The Flywheel
This Week's Program: April 24th, 2009
EBMUD, Levees and the Peripheral Canal
Doug Wallace, the Environmental Affairs Officer for the East Bay Municipal Utilities District, will discuss that agency's perspective on one of California's perennial sources of controversy: water, who gets it and how.
Last week's MEETING: April 17TH, 2009
Welcome, Invocation, Thought for the Day
President Mark Howe welcomed the group. Henry Kelman led the Pledge of Allegiance. Our resident purveyor of the double entendre, Josh Genser, told a joke with the pay-off, “Never end a sentence with a preposition or you may end up with a dangling participle.”
Visiting Rotarians
Cat Todhunter visited from the El Cerrito Club.
Rotarians with Guests
Henry Kelman brought his wife Cathleen and kids Benjamin,
Caroline and Elizabeth.
Jim Young brought his associate Jade
Laird.
Rhonda Harris brought two guests,
Jim Becker of the Children’s Foundation and Jael
Myrick.
Jerrold Hatchett brought a gentleman
whose name we didn’t record. We apologize.
Erle Brown brought guest Allen Blevan.
Mark Howe brought Joy Nordenstrom, who will soon speak
at our club about romance.
Special Events
New members Ludmyrna Lopez and Jon
Marquez were inducted into the club as red
badgers.
Erle Brown presented Jim Young his Paul
Harris plus 2. Allen Baer also earned
his Paul Harris plus 2 and Don Lau earned
his Paul Harris plus 4!
Barbara Diaz of Santa Barbara Jewelers presented
her “Who am I”. Barbara was first invited to the
group by Rafael Madrigal. Though at first
she did not think she wanted to stick around too long in the
U.S., after having immigrated, she has now been here 31 years,
has a great big family and is a U.S. citizen. Barbara
has five brothers and five sisters and has kids of her own
aged 31, 24 and 21.
Happy and Sad Dollars
Josh Genser was happy to have had a nice visit with
the Petaluma Rotary club but was sad because he had not
planned on being at the meeting. He was stood up for
golf.
Rafael Madrigal was happy Jon Marquez and Ludmyrna Lopez
became Rotarians and was also happy that -Barbara Diaz
had given a nice “Who am I”.
Jon Lawlis was sad Rafael Madrigal was the
club’s longest running red badger but was happy to be
soon going to Puerto Vallarta with the kids.
Dan Tanita was happy because Tuesday was his
birthday.
Herb Cole was happy for Josh Genser’s
joke went well because Herb had been told he could no longer
tell jokes anymore.
Erle Brown was also happy to soon be off to Puerto Vallarta.
Jim Young was also, also happy to soon be off to Puerto
Vallarta.
Josh Surowitz was happy because the Albany
School District rescinded his wife’s pink slip.
Henry Kelman was happy his daughter Caroline celebrated
her 29th birthday the day of the meeting.
Jerrold Hatchett was happy because his annual stint as
the Easter Bunny at the Nevin Center was fun, as were
the two other appearances he made that day in rabbit
costume.
Bob Dabney was happy the “rabbit was
running” (see above).
Norm's Nonsense
Three men went to their seats at the football game and found a couple of nuns sitting ahead of them. The men wanted to drink beer and swear at the referees and not be scolded by nuns, so they decided to badger them so they'd move. One guy said, "I think I'm going to move to Utah, there are only 100 Catholics living there..." The second said, "I want to go to Montana, there are only 50 Catholics there..." The third guy said, "I want to go to Idaho, there are only 25 Catholics living there..."
At that, one of the nuns turned around and said, "Why don't you go to hell? There aren't any Catholics there."
Raffle Results
Jim Young drew the Orange Ball.
THE PROGRAM
The Richmond Rotary Peace Project
Club members Nick Despota, Jan Brown, Mark Howe, and April Jorden, as well as Cheryl Maier of Opportunity West, spoke to the group about its ongoing Richmond Peace Project. About 6 months ago our club launched this ambitious project aimed at reducing violence in Richmond.
The Richmond Rotary Peace Project is comprised of 3 components, the Auto Skills Program, Life Skills for Peace, and the Conflict Resolution Program. Auto Skills has been at the heart of the project. It is an extremely powerful and popular Internet-based learning program for reading and math skills that has kids lining up to participate, even before the doors open.
One of the very real challenges of this ongoing program is funding. The budget is about $40k, and establishing a continuing source of funding beyond this year will be critical. In addition to funding concerns, having enough volunteers is also of high importance. Please contact Nick, Mark, Jan or anyone else involved with the program to learn how you can help with a small commitment of time. This is one of the club’s most important projects in years and it will take all of our efforts to ensure it is as successful as possible.
Rotating Editor, Scribe, etc., Josh Surowitz
