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Sister Jane Kelly: Her Story

Call to Order

President Michael Moore eloquently called the meeting to order a few minutes early on this rather gray and overcast but otherwise very Rotarian day.

Pledge:

Roger Olson led us in the Pledge of Allegiance.

Rotary Moment:

Judith Light provided our Rotary Moment. I think there were a few 'Amens' in honor of our guest.

Visiting Rotarians:

Susan Nowacki filled in for Jack Bill and introduced our visiting Rotarians.

Ticket Sales:

Dave McDonald sold raffle tickets like crazy. (Remember the long-standing tag team of Rybicki-Burmeyer who set the record? -Ed J)

Guests:

Past District Governor Mike Merrill introduced Jennifer Hardcastle from
REACH.

Chris Parr introduced Linda Kettler.

Neil Silverman introduced his wife Susan.

Announcements:

Rotary Crab Feed Week (finally) and Other Important Things:

Bryan Fikes needs volunteers for security patrol to replace the two that he had lined up who happen to be Raider fans (per Paul Schwartz, they're part of the Raider Nation) so they will be in San Diego this weekend for some kind of football thing that doesn't involve the 49ers.

Scott Bartley said he will start setup this Saturday at 9AM. The more the merrier.

Bob Zeni reminded us to contact him for tickets to the Crab Feed.

Chris Parr and fellow Co-Chair Gary Lucas reminded us that there is the last meeting after this meeting and there is a volunteer list at each table.

Arnie Carston told us they have a lot of cool stuff for the live auction including a trip to Bermuda donated by our own Ken Dansie. Check it out!

President Mike offered that we have sign up sheets in the back for those who want to go to the District Conference in Ukiah and that our current District Governor Terri Clark would like us to buy more Rotary license plates.

THE BIGGIE:

Past President Bill Gittins came to the podium to announce that the five past presidents (Gittins-Valinoti-Standard-Stark-Herndon) had assembled to select a nominee for President Elect for the year 2005-2006 whom we will vote on at the meeting of February 17. The following is his introduction of their nominee.

The background of this very well-qualified nominee is as follows:

• The nominee joined Rotary in 1987
• The nominee is a Paul Harris Fellow and benefactor for the Rotary Foundation Permanent Fund
• The nominee has attended 9 District Conferences, one being an Int'l District Conference
• The nominee has attended 4 Rotary Int'l conventions
• The nominee was a Group Study Exchange Team Leader to the Republic of the Philippines in 1996
• The nominee served as District GSE Chair starting in 1997
• The nominee has assisted teams to Finland, Austria, The Republic of the Philippines, The Republic of India and Siberia of the Russian Federation
• The nominee is now serving as a GSE Advisor and assisted the team to Japan in September 2001
• The nominee was involved in the interview selection process for the GSE team going to Vietnam last spring, 2002
• The nominee has been the District Public Relations & Marketing Chair for the years 2001, 2002, and will also serve in 2003-2004
• She began her Rotary experience as charter member of the Windsor Rotary Club
• She served as the Club's Treasurer for 3 years
• She was on the Sonoma County Hot Air Balloon Classic Board for two years
• She has been a member of The Rotary Club of Santa Rosa West since 1999
• She is currently serving as Co-Chair of our 20th Annual Crab Feed to be held next Saturday January 25th.

I place in nomination as the President Elect of the Santa Rosa West Rotary for the Rotary year 2005-2006 Chris Parr-Feldman.

(Bob Marigo was just so tickled over Past President Bill's announcement about Chris that he could hardly contain himself! Ed J)

Recognition:

Fred "Shifty" Zmarzly, who slipped out of the country to Jamaica and checked out the local agriculture, was fined $50. Apparently, according to Pres Mike, their cash crop is similar to Mendocino County, where Fred also wants to raise some cash by planting wine grape, just like Jamaica.

Jim Benoit had to cough up $35 for going to northern Idaho for Christmas. He also mentioned that his son, an aspiring actor in southern California, landed a commercial with Volkswagen that was shot in San Francisco and shown on television. He's the red head.

Judith 'Where's my Blue Badge?' Light was recognized with her new badge from Pres Mike and a fine of $25. She then confessed to recently watching her son in a one-act play in LA, buying a house and changing jobs. Busy times.

Raffle:

Our guest Sister Jane Kelly tried to pick the 'whatever the color is' marble and didn't (even with God's help, presumably)...

...but *Ken Prouty won the bottle of wine which he promptly donated to the crab feed.

Program: "Sister Jane Kelly: Her Story"

Forget corporate whistle blowers. Sister Jane summoned undeniable courage to speak out against abuses, secrecy and cover-ups in her diocese. Following a lifetime of devotion to the Catholic Church and its teachings, she then faced accusations that she was undermining the church.

She is an absolutely charming person with a great sense of humor and a very quick mind that recognized the evil within the male-dominated church hierarchy and called them to task by exposing pedophiles within the clergy.

She has been at the forefront of this national issue and has recently written a book entitled Taught to Believe the Unbelievable. It went to the publishers last Sunday, in fact.

Through her troubling times she has questioned many of the values she learned as a youth and believes that the right values come from the heart. Her courage and determination lives as an inspiration to us all.

Pres Mike (Crab Feed comin' up, District Conference with the Governor...how many of these meetings do I have left? Oh my God...what have I gotten myself into this time?

Your Bulletin Reporter: Bill Dodson	Your Editor: Jim Valinoti

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Changes or comments?

Contact Jim Valinoti at valinoti@sonic.net or (707) 829-2300.

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