NEXT MEETING: May 10, 2019

Teen Moms "Care Packages" Project

Come to our Annual Richmond Rotary Teen Moms Care Package project to give encouragement to young mothers to stay in school and complete their education. This project is a collaborative effort of quilt makers (the Linus Project), Burt’s Bees baby products, and Rotarians, who write notes of encouragement. Wel’l pack the bags with the blankets, books and personal care products for mom and baby.

 

Special Presentation

Last month Nick conducted a survey about our Club’s use of this website, and in particular, The Flywheel. Nearly half of our membership took the survey, a very good response.

Drawing on the findings from the survey, this Friday Nick will present a plan for changes to The Flywheel and the means for inforing our members of upcoming speakers and events. Below is a teaser, showing the responses to one of our questions.

 

ANNOUNCEMENTS

• Jerry reminded us that the Rotocare Bowl-a-thon is coming up June 1^st and we are encourage to form a team for Richmond Rotary. No one volunteered for that opportunity at the time.
• Pam Jones reminded us that she is putting teams together for the upcoming Bocce Ball tournament (May 11^th) .
• Sid announced that the “Raffle Bag” is available for the having. Jan Brown took it for the memorabilia table at the 2020 celebration.

MEETING OF March 291h, 2019

Welcome

President Jerry welcomed everyone to the “friendly Richmond Rotary Club”. Sid’s thought for our day was “Be careful about reading health books. You may die of a misprint.” (Mark Twain).

Recognitions and Happy and Sad Dollars

In the absence of our recognitions experts, Jerry reported that he was celebrating his 39^th anniversary . Then, he invited us to report our Happy and Sad events.

• Sid was happy because Zelpha was dong well after her knee replacement 2 weeks ago
• Hank had a $50 donation for is granddaughter’s foundation account in honor of his son’s 50^th birthday.
• Nick was happy that he had just finished his training to serve as a guide at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. He was excited to report that the current exhibit was the largest participatory art work in San Francisco history, The Chronicles of San Francisco. The artist is JR, a French street artist/photographer. The work is a 240 feet long mural, 50 feet high and includes 1,200 self-selected people from every San Francisco neighborhood. Good news! – It is in the free section of the museum!

Jan Brown was happy that she had a great time in Capitola for 2 weeks on vacation. She was also happy that she attended

PROGRAM

Our speaker was Thomas Hall of the Water Emergency Transit Authority (WETA). He used a powerpoint presentation to explain the details of the various vessels operating within his organization’s authority. There are 5 routes currently serving the Bay Area plus the ballpark route. Those 5 routes are 1) Alameda Oakland, 2) Vallejo, 3) Harbor Bay, 4) South San Francisco, 5) Richmond. They also serve in emergencies as needed. There are 14 vessels in their current fleet. There are 3 emergency centers in the Bay Area.

Ridership has increased from 1.5 million in 2012 to just under 3 million in 2018. So, they have just about doubled their ridership in the 6 years since they started. They have big plans for fleet expansion. There are three vessels under construction – the Vela (2019), Lyra (2020) and the Pyxis (2018). In addition, there are 5 new boats since 2017. Those are the Hydrus, Cetus, Argo, Carina and Pyxis. The Pyxis is a 400 passenger vessel and can travel up to 28 knots.

A recent survey gave more information on the topic of Why People Ride the Ferry gave these results with the most popular reason first:

• Avoid traffic and parking
• Ride Quality
• Relaxing
• Multi-task
• Faster
• Environment
• Sightseeing
• No car
• Cheaper
• Other

They just finished a capital project in process called the Richmond Project. They have received $20 million from State Proposition 1 and Measure J. The funds were used to design, demolish and assemble the Richmond kayak launch.

Here are some details about the Service Operations at the facility. They operate on a $4.4 Million annual budget. They are funded through Measure J and the Fare Box. There are currently 4 peak hour commute trips and 2 reverse commute direction trips. They hope to expand to weekend service soon. The trip time averages about 35 minutes and adult fares are $9 except with a clipper card that lowers the one-way fare to $6.75. Most of their vessels travel at 50% capacity. Efforts are currently under way to connect the Richmond Ferry to the new Warriors’ stadium in Mission Bay.

The organization had projected 450 Daily boardings by the end of year 1 but they are already at 658 boardings per day. Their website is www.Sanfranciscobayferry.com.

- Connie Tritt, Rotating Scribe