Issues are arranged in reverse order. Scroll down to find the issue you want.
November 17, 2005
COMING EVENTS
November 24 - Club dark for Thanksgiving
December 1 - John McCosker, "The Carl Sagan of the Seas"
December 8 - Club dark (Party on Dec. 9)
December 9 - Holiday Party, 6:30 p.m., Petaluma Golf & Country Club
December 15 - Bill White, France
December 22 - Student Choirs
President LEE "Go Bears!" BEAN opened the meeting at 12:30 p.m., and allowed (nay, encouraged!) several of our Club Members who are Cal Alumni
. . . to literally cut a red sweater off of Secretary STEVE "I Didn't Go To Stanford" OLMSTED! Frankly, I couldn't tell whether it was Big Game hysteria or a bunch of liberal Democrats from Cal just trying to get a little extra from a conservative taxpayer?! Either way, it was all in fun and Steve emerged from the scrum unscathed.
TEDDY "Eveready" ADKINS, the Club's crooner par excellence, then led us in song (God Bless America!),
. . . followed by ANDY "Keep it Real" KVALHEIM's thought for the day on birth and death…or was it the other way around? The customary handshakes and hugs ensued…even between the Cal and Stanford Alums!
&There were no visiting Rotarians, but there were several guests of Rotarians in attendance, including two student guests, namely Kara and Alyssa, the Co-Presidents of the PHS Interact Clubs, who proudly announced that the PHS Interact Club had raised $632 to contribute to our Club's Katrina Relief Project. They received a well-deserved round of applause in appreciation of their charitable efforts. There was no Sunshine Report (a misnomer if ever this was one!).
KATHY "UC Santa Barbara" BURROUGHS announced that the Club's Annual Holiday Party is slated for December 9 (6:30 p.m.) at the Petaluma Golf and Country Club—invitations are in the mail, and Kathy would like to see all of you there!
Next, STAN "Little Italy" LAWSON announced that his company, Sequoia Senior Solutions, is having a ribbon cutting ceremony and party on December 6 (5:30-7:30) to celebrate the opening of their new offices. The party will be catered by the local high school culinary students, and you're all invited—call Stan for details.
JENNIFER "2YSUR2YSUB, I CANCUR 2" WEISS 4ME then gave a very interesting craft talk-she's obviously an experienced, well educated, well traveled young woman! Good job, Jennifer!
The Prez then announced the November birthday boys, including FRED "Never Cry" WULFF, STEVE "Be My" POWELL, ANDY "The Greatest of" KVALHEIM, JAMES "Bull Run" BURLESON, CHRIS "Don't Call Me Joe" ALBERTSON, and a bunch of little Ricks: RICH "Beyond Relief" JOHNSON, RICHARD "No Mas" MARZO, RICK "A Rolling Stone Gathers No" MOSSI, and RICK "O'Bavaria" O'BERLIN. TED ADKINS (And Ye Shall Receive) led us in a rousing rendition of Happy Birthday followed by the Prez' customary birthday fines--$5 if seated at the Birthday table, $10 if not!
The Prez then let his Cal Bear prejudice get the best of him as he decreed sua sponte (that's Latin for "of one's self", Babe!) that no red was allowed in the room, and proceeded to take $10 from each offender, and $20 from Secretary Steve for wearing the aforementioned red sweater!
Then, like a glassy-eyed undergrad wandering around People's Park in the 60's looking for some communal freebies, the Prez fined all of the Cal Alums $5 each for basking in their own applause for the plight of the Cardinal red!
The Prez then called upon FRED "Looks Like Early Morning" FROST and JIM "Rain Man" BECKER to explain their ongoing annual bet regarding rainfall in Thailand before and after November 11 (wonder what the Vegas line is on that one?), which Fred always wins (apparently, Jim finally figured out that the sun always rises in the east, so they don't bet on that anymore!)—no matter, the Prez induced Jim to disgorge a C-Note to settle the bet, which Fred graciously split 50-50 with the Club. Thanks, guys.
Speaking of good gamblers, DON "Bet You Can't Eat Just One" RAMATICI just returned from a hunting trip to Colorado where he shot a 5 pt. elk and a 4 pt. buck, and had the dubious distinction of being the oldest guy ever to get 2 in one day—the obliging Prez plinked him for a measly $50 for the notoriety. Congratulations, and welcome back, Don.
TOM "Golden Bear" BAKER was then fined twice Don's amount (that would be $100, Babe) apparently for having only half the success on his recent hunting trip that Don did—Tom didn't get any deer or elk, but he did manage to down a few quail and land a fish or two (he was probably too nervous about the Big Game to focus!). Thanks, Tom.
Last, but certainly not least, the Prez belatedly acknowledged DAVE "Say" AMUNDSEN for receiving the International Chiropractic of the Year award, which was bestowed upon him sometime during the presidency of
. . . BABE "Where's The Beef" AMARAL—a $10 reminder fee from Babe for forgetting, and $100 from Dave for the honor and several "seminar" trips he voluntarily owned up to! Thanks guys, and congratulations, Dave.
The Prez then held the raffle, and lucky Kenton Clark pulled the brown rock to win all the accumulated $$.
Your humble editor, pulling double duty, then introduced
. . . our Speaker, Dave Traversi, a Petaluma native, attorney and author, who gave a great program on the Petaluma Leghorns and the history of Petaluma circa 1946-1958, as detailed in his new book Hail the Hometown Heroes. The Prez gave Dave a Rotary memento and a book will be donated to a local high school library in his name for a job well done.
ERIK "Shark Gumbo" GUNHEIM then reminded us that the Speaker for our next regular meeting (Dec 1st) will be the former director of the Steinhart Aquarium, whose program is on great white sharks! Don't miss it. Meeting adjourned.
HAVE A HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!
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Have new members assigned to a committee that plan their own fund raising and/or club social event. This has worked well in larger, older clubs, new members can plan an event that everyone can help with or it can be exclusively theirs. It will give them ownership of a project. Remember a Rotarian that is involved stays a Rotarian. |
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Thanksgiving is a time for all of us to give thanks to that person that sponsored us into Rotary. At this week’s meeting, if possible, shake their hand and thank them for this wonderful opportunity they have given you. Have you sponsored someone into Rotary? If not make that your next Rotary project. Thank you for being a Rotarian. Happy Thanksgiving! |
This week's Rota-Teller editor: Mike Baddeley.
November 10, 2005
COMING EVENTS
November 17 - Dave Traversi, Petaluma Leghorns
November 24 - Club dark for Thanksgiving
December 1 - John McCosker, "The Carl Sagan of the Seas"
December 8 - Club dark (Party on Dec. 9)
December 9 - Holiday Party, 6:30 p.m., Petaluma Golf & Country Club
December 15 - Bill White, France
December 22 - Student Choirs
The bell sounded at precisely 12:30 and as PRESIDENT LEE announced his name, he gazed upon the blue and gold hats in the crowd. Our members wanted to support his alma mater, Cal, in their attempt to upset USC. (It didn’t work. Cal was picked apart by USC, 35-10). GENE BENEDETTI led us in a jolly rendition of “I’m a Rambler” followed by an enthusiastic “God Bless America”. Was that BARNEY FAUSS contributing some great harmony? The song was only fitting as PRESIDENT LEE called on ED FULLERTON to let us know it was the 230th anniversary of the U.S. Marine Corps.
MIKE WHITE gave the invocation with three quotes about Liberty. The usual hugs and handshakes quickly followed with the bell sounding to bring us back to order. KIP HERZOG introduced the visiting Rotarians.
ONITA PELLEGRINI reminded us to sign up for the Foundation Dinner at the Friedman Center in Santa Rosa on Saturday, November 19th. PRESIDENT LEE asked us to mark our calendars for the Holiday Party on December 9th. George Wagner, President of the Sunrise Club, announced that their meetings will now be held at Kate & Doc’s Supper House. He also wanted us to know that they are having a New Year’s Eve Party at Adobe Creek. If you’re interested in attending, let him know.
HERB BUNDESON was up next to give us his Craft Talk. We all know that HERB’s been around awhile, but it’s great to hear from our senior members. HERB was born and raised in Petaluma. After his career as a Navy Officer, HERB went to Cal Poly to major in Poultry Science. After college, he went in the hatchery business. It was tough to make a buck in the poultry business, so HERB went into real estate. His son now is at the helm of Bundesen Realty on the boulevard.
After the talk, BARNEY raised his hand to show sympathy for HERB’s poultry business demise. He told us a story that Dave Traversi (next week’s speaker) used to tell. There was man who came into Tomasini Hardware 4 days in a row to buy a hammer for $1.25. On the fifth day, the sales clerk asked him why he needed all the hammers. The man replied, “I’m selling them for a $1:00. It’s better than the poultry business I was just in.” PRESIDENT LEE chuckled and only fined BARNEY $5.00.
PRESIDENT LEE announced the November anniversaries, followed by the introduction of the Rotarians with guests.
LARRY JONAS took the podium to give us a little history of Rotary. LARRY is reading a book about the life of Paul Harris. Paul Harris lived from 1868 to 1947 and was raised in Chicago by his grandfather. It was his grandfather that encouraged him to be an attorney after being expelled from the University of Vermont. There’ll be more history from LARRY at a later date.
MICHAEL CARUANA was then quickly fined $10 for spelling ERIK GUNHEIM’s name wrong. I think it might have had a “C” instead of a “K”. I don’t think ERIK likes that.
ERIK was quickly called upon to sing us the song he performed numerous times at his Bodega home for his guests that attended his Friendship Feast. He sang the song in Norwegian complete with fists pounding on the table and then gave us the English translation. There should have been a tape recorder. After the applause stopped, ERIK told us the sad story of how his planned abalone dinner was almost void of the main course. Apparently CARRIE PIERSON’s husband, Bill, was supposed to show up in the morning and dive with ERIK for the abalone. He didn’t show, so ERIK grabbed a couple of strangers to dive with. The reason for the no show was the phone call her husband got from CARRIE’s brother telling him that it was too rough in the ocean for him to go. That brother just happened to be George Wagner, President of the Sunrise Club, and in the audience. ERIK gave him some nasty stares. ERIK did get enough abalone and a great time was had by all at his weekend friendship feast.
PAUL LOUNIBOS had the winning raffle ticket and walked away with a nice bottle of wine.
PAT SCHAEFER introduced our guest speaker. Mark Weston, an emergency room nurse at Petaluma Valley Hospital, gave us a very informative speech on his adventure as part of the FEMA Team from the Bay Area that helped with the Katrina Relief efforts. The pictures and his experience were a real eye opener to the tragedy that occurred in the United States.
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We all know that November is Rotary Foundation month, when we are all asked to give, “Every Rotarian Every Year.” Why not make that your club’s membership theme, “ Every Year Every Rotarian One New Member.” Rotary Membership is the foundation of Rotary for without members there would be no Foundation. Membership and Foundation go hand in hand. |
This week's Rota-Teller editor: Loretta Catarozoli.
November 3, 2005
COMING EVENTS
November 10 - Mark Weston, Nurse at Katrina relief
November 17 - Dave Traversi, Petaluma Leghorns
November 24 - Club dark for Thanksgiving
Are you aware that our club is required to publish the Rota Teller on the weeks when we are dark? Rumor has it the Postmaster General will come to Steve’s office and revoke our privilege to receive the Rota Teller via the US mail if we miss publishing our bulletin on the weeks we are dark. This could be a travesty of the very worst kind, because there are actually members of our club who don't use a computer. (I've been sworn to secrecy and won't name names). This tid bit about the 'dark' Rota Teller was brought to my attention on the first dark meeting I was assigned to the editor duties. Of course, I through I had drawn the winning lottery ticket, instead I received a call after the fact. I felt awful that I had let down my club.
I remember thinking at the time how utterly impossible it seemed. How could we publish a “newsletter” when we didn’t have a meeting and therefore no “news” to report? One of my bulletin colleagues suggested that I copy a story from a Rotarian magazine or from the district’s website. We all have Rotarian magazine, right? It’s tucked right next to the Williams-Sonoma and Land’s End catalogue. Cutting and pasting an article was a good idea in theory, but it I think the Postmaster needs to give Rotarians a break. After all, Rotarians give of themselves when most wouldn't. Rotarians go where few have traveled (AND managing to attend a meeting EVERY week at the Vet's building, 12:00 sharp is only a smidgen of what we do). Rotarians are all so busy with careers, jobs, family, and community involvement not to mention our commitment to Rotary. What is the Postmaster General thinking?
A message from President Leroy
I would like you to mention that four of our members and their spouses hosted Friendship Feasts last weekend with five more to occur this coming weekend (Nov. 4-5). The feedback is that everyone had a great time with plenty of great food, friendship and liquid refreshments.
And a reminder that the upcoming Fireside Chat will be held at Onita Pellegrini’s home at 1813 Ingram Way in Petaluma, 5:30 pm on Wednesday, Nov. 23. Also mention that all new members who have not attended one of these events in the past are obligated to do so. They should have by now received their invitation and have it marked on their calendars. If they have any questions, please contact Onita at 762-2785.
DISTRICT DINNER Mark your calendars for District 5130’s Foundation Dinner to be held at the Friedman Center in Santa Rosa on Saturday, November 19, 2005. If you are interested in attending, please contact Onita, 762-27852.
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Bring someone into Rotary that can help you do what you do in Rotary. When it’s fund raising time or community project time we look for help with that area for which we are responsible. By bringing in a new member we have additional help with the tasks that need to be accomplished. It also builds goodwill and better friendship. Share the job and let everyone have fun. |
This week's Rota-Teller editor: Connie Heizer.
