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San Ramon Rotary Club Crows Call February 18, 2021 The meeting was called to order at 12:04 by our Top Gun President, Chris Gallagher. Lucky (Can do) Sandhu was our designated greeter for the day but did not make an appearance until later in the meeting. So, President Gallagher quickly adapted and introduced Bhavya Doshi, the local Rotaract President and speaker today. He also acknowledged Michael Roberts who is considering joining our club as a member. Our daunting President deftly pivoted to remind Rotarians that Holger Knaack’s theme for this Rotary Year is Rotary Opens Opportunities with the expectation for Rotarians to create opportunities that strengthen their leadership, help put service ideas into action, and improve the lives of those in need. The ad lib specialist, then pulled from thin air the saying of the day inspired by Pat Paterson: “You do not have to remember what you said if you tell the truth” Following a disjointed Pledge of Alliance and an “Aloha” Chris admitted that he had left an old slide from last week announcing the Peace and Conflict Resolution was this month’s Rotary focus. Toward that end, Chris displayed a 1994 San Ramon Valley Times advertisement featuring pictures of our Rotary Club. We are marveled at how young some of our most senior members used to be. From the Rotary Member’s favorite section, Chris shared the “News You May Have Missed” but having been criticized for using dogs as a predominant opening slide, our President adapted again and used Goats. Among his featured stories were: Announcements: Karen: Relayed a request from Jocelyn Gao whose sister is taking a design course at the University of Southern California, where she's working closely with a nonprofit called ONEGeneration that supports older adults. One of her assignments is to have 30 "meaningful conversations" with older adults about their daily lives, aspirations, and communities. The goal is to learn how to effectively design products that actually benefit older adults. Despite Karen’s protestation that not all Rotarians are “older adults”, Gary reminded members that Jocelyn was a former Interact President and that it might be fun having a 30-minute interchange from our “young” Rotarians in older bodies. Karen is sending an email to members to directly contact Kristey Gao at Kristeyg@usc.edu. if interested. A Trinity Center event is still being planned under the capable guidance of Karen McNamara who shared that there will be options for participation including collecting items, direct mail from an Amazon account or donating gift cards. She hopes to get representatives to Trinity Center’s new facility to share donated items. Lost Bond Villain: Lucky Sandhu makes an appearance with apologies for neglecting Rotary, being late to the club meeting and for being busy with his growing, successful company. He felt so bad that when “recognized” for $50, Lucky insisted on paying $100 for his sins. Interact Visitor: Gary introduced Michelle Nguyen, Interact Club’s Publicist. It is now an ongoing tradition to introduce Interact Board Members in an effort to demonstrate how not to run a meeting. Members were instructed to leave Michelle alone as she is only an observer today. Chris Gallagher announced that Bill Clarkson will be presenting at 5:30p Tuesday March 9th and that the club will still meet that week. Recognitions: Suzanne Eikel had a birthday. She would neither confirm or deny that her husband held a surprise birthday with a lot of alcohol. She also would not confirm or deny if the event was a super virus spreading event or if she has since been tested for COVID. For taking the 5th Amendment Chris recognized her for $50 but Suzanne insisted that she pay $100. Mike Thelen: After clearing up the confusion of when Mike was born (It was the 5th), his birthday celebration centered around golf at San Ramon Golf Course which he could not finish due to a frost delay but followed with a nice family dinner. Following in the tradition that Suzanne started Mike increased the prescribed fine of $30 to $60. Patti Hennigan spent her Feb 11th birthday as she does all of her Tuesdays and Thursdays with her cute grandchild, Dragon. This scribe did not catch the amount of the recognition but we are sure that it was fitting. Chris missed Norbert’s Dec 22nd Anniversary. Although Norbert’s voice reverberated in an echo, we were able to gather that he sheltered in place with take out food. Norbert walks every day with his wife and has noticed that his wife asks him to go to the grocery store with increasing frequency to get him out of the house. The suggested $20 was increased to $101 at Norbert’s insistence. Presentation: East Bay Community Rotaract Colette introduced Bhavya Doshi, a former Interact Club member and Scholarship winner who recently graduated from Mills College. Now back in San Ramon Bhavya founded the East Bay Community Rotaract Club. Board of Directors Bhavya Doshi President Mills College, Preschool teacher Haripriya Gopal, VP U of SF, BA Business, Analyst Cloud Med Prerna Gosar, Sec U OF SF, Marketing Rajneet Sahota, Treasurer U of SF, Marketing Economics, Auditor Suhani Ravani, Publicist U of Texas Human Development East Bay Community Rotaract is a community safe space for anyone and everyone. Their core belief is to find ways to emphasize Service Above Self. Rotaract Goals: - Volunteer opportunities
- Support young adults in developing Professional skills
- Create a space to socialize and know others with similar passions
Programs and Projects This fledgling Club has already connected with District 5160 and conducted 10 events. In addition to the five-member Board, they have recruited 7 new members. Night of Networking: An event to explore the tips and tricks of networking for young professionals. Priya was one of the presenters and Colette joined the event. Care Bag Drive of Houseless Neighbors. The Rotaract collected over 400 items creating bags of food and items. The care packets were distributed to the homeless in Berkeley. Origami Workshop: (Adults and Kids): Collaborated with Teachers Against All Odds and did two sessions, one for adults and another for kids. A Meditation session was included. Upcoming Projects Learners Today, Leaders Tomorrow March 9th 6-7p Social Distancing Picnic March 20 at 2p Neighborhood Clean-up March 24 from 7 to 8 Rotarians and Relaxation – Rotary Bonding activities TBD Goals with Sponsors - Develop relationships with Rotarians
- Collaborate on volunteer and professional events
- Expand connections within Rotary network
Rotary Sponsors include Danville/Sycamore and San Ramon Rotary Clubs. (Daniel and Colette). Bhavya expressed how grateful she was for Colette’s mentorship having been guided by Colette since Bhavya’s 15th birthday. Two follow up questions were asked: Will the club seek to diversify to include men? yes How did the Rotaract reach kids for the Orgami event? Social media Vera offered her services if the Rotaract wants to reach out to a Brazil Rotaract Club as Interact did earlier in the year with the help of her translation skills. Colette was recognized for her great effort in getting this club formulated. Raffle With a 1 in 13 chance, Norbert won the draw with a blue marble. Next week’s greeter is Kerry Richard. Next week’s Speaker is from Novato on Chess Club The meeting was adjourned in record time at 12:40p. Respectfully submitted, Gary Sloan Scribe |
