Group Photo 2006

President Roberta

Rotarian Bob Walters Hard at work!

Then at 7:00 pm, President Roberta Pickett called the meeting to order. The Pledge of Allegiance was led by John Chavez and the invocation given by Howard Mark. Don Gaynor led us in singing America the Beautiful after Ernie Droege got us all into the key of D with his wonderful accompaniment.

As dinner (green salad with avocado, shrimp pasta with cream sauce, and cookies for dessert) was served, presentations were begun without delay due to the length of the program. Leading off was Ed Frume, a 95 year old visiting Rotarian from Malaysia, who described the delights of retiring in Malaysia and a program his district was sponsoring to fight poverty there. Next up were two guests introduced by Dan Smallhouse. Zach Somers is the 16 year old CEO of Gift A Kid, a five year old charity he founded to collect and donate material to poor children locally; he announced a golf tournament at Turkey Creek in Lincoln on Monday, September 25, and handed out a flier for this. Alice Gentry represented River Oaks Center for Children, a local non-profit which provides multiple services for poor children, and is the conduit for Gift A Kid donations; she passed out material about their programs.

The other visiting Rotarian was Neil Orchard from the Rancho Cordova club, who was visiting us in his role as assistant district governor.

Guests were Jay Mark, son of Howard Mark,

Saniah Hussein, who was with Ed Frume, Sue Archer, guest of Mike Curtin, and Carrie Lane, whose membership application is in the works. Beth Wilcoxen was the vocational speaker and described her experiences in the field of commercial furniture and interior design, and the varying emphases in the field, ranging from "ergonomic" to "green" to "efficient". Her business is Cambridge Commercial Interiors, and she has had as clients the IRS and Jack Daniels, among others.

There wasn't anything to announce for the Sunshine Report, but at Howard Papworth's request, we observed a moment of silence for Mary Nord. Duane Day is in dire need of workers for the Chicken Festival, especially the 4-7 pm shift on Saturday, September 16. In lieu of Wes Lujan, who was allegedly doing vital work for the state, Bob Walters gave a report on progress in assembling the wine rack for the Crab Feed; if all members donate a bottle of wine worth at least $20 (give it to Bob at any meeting), it would represent a mighty fine collection. There was a brief discussion about Warren's vintage of choice, which was apparently deemed not acceptable.

Entertainment Books are available through Joe Horyza at a cost of $40; when activating your card, if you use # 161008, or claim affiliation with FO Rotary, we apparently get some extra bucks. The district golf tournament is Friday the 13th of October and Peter Romines reported that our club needs a fourth player to try to better our second place finish last year.

Ted Darrow won the free meal drawing and announced that he would return the meal ticket to the club. Howard Mark drew for the Ace of Spades but wasn't even close, so the $120 kitty increases next meeting. Peter Wick was selected as Little Genius for September, so it looks like it's a good time to sell those stock options.

Everyone expressed their best wishes to Dave (and Lillian) Crockett who are moving to San Diego to be closer to their daughter.

President Roberta then began the officer's reports by sharing further her thoughts on the themes of Identity, Continuity, and Enriching Experience. Peter Wick gave the budget report, and announced his goal of having several thousand dollars of working capital left at the end of the year to relieve the next president of the burden of immediate fund raising. Urmi Ritchie announced that the 86% attendance in July had slipped a bit in August, probably due to vacations, and reminded us about makeups, which can be done at another club or on-line. Jim Purcell reported on his activities in the PR arena, and requested that we make sure he knows about the all good activities our club is involved in so he can spread the news. John Palmer, the new Foundation rep, gave a brief report and reminded us to set aside November 11, which is the date of the Foundation Dinner; tickets are $40.

Little Genius, AKA Jim Purcell, then took the floor following the introductory song, and promptly fined everyone $1 for singing the song (and $2 if you didn't sing). He then nailed the latecomers for the pictures $5 each, and hit up everyone wearing ties, and all lawyers and auto mechanics. He was really feeling his oats on the final meeting of his (current) term, fining the president, president-elect, assistant district governor, AND a Bell Ringer. Maggie paid a happy fine for her birthday (amount apparently related to age, and therefore undisclosed); other happy fines were paid by Joe, for his granddaughter starting high school, Ernie, for a recent great trip back east, and Russ, "just because" he was happy.

Our wallets lightened, we then got back to business. Maggie Hoy announced that the River Cats game last week had netted over $1700 for Polio Plus. There was discussion about another fund-raiser prior to the Crab Feed, specifically on Saturday, October 28. There was not great enthusiasm for a Halloween costume party, and Monte Carlo night had apparently been previously ruled out, but a majority seemed to favor the tentative planning for an Oktoberfest-type event. Maggie had a band lined up; hopefully they have an accordion and tuba and know how to "oompah".

Warren McWillliams gave the Community Service report. Beth Wilcoxen needs workers, mostly servers and greeters, for the Senior Luau on Wednesday, September 20, from approximately 10:30 am to 1:30 pm. Joe Horyza needs volunteers for the Salmon Festival on the weekend of October 14 & 15, with details to be forthcoming. Finally, Warren described our re-involvement in the county's Adopt-a-Street program, with plans to clean up several streets in the Village four times a year.

Ted Darrow gave the Youth Service report, and described our involvement with the Dictionary Project and with several programs interacting with Bella Vista and Del Campo High Schools; BV kids will help at the Senior Luau and we will sponsor two BV kids to attend RYLA camp next summer. Peter Romines gave the International Service report and requested that we all be on the lookout for students, ages 17-19, who might be candidates for the exchange program; they would spend several months after high school graduation in a foreign country.

Cynthia Larson-Schwartz reminded us that we are ALL the membership committee; she outlined her thoughts about an intra-club membership contest, and requested further ideas about the details from all of us. She asked us to think about the possibility of a "buddy system" as a mechanism for improving retention of existing members, and announced that the Fireside Chat for new members would be held the afternoon of Sunday, October 1.

After some complimentary words from the assistant district governor regarding several items, including our #3 standing in the district for July attendance, Roberta led us in the closing song and the meeting was adjourned.