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

District Governor Visits
Santa Rosa West

District Governor Norman Owen

The Opening Bell, The Pledge, The Rotary Moment,
Visiting Rotarians, Guests

President Louis Capuano struck the bell at 12:28 pm (two minutes earlier than usual) to begin today's meeting of "the greatest club with the greatest members."

Pledge:

Harry Rubin led the Pledge of Allegiance.

The Rotary Moment:

Ginny Pitts read a Bible passage for the Rotary Moment.

Visiting Rotarians:

Jim Valinoti introduced eight visiting Rotarians, one from the Windsor club, one from the Petaluma Valley club, and six from the Santa Rosa Downtown club.

President Louis thanked Steve Wright for today's set-up and take-down, Chris Parr for taking photos, and Chuck Olson for handling raffle ticket sales.

Our honored guests today were Norman Owen, our distinguished District Governor, and his lovely wife, District First Lady Beverly Owen.

As is customary, our reining President Lou, presented District Governor Norm with a gift from the club to commemorate his visitation to our club.

1st Lady Bev, was presented with a beautiful bouquet of red roses. She shared with us the very real meaning of “The Rotary Family”, by relating a very moving story of DG Norm’s victorious battle with cancer. She brought to life the incredible power of caring that our own Rotary Families can provide to us in our hours of need.

It was, in fact, a banner day for First Ladies. Former District First Lady Maureen McDaniel, Mike Merrill's lovely wife, and our own lovely First Lady Linda Capuano,

 and two lovely former First Ladies of our club, WinAnn Stark and

Sharon Herndon honored us with their presence, (WinAnn is the wife of Past President Chuck Stark, and Sharon is the wife of Past President Brian Herndon and the current President of the Inner Wheel Club of greater Sonoma County).

Dierdra Perez, Joe Perez's lovely wife, joined him today, and the lovely Chris Parr our President Elect Elect was accompanied by two guests from the Santa Rosa Wildlife Safari. (It was a Stevie Wonder kinda day...“Isn’t she lovely?” Ed J)

Announcements:

By President Louis Capuano: A million thanks and kudos to Ginny Pitts for hosting the Bartley Barbeque on September 22. It was a huge success, with about 90% of club members attending, a warm evening, and outstanding food and drink.

By President Louis Capuano (via Secretary Janet Codding). You are responsible for your own Rotary attendance. This means that when you are not in attendance at one of our regularly scheduled meetings you are required to make up at another club, through attendance at another sanctioned rotary Board, committee meeting or event, or you can even make up on line. See details of this further in the bulletin.

By President Louis Capuano: The Sonoma County Association of Rotary Clubs will meet this month on October 30 at the Washoe House on Stony Point Road.

By Harry (“Our Foundation Swamy”) Rubin: The annual District 5130 Rotary Foundation Dinner will be Saturday, November 8, from 5:00 - 9:00 pm, at Finley Hall at Sonoma County Fairgrounds. It will be a western "hoedown" affair and will feature a BBQ, beer and wine tasting, gaming booths, line dancing lessons and demonstrations, and much more, all for the incredibly low price of $35.00 per ticket.

By David (Mr. Dictionary) McDonald: The Dictionary Committee will meet at David's office on Wednesday, October 8 at 6:00 pm. Some 320 dictionaries will be distributed to third-graders at six Santa Rosa schools this fall.

By John (“Crabby”) Meisland: The Crab Feed Committee will have a breakfast meeting on Tuesday, October 7 at 7:00 am at Los Robles Lodge. Breakfast will be served this time.

By Bob Zeni: Crab Feed tickets are now available. They are $50.00 each, the same bargain as last year. See Bob to order tickets or to reserve a table.

Again by Harry (“Our Foundation Swamy”) Rubin: Raffle tickets for the annual Rotary Foundation Dinner on November 8 are now available. They are $10.00 each, but Harry has a spectacular special deal (and you don't need to act before midnight tonight): $125.00 will get you 13 tickets (instead of the usual 12-1/2) and will meet the District's 2003-2004 goal of $125.00 per capita contribution to Rotary Foundation. (You can tell the importance of this announcement by the fact that it was repeated by our Bulletin Reporter twice....Bears mentioning again – Go, “Swamy,” Go!!J- Ed)

By Chris Rosell: The International Service Committee is looking for an additional international project. Please talk to Chris about your ideas.

By John Meislahn: There will be Firesides in November, February, and April. Louis Capuano will host the April Fireside, but November and February are available.

Rotary Make-ups Online????

Yes! You can make up online when you are not able to attend a regularly scheduled meeting, a committee meeting, or another Rotary event. Just go to www.rotaryeclub.org and make your way to the make-up form and you will find this:

Just let Secretary Janet know that you have done a make up. She will be looking for your make-up verifications so please confirm with her that you have done so. Hey! What could be easier!

New Member Induction:

Gary Leopold, sponsored by John Withers, is a new member of our club. He was introduced by President Louis, given his red badge and Rotary pin and officially inducted by District Governor Norman Owen. Actually, Gary is a young "old" member. He was previously a member of Santa Rosa West and it's great to have him back.

Calling all PR professionals!

And speaking of new member introductions, we are looking specifically for a new member who has the skill, talent and enthusiasm to be our new Public Relations Director! That’s right! So if you know such a person, possibly someone who works for a PR firm or an Advertising agency or just someone who possesses the necessary skills to keep the Rotary Club of Santa Rosa West in the foreground of the community, and who has the desire to be a great Rotarian, we would certainly like to hear from you. Please contact President Lou or our Membership Chair David Wattell.

Recognitions:

Doug Dilley was recognized for conducting an excellent football pool at the Bartley Barbeque. Ken Kushnir won the first quarter prize of $100.00; Bob Reinking was the second quarter winner of $100.00; Carson Mitchell won the third quarter $100.00; and Bob Reinking (again, the lucky devil) won the fourth quarter prize of $200.00 (that's a $300.00 total for Bob). More later.

Ken Davenport was fined $20.00 for overdressing. He wore a tuxedo to a casual-dress surprise birthday party for Bob Marigo at the Fountaingrove Inn.

President Lou, tirelessly at work for Rotary (well most of the time anyway) seen here taking a well deserved break while attending the District Membership Seminar.

Bob Marigo was recognized for entering his eighth decade (that's the big 7-0 Birthday) on September 26. Congratulations, Bob. That's huge. But the fine of only $20.00 seems - well, that should be for a young guy.

Bob Zeni was fined just $1.00/day - a total of $25.00 for his 25-day trip to Europe. We missed you, Bob.

Bill Fisher was fined just $15.00 for his trip to Italy. There was a lot of grumbling about this one. He should have been fined at least $100.00 for the black-and-white-striped zebra/referee/jail shirt he wore to the meeting. Can you imagine showing up in Italy in that? (Well...yeah, if you were reffing a soccer game –Ed J)

Robin Marrs is leaving in a couple days to go to France - for seven months in Provence! He and Elizabeth will be living there, immersed in the French language, but he will keep in touch with us. He'll do make-ups in France, and he will also go to Ukraine as one of our club representatives to help with the Ukrainian Diabetes Project. Just $20.00.

Bob Reinking, the lucky winner of $300.00 in the football pool at the Bartley Barbeque, was fined $20.00 for double-winning.

The Raffle Non-Winner & Winner:

Peter Lamonica got the chance at the $375.00 prize, but he blew it by drawing a white marble.

Bill Fisher was a winner all the way for a bottle of De Loach zinfandel.

An Inspirational Program by District Governor and First Lady

District Club Coordinator Chuck Stark, a Past President of our club, had the honor and pleasure of introducing District Governor Norman Owen. It took Chuck at least five minutes to introduce Norm, not because Chuck was verbose, but rather because Norm has had so many accomplishments and honors and leadership positions.

Norm, a Santa Rosa lawyer, has been in private practice for more than 25 years, specializing in business law and estate planning. He has been a member of the Santa Rosa Downtown club since 1978. He has served as Chair of all four of the Avenues of Service and in 1996-1997 he was the President. He was selected as Rotarian of the Year and he has received awards from Rotary International. He has also been a Santa Rosa Planning Commission member, and he now serves as Chair of the California Governor's Committee on Employment of People With Disabilities. Norm and Bev have been married 43 years.

While he was District Governor-Elect, cancer was discovered in Norm's body. Bev talked to us today about the devastation he experienced and the battle he waged against the cancer. He was severely ill and his treatments were draining to the point of exhaustion and near-death. He had many second thoughts about becoming District Governor, but he persevered, and his bonds in Rotary were maybe life saving, and certainly a major factor in his healing. “Now”, said Bev, “he is cancer-free!”

Norm gave an inspirational speech. He spoke about the dream of Rotary, the concept of service above self and Rotary International President Jonathan B. Majiyagbe’s theme this year of "Lend A Hand" and what it will mean for hundreds of thousands of Rotary's beneficiaries around the world. He also spoke about the joy he has experienced in visiting the Rotary clubs of this District--today is his 34th club visit since July 1st--and in seeing first hand how dedicated Rotarians are changing the world, one person at a time.

A Very Special Award To Club Service Director Bill Dodson

District Governor Norman Owen presented a District Governor Citation to our Club Service Director, Bill Dodson, for consistently outstanding service to our club, exemplifying the spirit of "Lend A Hand." Congratulations, Bill!!!

Your Bulletin Reporter: Jim Hinton		Your Bulletin Editor, Jim Valinoti

* * * * *

Changes or comments?

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

Bulletin Archives