January 18, 2024
President Mike whacked the bell with his gavel and brought the crowd to its feet. Crowd is the correct descriptor here as the dining room was packed. And that was fortuitous as the heating system was down and we needed the body heat for warmth.
Kip Herzog led the Pledge of Allegiance.
Who needs a songleader? President Mike launched us into a spirited rendition of God Bless America.
There were no visiting Rotarians, but plenty of Rotarians brought plenty of guests. These nine Rotarians, Chris Ranney, Royce Van Bebber, Tawny Tesconi, Rick Gorman, Dan Berry, Joanne Ferris, Kip Herzog, Pamela Valdes, and Cassie Pitkin, introduced a total of fourteen guests who will remain nameless with one exception. Pamela’s guest, Joshua Shapiro, has joined us before but today was different. She happily announced, to a round of applause, that he had just recently become her fiancé. Congratulations, Pamela and Joshua!
President Mike delivered the Thought for the Day, a brief quote from the Dali Lama about optimism.
SUINSHINE REPORT: Carolyn Buck reported that Ed Fullerton had fallen on Thanksgiving Day and is at home using a walker while he is mending. He and Carol are in good spirits, welcome visitors, and hope to be at the Crab Feed.
Rick Mossi advised that the Rotary Club of Petaluma Foundation will hold a board meeting next Thursday at 9am at Exchange Bank. All members are welcome to attend. (Free coffee and donuts!)
Chris Ranney and Cindy Thomas reported that things are progressing nicely for the Crab Feed. Be sure to purchase your tickets right away if you haven’t already. They are on sale at petalumarotary.org.
Joanne Ferris advised that there are still some Crab Feed volunteer opportunities remaining to be filled. Visit this webpage to see where you can help.
Super Raffle chair Brian Breen urged members to sell their raffle tickets. Brian has more tickets if you need them. Turn in your sale proceeds and ticket stubs to Rick Gorman at Exchange Bank (preferred) or to Brian at his office.
Brian gave a special acknowledgement to Elias Husary whose daughter composed a letter that sold 37 tickets.
There will be a Rotary board meeting at 5:30pm next Tuesday at the Ferris residence. All members are welcome to attend. (No word about coffee and donuts. Maybe something better.)
Dan Libarle won the raffle, a non-existent bottle of wine which he’ll receive later.
Dan Berry introduced today’s speaker, Gary Schlossburg, a global strategist for Wells Fargo Investment Institute, and the reason for today’s crowd.
Gary described his remarks as “the view from 50,000 feet.” After describing 2023 as a good year for the economy, but not a good year for forecasters, he looked ahead to the coming year. He was generally rosy, saying that employment and wage growth should continue to be positive but that some slowing of the economy could be expected as pent-up demand reduces. He expects the Fed to cut interest rates 3 to 4 times this year. After answering questions from the audience, he was presented a pound of Petaluma Coffee by our president.
We are dark next Thursday. Our next meeting will be on February 1. Happy January! See you next month!
Today's Editor: Al Cattalini
January
11, 2024
Club Social at Torches Restaurant
Multi-Club Service Opportunity
From Barbara & Norm McChesney
The Arundo Donax is a highly invasive reed plant growing in the Russian River
area. It sucks a great deal of water from the water and is an extreme
fire danger. We had 48 Rotarians from 10 different clubs participate in
our first multi-club removal day in October. The support from Rotary was so
strong that the district 5130 environmental committee has organized a second
day working with the Russian Riverkeepers on Feb. 3, 2024 from 9am-noon.
Please review the details and sign up as a volunteer here: https://givingtime.org/sonoma/
We can have up to 100 volunteers so please share this link with your friends,
family, or co-workers. You need not be a Rotarian to
participate. (as an aside, Windsor Rotary used Giving Time
for our daffodil project and found a new member).
Please contact Norm Fujita at norman.fujita@gmail.com or Barbara McChesney at barbsmcc@gmail.com.
We could use help with the following:
- Snacks such as muffins and fruit or a donation to help purchase. Please let us know ASAP if you or your club will help with this.
- Newspaper coverage- We would love to get some press for this. Please let us know ASAP if you have good contacts for this!!!
Get out your Rotary shirt and join us on the river. We had a great time the
last time collaborating with other Rotarians, non Rotarians, and working
together!
Please RSVP by Jan. 30th so Russian Riverkeepers will be
ready for us. This is an extremely important and valuable project.
Your support will be greatly appreciated.
Today's Editor: Joanne Ferris
January 4, 2024
A bright, sunny day engulfed the Country Club as Rotarians began to gather filled with belated holiday cheer for the first meeting of the New Year.
President Mike Ferris called the meeting to order with HAPPY NEW YEAR greetings to all!
The first order of the day was to recite the Pledge of Allegiance which was led by Brandon Trammell.
Judi Allewelt, accompanied by her precocious and adorable 3-year-old Great Granddaughter Millie, led us with a spirited version of God Bless America.
The Thought of the Day was a tribute to Rotary offered by Larry Jonas along with a reminder to keep the holiday spirit alive by being friendly to everyone we meet all year through!
It was worthy of note to see several Rotarians enjoying father and son luncheons including Lee Reposa, Doug Hecker and Royce Van Bebber with their sons.
Treasurer Carolyn Buck was proud to announce that her son and his wife welcomed a baby boy, Luka, to the family during the holidays. Congrats Grams!
And the Ferris' let us in on the news that their daughter and her husband are "expecting" an addition to their family as well. Congrats to all.
Joanne Ferris reminded everyone that tickets to the annual Crab Feed are available online along with instructions for additional tickets and seating. The date, Friday, Feb. 23 is fast approaching ..."so be there or be square!"
When Lori Matthews sent out her email letter to purchase raffle tickets, etc she was delightfully surprised to the immediate response she received for 30 tickets...(This led me to take it a step further. I mailed out letters with stamped self-addressed envelopes for the stubs! Hoping for returns!)
Raine Howe, the Grande Dame of The Polly Klaas Theater, happily noted the success that the facility has been enjoying after its one-year anniversary. And so much of it is attributed to the dedication and hard work under her leadership! Kudos to Raine!!
It was Henry Hansel's ticket that was drawn as the first winner of the New Year!
Our own Cassie Pitkin took to the microphone to introduce us to Scott Himes, Casa
Grande's Girls Basketball Coach along with five team members. Cassie led them in an informative and stimulating discussion on girls basketball at the high school level. As an aside I asked Coach Himes when he had completed his talk whether he had coached boys basketball as well and if so which group was more challenging...needless to say he found boys basketball far more challenging. Not surprised, are you?
Just a reminder, next Thursday we will be enjoying a social at the newly owned TORCHES on Thursday, Jan 11 at 4;30 pm.
Today's Editor: Mike Ambrosio; photos by Michael Nistler