Bulletin for November 24, 2008
Human Trafficking is real…in our own community
By Chuck Stark
Preliminaries
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| Susan Nowacki gave a memorable Rotary moment, indicating that we all have a choice to focus either on our problems or on our purpose. If we focus on our problems, it leads to selfishness, while focus on our purpose serves God and our fellow human beings. | ||||||||||
| We had three visitors from local Rotary clubs, Gary Vice, Dan Drummond, and Derrick Marshall. There were two guests of Rotarians. |
Announcements & Such
President David announced that there would be a community fund board meeting following the club meeting. Dave also announced that the invitations to the Club Christmas party at his home were already out, and reminded all members to bring appetizers and wine.
Ginny Pitts announced that there would be a Social Committee Meeting at Harvest Moon Winery on November 25, 2008, from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. to plan social events for January, 2009 through March, 2009.
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Doug Angelo announced the Salvation Army bell ringing on December 12, 2008 at Coddingtown and also indicated that the dictionaries will be picked up next week and he will make an announcement for members wishing to participate in the delivery to the elementary schools.
Bill Dodson indicated that the tickets for the crab feed and also the raffle tickets will be available starting next week. He also announced that this year, attendance would be limited to 450 persons and that members are encouraged to invite guests who will participate in the auctions.
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PDG John Withers announced that he was almost stranded by the Santa Ana winds in Southern California last week, with the fires closing down most roads. He said it was a horrible thing to witness firsthand.
Harry Rubins thanked the members for participating in their foundation contributions and announced that no Santa Rosa West members won any raffle prizes at the foundation dinner.
| NEW MEMBER |
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| Ken Prouty inducted new member Laura Buhrer, who works for Exchange Bank at the Larkfield branch. She was previously a member of the Petaluma Rotary club and is a Paul Harris fellow. |
Recognition
President David attempted to recognize ever wiley Ken Kushnir for his trip to Mexico; however, Ken turned the tables on our president, commenting on President David’s turkey tie. David ended up feeling like a turkey as Ken asked whether the stains on the tie were a result of spilled food or drool. Finally, the wit matching ended up with Ken’s comment, "Fine me what you like so long as you match it." The number was a bell ringing $100.00.
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Jim Hinton switched his loyalties and celebrated the big game with a $20.00 fine. Being both a Stanford and Cal graduate, like any good lawyer, he can argue both ways.
Dale Sipe reported that he successfully had some surgery last week, with benign results.
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BRAGGING BUCKS
Ken Prouty threw in a dollar to celebrate Cal’s win in the big game and referred to Jim Hinton’s educational schizophrenia.
Tarina Hall announced she recently won some duck breast and fois gras and expected to have a very ducky Thanksgiving.
Rich Pratt announced that he had a trip to Southern California and was fortunate to miss all of the fires, obviously much luckier than John Withers.
Ginny Pitts announced that she "won again" on her recent trip to Las
Vegas.
Raffle
The black marble was worth $275.00 and Jim Hinton chose the wrong marble out of the 24 available. Dan Drummond from the Santa Rosa East club won the bottle of wine.
Program:
Human Trafficking is real…in our own community
Pam Davis introduced our guest speaker, Dick Sinsley, who addressed the club on the most grave subject of human trafficking. Pam had recently attended a panel discussion on this subject and obtained Mr. Sinsley’s agreement to address our club. He is a former Lieutenant with the San Jose Police Department and was police chief in Truckee, California. He presently is the president of an international consulting company that specializes in problem solving.
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He indicated that it is easy to believe that human trafficking happens somewhere else, but gave graphic examples of how this happens in the United States and even in Sonoma County, and not just in the third world countries. He sadly announced that slavery has not ended in our world, in our country, or in our county. The bonds of slavery are more powerful than cages, and the victims are unable to run from their exploited conditions.
Mr. Sinsley stated that human trafficking is an underground economy with over $20,000,000,000.00 per year, involving human beings being comoditized. He related an interesting story where he personally intervened to save two Lithuanian girls from their travel to Japan for "consummation." He indicated that our children are particularly vulnerable, and that a runaway child has an 85% chance of exploitation.
He concluded by summarizing his message that slavery is, to our surprise, alive and well in the 21st century, involving from 20,000 to 50,000 modern day slaves (sex or labor) in the U.S. alone. He encouraged us as Rotarians to be aware and not to be afraid to get involved and to demand social accountability.
| Your Bulletin Reporter: Chuck Stark  |
Your
Bulletin Editor: Jim Valinoti  |