Issues are arranged in reverse order. Scroll down to find the issue you want.
November 27 - Dark for Thanksgiving
December 4 - Dark at lunch; Holiday Party
December 11 - Bruno Ferrandis and Alan Silow - The Santa Rosa Symphony
December 18 - Dark at lunch; social event after childrens' gift distribution
December 25 - Dark for Christmas
Subbing for our absent President, PRESIDENT ELECT TOM BRANDAL carefully checked his script and called the meeting to order.
DISTRICT GOVERNOR ED FULLERTON led the Pledge of Allegiance and . . .
. . . TED ADKINS followed with a stirring (“take a deep breath first”) God Bless America.
Next up (?) was JUDI ALLEWELT to introduce the visiting Rotarians. Oops! What happened to the Thought for the Day? Referring to his script, ACTING PRESIDENT TOM called on . . .
. . . DAVID SOLO who delivered his favorite scripture passage, 1 Corinthians 13.
Now it was time for handshakes and hugs and the crowd got right into it, not waiting for TOM’s direction.
Regaining control, our ACTING PRESIDENT rechecked his script and asked for the Sunshine Report. RICK MOSSI reported that he saw Jerry Gillespie at a high school football game. Jerry said the chemo was “hard” but that he is “doing good.” TOM BAKER said that JEANNETTE CLARK was doing well, wished us all a happy Thanksgiving, and would see us at the Holiday Party. Later we learned from JOHN DADO that KIP HERZOG was mending nicely after hip replacement surgery on Monday.
ANDY KVALHEIM reported that his wife, Inge, was continuing to improve after her stroke and had recently returned home.
Then it was time to recognize November birthdays. FRED WULFF, JUDI ALLEWELT, STEVE POWELL, and RICK MOSSI were seated at the birthday table and assessed $5 fines. CHRIS ALBERTSON was there as well but missing from the official November birthday list. Secretary STEVE OLMSTED paid the $5 fine for CHRIS. Birthday boys MICHAEL NISTLER, ANDY KVALHEIM and JAMES BURLESON were sitting elsewhere and subject to a $10 fine. However JAMES dodged this bullet, explaining that as he was introducing the speaker, protocol required that he sit at the speaker’s table.
With all this confusion, our acting President missed the script guidance for singing Happy Birthday. But who needed a script? BARNEY FAUSS jumped up and led the song.
KATHY O’CONNOR reminded stragglers to RSVP for the December 4 Holiday Party right away as time was running out. (You can do it online with a few keystrokes.)
JUDI ALLEWELT is recruiting drivers to deliver children’s gifts on December 18 and for shoppers to purchase them on December 2 and 3 (K-mart, 7-9 a.m.).
JOHN DADO announced that we were receiving 40,000 dictionaries for further distribution to third-graders everywhere (well, almost everywhere). Locally, we’re planning to distribute dictionaries December 3-10. Team captains will pick up dictionaries at the Sonoma-Marin fairgrounds and deliver them to their assigned schools. Information will be posted on the Club website.
The SSU Rotaract Club will be holding a pancake breakfast this Saturday, November 22, ($7; 8-11 a.m.) at the Cotati Room in Cotati. ACTING PRESIDENT TOM urged “Rota-tarians” to support this and also to mark their calendars for the District Assembly, April 4, 2009 in Eureka. Incoming board members are expected to attend. Other Rota-tarians are most welcome.
Back to the script. It was time for fines and GARY BRODIE, proud owner of a new BMW motorcycle, was up first. Noting that BARNEY FAUSS had already prepaid $24 of his fine, GARY offered to ante up another dollar, then $25, and, finally, $50. Accepted!
Next up for a fine was . . . TOM BRANDAL! Yep, TOM fined himself $20 for assorted offenses (like not following the script).
Then LARRY JONAS rose to observe that if members are fined when they get a new car, they should be fined when they get a new camera. Continuing on, LARRY said that Webmaster AL CATTALINI formerly used a silver camera but now had a black one. Asked to explain, AL described his desire to upgrade photo quality on the Club website and how, at his own expense without reimbursement from the Club, he had purchased a new camera. ACTING PRESIDENT TOM wasn’t much impressed with that argument and fined AL $25. (LARRY, I think you’ll agree that the new camera does a much better job of capturing skin tones and other personal characteristics.)
Oops! Where’s that script? When the Rota-tarians started chanting “Raffle, raffle, raffle” TOM realized he had forgotten something.
PAUL LOUNIBOS (again!) had the winning ticket and walked off with a book and a bottle of bubbly.
JAMES BURLESON introduced . . .
. . . our very own PAT CONKLIN who gave an interesting presentation on California fair in general and on our very own Sonoma-Marin Fair in particular. We learned a lot of interesting information. California fairs are funded by pari-mutuel betting, not by taxes. Our local fair occupies 61 acres and has 6 employees. The theme of next year’s fair (June 24-28, 2009) is “Saddle Up For Fun.”
This week's Rota-Teller editor: Al Cattalini.
November 15 - Foundation Dinner South
November 20 - Pat Conklin - Califonia Fairs
November 27 - Dark for Thanksgiving
December 4 - Dark at lunch; Holiday Party
The crowd was served a nice preview of Thanksgiving dinner consisting of turkey, stuffing, potatoes and gravy. Yum.
PRESIDENT RALPH called the meeting to order and made note of the fact that MIKE BADDELEY was a bit sluggish rising for the opening bell.
FRED WULFF led us in the pledge of allegiance. That was followed by . . .
. . . BARNEY FAUSS leading a spirited rendition of God Bless America.
HENRY HANSEL read a few poignant quotes from famous Americans including his personal favorite, Henry Ford. Of particular note was the information that the average American walks 900 miles a year and consumes 22 gallons of alcoholic beverages leading to the simple calculation that we get a very efficient 41 miles to the gallon.
ONITA PELLEGRINI introduced the visiting Rotarians, one from the Valley and one from the Sunrise club.
RICK MOSSI brought colleague, Ron Malnati along which, as we find out in the fining section was unfortunate.
PRESIDENT RALPH delivered the Sunshine Report that had JEANNETTE CLARK feeling good and we are all planning on seeing her at the holiday party.
The Rotary Foundation Dinner is on Saturday night and there are still two tickets available should someone from the club like to go.
Don't believe the sign — and no fine for Dave.
Saturday December 6th is the Cioppino Feast. The Sunrise Club has promised to return half the ticket price to our club for each of our members that attends and RALPH intends to hold them to it. RALPH also plugged the Sunrise Club's Holiday Food Drive on November 22 and the Rohnert Park-Cotati Club's Shrimp-A-Peel, also on November 22.
December 18th is the Petaluma gift distribution and that will be followed by a social hour at a to be determined location. JUDI ALLEWELT announcaed that shopping for the gifts will be December 2nd and 3rd from 7-9am at Kmart.
Kathy plugs the Holiday Party.
If anyone wants to do some time as a Salvation Army bell ringer over the holidays, please see HERB BUNDESEN. It is a very worthy cause and a minimal time commitment so please consider.
PRESIDENT RALPH was feeling pretty generous and his fine schedule was light.
PAT SCHAEFER stood to talk about PVH’s new poster child for knee replacement, . . .
. . . our very own JOHN DADO. She was fined $50 and RALPH segued nicely with a typical ‘guilt by association’ angle . . .
. . . dinging PVH Board Members DON RAMATICI, WALLY BRAGDON and RICK MOSSI (simply because his guest, Ron Malnati, is on the board).
MICHAEL CARUANA was careless enough to leave his Blackberry and not one, but two pair of glasses in the bar and paid $50 to recover his property.
MARY ANN SHOEMAKER had the winning raffle ticket and walked away with a bottle of champagne.
Police Chief STEVE HOOD was our speaker and it is always interesting to hear from our community law enforcement on topics near and dear to our community. He addressed issues ranging from gangs to graffiti to cell phone usage. Thank you Chief.
Next week PAT CONKLIN will be talking about what it takes to put together a fair.
This week's Rota-Teller editor: Geoff Ellis.
November 13 - Steve Hood - Petaluma Police Department
November 15 - Foundation Dinner South
November 20 - Pat Conklin - Califonia Fairs
Tom and Steve prepare for the meeting.
Did you notice the sign?
PRESIDENT ELECT TOM BRANDAL took over the presiding duties for PRESIDENT RALPH SARTORI and, . . .
. . . after the Pledge of Allegiance (led by WALLY BRAGDON) and . . .
. . . HERB BUNDESEN’s “God Bless America,” the club was ready . . .
. . . for LARRY JONAS’ thought for the day. After searching his database for important and intelligent quotes, Larry decided the most important thing one person can do to help our economy is to buy American. If we purchase products manufactured here, more jobs will be created and the economic dollars will stay on our shores. This thought is worthy of a Nobel Prize in Economics.
The Sunshine Report gave a positive update on JERRY GILLESPIE. Your cards, well wishes and prayers are appreciated.
ACTING PRESIDENT TOM BRANDAL read a letter from PRESIDENT RALPH SARTORI thanking all the members who participated in the Friendship Feasts. He especially thanked the hosts who opened up their homes and spent great efforts preparing wonderful meals. This year’s Feasts exemplified the diversity of the Club – we had a BBQ, a kid-friendly event, a cocktail party, and several dinner parties. The Friendship Feasts are the sole fundraiser for the Dictionary Program and your attendance is greatly appreciated.
Will Soper enjoyed hosting a Friendship Feast and Ted Adkins enjoyed attending one.
Several Interact students from Petaluma High School joined us and PAST PRESIDENT LOU STEINBERG was gracious to host and introduce them.
DAVID SOLO invited us to purchase raffle tickets for the upcoming Rotary Foundation Dinner on November 15.
KATHY O’CONNOR reminded us to RSVP for this year’s Holiday Party which will be held on Dec.4th. MARY ANN SHOEMAKER and JUDI ALLEWELT will be spearheading the Holiday Gift Deliveries on December 18. Please contact them for details. This year will be especially difficult for many local families and now is when our club needs to reach out to those children who may not have a merry holiday season.
JOHN DADO announced that the annual 3-club Day at the Races will be held on January 16. This is our joint venture with the Valley and Sunrise Clubs and the event is always exciting and well attended, so sign up soon.
RICK MOSSI and PAST PRESIDENT BABE AMARAL put up a $20 fine for a recent football match between Rancho Cotati and Cardinal Newman High School football teams. Rick’s son and Babe’s grandson squared off on the field and the elders gambled on the sidelines. Nice example.
Barney offers a witicism.
JAMES BURLESON paid $100 fine for his firm’s recent outing at the Charles Schwab Cup Championship at Sonoma National. Several club members were in attendance and short-lipped regarding the afternoon’s details – “what happens in Sonoma stays in Sonoma”.
STEVE HENRIS gladly paid $100 for two recent hunting expeditions (and a potential divorce). Steve will be holding a taxidermy sale in the not too distant future.
JANE SALDAÑA-TALLEY gladly paid her fine for the arrival of her first grandchild – Congratulations!
PAUL LOUNIBOS introduced our speaker, retired local businessman and WWII veteran Forrest Frey.
He regaled us in story after story regarding his experiences with the experimental B29 bomber. His courage and skill was only matched by his spirit of honor and adventure fighting for our great country. In recounting his experiences, one quickly realizes that the efforts of these brave men were the driving force that allowed our country to win the war and that victory laid the foundation for the prosperity which we still enjoy today. We honor and respect those who have paid the ultimate sacrifice for our nation. Thank you, Forrest and God Bless America.
Herb Bundesen needs some Rotarians willing to man a Salvation Army Chistmas Kettle for two hours. If you can't do this by yourself find find another Rotarian to stand with you. You'll find this very rewarding. Everyone who has ever done this asks to do it again. |
This week's Rota-Teller editor: Ricardo Marzo.