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Our President
Colette Lay
Lady Grizzly
Speakers
Oct 10, 2019
Update on what's happening in Rotary District 5160
Oct 17, 2019
Deputy Johnson Case
Oct 24, 2019
Oct 31, 2019
Historic San Ramon - Population 100
Nov 07, 2019 12:00 PM
Annual Veteran's Day Luncheon at SRRMC
View entire list
Schedule of Greeters
October 10
Nevarez, Fred
 
October 17
Opila, Cathie
 
October 31
McNamara, Karen
 
Greeter Protocol
 
When you are assigned the duty of being our greeter, you should remember the following:

1. You should be at the meeting by 11:45 AM in order to greet everyone as they come to the meeting.

2. You should bring a "Greeter's Gift" for the raffle. The gift should be approximately $20.00 in value.

3. You will be leading the giving the inspiration of the day, leading the salute to the flag, and introducing the visiting Rotarians. It is a good idea to watch the visiting Rotarians sign in, so that you can ask them about any complicated names or classifications.

4. If you cannot attend, it is your responsibility to find a replacement.
 
 
Russell Hampton
ClubRunner
ClubRunner Mobile
Welcome to the Rotary Club of San Ramon
 
Service Above Self
 
We meet Thursdays at 12:00 PM
Crow Canyon Country Club
711 Silver Lake Dr.
Danville, CA  94526
United States of America
Phone:
(925) 325-1611
Email:
DistrictSiteIcon District Site
VenueMap Venue Map
East Bay Walk to End Alzheimer's (Sat. Oct. 26, 2019)
Dear Fellow Rotarians,
 
I have announced at the last few Rotary meetings the East Bay Walk to End Alzheimer’s is fast approaching.  If you would like to join us in walking or support the cause please see the information below.
 
East Bay Walk to End Alzheimer’s
      Date: Saturday, October 26, 2019
 
      Location: Bishop Ranch, 2700 Camino Ramon, San Ramon CA
 
      Time: Registration starts at 8:30am,
         Ceremony is at 9:30am
         Walk starts at 10:30am
 
      Route Length: 3 miles and a 1 mile shortcut
 
To join our team and walk or make a donation to the Memory Strong Team go to: http://act.alz.org/goto/MemoryStrong  or you can create your own walk team.
 
We hope you join us for an inspiring event and great cause!
 
Best regards,
 
Chris Gallagher
 
Rotary Book Drive Success!
Thank you so much to everyone that brought books in for the book drive! It was a very successful September for Basic Education and Literacy month, and all the books will be donated to the San Ramon Library store for them to resell to help fund the library. 
 
Thank you so much to everyone that donated! 
McKenna
Meeting Notes for October 3
CROW’S CALL – October 3, 2019
By: Dr. Bill
 
Do you remember that 2015 movie The Revenant with Leonardo DiCaprio getting mauled by a grizzly bear and almost losing his life?  Today’s Rotary meeting opened a lot like that, with President Colette Lay playing the grumpy predator and Greeter Vera Packard as the aggrieved Leo.  Colette evoked the RI President, Mark Daniel Maloney, from the town of Decatur, Alabama.  President Mark’s motto of “Rotary connects the world” was certainly borne out by our attendees today. Vera offered the Thought for the Day from the romance novel Take a Chance: “Who we are makes a difference; our decisions define that difference,” or words to that effect.  Vera, who became a citizen in 2008, led the Salute to the Flag with special dedication.  Her husband, Mark, is working in the City and her son and daughter-in-law are in Italy. The songbird Hermann Welm led us in a patriotic song about here.  Colette, as part of a hazing ritual, made Vera do the Four-Way Test again.  She even offered to do it in Portuguese one more time, and backwards!  Vera introduced her guest today, her friend Thais Ouzana, a lawyer from Brazil who has donated two paintings for our auction. Another guest checking out the club was Deema Eid, a doctor from Dubai.
Presentation:
President Lay gave District Service awards to four hard-working Rotarians: Chris Gayler, Patti Hennigan, Dennis Harvey and Gary Sloan. They each had contributed at least 100 hours of service to the club, and we owe them our thanks for making the club successful.  Chris Gayler observed that the pen he received looked a lot like a sheriff’s badge, a similarity that says something about Gayler’s familiarity with symbols of law enforcement.
Announcements:
  • Lady Grizzly announced that we would not be meeting at the club on November 7 (Veteran’s Day lunch at San Ramon Regional Medical Center with bendy drinking straws) and December 12 (Senior lunch at San Ramon Senior Center).  This correspondent was tasked with alerting John Tatum so he doesn’t spend another day sitting lonely and hungry in the O’Neil Room.
  • Madame President said that there will be an appreciation lunch for this year’s Girls State honorees at the Danville Veteran’s Hall on Sunday.  We are all invited by Michelle Lee in gratitude for our funding one of the scholarships.
  • We received a letter of thanks from Kathy Chiverton for our support of the Discovery Center.
  • The Monthly Theme from Rotary International is Economic and Community Development.  Colette told us that we will be completing work on the auction this month in response to that charge.
  • Gary Sloan gave us an update on the auction.  We have raised $50,000 in sponsorships for the event, up from last year. Now we need to focus on securing items, since we need a lot more.  Gary has sent out a list of items we got in previous years and people are urged to go out and beat the bushes.  If you can’t cover businesses that you committed to, let Kathy Gailey know.  The auction is the means by which we fund scholarships we give out and provide money for the good work of the San Ramon Valley Education Foundation.  Priya Jhingan is working on public relations for the on-line auction.  We need members to remind other clubs that we need bidders for the event.
  • Chris Gallagher pointed out that Gary Sloan was wearing sneakers to the meeting, a sure sign that he has finally accepted retirement. Chris also offered a ride in the Gallagher-mobile to the upcoming District event.
  • Gary Sloan needs adults to chaperone a group of Interacters who will be working at The Open Kitchen in Pleasanton.  Check with Gary for more details.
  • Doctor Bill announced that return of Dictionary Season where we give dictionaries to every third grader in local schools.  He needs volunteers to help cover six schools in San Ramon.  It is a 30- minute commitment for a wonderful cause.  He needs three volunteers to help put labels in the books on Monday, October 14 at the SRVSD warehouse on Crow Canyon. Contact him.
  • Tina Akins, our District Governor, will be our special guest next week.  Be there or face the wrath of the Bear!
 
Program:
 
Marv Remmich introduced our speaker, Nick Montano, who heads up international investigations for  major firms facing cases of intellectual property theft and counterfeit products.  Nick began by asking us to consider our own reactions to crimes like shoplifting or buying knock-off sneakers.  Most of us would consider these minor violations; law enforcement officials certainly do.  And yet this black or gray market, stealing $1.7 trillion each year, has been implicated in funding terrorism, drug trafficking and organized crime.  Its products can be dangerous to our health and destructive of the reputations of established brands.  For example, the man who funded the attack on the French magazine, Charlie Hebdo, in 2015, made his money selling fake Nike shoes.  Montano identifies such crimes and works for businesses to remediate them.  He was accompanied by his partner, his daughter.
 
Nick and his daughter showed a short video which mentioned some of the companies which have been targeted: Loreal, Hershey, Gillette, Proctor and Gamble, and See’s Candies.  BMW unwittingly used counterfeit bolts in its cars; Pond’s found a counterfeit cream had used toxic chemicals.  The problem of illegal products has been vastly compounded by internet sales.  Expired merchandise is often sold on Amazon.  Big retailers like Costco simply don’t care where they get their supplies.  If they are called out on a particular violation, they simply promise not to sell that product any more. Enforcement is spotty, a lot like Whack-a-Mole, according to Montano.
 
In conclusion, Nick’s daughter recommended buying groceries at Costco but avoiding things like batteries, beauty products and drugs.  For something like Amazon, the challenge is not to try and shut them down but to chip away at their lax enforcement process.  The Montanos urged that we buy from authorized suppliers only.  Meanwhile their company will continue to try and control the traffic of illicit sales by aggressive tactics of identification and targeted legal action.
Raffle:
Brent Tucker graciously accepted his $20 Greeter’s gift.  Chris Gallagher disappointed his many fans by drawing blue for $10.  Both should remember to report these winnings to the IRS.
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