Posted by Scott Plakun
About 50 members and guests attended today's Rotary Luncheon. We were joined by visiting Rotarians from several Clubs around the Bay Area, including District Governor Jayne Hulbert and her husband Gene Duffy, Past Rotary International Director Brad Howard, and several representatives of the La Plata Rotary Water Project.
 
President Rhonda opened the meeting with a recitation of the Four-Way Test.
After the usual opening preliminaries, Rhonda reviewed our 2018-2019 Club Objectives:
  1. We have fun while doing service programs.
  2. We focus equally on those served and those who are serving.
  3. We engage organically, naturally with every member multiple times monthly.
Our goal is to support healthy communities, and build a better understanding of those we serve. To that end, our next two meetings will focus on organizations we support, featuring clients of theirs whose lives we have improved: the Homeless Prenatal Program on August 7, and The Arc of San Francisco on August 14.
 
Rhonda asked us to watch for the new format of Grindings which will arrive in our inboxes on July 29. The new format reflects a significant shift in the way we record a narrative of what our Club does, based on a new Club Blog. Rhonda appreciated Scott Plakun (IT Consulting; The Plakun Group) and Dora Dye (Education; City College of San Francisco) for their work on this transformation.
 
In our first Time Capsule, celebrating our 110th Anniversary Year, Rhonda showed a photo of a young man bouncing on a trampoline. Jim Patrick (Office Supplies, Patrick & Company), a third-generation member of our Club. Jim then took the microphone and explained that around the time he was Club President (1984-1985), he perceived that the Club needed to renew its focus on youth service. To do that, he orchestrated an auction based on the number of times he was able to jump on the trampoline.
 
Heidi Kuhn (Peace Building; Roots of Peace) reviewed her recent trip around the world, with stops in Afghanistan, India, and Vietnam. Heidi was rightfully proud to announce that the crops being produced as a result of the plantings done by Roots of Peace are of substantial value, 2% of Afghanistan's GDP and $58 million worth of trade in India, for example. Heidi presented President Rhonda with a Club Banner from the Rotary Club of Kabul City.
 
Vice President of Membership Dan Joraanstad (Financial Management; Retired) announced the New and Prospective Member Gathering to be held on August 15, and new member training opportunities that will be held immediately following Club Luncheon Meetings on the third Tuesday of each month.
 
Danielle Lallement, past President of the Rotary Club of San Francisco - Evening, described a program of TED-like talks, sponsored by Rotary Clubs as a way to reach out to new populations. Programs conducted in Atlanta and Oakland have been very successful. Watch for information about a program coming soon to San Francisco.
 
Those donating $20 or more included Dan Joraanstad, appreciating the program Danielle announced and how it demonstrates that doing good builds careers; Jim Bradley (Property Insurance; Retired), who is glad to be home from travels and sleeping again on his McRoskey Mattress; Robin Azevedo (Mattress Manufacturing; McRoskey Mattress Company), who thanked Jim for his plug; Donna Lee Rubin (Non-profit Medical Services; Rotaplast), who announced that Rotaplast has received the highest rating from Charity Navigator; and Dora Dye, who is happy to be back from wonderful travels in Scotland and England.
 
Club Past President and current Assistant Governor Anita Stangl (Non-profit Medical Services; Alliance for Smiles) introduced District Governor Jayne Hulbert. DG Jayne explained that President Rhonda has opted for an informal Q&A rather than a canned presentation. In that discussion, Jayne praised our Club for our recent growth, and for our renewed vitality and enthusiasm. She told us that her inspiration comes from Rotarians who do so much good work. She challenged us to think about who has inspired us in our lives, and asked whether we have taken time to thank them and let them know how much they have meant to us. 
 
DG Jayne also told us that she likes to party. In part, that grows out of her experience with a serious medical condition as a high school student, which taught her that life is fragile and that it is important to celebrate every day.
 
When asked by Dan Joraanstad what global project Rotary should tackle after Polio is eradicated, Jayne told us that we should keep our focus on Polio until that job is completely done. She reminded us that the few places where Polio is still endemic present very real challenges, and that we will need to continue to work on Polio for quite a bit longer, since there have to be three years without any cases before we can say Polio has been eradicated. She also told us that two relatives of hers contracted Polio at age 5: her father-in-law in 1909 and her sister in 1949. She remembers how people ran in fear when they learned her sister had Polio, and looks forward to the eradication of this terrible disease.
 
DG Jayne feels a special connection to our Club because her mother dated Marshall Rotary Blum, who was our 1986-1987 Club President. That disclosure inspired Peter Lagarias (Law - Civil Litigation; Lagarias & Napell) to tell us the story of how Marshall got his middle name: 
 
Marshall was born in 1918, during the Spanish flu epidemic. His father contracted the flu and barely survived. He credited his survival in large part to the support and camaraderie provided by our Club through its Sunshine Committee, which visited him in the hospital. Released from the hospital just before his wife went into labor, Marshall's father decided their son should be given the middle name of Rotary to acknowledge the important role our Club played in his recovery.
 
In response to a concern raised by David Dye (Management Consulting; Retired) about how difficult it can be to find out how to volunteer for District projects, DG Jayne said that the best route was to talk to people, particularly President Rhonda and AG Anita, and to attend District Learning and Development Seminars that address the areas you are interested in.
 
DG Jayne left us with these inspiring words:
  • Never give up!
  • Do the best you can!
 
Past President Stephanie Schmautz then conducted a lively auction for a basket of goodies, with proceeds going to the Annual Fund of The Rotary Foundation of Rotary International. The winner was Lisa Stark (Video Production Services). Thanks to Jane Mermelstein (Real Estate Sales; Zephyr Real Estate) for creating a basket that will be auctioned off at the next Club that DG Jayne visits.