The Flywheel
Archive issue

NEXT MEETING: June 21, 2013

Teach for America

Since Teach For America (TFA) started in 1990, nearly 33,000 TFA teachers have taught more than 3 million children nationwide. TFA’s mission is to contribute to the elimination of educational inequity by helping ensure that children growing up in low-income communities get an excellent education. TFA recruits committed recent college graduates and professionals of all backgrounds to teach for two years in urban and rural public schools, trains and develops the teachers so they have an immediate positive impact on their students, and then fosters the leadership of TFA alumni as they continue to deepen their impact as educational leaders and advocates. Come learn more about Teach For America, including its contributions in the West Contra Costa Unified School District, where about 80 TFA teachers come to work in classrooms each day.

MEETING OF June 14, 2013

Welcome

Joey Bags led us in the pledge today, and George Egan asked the club for a moment of silence for “Peace and Freedom on Earth”.  Sid’s thought for the day was  ”If you never try you will never know”

Sunshine & Rotarians with Guests

• Gonzalo Ochoa, the owner of G&O Tires visited the club today, but as you’ll read in the Announcements, below, this is the last time he’ll be regarded as a visitor.
• Maurice, a key character in the recent Rotary sponsored play “The Lost Secrets of the Iron Triangle” visited the club and recited some of his lines.

Club Assembly

The President will convene a brief Club Assembly for a one-item voice vote on a recommendation of the Board of Directors. The recommendation is to adopt an amendment to add a Non-discrimination Clause to the Club’s By-Laws. The adoption of this amendment will position the Club more favorably when it applies for future grants from non-profits that require their applicants to have such clauses.
The text of the amendment follows. (View the board-approved Amendment to the Non-discrimination clause, a PDF.)

Announcements

• Pam Jones and Rafael Madrigal captained two Richmond Bocce Ball teams and emerged undefeated until the last round.
• Tom Waller fleshed-out his idea of having the club support a student driving program sponsored by the CHP called “’Every 15 Minutes”.
• The Club will not meet on July 5^th, in consideration of the Fourth of July weekend.
• On July 19^th, the club will meet at La Strada Restaurant, in San Pablo.
• On August 8th, Rotary and the Richmond Chamber of Commerce are sponsoring a mixer at the Richmond Country Club. Mark your calendars! The goal is to encourage more members of the larger business community to meet our club’s members– a good thing for all concerned.
• August 31st is Oakland A’s night.  Get tickets from Rafael Madrigal.
• Gonzalo Ochoa was inducted into the club today with the presentation of a Red badge.  To get his blue badge he needs to  1. Visit another club, 2. Attend a board meeting, 3.  Complete his “Who am I” and 4.  Join a club committee.

Recognitions

Happy and Sad Dollars

• Dave Calfee relayed through Joe Bagley that he was happy to be recognized by the club last week.
• Sid donated a couple of happy dollars to celebrate the discovery of his long lost wallet – unfortunately he had already replaced most of what was in it.
• Lana, Joe and Rita’s cherished daughter will be back home for Fathers Day.
• Henry Mo told us about a $1,000 donation that was made to the Africa Asanti project by the Salesion Roteract club.

Norm’s Nonsense

More ponderisms …
-If people from Poland are called Poles, then why aren’t people from Holland called Holes?
-If it’s true that we are here to help others, then what exactly are the others here for?
-Do Lipton Tea employees take “coffee breaks?”

PROGRAM

Captain Martin McNair was introduced by Tom Waller, a fellow Navy officer.  Martin was commissioned in 1962 at the Officer Candidate School in Newport Rhode Island.  He was a member of Class 29 – Underwater demolition Team.

Martin explained how Draper Kaufman became the first Navy Seal.  He briefly reviewed what are, for some, well-known aspects of the Navy Seal training program:

• 90% attrition rate.
• Stay in the 50 degree surf zone until you loose all bodily function – now know as hypothermia.
• Timed barefoot races on the beach (in which Martin excelled).
• The units focus on how a recruit performs after he reaches the edge of exhaustion. The Navy believed this was the key character trait that separated the acceptable recruits from those who did not make the cut.

Draper Kaufman, the father of the Navy Seals, was one of those who did make the cut, but his eyesight was poor; he failed the physical and was denied entry to the elite group.  So off he went to Europe at the height of WWII where he worked as an ambulance driver until he was captured by the Germans in France.

In a prisoner exchange Draper was returned to England, where he was taught to disarm unexploded bombs in London, a very important and dangerous job that nobody wanted to do.

When Draper returned home some time afterward to see his father, a friend of his father, a Navy Admiral, was visiting.  Draper told the admiral his story.  At about this time a Marine assault force in the Pacific had lost many men when their landing craft hit a reef, which the Marines thought was the shore. When they jumped from the craft many were drowned in the deep water.  As a consequence the Navy decided to employ a phalanx of divers to chart near shore waters before any beach assault and use explosives to create a path through the reefs.

To the Admiral, Draper with his invaluable explosive handling skills was the perfect candidate to implement this new strategy. He was readmitted to the Navy, when an underwater demolition team training facility was created in Fort Pierce, Florida.  This became the Navy Seals.

The Navy Seal teams grew from these modest beginnings. Today there are 2,000 people in the Navy

Seal program under the command of a 4-star Admiral.