Home | About Our Club | Who's Who  | For Members  |  Calendar  | Bulletin  |  District 5130 | Rotary Int'l |

Restorative Justice
Finds Success in Our Community

The meeting was called to order by the President Elect-Elect Chris Parr (with Janet Codding providing her with a step stool so we could all see her.) When I walked into the meeting on Monday, saw the white table cloths and red napkins, and then was greeted with a rose and a kiss from Bill Fisher, I knew it was either our annual Valentine’s Lunch - or I was at the wrong meeting!

The Players:
Greeter – Bill Fisher
Ticket Sales – Bob Marigo
Photographs – Bob Harris
Reporter – Tom Laengle

Pledge:
Judith Light let us in the Pledge

The Rotary Moment:
and Bill Dodson provided the Rotary Moment.

Visiting Rotarians

The 4 visiting Rotarians were welcomed by Bill Fisher. Two from Downtown, 1 from East Santa Rosa, and 1 from Windsor.

Announcements

Being Valentine’s Day, the following Rotarians were accompanied by their spouse/significant others.

Bill Fisher and his wife Ann, Mike Merrill and his wife Maureen McDaniel, Dale Sipe and his wife Teddie, Chuck Stark and his wife WinAnn,

Bob Harris and “The Chairperson of the Board” Sandy, and finally, David McDonald and his wife Kim.

Neil Silverman had as his guest Chris Young, from Chase Manhattan. Jim Hinton had as his guest our exchange student from France, Sara Castellain. (her very proud “American Dad,” Jim, shared with us Sara’s current report card, which weighed in at a solid gpa of 4.0).

PEE (remember, that’s President Elect- Elect) Chris thanked David McDonald for doing today’s set-up (he had ample assistance from wife Kim). She also reminded us of the Sonoma County Association of Rotary Clubs upcoming meeting in Cloverdale on February 26th.

The Board of Directors will be meeting on February 17th (postponed from a week earlier). And RI International President Jonathan Majiyagbe's will be appearing at an upcoming meeting on February 13th in San Francisco.

Terry Galazzo invited us to Kid’s Street this Friday (2-13-04) for lunch and a performance to thank all of their donors.

Sara thanked us all for the wonderful time she is having in America. She will be heading for Los Angeles next week, with her traveling host Jim Benoit.

PEE Chris PARR reminded us that the new Rotaract Club of Greater Santa Rosa (being chartered shortly) will have it’s regularly scheduled meetings at the LBC on the 1st and 3rd Mondays of each month.

She then called up to the podium Neil Silverman (Sponsor) and PDG Mike Merrill (Inductor) to induct the newest member of The Rotary Club of Santa Rosa West, Chris Young.

Dennis Kelly was then invited to take the podium for his Craft Talk, that one time when a Rotarian can actually speak in terms of business advertising and not be penalized. Dennis also shared with us some personal background (although not much). He moved to Santa Rosa in 1986 from Sacramento. He has 4 children, has been the Chief Financial Officer for NBR (National Bank of the Redwoods), and has held the same position with The Bank of Petaluma, and is currently with A.G. Edwards as an investment advisor.

Dennis is quoted as saying “Be conservative and look for quality investments”. (Your editor says, “We sort of look for the same thing in a new Rotarian….quality, long term investments.J)

Recognition:

Next, it was time for recognition from PEE Chris:

Dale Sipe – Happy Birthday (#80) and $5 please

PDG John Withers – celebrating his 51st wedding anniversary on February 14th….$10 (And even though he reports that his Commanding Officer, Pat, says, “10 good years.J" , ever the heart (wallet) of gold guy that he is, John pitched in $51 to commemorate all of ‘em -J Ed)

Phil Talamantes – for his visit to Pebble Beach $25

Richard Standard – for his visit to the Multi-Cultural Pre-School Music and Story entertainment of the preschoolers.

Jimmy Underhill – for selling his home in Bodega in 5 weeks flat and moving to Cloverdale - $10

Raffle Time:

24 marbles for $275 (Don Ling misplaced his tickets on the floor. The number drawn (3918) was held by PEE Chris, but even in her “elevated” status she wasn’t able to pull the winning marble.

Second draw produced ticket number 3965 held by Maureen. She received a bottle of Chardonnay and a certificate for Old Mexico restaurant in Santa Rosa.

Janet Codding had a reminder for the Fireside coming up this Thursday (2-12-04) at her home.

The Program:

Program Director Susan Nowacki was called upon to introduce our speakers,

Tim Burney and Janet Hughes, from Restorative Justice, a non-profit from Sebastopol.

Restorative Services was founded in 2000 by Jessalyn Nash, M.A. and Janet Hughes, D.C. Inspired by the positive results New Zealand had in curbing the loss of their youth into their juvenile system, they set out to achieve a similar results in America by implementing innovative and effective programs. Tim Burney is an attorney from Sebastopol.

Restorative Justice has been providing services to the community ever since. They are the lead agency of seven agencies doing Family Group Conferencing in Sonoma County; Restorative Services, Petaluma Peoples Services Center, West County Community Services, Windsor Youth and Family Services, Healdsburg Police Department, Rohnert Park Youth and Family Services and The Sonoma Police Department.

This is a community-based approach to dealing with crime, the effect of crime, and the prevention of crime. They involve all the people impacted by the crime. Crime happens to an individual but impacts the whole community.

A youth has done something and the victim deserves something. Since 2002, Restorative Justice has conducted 200 restorative conferences. The youth and their family come up with a plan to meet the victim’s needs. 92% of victims served by this program feel justice has been served. The Youth involved in the crime must admit to it. Once the program is successfully completed the juvenile has no record. As compared to a 45% repeat offender in the regular system; Restorative Justice has only a 3.7% recidivism.

Tim went on to tell us that the offending youth family group conference is tough on the youth. Meeting with their own family members and their victims sitting across the table from them is a powerful process. Young offenders are referred into this program from law enforcement. The youth tend to be tougher on themselves, than the regular system.

The victims have a voice in what the youth proposes to do to make restitution. For more information you can visit Restorative Resources or call them at 707-823-8080.

The meeting closed with a reminder from PEE Chris that we are dark on Monday 2/16.

AND TO "GO OUT WITH LOVE IN OUR HEARTS EVERYDAY".

Your Bulletin Reporter, Tom Laengle		Your Bulletin Editor, Jim Valinoti

* * * * *

Changes or comments?

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

Bulletin Archives