfilled the Fellowship positions at today’s meeting:
Raffle: Creed Wood
Visiting Rotarians: Steve Reuter
Ticket Collector: Rick Allen
Ticket Sales: Vinay Patel
Greeter: Jose Guillen

VISITING ROTARIAN AND GUESTS

Frequent visitor and business consultant Roger Olson, back after the holidays as a visitor from the original Rotary Club of Healdsburg, was welcomed by some irreverent responses from our hospitable Rotarians. Kerrie Chambers introduced her guest, Manuela Gonzales, from the new bank in town, Rabobank, and Cathy Vicini introduced her daughter-in-law. Eileen Carlisle’s guest was former member of our club Sandy Handley. Matt Everson welcomed this week’s guests from the Children’s Museum of Sonoma County: Founder & creative director Collette Michaud, director of operations Eleanor Gorman, and board member Tim Zahner.

INSTANT ROTARY CASH

At Wednesday’s Rotary meeting President William passed the hat to raise immediate emergency cash for Christina Garcia and Alexis Vargas, who were critically injured in the auto accident in Mexico that killed Christina’s mother and injured other family members two days before Christmas. In less than 10 minutes, Sonoma County’s first, largest, and most active Rotary Club collected $605 for both families…only the beginning as Rotary Clubs throughout the North Bay, Elsie Allen High School students and supporters are collecting funds city wide to help Christina, Alexis, and their families.

SUNSHINE REPORT

Robert Pierce reported that the sunny winter skies contained one cloud as loyal Rotarian stalwart for more than 40 years, Dick Jenkins, continues to recuperate at his home on Grosse Avenue. Send Dick a card or call to wish him well, and let him know how much he is missed. Dick’s mailing address and telephone number are in the Club Roster.

URGENT QUESTION TO YOU

Would you enjoy taking charge of the portable microphone during the lunch meetings? Your assignment (should you choose to accept it) would be to make sure that all members who speak from the floor during Rotary meetings have a live microphone so that everyone can hear their questions & comments. Contact Sergeant-at-Arms Jack Geary ([email protected]).

THE RAFFLE

Creed Wood reported that this week’s Jackpot had grown to $221. Steve Reuter’s raffle ticket was drawn, but all was close to “naught” as we calculated that the $10 consolation prize yielded a .045 percent return to our veteran stock broker.

ROTARIAN MAGAZINE QUESTION

What does R.I. President Sakuji Tanaka do every day to raise awareness of Rotary?

GIRO BELLO’S KICKOFF EVENT

Doug Johnson took the floor to sing the praises and benefits of Rotary’s Third Annual Giro Bello Race scheduled for Saturday morning, July 6^th at O’Reilly headquarters in Sebastopol, urging all of us to attend the kick-off organizational meeting at 11 am Wednesday morning, January  23 at the Flamingo in one of the conference rooms. Chair Doug Johnson looks forward to seeing you there to become part of this great fundraiser. Many exciting details will be discussed. Everyone is welcome. Matt Fannin is in charge of signing up sponsors. He and Doug need your input. If you have any questions, please call Doug’s cell at 849-6429.

DICTIONARIES GO!!

Wednesday afternoon, January 9^th, dictionaries are a go for Santa Rosa’s third graders. Boxes and boxes waiting in the parking lot outside, with Dictionary Godfather Ted Wilmsen chompin’ at the bit to get started. You gotta just love these guys!

THE FRUITS OF FUNDRAISING

President William asked that Eileen Carlisle describe the financial impact from last year’s Giro Bello and Casino Royale fundraisers, along with a $17,200 check from the Pluth endowment, which enabled the Rotary Club of Santa Rosa’s Local Foundation to pay for all of the dictionaries given to Santa Rosa’s third graders this month with pass-through funds. As our work gets underway for our club’s two community fundraisers in 2013, Eileen told us that the letter we all received last month from the foundation had generated a number of generous donations over $1,000, including two anonymous checks of $5,000 and $6,000. The “snowball effect” of last year’s fundraisers has allowed our club to increase grants and support of this year’s local projects, including global projects that our club funds individually and jointly with other Rotary clubs. Apparently our generous fellow Rotarians discovered over the holidays that we have two Rotary Foundations: The first, the global Rotary International Foundation, and the relatively new Local Foundation of this Rotary Club.  Remember, both foundations accept contributions, donations, and checks.

A FAMILY MEMORY AT CHRISTMAS

Last month Eileen Carlisle made a $10,000 donation to the Rotary Club of Santa Rosa Foundation in December with the stipulation that it be used for an agricultural project at the SRJC Shone Farm. Trustees Sam McMillan and Steve Olson worked with Eileen to identify the specific project, which turned out to be the upgrade of the livestock facility within the Porter Animal Science Center. Eileen’s gift was made in memory of her parents John and Carol Jean Carlisle who had deep roots in the North Dakota farming community where Eileen grew up. Eileen’s gift will make it possible for future generations of SRJC students to develop their livestock-handling skills using state-of-the-art facilities. The Rotary Club of Santa Rosa Foundation exists to support the needs of the local community with a focus on non-profit organizations, public schools and student scholarships. Eileen’s generous donation is a good example of how an individual Rotarian can fulfill a need within the community through the foundations’ “pass through” process. This process is also being used by Debra Smith and Ray Dorfman respectively for the annual Holly Plummer Honorary Scholarship and the Joe Dorfman Memorial Scholarships.

RECOGNITIONS

President Bill’s first target for recognition was Vinay Patel for the sale of his Sizzling Tandoor restaurant in downtown Santa Rosa. Vinay contributed $100 toward his Paul Harris Fellowship, $50 to the Club’s Foundation, and $20 for the points scored by the Wisconsin football team against Jeff Gospe’s Stanford team. FYI, Vinay still owns the Sizzling Tandoor in Healdsburg.

Still under the spell of Eileen Carlisle’s persuasive letter, Tim Delany contributed another $100 to our Rotary Club’s Foundation.

It was a very good year for District 5130’s Young Rotarian of the Year, Carmen Sinigiani, who finally confessed under pressure that she had been made partner recently at the law firm of DeMeo, DeMeo & West. Congratulations to Carmen, who has been with the law firm for more than 10 years, including her internships while in law school. An honor well worth her $25 contribution to our Rotary Club!

“ChooChoo” Burchill took advantage of President William’s “$15 True Confessions” offer to brag about his and Mary Lou’s free Rotarian-swapped apartment overlooking Lake Michigan and the Chicago skyline, not to mention their luxurious train ride through the Rockies to Union Station to celebrate the holidays in “That Toddlin’ Town”. Mark took advantage of the opportunity to remind us that the sale of Mark’s Advent Office Systems is now complete and he is a free agent and contractually unemployed.

And finally…it wasn’t fully explained but due to faulty travel communications one of our club’s Rotarian couples took unexpected separate vacations over the holidays: Jackie McMillan ended up in tropical Puerto Vallarta without Past President Don. Left stranded at home, Don went skiing in the Sierras around Tahoe, then contributed $15 each for Mr. and Mrs. McMillan. That will be $30, please.

CHILDREN’S MUSEUM OF SONOMA COUNTY

The Children’s Museum of Sonoma County is a safe, learning facility, rich in interactive exhibits and programs. Imaginations are ignited through creative exploration of the arts, sciences, and culture. Exhibits and programs are

accessible to all children, including those with disabilities. Founder and Creative Director Collette Michaud quickly outlined the mission statement of the Children’s Museum of Sonoma County: “To inspire children’s creativity and stimulate their curiosity to discover the world through playful exploration of the arts and sciences”.

She quoted John Sullins, chair of Sonoma State‘s Philosophy Department, “If we are to raise the next generation of innovative technologists and forward thinking scientists we must nurture the gift of wonder at the earliest age so that this virtue can serve our children as they grow and face the serious challenges of the future. Children’s Museums have proven to be successful in teaching children complex ideas in fun and exciting ways and to foster the stimulation of the love of learning in children.”

Collette introduced museum board member Tim Zahner, who explained that he was involved in the Children’s Museum because he had kids and immediately saw how much they would benefit from what he saw, “We have to prepare today’s children for tomorrow’s world and the jobs that do not even exist today.”

Thanks to generous seed funding from the Junior League of Napa Sonoma, the Museum-on-the-Go was developed in 2008 as the first outreach program to serve all children of Sonoma County, regardless of language, race, ethnicity, gender, or socioeconomic status. These events are generally, free to attendees. Since its inception, the mobile museum has served more than 10,000 children and their caregivers at over 140 events throughout Sonoma County. Last year the museum received a $2500 grant from our Rotary Club to sponsor many family-friendly community events, giving parents and caregivers the opportunity to play and discover science, arts and nature alongside their children. Generally these events are free to the attendees.

OFFICERS

Rotary Club of Santa Rosa

President: Bill Rousseau, President Elect: Peggy Soberanis, Secretary: Jack Abercrombie, Treasurer: Cecil G. Humes, Sergeant at Arms: Jack Geary

President Rotary International

Sakuji Tanaka – Rotary Club of Yasjio, Japan

Governor, District 5130

Michael Juric – Rotary Club of Windsor

Attendance Secretary

Jack Abercrombie P.O. Box 505 Santa Rosa, CA 95402 707-538-4770

Board of Directors

Matt Fannin, Jose Guillen, Paul Hamilton, Nicole Le, Diane Moresi, Vinay Patel, Robert Pierce, Carmen Sinigiani, Creed Wood, Marnie Goldschlag, Past President