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Club Newsletter
Rotary Meeting
More photos can be seen in this slideshow Meeting Recap August 19, 2008 by Maynard Nelson Last Meeting... Pres. Tim opened the meeting by having Joe Wojciechowski give the invocation, followed by Jim Phillips and the Rotary Minute. This week's Minute remembered a former Fun Committees's stunt of visiting the Point West Rotary Club en mass and taking over their meeting. Since the Point West Club had no women members at that time, the Fun Committee installed a bib overaled woman (the second woman member of our club) as their new President. (You may be well advised to be ready for a new stunt soon since it's been awhile). Sgt-at-Arms Dave Higdon gave a polished performance of introducing member guests, visiting Rotarians and prospective members. New member David Conner introduced himself to the club continuing the trend of adding young business members. John Swentowsky reported on Sacramento Rotary SOFTBALL. He mentioned that after 10 consecutive titles, we lost the title last year by one run. He also had some difficulty convincing Top Gun Tim that they play SOFTBALL, not baseball. (Ed. Note. John Swentowsky does photography for the club, plays on the SOFTBALL team and chairs Loaves and Fishes day.) That's Service Above Self. Bruce Meissner (also a very active Rotarian) introduced the speaker, Carrie Pourvahidi , a Deputy Director of the California Hi Speed Rail Authority. She began her talk by mentioning the benefits of Hi Speed Rail transportation, citing several countries who have Hi Speed rail that are self sufficient systems. Energy savings, pollution reduction and elimination of need for new freeways are helping drive the effort. Current technology trains travel up to 140 MPH but expect that to increase shortly to 200 MPH. Expected travel time from Sacramento to Los Angeles would be 2 hrs 17 Min. Fares would be competitive with current Southwest Air who also stated that they would not actively oppose the bond issue. The system would require dedicated tracks with no road intersections because of safety concerns. There will be a bond issue on the ballot this November to fund the first phase. The subject created a lot of questions during Q & A. The effect of inflation on projected costs, political questions of which corridor would be built first and how this would affect voters in unaffected areas. Understandably, some of these can't be answered at this time, but it was a timely subject. -MDN Activity Update - Manual Silva Park by Staff, RCS Thanks for the new field! This year the Airport Little League Softball Program had the pleasure of playing all home games at the new softball fields. It was such a great opportunity for the girls to play at a field they could call their own. The program enrollment increased by 58% which allowed the Program to add three additional teams. After many years of non tournament participation, two teams (Senior and 9-10 year old Divisions) were entered in the All Stars. The girls worked hard and received valuable tournament play experience. For All Star play, the Senior team went 0/2 and the 9-10 Year Olds went 2/4. Working to strengthen the Softball Program, the off season will hopefully provide a Training and Development Program. The program will allow the girls to improve their playing and social skills, as well as develop confidence and attract additional players for the next season. |
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