North Fresno Rotary

Meeting Recap 10/21/2010

by lou on 22/11/10 at 10:08 pm

We all entered to the delicate sounds of classical music. Violins, etc. In fact, it was hard to make it stop for the invocation!

Invocation by SCOTT LOWE.

Pledge by STEVE BERGLUND.

A special prayer by Dave Reuland, who effectively conveyed the club’s sympathy for the passing of Betty Read, Paul Read’s wonderful wife of 59 years. Graveside service to be held Oct 29, 9am, Belmont Memorial Cemetery. Memorial Service at 11am at G.L. Johnson Chapel – Peoples Church. Bereavement luncheon to follow.

Visitors were introduced by KATIE SIEMENS and included at least 8 visiting Rotarians (Hmmm… a great way to find new members?) and our friends from Rotary Storyland/Playland: Barry Faulk, Shannon Harris, and Ryenn Brown.

Weird News and Joke of the Day: These were delayed until the Assembly Meeting was commenced…

Birthday Table was inhabited by CHIP PUTNAM, PAUL READ, and ED KACZMAREK. BOB CARTER and NICK SMALDINO were partying at other tables so they paid dearly. STEVE McCLEAN, who also starred in “The Great Escape”, narrowly escaped a fine for being in “proximity”.

JAZZ Report: CHIP PUTNAM gave tutored us in math with the following: Jazz total income - $63,196. Expense - $16,405. Net income - $46,790. By all measures, a huge success, one of the biggest totals in years! Also, that means that $23,395 went to Storyland (and of course the same amount to Rotary account). Best Donation Gatherers were: 1) JIM CLARK, 2) GENEVIE PUENTE, 3) MARK SMITH – MARK also was instrumental in setting up the new beverage area. Most Tickets Sold: BOB KITTREDGE at 28. Howdedodat? Barry Faulk was asked what he would do with the money, and essentially his answer was “more”!

LARRY GRANADOS advertised Charter Night, a night of gaiety at Copper River starting at 6pm with cocktails.

SHERIAN ECKENROD gave us early notice of the Christmas Celebration to be held at Tornino’s on Thursday December 16. She noted that there will be no Rotary meeting that day so that all energies can be translated into evening fa-la-la. You will either need to make up that week – or just come to the party for credit!

ERIC MAYU gave us the Cooper MS Report: This past Tuesday was fun and we had 10 Rotarians (TOM COLEMAN, PAUL GIBSON, DON HENDERSON, BOB KITTREDGE, STEVE BEZZERIDES, JOHN FROST, SHERIAN ECKENROD, DOYLE DANIEL, ED KACZMAREK, and ME) versus 22 (Johnathan, Jacob, Michael, Daniel, Justin, Misheanna, Joshua, Arturo, Lorenzo, Isaac, Bridget, Jackie, Katelynn, Breanna, Taylor, Tywain, Felecia, Esmeralda, Cheyenne, Tanisha, Maggie, and Everardo) special junior high kids at Cooper Middle School. If you missed and want to attend in the near future, the sessions are the 3rd Tuesday of every month from 12:00p-12:50p. Next month: a fine dining experience right there on campus, to teach the Rotarians, er, students, etiquette!

JIM CONNELY thanked the club for supporting a wonderful organization - Poverello House.

TOM GRAVES stole the show again with more great news from American Ambulance. They are donating 12 Auto External Defibrillators (say that 12 times fast) to be disseminated among locations in Mexico and at the Rotary podium.

Raffle was won (or lost) by TED MARSELLA. He paid the kitty $5 and received a Cheesecake Factory gift card in return. Good trade!

The Program: Assembly Meeting

JOHN LEONARDO kicked us off with a lively discussion about NFR Membership. Seems we have declined from a high of 135 members in the 1990’s to now 78 members. A new stimulus plan was enacted to encourage new membership: invite a friend to a free Rotary lunch! Coupons available. Discussion ensued about “why don’t we invite more”; “why are we losing members”; “why is it hard for people to join Rotary”; “how to get younger members”. Etc. It is recognized that culture has changed through time, but if we all were to just invite from our network, and if each of us secured one new member – wow, what a result! SCOTT SHEWAN shared some of the great news about Rotary’s dominance over polio around the world. This is a great story to share with prospective members. Polio was endemic in 100+ countries, now is in only 4. The entire Western Hemisphere is polio-free. Two-billion children have been immunized, in large part thanks to Rotary! Now that is something to be proud of.