Monthly Archives: July 2013
NEXT MEETING: August 2, 2013Richmond Police ExplorersOfficer Jerred Tong, accompanied by 3 Richmond Police Explorers, will tell us about the Explorer Program. The program strives to create interest in law enforcement by exposing youth to the many duties police officers perform, while building the self-confidence and character. By teaching these young men and women to new skills and challenging them to overcome obstacles, the program prepares them for a career in law enforcement and gives them the tools to be successful in any profession they choose. MEETING OF July 26, 2013WelcomeLiliane, our newly-inducted president, asked Stoney to perform the invocation. He asked us for a moment of silence for “peace and freedom on earth”. Sid gave us a thought for the day but I’ll be dammed if I could understand it. Sunshine & Rotarians with Guests
Announcements
Recognitions
Happy and Sad Dollars
Norm’s NonsenseA heavily inebriated gentleman is going ice fishing. He starts to drill a hole with his auger when a loud booming voice says, “There’s no fish down there!” PROGRAM
Last Friday, Patrick Roche of Contra Costa County’s Department of Conservation and Development presented the county’s proposed climate action plan, aimed at meeting the goals of AB32. Under AB32, all government bodies must create plans to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to 15% below baseline levels by 2020. Due to the heavy concentration of power plants and oil refineries in Contra Costa, GHG levels are very high relative to other counties at 18 million metric tons of CO2 released into the atmosphere annually. However the majority of these sources are under the jurisdiction of the Air Quality Management District so Contra Costa County’s plan addresses only 1.6 MMT of GHG emissions. The largest component of the sources under the county jurisdiction are transportation related at 29%. Other large CO2 sources are related to commercial and residential building mechanical systems. The county’s climate action plan addresses the task of reducing these GHG by:
Mark Howe, Rotating Scribe |
NEXT MEETING: July 26, 2013Contra Costa's Climate Action Plan
Patrick Roche of our county’s Climate Action Group will describe steps our County is proposing in its effort to curb the emission of greenhouse gasses (GHC). The Plan identifies specific measures on how the County can achieve a GHG reduction target of 15% below baseline levels by the year 2020. It also proposes policies and actions to improve public health and provide additional community benefits, and lays the groundwork for achieving long-term greenhouse reduction goals for 2020 and 2035. For more information, see the County website page on its Climate Action Plan. MEETING OF July 19th 2013WelcomeWelcome, Invocation, Thought for the DayOur new lady President Liliane Koziol welcomed everyone to La Strada and started the meeting without the aid of the Rotary Bell. (Later this week, Liliane shared a few pictures of her official induction in Woodland, California, July 13th. She wasn’t alone.) The pledge was lead by Lesa McIntosh, a new scribe, without the aid of a flag; and the invocation was given by Herb Cole. The thought for the day was offered by yours truly, Alan Blavins: “No matter how hard you push the envelope, it will still be stationery.” Rotarians with GuestsDavid Keystone guest was Gerald Olivas. Sunshine ReportA card was circulated for signing and wishing Michelle Itagaki a fast recovery from her recent hip surgery. Announcements• Nick Despota asked everyone to complete the Flywheel survey, aimed at determing which sections are most frequently read. To date, only 12 Richmond Rotary members have taken the survey. Not a very strong showing. Please take a few minutes now to give us information that will help us tailor the Flywheel to your interests, and modify the scribing duties in ways that ensure members will volunteer to perform this club service in the future. [I second that! -Alan Blavins] If you haven’t taken the survey already, please do it now. • Alan Bear announced he is having a fund raising Poker Night August 16th at 6:00pm ($50 buy-in) all procides go towards John Nicol Scholarship Fund. Although 32 have signed up, there is still room for members wishing to go the A’s game and tailgate party on August 31st. Go A’s. • Josh Surowitz reminded everyone of our “The Mixer with the Chamber of Commerce” on Thursday August 8th ,5-7 at the Richmond Golf & Country Club. Recognitions• Doris Mitchell is having a birthday on the 20th. No number was mentioned. Happy and Sad Dollars• David Brown had sad dollars for the passing of his Temple’s cantor. But had happy dollars for his new “winged Rotary pin”. He is now a fully paid up member of The Flying Rotary’s. He was also happy about his recent trip to Alaska. • Jim Young had happy dollars for being able, through Skype, to talk to peace minded Rotarians all across the world. Norm’s NonsenseMama Stork, Papa Stork, and Baby Stork sat down to dinner and Mama said, “What did you do today, Papa?” PROGRAMElectric Power Generation in California
Our speaker was Bill Day, president of Longveiw Energy Associates. He is an engineer and an expert on co-generation, and the retired manager of General Electric’s co-gen manufacturing division. Bill began his talk by noting the sources of electric power in California. A few interesting facts: Electric Power Generation in California • California produces 70% of the electricity it uses • The rest is imported from the US Southwest (20%) and Pacific Northwest (10%) • Natural gas is the largest source of in-state power (45%) Technical challenges & Economic Challenges • 200,000 gigawatt-hours produced in-state • 32,000 miles of transmission lines Bill then went on to explain how gas and steam turbines create power for the grid using California’s Natural Gas source. Power is also produced in-state using all the sources available. These are: Wind, Solar, Small hydro, Large Hydro, Nuclear, Geothermal, Boimass and Coal. The goal is to produce 13,600 MW from wind and solar by 2020. (we need a little help from mother nature for this to happen. Let’s hope she keeps shinning on us) Challenges in Achieving 33% Renewables by 2020 California’s Main Challenge Ensure adequate electricity supplies while reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 33% by 2020. The loading order to meet electricity demand: • Meet the demand – i.e. no blackouts • Energy efficiency • Renewable resources • Clean and efficient natural gas-fired power plants. Bill then pointed out that California’s Push for Renewable Energy Will Raise Prices which will cause many problems for the state’s competitiveness. A new report released by the Pacific Research Institute finds that California’s 33 percent renewable portfolio standard (RPS) will trigger a substantial rise in energy costs for the state by 2020. The report estimates that the mandate will cost California approximately $5 billion in 2020: $1 billion is transmission, $500 million is backup power and $3.5 billion is generating power through Non-hydroelectric Renewable Resources • The overall cost of the mandate will increase with consumption and it equates to an implicit tax of 27 percent • Compared with the United States, which includes the high cost energy markets of Alaska and Hawaii, California energy costs are already 53 percent higher. What can you do to meet coming higher electricity prices? • Rooftop solar panels can be profitable, if you have enough south-facing roof without obstructions • In 2011 Bill installed enough solar panels to reduce his external reliance on 50% of the kilowatt hours per month • This reduced his energy bill by 70% each month. • If electricity prices increase, he will save even more Bill then gave an example on how others have succeeded: • In April 2013, 52% of Germany’s electric power consumption was supplied from renewable sources • They kept the grid stable by making more than 100% of their electric power in-country, including a lot of coal-fueled plants. They exported most of the coal-fueled power. Summary • 70% of our electric power is produced in-state • Gas turbines are the largest source of in-state power production • The gas turbine industry can now respond quickly and efficiently to rapid fluctuations in power demand • CA’s challenges are to keep the grid stable and efficient, and coping with the high costs, of 33% renewables by 2020 • Watch out for higher electricity prices Bill’s presentation was followed by a sprited flow of questions and answers on the properties of household solar panels. The talk was not all hot air. It is a subject that affects all of us. - Alan Blavins, Rotating Scribe |
NEXT MEETING: July 19, 2013Co-Gen Electricity in California's Future
NOTE: This meeting will be held at La Strada Restaurant (map), not the Richmond Country Club. Our speaker will be Bill Day, president of Longview Energy Associates. Bill is an engineer and expert on co-generation and retired manager of General Electric’s co-gen manufacturing division. He will speak about the opportunity co-gen provides for the economic development of North America’s ‘new’ natural gas treasure trove. MEETING OF July 12, 2013WelcomeNew Richmond Rotary president, Liliane Koziol welcomed everyone to the Richmond Rotary Club! Red badger Gonzalo Ochoa led us in the pledge and Horace “Stoney” Stonework led us in a moment of silence for freedom, peace, and justice on earth. Herb Cole gave us the thought for the day – “always try to be helpful; if you see someone without a smile, give them yours.” Liliane announced that Ron Burton from the Norman, Oklahoma club is the new Rotary International president and that his theme for the year is “Engage Rotary, Change Lives”. The new district governor, Steven Lack, presented Liliane with a brand new 2013-14 banner. Liliane invited Stoney to the podium where she presented him with his new president-elect pin. Visiting RotariansWe were honored by the presence of the following visiting Rotarians:
Rotarians with GuestsOther guests included:
Liliane introduced this year’s board of directors. (The board meets the 3rd Thursday of each month.) The board members are:
Announcements• Poker night is scheduled for August 16th at 6:00 PM at the home of Alan Baer at 3001 Barkley Dr. in Richmond. It’s a $50 buy-in and all proceeds go to the John Nicol Scholarship Fund. Recognitions• Liliane gave a donation to the Rotary Foundation as one of her first acts as president. She rhetorically asked why it’s so important to donate? George Egan, financial wizard extraordinaire, immediately piped up saying, “because it’s tax deductible!” Happy and Sad Dollars
Norm’s NonsenseThe Prime Minister of Israel invited the Pope to play a game of golf, and since the Pope had no idea how to play, he convened the College of Cardinals to ask their advice. “Call Jack Nicklaus,” they suggested, “and let him play in your place. Tell the Prime Minister you’re sick or something.” Honored by His Holiness’s request, Nicklaus agreed to represent him on the links. The Pope, again on the advice of his staff, appointed him a Cardinal to make the arrangement seem more legitimate. “So how’d you do?” he asked eagerly when Nicklaus returned to the Vatican. “I came in second,” was the reply. PROGRAM"The International Side of Rotary," by Cliff Dochterman
Liliane introduced district governor, Steven Lack who wished everyone a Happy New (Rotary) Year and tipped his hat to Liliane as our new club president. He brought us a case of Rotary Adventure Beer from Chico where this year’s district conference will be held on October 18-20 and where 12,000 meal packets to feed 12,000 people will be assembled. He also encouraged us to participate in an upcoming raffle which will benefit both the Rotary Foundation and the individual clubs. He thanked the club for supporting the water project in Burkina Faso. This year’s project is to build a school with six classrooms for a village in Burkina Faso, a project entitled “Project Brighter Future”. Steven then went on to introduce our keynote speaker, Cliff Dochterman. He introduced Cliff as a “living legend, a real treasure in the world of Rotary”. Cliff has been a Rotarian for 50 years having originally joined the Berkeley Club. He went on to serve as the Rotary International president in 1992-93 during which time his theme was “Real Happiness is Helping Others”. He was educated at U.C. Berkeley and the University of the Pacific. Cliff began by telling us that he’d visited the Richmond club 45 years ago when he was district governor. He welcomed Liliane to her new post. His topic today is “The International Side of Rotary”. Rotary is the most international organization in the world – there are Rotary clubs in more countries than there are countries in the U.N., and there are over 34,000 clubs worldwide. Rotary may have been founded in Illinois, but it grew roots here in California where the second club was established in San Francisco, the third established as a joint club between Berkeley, Oakland, and Alameda, and the fourth in Los Angeles. U.S.-based Rotarians account for only one-third of all the Rotarians in the world. In the early days clubs typically engaged in local activities only, and one which nearly all Rotary clubs engaged in was working with handicapped children. Eventually, so many clubs were serving handicapped children on a local basis, that the project was unified and spun off into the Easter Seals program. In the 1960’s clubs began to look at the whole world as the “community” and U.S.-based clubs began collaborating with international clubs to do projects outside of the U.S. It was during this period that the Rotary Foundation began providing matching grants for these international projects. In 1966 the concept of “World Community Service” was developed and clubs were encouraged to link up with clubs abroad. But the biggest step by far was when an Australian RI president decided that Rotary International could and should do large projects that individual clubs or even groups of clubs could never do on their own. The RI leadership decided to submit a question to clubs around the globe – if you had a million dollars what would you do with it? The Philippine clubs replied that because they had a high rate of polio that they would vaccinate everyone in the Philippines in order to eradicate it. That’s when the polio eradication program was born. By 1987, RI had raised $240 million and partnered with the World Health Organization (WHO) with the vision to eradicate polio. In future years, other big projects were born including the “Gift of Life Program” which brought deformed and injured children to the U.S. for needed surgeries; the “Foot Program” which provided thousands of children low-cost prostheses; the “Hunger Plus” program which collects and distributes tons of dehydrated food to famine-plagued areas; a cataract surgery program; the “Wheelchair Foundation” providing over 200,000 wheelchairs to those who can’t walk; and various other projects that build schools and shelters, establish blood banks, provide microcredit to budding entrepreneurs, and help people to grow food. Cliff ended with a story about a call he got one day when he was RI president from a club president in Austria. The club president was asking for help with the refugees and chaos created by the civil war in Herzegovina. They needed everything – food, clothing, blankets, medicine. Within five weeks, Rotary worldwide raised $8 million, gathered the supplies and equipment, and transported them to the region via planes flown by Rotary pilots from Canada. The U.N. sent a letter thanking him and Rotary for having saved the lives of 100,000 people from starvation or freezing. As Cliff said, Rotary is more, so much more, than a weekly social event – someone somewhere is having a better life because each of us is a Rotarian. Lynn Martin- Your Roving Rotary Reporter |
NEXT MEETING: July 12, 2013Cliff Dochterman on the Rotary commitment to service
MEETING OF June 28, 2013WelcomeToday was Jim Young’s last meeting as President. The “lame duck”, so-to-speak, was forced to ring the bell twice to get everyone’s attention. Once that was accomplished, Mark Howe led us in the pledge of allegiance and Jim asked for a moment of silence for freedom, peace, and justice on earth—and the eradication of polio. Visiting RotariansWe were graced by the presence of visiting Rotarian Dudley Thompson from Oakland Club, #3. Rotarians with GuestsJim introduced his lovely wife Linda and his eldest son Zeb, both visiting with us today. Sunshine ReportJim announced the unexpected passing of Howard Cohen, Cantor at Temple Beth Hillel Chone. David Brown was not in attendance today due to his presence at the funeral. Announcements
RecognitionsHappy and Sad DollarsNorm’s NonsensePROGRAMRotary Peace Fellow, Dr. Lee-Anne Mulholland... and the Demotional RoastDr. Lee-Anne Mulholland, a Rotary Peace Fellow graduate from the Berkeley program, was today’s guest speaker. Dr. Mulholland is a barrister in Great Britain and practices law in California. Being a resident of Northern Ireland, Dr. Mulholland was closely involved in helping to end “The Troubles” that plagued the region for decades. Living through this turmoil, Dr. Mulholland’s parents taught her that she would never achieve justice through violence. Instead they stressed that people really listen to you only after you’ve earned their respect. Justice, she learned, comes through peaceful means, not through guns and bombs. The segregation of Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland made retaliation the rule and violence commonplace. This social climate fostered her interest in human rights, and lead Dr. Mulholland to law school at Queens University in Belfast, where she studied alongside students with opposing political views. In the city of Derry in 1972, the Catholic minority organized a peaceful civil rights march modeled after those in Berkeley. In response the government sent in war-hardened paratroopers who opened fire on the crowd, killing 13, including 7 teenagers. The events of “Bloody Sunday” lead thousands of otherwise peaceful citizens across the social spectrum to join the IRA, which openly espoused the use of violence. Because Britain refused to investigate the incident, many in Northern Ireland gave up hope for a peaceful resolution. After Dr. Mulholland graduated from law school, she was accepted to the Rotary Peace Fellow program, and attended UC Berkeley. Here she immersed herself in the legal dimensions of human rights. She was invited to join an international team established to investigate the events of Bloody Sunday. This work led her to interview top leaders of the IRA and Sinn Fein, numerous witnesses to the event, and Britain’s Prime Minister. The final report concluded that the marchers had been unarmed and peaceful, and that they were fired upon without provocation. This finding lead British prime minister, David Cameron, to make a formal apology on behalf of the United Kingdom. This act of sincere acknowledgement and apology opened the door to peace in Northern Ireland. Dr. Mulholland now works for a California law firm that tries human rights cases around the world. She praised the Rotary Peace Fellow program for the opportunity it gave her to help bring peace to her home, and for its contributions to peace around the world. But alas, as fascinating as Dr. Mulholland’s presentation was, she was unable to upstage… The Roast
Next exhibit: a faded photo of a young boy, face smeared with blueberries. Not a few in the group voiced other theories. Are those really blueberries on Jim’s young face (or is that “Jim Young’s face”?) Whatever. But given his shaky eating skills, the now-older Mr. Young was fitted with a bib. Befitting. Another exhibit truly astounded us: photos of train tunnels. A favorite stunt of the young Mr. Young was plastering himself against the sides of tunnels as trains zoomed past. Normal boyhood thrill-seeking — or missing gene? You decide. Revelations continued. Wizard Waller exposed Jim’s early aspirations as a guitarist and crooner, in honor of which Joe “Swampy” Bagley strum and sang an original musical interlude. The Wizard probed still deeper. Jim’s long (as in 6th-year senior) and illustrious career as a landscape architecture major at Cal Poly Pomona included a stint as student body president. This being the hippie era, the Wizard “illustrated” his story with the sight of Jim being topped by an Afro, crowned in a red bandana, and pasted with a Frank Zappa moustache. In the late 60s a branch of the Bank of America in Santa Barbara was burned. When students began pressuring Jim, the student body president, to close the Student Association accounts with the bank, Jim saw an opportunity. Plying his now familiar why-not attitude, Jim contacted the Chairman of BOA and urged him to “stop the war” if he didn’t want any more of his branches burned down. Then, in succession: a limo ride. Jim and Chairman share a fancy lunch. The Chairman testifies before Congress. And, perhaps suspiciously, the war ends. You connect the dots. Jim and bride Linda then moved to Berkeley. Unfortunately Jim failed to get into graduate school. But he did succeed in becoming the Student Relations officer at the U.C. Berkeley branch of the Bank of America. (Surprise, surprise.) So with heart-breaking sympathy, Swampy performed a somber tribute to Jim’s grad school disappointment. An volley of banker jokes followed. Jim’s year as Rotary President came to an end with accolades for his many achievements: the Lost Secrets of the Iron Triangle performances, Paul Harris awards for his family members, his efforts in the St. Louis-based Peace and Justice Network, and his leadership in aligning his presidential year with the Rotary’s Peace through Service theme. Congratulations and thanks for everything Jim! Lynn Martin- Your Roving Rotary Reporter |
We learned many things about our very own Jim Young, as Tom “Merlin” Waller conjured up the past. The Merlin began by inviting us to ponder the mystery of Jim’s straw hat. We were all invited to assist by donning our own straw hats, thoughtfully distributed by the Merlin’s assistants, Don Lau and Alan Baer.