By: Gary Sloan
 
Introduction
Following the announcement of a wonderful lunch replete with salad, fruit, vegetables, pasta and the perennial chicken dish, the meeting was called to order at 12:17 p.m.  The African Queen, a.k.a. Kathy Gailey, this year’s engaging president rang the bell and welcomed everyone to the Rotary Club of San Ramon reminding us that this year’s R.I. President was John F. Germ and that this year’s theme is “Rotary Serving Humanity”.  You can only imagine how much our R.I. President was chided as a child with a last name of Germ!
 
Our greeter, substituting for Judy Lewis was our own Fred Nevarez who decided that it was too hot to fish today so he showed up to treat us all to an indecent joke that featured two women in a park, a naked man, and one of them having a stroke. For those not present, you will have to figure it out.  It was a good joke but Fred had to explain it to some of the slower members.  We learned that Fred graduated from UCLA, owed a Jewelry Design business after a stint flying.  The members had to remind him that an important part of his profile was that he was married to an amazing woman.
 
Don Jones led the group in a poor rendition of “My Country ‘tis of Thee”.  Despite Don’s considerable talent, the rest of the group really let him down.  There were no visiting Rotarians and apparently no guests as there were no traditional table introductions.
 
The Meeting
 
The meeting was resumed with an announcement from Guy regarding the Canine Companions Project.  Our Rotary Club has been invited to the Canine Companion graduation on Friday August 12th which begins at 11 am in Santa Rosa.  Guy was willing to organize a car pool for interested Rotarians.  Lunch and a tour of the Children’s library will be the included in the day.  Our past contributions and support of this worthy cause resulted in this invitation.  As it turns out, Steve Wilcox, an esteemed past Rotary President is arranging a Charity Golf Tournament through his company, Summit Financial to support the Canine Companion Project.
 
Kathy shared a “Rotary Moment”.  Did you know that a charity that spent 60% on its mission was considered a “worthwhile charity” and those who spend 79% on its mission is considered “highly efficient”?  And did you know that Rotary Foundation spends 92% of its funds on its mission?  Bottom line, our contributions to the Rotary Foundation Annual Fund is a truly worthy of our support.  A pledge card was handed out to all members the results of which will be shared with our District Governor during his visit on August 18th.  All members were encouraged to support the Rotary Foundation at the Double Sustainer level ($200), the Super Sustainer level ($500), the Paul Harris Society level ($1000) or pay a monthly Rotary Direct amount of $25 per month.  This activity was followed by a terrific Video extolling the impact Rotary Foundation has had over the decades:  Children’s Health and the eradication of Polio (1930s), to implementing International Study (1940s)  to International Study (1950s), to Global response (1960s to present),  in health, hunger, water and economic conditions.  The video clearly showed how Rotary is seeking to transform the world.
 
Announcements
 
  • The Board will meet on August 18th at Crow Canyon Country Club at 10 am
  • The Inauguration Party for our President will be August 27th.  Please RSVP.
  • Jerry was asked to update the club on progress with the upcoming Auction.
 
The Club has been separated into 7 teams to obtain auction items:
 
River Cats:  C. Gayler(Captain) plus Welm, Harvey, Johnson, Remmich, Port, Tucker, Walz and Thelen
Athletics: S. Litteral (Captain) plus Thames, Disch, Duarte, Harlan, Hennigan, Koehne, Tatum, Katiby
Giants:  N. Voss (Captain) plus Tontz, Gailey, Galbo Greco, Gross, Mitchell, Toby, Hillyer
Angels:  B. Brodie (Captain) plus Wilcox, G. Gayler, Jones, Smith, Patterson, Trembley, Lewis
Blue Jays:  L. Sandhu (Captain) plus Weber, Bronzini, Giles, Sloan, Livingstone, Riopelle, Sramek, Spike
Bad News Bears:  C. Gallagher (Captain) plus Fielder, Dominquez, Garrison, Gunning, Nevarez, Perkins,     Probert and Mark Von
 
Online Auction Donation Forms are available on our Website.
 
Jerry also reviewed prizes that will be awarded including Top Team being treated to a dinner for 10 by Marie Galbo.  Best Golf package, Best Family Package, Best Dining Package, Most Sophisticated package, Best sports package, Best Entertainment package and the elusive $30,000 plus raised by any individual member is given the privilege of shaving Chris Gallagher’s Head under the supervision of Patti Hennigan.
 
Jerry also discussed school specific donation items where schools might try to out-bid each other as a group for needed or unique items.
 
Program:  Climate Change
Marv Remmich introduced our speaker, Jim Boots who graduated from MIT, worked for Chevron, is an engineer by “education and inclination” but also has a degree in Humanities.  After retiring he became a Process Management Consultant and writer.  Jim has been a Danville resident for 16 years. 
 
To guard against the possibility of his presentation crashing and burning, Jim shared a joke about a priest, lawyer and engineer which was pretty funny but he got serious quickly with the goal of answering three questions:  1) Is global warming really happening 2) Is global warming caused by humans and 3) what can we do about it.
 
Jim’s presentation was based on science and facts that he had gleaned from his extensive reading.  As evidence that Global warming is indeed real, Jim illustrated the sharp rise in temperatures since 1981.  Indeed, from 500 A.D. to 1890 temperatures were relatively flat after which a consistent rising spike in temps have been realized.  The 10 of the warmest recorded years have occurred since 2000.  The oceans have risen 7” in the last 10 years.  The graph of temperature rising over the past few hundred years was pretty convincing and enough for Jim to conclude that Global warming is really happening.
 
An explanation of the Greenhouse effect creating CO2 and methane originating from electricity, autos and industry was basic enough for even the slowest Rotarian to understand.  Jim explained that CO2 and methane were incorporated into our atmosphere.  The heat resulting from such a phenomenon is equal to four Hiroshima bombs every second!  While the ocean absorbs a great deal of this heat, the global agreements starting in 1988 are expected to stabilize the ozone layer by 2070.   In the meantime, ocean acidity, higher sea levels, drought and species extinction will occur.  Based on the demonstration of Greenhouse Gas action and that 97% of climate experts agree, Jim concluded that humans do indeed contribute to global warming.
 
Mr. Boots finally promoted the idea of a carbon fee on carbon producing entities (industry, car owners and others) at $15 per ton of carbon produced then raise the rate $10 per year.  This would equate to an additional 15 cents per gallon in the first year and 10 cents every year thereafter.   However, Jim proposed that the funds collected be given back to tax payers.  If any of this makes sense to Rotarians, Jim urged us to talk to our representatives and support the carbon fee.
 
After a few questions, Kathy thanked Jim and presented him with a Certificate indicating that a donation will be made to the Wheelchair Foundation in his honor.
 
Concluding Activities
 
The raffle was won by Paula Sue, an unspecified gift from our local jeweler.  And the progressive raffle was WON by Geoff Johnson for over $200!  No one was thrilled but we congratulated Geoff all the same.
 
Next week’s Greeter is Stacey Litteral and the meeting was adjourned on time at 1:30 pm.