DIGITAL EDITION No. 115 March 4, 2015 EDITOR: David Brown PHOTOGRAPHER: Nicole Le
Our Program for March 11th:
PAST PRESIDENTS
Come join us and hear from some of our past presidents of the Rotary Club of Santa Rosa.
UPCOMING PROGRAMS
Wednesday, March 18th: Wells Fargo Center for the Arts
(March 18th meeting will be held at the St. Rose Business Center)
Wednesday, March 25th: Modini Legacy in Healdsburg
Wednesday, April 1st: Shuffle’s Magical Ice Cream Shopp
USEFUL LINKS
Visit our district at: http://www.rotary5130.org
Check out Rotary International at: http://www.rotary.org
Come see us at: http://rotarymeansbusiness.
OPENING CREEMONIES
Presiding: President Mark Burchill
Pledge: led by Ginny Cannon
Invocation: Doug Chase shared a personal story about his parents who were married for 70 years and lived into their 90’s. Near the end of his Father’s life, Doug asked him what his secret was for living such a wonderful life. That list of things included among other things; “to live in the moment”, “take care of someone else”, “learn something new every day”, “work in the yard”, “tell lots of jokes” and “hug”. Doug then asked all Rotarians to turn to their neighbor and give them a hug. Nice job Doug, your parents were very wise folks.
GUESTS OF ROTARIANS
Jack Atkin introduced his guest Steve Baime. Jane Duggan’s guest today was Janet Hubbard. Prez Mark introduced his guest Kim Graves and program chair for the day Jackie McMillian introduced our speaker for the day Susan Swartz.
SUNSHINE REPORT
According to Eileen Carlisle, everything is sunny!

Larry Miyano and David Brown sharing their raffle prize
RAFFLE
Past President Rich de Lambert announced there was $205 in the pot today and 6 marbles in the bag. Tim Delaney held the lucky ticket but failed to pick the odd marble and settled for the $10 consolation prize. Rich donated a bottle of wine from his wine cellar and David Brown and Larry Miyano had the lucky number! Thanks Rich!
MARCH BIRTHDAYS
Laura Held introduced all the B-day boys and girls that were born in March and were showered with the traditional happy birthday song from their fellow Rotarians. Each were presented with a bubble blowing toy that I’m sure will be shared with a grandchild or two. Those celebrating were: Rick Allen, Mark Burchill, Eileen Carlisle, Joel DeSilva, Jane Duggan, Robby Fouts, Schuyler Jefferies, Doug Johnson, Jock McNeill, & Larry Miyano:

Richard Allen, Jane Duggan and Schuyler Jeffries

Larry Miyano, Eileen Carlisle, Mark Burchill and Robby Fouts
PROSPECTIVE MEMBER

Jack Abercrombie
Kim Graves Corporate Sales
Sponsored by: Doug Johnson
ROTARY LEADERSHIP
Jack Abercrombie talked about his role as Secretary of the club and the many tasks that make up that job. In addition to record keeping and assisting the president, Jack wears many hats. He thanked Past Secretary Bob Higgs for making the transition to his leadership seamless as well as Steve Olson & Cecil Humes for their guidance & counsel.. We are lucky to have a guy like Jack who does this job with a great spirit and always with humor and warmth. Thanks Jack!
VETERAN CRAFT TALK

Schuyler Jeffries
Schuyler Jefferies, a member since 1969 shared his very interesting life story. Born and raised in San Francisco, Schuyler’s family moved to Marin while he was in High School and after one year at Stanford, he then attended University of Oregon where he majored in Architecture.
He met his wife there and moved to Santa Rosa after graduation. He spent his career working on projects that included locally the Piner and Elsie Allan High Schools and the Friedman Center. Approximately two thirds of his work was for educational facilities all around the north coast. As a senior at Mt Tamalpais High School, Schuyler was the quarterback of the football team and deep into the 4th quarter of a close game against Santa Rosa High, he dropped back and completed a 70 yard touchdown pass to win the game. Schuyler is a father of 3 and a proud grandparent of 6 grandkids. Thank you Schuyler for sharing your interesting story!

Steve Marburger shows off his new blue badge
ROTARY MEANS BUSINESS MOMENT
Steve Marburger shared information about his IT business and urged anyone who would like to know more about what his company provides in services to give him a call. At the conclusion of his comments, President Mark presented him with his blue badge and picked up $10 for the club for the delivery.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
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- There will be a club outing to a play on May 21st at the 6th St, theater for all interested Rotarians and guests. Cost is $35 a ticket and the group will gather at a local restaurant for dinner before the show.
- The Bocce ball tournament will be held on May 30th. More details to come.
- Matt Fannin announced that there will be a meeting in the back after the meeting for all those that volunteered to be mentors to the new members.
- President Mark shared the news that members Darren Elliot and John McHugh have resigned from the club. With the earlier resignation of Debra Dorfman, this left two openings on the board. Shannon McConnel and Steve Olson (new incoming board members in July) agreed to step in and fill those openings immediately.
- A hands-on project at the Redwood Empire food bank was shared with the club with a picture of club members busy at work.
- Giro Bello report: Jackie McMillan reported that to date we have 230 riders registered.
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Ryan Thomas is honored
ROTARIAN OF THE MONTH
Ryan Thomas was selected as the outstanding Rotarian for the Month of February. Congratulations Ryan.
RECOGNITIONS
“A picture of 2 queens” Our own Queen Jean was standing in front of a portrait of Queen Elizabeth claiming that she was her sister….. Oh well, Jean coughed up $50 to the club for the recognition.
PROGRAM
Susan Swartz shared her delightful career as a local journalist and story teller. Susan is a retired reporter who worked for 30 years at the Press Democrat. In addition she also worked for the radio station KRCB and is the author the “Juicy Tomatoes” books.

Speaker Susan Swartz
She got her start in journalism in high school and majored in that subject at Ohio University. She moved to San Diego with her husband while in her Twenties and worked for the San Diego Tribune. There she claimed to become a true “Feminist” which is nothing more in her words then believing in women’s equal rights.
After her time in San Diego she came to Santa Rosa and started her career at the PD under the leadership of publisher Mark Parman. The paper at the time was owned by the New York Times which was a strong supporter of women and that fit into Susan’s beliefs.
Susan shared the current state of how we as citizens receive the news and all forms that it comes to us today including through the traditional, paper, TV, Internet, radio, Facebook etc.
She believes it is important for us to know what is going on and to be aware of the biases of different sources.
She talked about her current projects which include her books about older women “Juicy Tomatoes” which has been made into a play and a future play that will be about women with HIV.
Susan concluded her talk with a short Q&A
President Mark closed the meeting thanking those who helped put today’s meeting on.
OFFICERS
Rotary Club of Santa Rosa Officers
President: Mark Burchill, President Elect: Doug Johnson, President Elect Nominee: Jose Guillen, Past President: Peggy Soberanis, Secretary: Jack Abercrombie, Treasurer: Cecil G. Humes, Sergeant at Arms: Jack Geary
President Rotary International
Gary C.K. Huang, member of the Rotary Club of Taipei, Taiwan
Governor, District 5130
Kevin Eisenberg, member of the Rotary Club of Calistoga
Attendance Secretary
Jack Abercrombie P.O. Box 505 Santa Rosa, CA 95402 707-538-4770
Board of Directors
Karen Ball, Tim Delaney, Tim Fawcett, Bill Hatcher, Elizabeth Karbousky, Steve Olson, Jack Tolin, Cathy Vicini