By: Gary Sloan

 

The Meeting of the San Ramon Rotary Club was called to order by Kathy (African Queen) Gailey at 12:15pm where Mark Hornstra, the Greeter for the day was introduced a gave a thought for the day.  “What you get by achieving your goals is not as important as what you become by achieving your goals”.  The flag salute was followed by a rousing rendition of My Country Tis of Thee. 

The club was treated to Mark sharing his life’s passion and work to provide alternative energy solutions to third world countries, most recently, India and Africa.  He shared that 1.4 billion people go without electricity in the world and the start-up company with which he is affiliated seeks to provide electricity through innovative approaches.  Mark has two grown kids who are accomplished in their own rights and has lived in the community for 25 years.

Visiting Rotarians from Livermore Valley (George Wineinger) and from Downtown Pleasanton (Ricky Walters) were introduced along with the Student of the month and the Interact Liaison.

The venerable Gary Sloan announced the upcoming Demotion Dinner to be held on June 1^st at the Gallagher home.  A catered affair will begin at 6:00 pm with an Academy Award Theme.  Don’t miss this event at a cost of $50 per person.

Gary also shared information on an event that the San Ramon Leadership was sponsoring to support Discovery Counseling.  Go to www.filmraiser.com , select Discovery Counseling Center and buy tickets to Born China, a Disney film about Pandas so that funds will benefit this worthy cause.

 

Guy Greco asked golfer to get back in the swing of things by sponsoring a tournament now that the season has begun.

Stacey Litteral made a plea to support Kids Country in their East Bay Gives which contributes to Non-profits.  On May 4^th (“May the 4^th be with you” theme) there is a social media challenge where photos with the Kids Country sign may yield funds to the program.  Stacey snapped some pictures of Rotarians holding her sign in support of the cause.  Funds will go to supporting summer scholarship grants which cost $3,000 per summer session.

Herman Welm revealed a miracle that his wife would be returning from Italy soon.  This absence is no doubt the secret to Herman’s long and successful marriage.

Ricky Walters from the Pleasanton Rotary Club announced their 4^th annual poker tournament which for $100 includes dinner, drinks, chip buy in and rebuy and prizes of $500, $400 and $300 going to the top three finishers.

Norbert announced that the Art and Wind Festival would soon be upon us.  Edgardo was his special volunteer with sign ups for May 28^th and 29^th.

April Interact update: Swetha Sankar, the Interact Liaison shared that our very busy high school Interact participants will help with the Sunny Glen Smoke Detector Alarms on April 22^nd from 8:45 a.m.  to 1p.m. They are also actively promoting the Boar Cruise which will take place on May 27^th.  On April 29^th Cal High will take part in the Cycle Nation Association in concert with the American Heart Association Cyclenatron, a biking marathon where Interact members will help with set up, clean up and rest stops.  In May, Cal High will be serving Chinese from Peking Delight at the Arts and Wind Festival.  They need bottled water, folding chairs and fire extinguisher.  You may want to put your logo on the water bottles for advertising purposes.   Finally, the Interact Board has been selected to lead next year’s great events.

Colette Lay proudly announced the Student of the Month, Arman Kermanizadeh, with his beaming mother, Khush Kermanizadeh, taking the mandatory parent pictures.   Arman’s teacher from Cal High was Angela Pimentel, gushed her praise of this student who she described as a super star.  Arman is very active in the community mentoring kids through basketball clinics and life skills lessons.  He was described as a model of “Service above Self” and his accolades to his teacher was heart-warming as he described her as the most remarkable person upon whom he could depend.   He was presented with a certificate of achievement, parking pass and our praise.  Arman plans to attend DVC then transfer to a U.C. campus.

Kathy introduced our Speaker for the day.  Rotarians who missed this meeting missed the best program of the year.  Mike Toy was named 2015 San Francisco Entertainer of the Year.  He is the author of “Its Not Magic: Secrets to Influencing People”.  He specializing in using psychology, persuasion and Jedi mind tricks to give you the power of influence in your personal and professional relationships.  He has been on over 1000 stages and did not disappoint.   Using magic demonstrations, Mike Toy shared his efforts to start a business early in his life which failed and the lessons he learned.  Specifically he learned how to be successful requires influencing people.  He discovered that people like to do business with who they know, like and trust but you need to facilitate this process.  Interspersing some pretty amazing magic tricks he share three steps to influencing people. 

Great entertainment!  Good message and a great way to spend a Thursday lunch with friends.

The greeter’s gift was $20 but I am not sure who won it since I was so overwhelmed at having the chance to win $170 resulting in pulling a blue marble and $10.  The meeting was adjourned at 1:15 pm.