Monday, March 3, 1998
A Good StartResplendent in his light gray suit and a tie featuring hues of red, blue and violet, our esteemed President Jim Valinoti opened the meeting today with a crisp and confident strike of the bell. Dave Wattell led the pledge of allegiance. Martin Miller-Hessel gave us a special Rotary Moment, giving thanks for Rotary leaders and particularly those who challenge us with new ideas, which brought a smile of appreciation and satisfaction to the face of President Jim Valinoti in light of his recent new ideas letter to the membership. Visiting Rotarians were introduced by Fred Zmarzly. There were 22 Visiting Rotarians today, including Past District Governor Larry Cavanaugh. All of them joined us for our fellowship and excellent program, not influenced at all by the $1,080.00 raffle draw with only three marbles. They were welcomed by our members, with particularly warm receptions for frequent visitors Paul Risore and Wally Lowry. |
Mark your calendars...The Inner Wheel party will be next Sunday, March 8, at La Gare Restaurant. Call President Jim or his wife, "Marv", for details. April 11 – Spring fling dance. Reserve with Marc Matson April 17 & 18 -- District Assembly May 15 - Sunrise club golf tournament FYI: Starting in April Los Robles luncheon price will be $11.00 |
There were also five guests introduced, one of whom read a Chaucer-like poem in old English to announce an upcoming performance by Chaucer & Co. on March 20 at 8:00pm at the Church of the Incarnation in Santa Rosa.
President Jim Valinoti announced that our meeting attendance has improved markedly, such that we are now in fourth place in the District.
Jeff Ray gave a report on our sterling ski team, which performed admirably and without injury at the Rotary Ski Challenge at Alpine Meadows on February 27 in slalom racing competition with dozens of other Rotary Clubs. There were near-flawless runs by Bill Fisher, Bill Dodson, Rich Pratt, Pete Lamonica, John Hathaway, Terry Price, Jim Hinton, Josef Keller, Tom Skinner, Ken Prouty, Chris Rosell, and Team Captain Jeff Ray. The host club from Truckee managed to win the Gold Medal with 30-something former Olympians, and a ringer club from Mt. Hood in Oregon took the Silver. The final results have not yet been announced. We only know we did not take the Bronze or the Turtle Awards.
Paul Ahern reminded us about the free concert on Saturday, March 7, starting at 7:30 p.m. at the Spreckels Performing Arts Center in Rohnert Park. This concert, under the direction of Nan Washburn, is to benefit the American Red Cross in its efforts to aid the flood and landslide victims of Sonoma County.
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President Jim Valinoti announced that we will be
co-hosting (with the Sunrise Club) a student from Brazil who will be arriving in
September. Host families are needed for three or four month stays. Ken Dansie (left), with interpretive assistance by Mike Moore, announced that a former Rotary exchange student sponsored by the Rohnert Park-Cotati Club, a young man named Miguel from Peru who spoke at our club last year, is now a student at Oxford University in England. He was recently featured in a front page story with photograph in the London Times. Chris Rosell again announced that our meeting on March 16 will not be at noon at Los Robles, but rather will be at 6:00pm at the Third Street Aleworks in celebration of St. Patrick's Day a day early. For anyone who does not cherish corned beef and cabbage, pizza and pastas will also be available. The cost is $15.00. |
The Inner Wheel party will be next Sunday, March 8, at La Gare Restaurant. Call President Jim or his wife, "Marv", for details.
Steve Kay was awarded his Blue Badge after coughing up $10.00.
Congratulations, Steve.
Bill Fisher, Brian Herndon, Joe Perez, Paul Stychno, John Withers, Mike Merrill,
Gil Lucas, and Martin Miller-Hessel were recognized as our flying Rotarians.
Bob Harris was recognized for his speed and accuracy in producing the
newest edition of the Club Roster. That many members have wives named "Marv"
seems to be but a minor printer problem, which Bob described as "unfortunate".
He described the new roster as "reasonably correct" and thereby escaped a
fine.
| Ginny Pitts was recognized for her recent move to a new building. Although extremely uncomfortable in doing so, she was offered and accepted the opportunity to pass on her $25.00 fine to her good friend and champagne provider, Duncan Holt. |
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President Jim Valinoti displayed a rare auctioneering talent. He offered two fine bottles of DeLoach estate-bottled 1996 zinfandel to the highest bidder. Through some stroke of good fortune, these bottles remained after the Crab Feed auctions. Jim opened the bidding at $75.00 per bottle. After a long silence, Jim said he would himself buy both at that bargain price, but did he hear $85.00 per bottle? Yes! Again, after another non-bidding silence, Jim bid against himself and offered the $85.00 per. Mike Moore graciously jumped in to say "sold" and close the bidding. Nice job, Jim. |
Paul Schwartz' $15.00 fine for something took a double pass-along from Schwartz to Marigo to Capuano, but when Louis Capuano got it he took full advantage and revealed "The True Meaning" for all. It seems that he recently returned from the Mardi Gras in New Orleans where he and his daughter had ridden on a float. All along the parade route his daughter was throwing flowers to the crowds that lined the streets. After a while she exclaimed that she had just discovered the true meaning of being a Democrat because she was throwing away all those flowers that weren't even hers!
And The Winner Is...Somebody had to do it, and Mike Moore did it. Actually a table cabal (right) of which Mike is the spokesperson did it. Anyway, Mike plucked the black marble out of the bag, which contained just three marbles including the black one, and thereby won $1,080.00. So it is now back to the future, but President Jim announced that the new raffle will begin at $750.00. Jim Benoit won the $25.00 raffle, which he generously donated to the Community Fund. |
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Dr. Lavell Holmes, a Professor of United States History at Sonoma State University, was our speaker today. He was a Fulbright Scholar in Malaysia and has since developed a special interest in that country. He is also a long-time member of the Rohnert Park-Cotati Rotary Club.
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He described Malaysia as "Utopia on top of a
volcano." It is a country of 20,000,000 people, of which about 60% are Malay, 30% are
Indian, and 10% are Chinese. It is a wealthy country with a high standard of living,
fertile soil, plentiful food, excellent public education, industrial exports of tin,
rubber and microchips, economic stability, and relaxed Muslim religion. Women are
encouraged to have three or four children so to expand the population to 50,000,000
eventually. The Malaysian people are strong believers in family, religion, education,
children, good housing, and good health. |
This Bulletin was written by Jim Hinton.
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