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Santa Rosa West
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Santa Rosa West
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President Bill Gittins opened our 1,277th meeting on this Cinco de Mayo with his usual mellifluous "Good Afternoon". Our honored guest, District Governor Larry Kavanaugh, led us in the pledge of allegiance. Chuck Stark gave the invocation, which included a reference to angels "taking themselves lightly" as the reason they can fly, drawing a good laugh. Jim Underhill introduced 23 visiting Rotarians, all of whom were warmly welcomed by the members.
Landscaping at Multicultural Center: Paul Ahern announced that 279 plants need to be planted, and so a stepped-up effort is needed. There will now be weekday work sessions on Mondays and Wednesdays, on May 5 and May 7, and again on May 12 and May 14, to be followed by a Grand Finale Saturday on May 17 to get those 279 plants planted (and other stuff too).
Classes at Multicultural Center: Anne Abrams reported that classes are now in progress at the Multicultural Center. Hooray!
Board Meeting: A meeting of the Board of Directors will be be held on Tuesday, May 13 at the Bank of the West, Marlow Center (on Marlow Road). Everyone in the club is invited to attend, especially the Board members.
Paul Harris Fellowships: For those who have already donated $1,000 or more, letters will be in the mail this week explaining what Chuck Stark was trying to explain in his report about the accounting changes. For those who have not yet donated $1,000, try to forget what Chuck Stark reported about the accounting changes. For anyone else, ask Chuck Stark what is was he said. There was something about a "Donor Column," which is not to be confused with a "Doric Column." There was also something about designating a wife, grandchild, relative, neighbor, or a significant other as the ... I didn't get that part.
District Conference: The District 5130 District Conference will be held in Eureka on the May 30 weekend. The golf tournament is on Thursday, May 29.
Next Years' Programs: Marc Matson, next year's Program Chair,requested that all members interested in joining him in a committee dedicated to excellence in programming meet with him to create the best possible programs.
Salvation Army Civic Dinner: Jim Johnson, a visiting Rotarian, announced that 108 years ago the Salvation Army was established, and a Civic Dinner in honor of this organization will be held at the Veteran's Auditorium in Santa Rosa on May 15. The admission is $25.00, of which $22.00 is tax deductible. The featured speaker will be Santa Rosa Police Chief Michael Dunbaugh.
Cirque de Marin: A visiting Rotarian from the Novato Sunrise Club announced that lions and tigers and elephants will abound at a fund-raiser on September 30 which will feature a Big Top Tent seating 2,700 people. It would be nice to know where this first-ever event will happen.
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Bryan Jamar Retirement Dinner: Gary Antolini (left) announced that about 109 years ago, at least a year or so before the Salvation Army was established, Bryan Jamar was elected a Superior Court Judge, and so at long last it is time for him to retire, which he did as of April 15. A dinner in celebration of Bryan's retirement and his outstanding judicial service will be held on May 31 beginning at 6:00 p.m. at the Los Robles Lodge. Everyone is invited. |
Bo Simmons won the first-draw raffle ticket worth $430.00 if he drew the one black marble from the 38 marbles in the bag. He didn't.
Anne Abrams won the second-draw raffle ticket worth $20.00. She graciously donated it to the Community Fund.
Ken Dansie introduced two Piner High School students, Tara and Gary, who are the winners of our Vocational Scholarships. At Santa Rosa Junior College next year, Tara plans to study Criminal Justice and Gary plans to study Architectural Computer Design. A $250.00 scholarship award was presented to each of them. Congratulations, Tara and Gary.
Ten guests were introduced, including an exchange student from Argentina; the five members of the GSE team from Finland, who later spoke to us in the Program (see below); Claudia Haskell, the Executive Director of Luther Burbank Center; and Connie Wolf, a Board Member of the Luther Burbank Center, who thanked us profusely for our donation of $2,500.00 for youth programs at LBC. A principal beneficiary of this donation will be the Child's Play Performing Arts Series, which premiers on May 15. She said that our club will receive major recognition locally for this donation.
 Visiting Exchange Student from Argentina |
 Claudia Haskell |
Mary Farha introduced Kaj Kivinen, the GSE leader Rotarian from Turku, Finland, who arrived last night after a 24 hour journey with the four other GSE members. Kaj spoke about District 1410 in the southwest quadrant of Finland, which includes 50% of the Finnish population and 58 Rotary clubs. He quipped that Finland has a pretty short summer, usually one day, and typically on a Thursday. The other GSE members included a lawyer, a product manager, a marketing manager, and a pipeline engineer. They spoke about their work and the political, social welfare, education, and taxations systems in Finland. It was a really good program. These young visitors will be travelling throughout District 5130 in the next few weeks and will be speaking to several Rotary clubs during this time. We welcome them and hope that their U.S. visit is a life-long good memory.
This week's Bulletin was written by Jim Hinton.
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