NEXT MEETING: October 9, 2015

Conversation with Assemblymember Tony Thurmond

Tony Thurmond was elected to represent California’s 15th Assembly District in November 2014. The district includes the East Bay communities along the I-80 corridor from Hercules to Oakland.  First elected to the Richmond City Council in 2005, Thurmond served as Council Liaison to Richmond’s Youth Commission, the Workforce Investment Board and the WCCUSD.

His priorities in the Assembly have been a continuation of his priorities as a non-profit leader, school board member, and city councilmember. Specifically, Thurmond focuses on improving the local and statewide economy, improving education from the ground up, and preventing crime.  As a community advocate, Thurmond has helped create job training and workforce housing programs that serve as a model for state efforts at poverty reduction.

Immediately prior to his election to the Assembly, Thurmond’s project, CEO Youth, was improving school attendance and reducing dropout rates.  Recognizing that jobs, education and crime are interrelated challenges, Thurmond believes that, “To get it right, we need to give our youth a California as good as its promise.  To get there, we need to do the real work to improve our schools, reduce dropout rates, create sustainable jobs that preserve our environment and invest in job training opportunities to build a 21st-century workforce.”

A Fellow in the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s Children and Family Fellowship program, Assemblymember Thurmond is a graduate of Temple University. He did graduate work at Bryn Mawr College, PA where he received dual Masters Degrees in Law and Social Policy and Social Work. He lives in Richmond, California.

MEETING OF October 2, 2015

Welcome

Prez Alan Blavins welcomed guests and Rotarians and called the meeting to order. Jon Lawlis was asked to lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance. Prez Alan led us in the invocation, a silent prayer for Peace, Freedom & Justice. Prez Alan, no doubt thinking about some members giving to the Rotary Foundation and Paul Harris Society said, “When it comes to giving, some people start with nothing.”.

Visiting Rotarians and Guests

CPA Mei Saechao, visiting again, hopefully for her last time as a guest as, local girl that she is, she is going to join the club.

Announcements

• DAB is still looking for contributions to provide the club’s annual $100 gift to all the teachers at Peres Elementary School, a $3,000 goal.
• Alan Baer made several BARSHEEP related announcements:
  • The San Pablo Club is holding a Gumbo and Chili Cook-off Contest at Maple Hall on October 24^th., $20/person. BYO bi-carb. See Alan for time.
  • The Fall Rotary Foundation Paul Harris Society drive is underway. See President Alan Blavins’ insightful comments about giving (below) and know that a rumor was circulating at last week’s post-meeting analysis and debriefing that PDG Laura Day would personally give out this year’s Paul Harris Society recognitions if we have more than two.
  • Alan Baer’s daughter is working with the ECHS Interact Club to raise funds to purchase electric lights to replace kerosene lighting in developing countries. See Alan for more details.
• Henry Moe is looking for drivers to transport dinners prepared by the Salesian Interact Club to the RotaCare Clinic in Richmond. October is our club’s month to supply the dinners which the Interactors have graciously prepared, but they cannot transport them. Pickup is at the Salesian cafeteria at 5 PM. Drivers are needed for Oct, 5^th, 12^th, 19^th & 26^th. This project takes all of 30 minutes to complete. Contact Henry at moeser2000@aol.com

Recognitions

Happy and Sad Dollars

Norm’s Nonsense

PROGRAM

ESCAPE Club at DeJean Middle School

David Brown introduced John Iwawaki, today’s speaker and a long time friend of Richmond Rotary, and also his friend and neighbor.

Richmond Rotary has been helping to sustain the ESCAPE Club (acronym for (Environmental Science, Conservation, and Photographic Excursions) at Lovonya DeJean Middle School since the 1990s when John and his sidekick Jason Lau (no relation to Don) started the club at Adams Middle School before it closed. Besides providing students an after-school venue to study and ‘hang out’, once a month the club goes on an outing into the greater Bay Area. For many of the club members, these trips are their first experiences outside Richmond city limits. Local geography that we take for granted, the Golden Gate Bridge & Fort Point, Muir Woods, Rock City at Mt. Diablo State Park and Pt. Reyes National Seashore, are new and exotic. Once a year the club also tries to go to the snow (if there is any) and on a camping trip to Yosemite National Park.

All these adventures are free of charge to the members and that’s what Rotary supports.

During Q&A Jim Young reminded the members of a past  presentation John did when he brought ESCAPE Club alumni. One young woman in particular talked about how the club, “…changed my life.” John said he has had hundreds of similar comments and that’s why he keeps doing it. John then told the story of the 2015 winter snow trip when it actually snowed on the trip. He said one of the mother chaperones was all a twitter. She had never seen snow in her life.

John, you’re amazing! You are a local hero. Keep up the good work.

For those of you who want more information about the ESCAPE Club, check out the club website at http://www.escapeclub.org

NEXT MEETING: October 2, 2015 (BACK AT RICHMOND COUNTRY CLUB)

ESCAPE Club at DeJean Middle School

John Iwawaki, a science teacher and curriculum coach in WCCUSD, will be presenting on the ESCAPE Club at Lovonya DeJean Middle School. The ESCAPE (Environmental Science Conservation And Photographic Excursions) Club is an extra curricular, outdoor education program. Students are given the opportunity to play in the snow, camp in Yosemite, splash on the beach, hike to a waterfall, and many more new experiences in monthly field trips around California. Students are prepped in weekly after school meetings about the ecology, history, and geography of their next destination, and then write about their experiences following the trip.

Since its inception in 1999, the ESCAPE Club has gone on 130 field trips, all free for the students. It is run completely by volunteers, and funded by corporate and private donation, and an occasional grant. For over 10 years, Richmond Rotary has contributed a significant percentage to its annual budget. For more information, visit the ESCAPE Club web site.

MEETING OF September 25, 2015

Welcome

Club President Alan Blavins called the meeting to order at Cafe Soleil in El Sobrante and asked David Brown to lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance. Alan asked for a silent prayer.

Visiting Rotarians and Guests

• Dan Tanita, DDS, introduced 6 dentists, who are visiting from various cities in Russia as part of the 14th annual visiting-dentists program hosted by Rotary. They kindly made a donation to Richmond Rotary. In Russian, “Спасибо”!
• Jim Young brought his wonderful wife Linda Young.
• David Brown bought his neighbor and boat partner David Moss.
• Stacey Street introduced Tyra Worthy and Jorge Lopez.
• Other guests were Meg Saechou, Gladys Dodds, Winifred Toms, Karen Fenton, Hillary Crosby, and Kate Burkhart.

Announcements

• Note that, beginning October 2, Richmond Rotary Club meetings will resume at the regular location, the Richmond Country Club.
• Although not announced at the meeting, quite a few cellphones rang during the meeting and presentation.  Please remember to turn off your ringer and to not take calls inside the meeting room.  We do like your funky ring tone, Club Director Dan Tanita, DDS.  Get down!
• Treasurer David Brown, Esq., announced that he is still accepting donations for Peres Elementary classroom/teacher supplies. We need about $1,000 more to meet our goal.
• Asst. Governor (Area-8) Alan Baer mentioned that sign-ups might still be possible for the Rotary Foundation Fun Day taking place at Six Flags Vallejo on Saturday, October 3. Check out the District 5160 home page.
• For those who missed the last-Friday-of-the-month BARSHEEP social on September 25 at Nong Than Restaurant in El Cerrito, make a note for next month’s get-together. Alan Baer will be letting us know about location.
• Alan Baer also reminded us that October 1 is the last day to sign up for the April 1-3, 2016, District Conference for the reduced price of $79 (increases to $99 thereafter). Sign-up/log-in at this web site.
• Bill Koziol circulated a card to Sgt-at-Arms Sid Chauvin for everyone to sign.

Recognitions

Happy and Sad Dollars

Norm’s Nonsense

PROGRAM

West County Schools

Jim Young introduced Steve Chamberlin and Elliot Haskell of the Chamberlin Family Foundation (CFF) who gave a detailed and informative presentation on “Smart Philanthropy” (phrase coined by Club Director Jerry Feagley).

CFF is a private foundation that is currently focusing on K-12 public education in West Contra Costa County (where the Chamberlins have lived for the last 20 years) and Hawaii (where they grew up). This topic hit home for many people – which is the likely reason for the many parent and teacher guests in today’s audience.

CFF’s goal is to give every child in the district the opportunity to have a great education, regardless of economic background. CFF has invested over $6M in West County K-12 education and has also developed properties to attract top-notch public charter schools that must meet stringent performance/demographic criteria and operate on the same per-student State funding as schools that are part of the West Contra Costa Unified School District (WCCUSD).

CFF claims they are completing their new-construction property projects faster and cheaper (per student seat) than WCCUSD (for example, ~$24,000 for the CFF Hilltop project versus ~$200,000 estimated for WCCUSD’s Pinole Valley High School). To date, CFF properties are leased by Windrush, Aspire, and Summit Tamalpais charter schools.

Public charter schools are increasing in popularity and in performance compared to WCCUSD schools, giving parents and students more/better educational choices. The students are selected by lottery and the waiting lists are hundreds of students long. CFF doesn’t run the charter schools; instead, it builds facilities to attract the very best charter schools. CFF founder Susan Chamberlin’s dream is that people will lie about where they live so that they can attend school in West County. To learn more about the Chamberlin Family Foundation, please see their website. 

*** On October 7, 2015, from 4:00-7:00pm, CFF is holding an open house at their newest location (Aspire and Summit shared campus) at 3040 Hilltop Mall Road, Richmond. For more information and to RSVP, go to this web site.

Although Sid Chauvin (we miss you Sid!) was not present to give a quote for the day, Steve Chamberlin gave us one to hang our hats on: “To whom much is given, much will be required” (Luke 12:48, also used by Bill Gates).

NEXT MEETING: September 25, 2015 --- MEET AGAIN AT CAFE SOLEIL

West County Schools

Susan and Steve Chamberlin want every K-12 student in West Contra Costa County to get an excellent public education that will prepare them for college, career and life. They have invested broadly in the community to support teachers, school leaders, parents and community organizations focused on the same objective. They understand that significant social and economic challenges and limited State funding make the education job incredibly difficult. They support the schools, principals and teachers who successfully rise to these challenges. They have engaged City and District leaders in positive discussions about education policy, actively supported well qualified leadership candidates and are providing great school facilities for high-performance public schools. They also believe K-12 public education is the single most important issue facing our community.

MEETING OF September 18, 2015

Welcome

Alan Blavins presided over the meeting and held a moment of silence for peace, freedom and justice on earth. David Brown led the pledge  of allegiance and Herb Cole had a special thought for the day in remembering Ralph Hill.

Visiting Rotarians and Guests

Mae Saechao, a CPA who works in Oakland, was the guest of Doris Mitchell.

Announcements

• MEETING LOCATION FOR SEPTEMBER 25. Please note that the September 25 Richmond Rotary Club meeting will again take place at Cafe Soleil (side room), 3350 San Pablo Dam Road in El Sobrante.
• Saturday October 3rd is Rotary Foundation Fun at Six Flags Discovery Kingdom Day in Vallejo. Go to www.rotary5160.org for the link to purchase tickets.
• Saturday, November 21st is Rotary Foundation Day at the Races. David Brown had warned us that it sells out every year and it is now officially sold out.
• The Peres School Teacher funding ($100 per teacher) is in full swing and we need our Rotarian group to step up to help fund the 30 or so teachers with regard to classroom supplies. David Brown is at the ready with his trusty credit card reader at each meeting. Funding the teachers at Peres is a long standing tradition.
• Bill Koziol talked to Charlie Wong on the phone and Charlie had some nice memories to share about Ralph Hill, who passed away last week. Bill also had talked to Ralph earlier last week and although he was not feeling well he mentioned that Richmond Rotary was on his mind and he missed seeing the members at the meetings.
• Alan Baer talked to Judy Kafka and she has moved into a retirement community with her husband who requires a good amount of care.

Recognitions

Happy and Sad Dollars

Norm’s Nonsense

PROGRAM

The Bishop Wears No Drawers: A Former Catholic Missionary Priest Remembers Africa

Michael Barrington, a Rotarian for the last 18 years and former president of the Concord Rotary, provided Richmond Rotary with an overview of his engaging memoir.

Michael is the chair of Rotary’s International Committee and is responsible for generating more than $1 million in Global and Matching Grants. He also works for The Rotary Foundation as a Technical Advisor and in this role monitors and evaluates large humanitarian projects. He does the same professionally in more than forty countries.

Michael’s talk was dramatically revealing about life in war-torn 1970’s Nigeria, where he worked for ten years as a Catholic Priest trying to serve and help the various tribes he encountered. He was held at gun point on one occasion and really thought that the end was near. His only out was that one of the tribal languages he spoke was understood by several of the people holding the guns and he was able to talk them out of shooting his group.

NEXT MEETING: September 18, 2015
Note meeting location change! See below.

The Bishop Wears No Drawers: A Former Catholic Missionary Priest Remembers Africa

Michael Barrington, a Rotarian for 18 years and Past President of the Rotary Club of Concord, will provide Richmond Rotary members with an overview of his engaging memoir.

Michael is the chair of Rotary’s International Committee and is responsible for generating more than $1 million dollars in Global or Matching grants. He also works for The Rotary Foundation as a Technical Advisor and in this role monitors and evaluates large humanitarian projects. He does the same professionally through his own company, MJB Consultants, and has worked in more than forty countries.

Michael is on the Board of Directors of Rotary International’s Wasrag committee and helps develop their projects in West Africa in conjunction with Cirque du Soleil and Water Aid. In another life, Michael was a Catholic missionary who served in Mexico, Brazil and Puerto Rico, and for ten years in Nigeria. He also lived for a year as a hermit. Academically he considers himself to be ‘over engineered’ having several Masters Degrees and a Ph.D. He speaks six languages. His book “The Bishop Wears No Drawers” is a memoir of his African experiences.

MEETING OF September 11, 2015

Welcome

President Alan Blavins welcomed guests and Rotarians and called the meeting to order. Tom Butt was asked to lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance. Prez Alan led us in the invocation, a silent prayer in remembrance of 9-11. Herb Cole, sitting in for Sid Chauvin, who just got a hip replacement, quoted somebody (probably himself) saying, “I have good people skills. I just have a bad tolerance for idiots.” Come to think of it, he could have been quoting Sid.

Visiting Rotarians and Guests

There were no visiting Rotarians. Doris Mitchell introduced her guest. CPA Mey Saechao, visiting for the third time. (Does that mean she likes us?)

Announcements

• MEETING LOCATION CHANGE, SEPTEMBER 18th and 25th.
  We will meet at Cafe Soleil, 3550 San Pablo Dam Road, El Sobrante, on Friday the 18th. The meeting room is next to and on the left of the Cafe entrance. Stay tuned for the location of the Sept. 25th meeting.
• David Brown announced that it’s the time of year when school bells ring and Rotarians sing, ‘Time to support Peres School teachers again. The club wants to provide its annual $100 gift to all the teachers to help them with new school year supplies and expenses. Send/bring cash, check or money orders David A. Brown payable to Richmond Rotary or use the donate button on this page with a quick e-mail to DAB. He’ll figure it out.
• Joe ‘Swanpy’ Bagley announced a very successful club visit with Charlie Wong and his wife Jean at their Oakland home. The event was so successful and Charlie has so much on site parking, some consideration is being given to holding a remote meeting at his home. Details if they develop, to follow.
• No Sunshine Report today.

Recognitions

Happy and Sad Dollars

Norm’s Nonsense

PROGRAM

Building Community Police Partnerships

Club Treasurer David A. Brown, who is also a member of the Richmond Police Commission, was pleased to introduce the City of Richmond’s Crime Prevention Manager, Michelle Milam. Michelle is a Richmond native, graduated from El Cerrito HS and Cal and describes herself as a poet, playwright and signer as well as a crime prevention manager for the RPD. Speaking about her job, Michelle mused that the firefighters are lucky, “They go out into the community and pass out those red toy fire hats and all the kids come running. The reception in the community is never quite that enthusiastic for the police”. Then using her own enthusiasm, Michelle lunched into her core message.

Like a junior high school teacher of old, Michelle said, “You need to pay attention…if you want to prevent crime in the community.” As in the rest of the Bay Area, one of the biggest impediments to paying attention to one’s immediate environment is hand held technology, i-Things. The recent increase in robberies has to do in part with folks texting and not paying enough attention to their immediate environment to realize they are not the only ones interested in their hand held device. Basic advice: 1)Take off your head phones; 2)Don’t walk and text; 3)Watch your back. Other common sense advice included, Don’t flash money or valuables. Don’t leave valuables in your car or at least put them out of sight.

“Now that you are paying attention and you notice that something/someone doesn’t seem right, call the police. “Don’t worry about bothering the police. We want to know something is amiss before it turns into a real problem for everyone”, says Michelle.

The main part of Michelles effort is focused on the Neighborhood Watch program. She organizes and implements the programs in neighborhoods around the city. Besides providing an opportunity for local folks to meet their beat cop, the Watch programs encourage:

• People get to know each other.
• Be proactive.
• Provides suggestions that everyone can use to improve the safety of their families and property.

Michelle invited the member to contact her if they would like help start a Neighborhood Watch program in their neighborhood, including a program for Spanish speaking neighborhoods.

Another major focus of Michelle’s work is Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED). CPTED is the management of real property so that it is less vulnerable to criminal activity and presents a positive “we care” image to the entire community. Besides basics like lighting, gates, fences and alarm systems, it encourages landscape maintenance that precludes restricted visibility and encourages ‘the eyes of the street’ as primary surveillance of the neighborhood.

Everything Michelle said about Neighborhood Watch and CPTED is also available to business owners through the Business Watch Program. Michelle encouraged members to contact her for more information at mmilam@richmondpd.net

Thank you Michelle Milam for a great presentation about crime prevention in Richmond.

NEXT MEETING: September 11, 2015

Building Community Police Partnerships

City of Richmond’s Crime Prevention Manager, Michelle Milam, will discuss basic crime prevention strategies, and how Richmond can effectively partner with the police through outreach, education, and social media.
Topics will include:
•    Personal Safety/ Neighborhood Watch & Business Watch
•    CPTED (Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design)
•    Crime Prevention Through Social Media

MEETING OF September 4, 2015

Welcome

Past President Alan Baer led the meeting in Alan Blavins’ absence. David Brown led the pledge of Allegiance and George Egan asked for a moment of silence for Peace and Justice on Earth. Herb, who stood in for Sid, offered this thought for the day: “The biggest lie I can tell myself is I don’t have to write this down because I will remember it”.

Visiting Rotarians and Guests

Rotarians visiting our club on this day were Steve Kirby, David Hammer and Anne Pardee.

Our guest list included Theresa Brick (Josh Surowitz), Darlene Quenville (Jon Lawlis), Tiffany Straus (Don Lau), Tom Dean and his wife Chieko Chambers (Jim Young) and the Honorable Nobuhiro Watanbe, our speaker on this day (see below).

Announcements

• Nick Despota explained why many members didn’t receive Flywheel notification emails last week, while others were peppered with 4 or 5 duplicates. It seems that the problem is with our hosting company’s mail server— because we made no changes at all on our end. Nick reminded us that regardless of whether we receive the “Flywheel online” email, if we check the Richmond Rotary website (address you see at the top of your browser window) we’ll see that week’s updated Flywheel by Wednesday, if not earlier. At the time of this writing we have no indication that the mail server problem has been resolved.
• Saturday, November21st is Rotary Foundation Day at the Races. Jon Lawlis and Darlene are going and hope everyone will join them
• Saturday October3rd is Rotary Foundation Fun at Six Flags Discovery Kingdom in Vallejo. Go to www.rotary5160.org for the link to purchase tickets.
• Don Lau announced that Luau at the Lau’s, the popular Holiday Auction item, will take place on Saturday, October 17^th . He also raised concern among the partying crowd that this may be the last Lau’s Luau ever. You can still add for $75 and send a check to David Brown.
• Josh Genser announced that only 4 people were able to be at the Scotch Tasting so he will hold a makeup where people who have missed over the last few years can attend. Other people can add for $250.
• Joe Bagley, Bill Koziol, Josh Surowitz and Jim Young visited Charlie Wong. Charlie and his wife were happy to receive them. The Wongs are mentally sharp. They even entertained the idea of holding an “auxiliary” Rotary meeting at their house.

Recognitions

Happy and Sad Dollars

Norm’s Nonsense

PROGRAM

Japan-California Relations

Nobuhiro Watanabe, Deputy Consul General at the Consulate General of Japan in San Francisco spoke to Richmond Rotary about Japan-California relations. Deputy Consul General Watanabe joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1982 and has been involved in the Foreign Service for nearly thirty years. His assignments have included posting in Australian, India, Austria and the Philippines. His domestic assignments in Tokyo have included work at the Treaties Bureau and the Economic Affairs Bureau. Prior to moving to San Francisco in November 2012, Mr. Watanabe’s work focused mainly on international trade law (Economic Partnership Agreements and the World Trade Organization) with the Economic Affairs Bureau of the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs where he served for about ten years, except for a period of overseas assignment in the Philippines.