September 24 - Club dark
October 1 - Kerry Rego, social media and technology trainer - “10 ways social media can improve your business and 10 ways social media can improve your life!”
October 8 - Bruno Ferrandis and Alan, ED for the Santa Rosa Symphony
October 15 - Dark for Friendship Feast
October 16 - Walnut Park Dedication, 4pm
October 16 - Friendship Feast
It wasn’t the hottest day of the year — but it was darn near — as golfers arrived for our annual Golf Tournament.
RALPH SARTORI, DANNY FISH, and JAY PALM toiled in the kitchen preparing hearty tri-tip sandwiches with all the fixings.
After lunch the well-nourished golfers boarded their carts and zipped off for the shotgun start and an afternoon of golf. RICK VAN BEBBER’s efforts to keep the golfers properly hydrated must have been successful as we received no reports of medical emergencies.
While most folks enjoyed pre-dinner libations, the putting finalists gathered on the ninth green to determine our putting champion. The green proved a bit tricky, sloping downhill and propelling balls beyond the hole. With just one contestant remaining, three finalists were within a couple feet of the pin and they looked forward to the putt-off. The final putter was MIKE BADDELEY. His putt veered far to the right and it looked like the putt-off was on. But Mike had earned a second putt and this time he nailed it. So the putt-off was put off. Asked by Putt Coordinator JOANNE FERRIS for the secret of his success, MIKE replied, Tequila!
As the crowd assembled to fill the dining room, PRESIDENT GARY announced that CHAD FILLINGER was a proud father! CHAD missed the event, reportedly home changing diapers.
PRESIDENT GARY then thanked the Golf Tournament committee members, GREG O’BRIEN, MICHAEL CARUANA, CHAD FILLINGER, MARLENE FREETLY, ONITA PELLEGRINI, RICK GORMAN, RICK MOSSI, TAWNY TESCONI, TONY WESTERN, GAIL CARDAROPOLI, CHRIS RANNEY, SHARI RANNEY, JOANNE FERRIS, JAY PALM, DANNY FISH, RALPH SARTORI, and, of course, Heidi Brodie, whose efforts had produced such a great event. (Editor’s note: My apologies if I missed anyone!)
PRESIDENT GARY then observed meeting formalities by leading the Pledge of Allegiance and then calling on Lee Reposa to lead our opening song, God Bless America.
Then it was time to dine on some of the best prime rib you’ll find anywhere. If you missed our Monday night meeting, shame on you. You missed great camaraderie and a fabulous meal.
As dinner wound down, PRESIDENT GARY announced the winners of the various competitions. We already know about MIKE BADDELEY’s putting, but here’s who else did great:
Four lucky folks won door prizes: DANNY FISH won the Lagunitas basket, GARY BRODIE won the Mary’s Pizza certificate, Kathy Brandal won the Hollingsworth Jewelry certificate (sorry, TOM!), and JIM SYMONS took home the basket of wine.
As the evening was about to end, TONY WESTERN arose and hummed When I’m sixty-four.
Turns out that tomorrow would be PRESIDENT GARY’s birthday! When GARY acknowledged the event, ONITA PELLEGRINI called out, How grateful are you?
To which our PRESIDENT responded, Ask me next week.
And so ended a delightful afternoon and evening in the hills above Petaluma.
Where are the photos?Yes, we have lots of photos of Monday’s event. You can view them in Ed’s Photo Album. But we’ve chosen to illustrate this Rota-Teller with a selection of Steve Rustad cartoons culled from the Club archives. Most members remember Steve, whose cartoons graced our pages from 2003 to 2008. We miss Steve and are delighted to give our members, new and old, the opportunity to delight in his cartoons. You can see all of them in Steve’s Cartoon Gallery. |
This week's Editor: Al Cattalini
September 21 - Golf Tournament
September 24 - Club dark
October 1 - Kerry Rego, social media and technology trainer - “10 ways social media can improve your business and 10 ways social media can improve your life!”
October 8 - Bruno Ferrandis and Alan, ED for the Santa Rosa Symphony
PRESIDENT GARY called the meeting to order and led the Pledge of Allegiance.
Barney leads God Bless America.
JIM BECKER provided quotes from Yogi Berra for the thought for the day.
Members with Guests: ED FULLERTON introduced his lovely wife Carol. RICK GORMAN introduced Shawn Malpass of Farr West Construction.
Visiting Rotarians: Past President TOM BRANDAL introduced Cassie Moyers of the Rotary Club of Ogden, Utah who has recently relocated to Petaluma.
Announcements: JOANNE reminded everyone the Rotary Foundation Dinner South is Saturday, October 24 at the Flamingo Hotel in Santa Rosa. This event honors the achievements of local members, clubs and the district efforts last year on behalf of the Rotary Foundation.
PRESIDENT GARY announced there is a lot of coordination going on around support for the victims of the Valley Fire. Any member who wishes to make a donation to this effort through Rotary may contact Gary. Or you can send it to the Rotary Club of Calistoga Foundation – Valley Fire Relief Fund. He will be meeting with the board to discuss a club contribution.
Friday, October 16 is the Friendship Feast for our club. This year, it has an element of surprise. Everyone should let Gail Cardaropoli know if they wish to attend and bring a guest. The cost is $50 each and one bottle of wine per couple. You will be notified a few days prior to the dinner with the name and address of your host.
ONITA announced that the foundation raffle tickets are now on sale. They are $20 each or 6 for $100. You are welcome to buy one or two a week! The club will match every $100 with points. This is a great way to meet your Every Rotarian Every Year $100 contribution to the Rotary Foundation. If you want to know where you stand in earning your first or next Paul Harris Fellow, please see ONITA.
PDG (Past District Governor) ED FULLERTON announced the nomination deadline for District Governor 2018-2019 is November 20. If you are interested in district level leadership, please talk to Ed. Ed also noted that the Calistoga Rotary Club Foundation is a 501c3 organization and all Valley Fire contributions made through that fund are tax deductible.
Welcome to CHARLIE STUART, a new Rotarian to our club. CHARLIE joins us from the Rotary Club of Long Beach.
The birthday table was crowded because there are so many September birthdays: TARA SMITH, JOE TAMBE, JOSEPH MOORE, DAN LIBARLE, ED FULLERTON, JOHN ZIMMERMAN, MIKE STAUBER, PAUL MASELLI and GARY BRODIE. Those at the table contributed $5.
September anniversaries were celebrated by TAWNY TESCONI and Michael Wagner, BILL and Christina GROVERMAN, AL and Jillian RICHARDS and FRED and LINDA FROST.
PRESIDENT GARY announced Monday, Sept. 21 is our club golf tournament which will count as our meeting so THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 24 WE ARE DARK!!! Past President MICHAEL CARUANA said there is room for one more foursome. Anyone willing to help with the tournament check in or the afternoon putting contest should contact JOANNE FERRIS.
DANNY FISH was extremely grateful he made it on vacation after lengthy contract negotiations with the Petaluma Police Union. He traveled to five southern states flying from a different airport every leg of the journey. He paid $10 per state out of gratitude. His parents were evacuated from their home in Lake County to DANNY’s place so he returned to a full house.
WHIT HALL took his entire family to Kauai and encountered a hurricane while there. He noted that his family was grateful so he contributed $50.
BRIAN BREEN won $225 in the raffle by drawing the brown rock! He donated $100 to our local club foundation.
JOANNE introduced the program speaker, Ethan Rotman.
Ethan’s talk: Speak So Your Audience Will Listen
challenged members to motivate, inspire and think about things in a different way when speaking in public. Ethan’s Blog: https://ispeakeasyblog.wordpress.com/.
This week's Editor: Joanne Ferris
September 17 - Ethan Rotman - “How To Speak So Your Audience Will Listen”
September 21 - Golf Tournament
September 24 - Club dark
October 1 - Kerry Rego, social media and technology trainer - “10 ways social media can improve your business and 10 ways social media can improve your life!”
We were welcomed to the Rotary Club of Petaluma weekly meeting at the beautiful Petaluma Golf and Country Club by our PRESIDENT, GARY BRODIE.
We all joined THE PREZ in the Pledge of Allegiance followed by LEE REPOSA leading us in God Bless America.
Changing things up again, PRESIDENT GARY decided that he’d even make the Thought of the Day
more interesting so he orchestrated a Thought of the Day
duel between TARA SMITH and your editor, BRIAN BREEN. Both of us brought real deep thinking thoughts, so much so that it took our members some time for both to sink in. I forgot TARA’s already but mine was pure wisdom… A deaf husband and a blind wife are always a happy couple.
With that, our usual handshakes and hugs followed.
Bano introduces our visiting Rotarians.
We had two visiting Rotarians from the Sonoma Club, Patricia and Becky.
We had a few guests starting with LEE REPOSA introducing his guest, Al. Then PAST PRESIDENT MICHAEL CARUANA introduced Charlie from Long Beach. Lastly, PAST PRESIDENT ONITA PELLEGRINI introduced the Chamber’s newest employee, Cassie.
GREG O’BRIEN reminded everyone of the date for our club’s annual golf tournament, September 21st. So far we have over $10,000 in sponsorships!
PRESIDENT GARY announced that we are bringing back the Friendship Feasts starting October 16th. They cost $50 per person plus a bottle of wine and benefit the Dictionary Program. He is asking for 100% participation.
The PREZ then called upon TARA SMITH to explain why she had two badges but before things got out of control he postponed the discussion until next meeting.
Guess who won the raffle?
CHRIS RANNEY told the story of how his wife, SHARI RANNEY, got a flat tire and after visiting PRESIDENT BRODIE’s place of business for a single tire repair, he left with 4 brand new tires for SHARI and a thinner pocket book. For that, CHRIS asked PRESIDENT GARY how grateful
he was that his pocket book grew as CHRIS’ shrunk.
Additional members started to realize that since PRESIDENT GARY has taken office, they too have had a flat tire. Conspiracy theories began to be discussed at the tables until the PRESIDENT changed the conversation to the next part of our meeting, a Program Brainstorming Exercise
.
Each table of members worked together to come up with different ideas for future programs. They were then announced and each table was able to come up with a Wild Card
program idea. Some of the ideas were interesting and racy but the best Wild Card
idea came from PAST PRESIDENT JOANNE FERRIS’ table for a Rotary member makeover program.
PRESIDENT GARY wished everyone a great day.
This week's Editor: Brian Breen
September 10 - Program on Programs
September 17 - Ethan Rotman - “How To Speak So Your Audience Will Listen”
September 21 - Golf Tournament
September 24 - Club dark
It was another beautiful Petaluma day as PRESIDENT GARY BRODIE called the meeting to order and led the Pledge of Allegiance.
President-Elect LEE REPOSA led the singing of God Bless America.
JOHN DADO gave the Thought for the Day, advising that the perseverance and persistence required for success in football are also required for success in life.
TODD MENDOZA introduced our one visiting Rotarian, Kathy from Ogden, Utah. She is relocating to Petaluma, so maybe we will have a new member!
JOANNE FERRIS introduced three guests, topping AL CATTALINI who only had one.
GREG O’BRIEN announced that his committee has so far raised over $7,000 in sponsorships for the Golf Tournament. He’s pushing to get to $8,000.
Program Chair CHRIS RANNEY announced that next week’s program would be a special Program on Programs
where members brainstorm what they are looking forward to in future programs. Sounds interesting!
PRESIDENT GARY, abhorring fines but into accepting expressions of gratitude, called on two members recently back from overseas travel.
BRIAN BREEN was grateful for 14 days in Hawaii with his wife and three kids. He was grateful to the tune of $50 which he split into two payments. $25 was in gratitude for LEE REPOSA (the rat!
) for filling in as soccer coach for a team of 5-year-olds (like herding cats
) during his absence. The other $25 was in gratitude for AL CATTALINI ensuring he had access to the Rota-Teller and Club website during his vacation.
AL CATTALINI was grateful for a trip to Norway, Sweden, Finland, Russia, and Estonia. His gratitude amounted to $10 per country, for a total of $50. (Editor’s note: AL CATTALINI is grateful for MICHAEL NISTLER who filled in as webmaster during his absence.)
Club Secretary GAIL CARDAROPOLI had the winning ticket, drew a blue rock, and was promised a bottle of fine wine which PRESIDENT GARY assured her was being kept cool in his truck.
MIKE BADDELEY was up next to conduct our annual high school football panel.
Ricky Crisp (PHS), Gary Galloway (SVHS), Trent Herzog (CGHS)
Ricky Crisp, Coach of Petaluma High School; Gary Galloway, Coach of St. Vincent High School; and Trent Herzog, Coach of Casa Grande High School fielded MIKE’s questions about player safety, the coming season, parent involvement, and Division I aspirations. The coaches remained after the meeting to field questions from members.
This week's Editor: Al Cattalini
