President Casey Blair (Financial Services: Private Trading|Feis Options) opened his initial meeting as President by noting that this year marks the 111th anniversary of the founding of our Club, the second oldest Rotary Club in the world.
Casey welcomed Pearl Shirley Lam, a visiting Rotarian from Hong Kong. She was visiting San Francisco with her son Malcolm, a student at the University of Toronto, in celebration of Malcolm’s 21st birthday. Several guests were also in attendance. Mary Liu (Real Estate Sales: Vanguard Properties|JM Real Estate Group) introduced Tricia Tran, Office Manager and Project Manager at Alliance for Smiles and two interns who are working at AfS this summer. Terry Pickering, a long-time Rotarian and Past District Governor from the Seattle, Washington area, was also at the meeting. Terry will be inducted into our Club later this month.
President Casey noted that with the beginning of a new Rotary year there is a new Rotary International President… and a new theme and logo for the year. Casey presented the 2019-20 Rotary Theme, Rotary Connects the World.Casey noted that it has already been a busy summer of Club activities. Recent activities included:
- A Soldier’s Journey presented by Heroes' Voices: Rick Harrell (Arts Therapy |Heroes’ Voices) noted that this year over 260 entries were received from across the United States for the poetry contest, from over 26 states. This year the event was held June 23 in the chapel at Calvary Presbyterian Church. He indicated that the beautiful location was perfect for the poetry readings and musical presentation. Rick added that the event would not have been successful without the overwhelming financial and personal support and encouragement of our Club.
- President-elect JT Forbus (Accounting|Bogdan & Frasco) reported that a Celebration “Kick Out” Picnic was held June 22 in honor of Past President Rhonda Poppen (Grant Writing|GRANTdog) whose term ended June 30. The event was held at Sunnyside Playground. Those attending enjoyed food, beverages and games and had a great time celebrating with Rhonda.
President Casey noted that the busy summer continues with a number of great upcoming events and activities, including:
- July 11, July 25, August 8, and August 22: Twilight Golf at Harding Park. Tee time is at 4:30 PM. A quick nine holes followed by refreshments and fellowship.
- July 15: Dinner at The Arc, 5:30 PM. A chance to help prepare and serve dinner to clients of The Arc, then join them for dinner and socializing.
- July 20: Rotary District 5150 Potential Rotary Leaders Seminar. This is the basic leadership training course for Rotary members, and offers a chance to develop speaking, leadership, organization and other skills. This is a six-hour event, held in South San Francisco. Every Rotarian is invited. Reservations are required and space is limited.
- July 21: Rotaplast Bocce Tournament and BBQ: 9:00 AM.
- July 29: SPARK Food Truck Social, 6:00 PM at SPARK in Mission Bay (601 Mission Blvd. North). Select your food and a beverage from the food truck vendor of your choice, then join fellow Rotarians, prospective members, family, guests and pets around the fire pit to roast s’mores (s’mores courtesy of our Club).
- July 30: Celebrate the newly-chartered San Francisco Rotaract Club, the only community-based Rotaract Club in the City. This new club is co-sponsored by the Rotary Club of San Francisco and the Rotary Club of San Francisco Evening. The event will be held 6:00 PM-8:00 PM at the Academy of Art Automobile Museum at 1849 Washington Street.
- August 14: New Member Welcome Event at the home of Deborah Wakefield (Elder Care and Senior Services| Concierge Senior Care and Family Support). Enjoy a chance to meet and socialize with new members of our Club. All members (new and old) and prospective members are invited.
- August 25: Oakland A’s and Giants Baseball. Co-sponsored by several Bay Area Rotary Clubs. We will have a great pre-game BBQ with refreshments, then go into the stadium to watch the game from a block of reserved seats. A great opportunity to socialize with Rotarians from nearby clubs.
Kelly Stieglitz (Nonprofit Management|Clinton Health Access Initiative) gave a New Member presentation. Kelly grew up in the Bay Area, and received a Master’s degree in Global Medicine from the University of Southern California. She has always loved to travel, meet people and explore new cultures. Kelly found her passion in the area of improving health care accessibility. To gain field experience, she traveled to Kenya, living with a local family and working with a community-based program dealing with young children, including those with HIV. Later she worked with a similar program in Uganda. Eventually Kelly accepted a position with the Clinton Health Care Access Initiative based in San Francisco. This position allows her to live close to her family while affording her the opportunity to travel and work with groups around the world to improve health care access.Those contributing $20 or more included:
- Bob Hermann (Information Technology: Administration|Retired) pledged $100, since he had five items to announce. First: he had a wonderful time at the Rotary International Convention in Hamburg, and cannot wait for next year’s convention in Hawaii. Second: he and Dan Joraanstad (Financial Services: Advising|Retired) are ecstatic that their kitchen remodel is virtually done, after surviving four months of construction. Third: Bob is registered for the District 5150 Potential Rotary Leaders Seminar and urged others to enroll as well. Fourth: Bob wished Casey a terrific presidency, and noted that each successive president builds upon the success and foundation from those who served before. Finally: Bob’s brother, a police officer, was successful in challenging the denial of a disability pension following a catastrophic work-related injury.
- Allan Herzog (Financial Services: Advising|Wells Fargo Advisors) pledged $100, $1 in honor of Casey and $99 in honor of his son, who was recently inducted into the Rotary Club of San Rafael.
- Tricia Tran from Alliance for Smiles announced that AfS is organizing a fundraising cruise August 20-27, 2020. The cruise line is offering a special discount, and you can get an additional 5% discount if you specify you are “Cruising with Anita”. Anita Stangl (Medical Services|Alliance for Smiles) will host the cruise. All proceeds benefit AfS.
- Cecile Chiquette (Accounting|Retired) pledged $100 in honor of Casey’s first meeting as President, and in recognition of Anita Stangl’s surgery today (which went well).
- Kathryn McCall (Law: Corporate|Sideman & Bancroft) donated $100 in honor of her closing of a challenging three-country merger transaction on June 10, the largest and most complex of her career. She now has her life back again!
- Jianying Chen (Healthcare Accupuncture| American Institute of Zhizhen Therapy and New Qiqong) pledged $20. He thanked Cecile and Casey for assisting him in transferring his Rotary membership to our Club, and announced his marriage on June 28. A special thanks to Irena Matijas (Real Estate: Sales| Compass) for joining Jianying and his wife at their wedding celebration.
- JT Forbus donated $100 ($99 from former President Rhonda Poppen and $1 from JT) in celebration of Casey’s first meeting as President.
- Tom Brunner (Nonprofit Research|Glaucoma Research Foundation) donated $100 in honor of Casey’s first meeting as President, and $100 in honor of Tom’s 50th wedding anniversary on July 4.
- Eric Schmautz (Banking Management|Wells Fargo) donated $20, and also presented a gift to Casey from his wife Stephanie Schmautz (Elder Care and Senior Services|The Carlisle). Among other items, the gift included a notebook from Rhonda (so he can take notes of projects to accomplish), as well as official “Rotary Connects the World” socks.
- Peter Logan (Law: Insurance|Peter Logan Law Offices) donated in recognition that July 4th marked the 46th anniversary of his arrival in San Francisco.
President Casey reviewed his life and how he arrived at this moment as President of our Club. He was born in Deer Park, WA. He attended Columbia University in New York City, then took a job on the stock market trading floor. After seven years as a floor trader, he abruptly quit, and spent the next six months traveling in Europe. He arrived in San Francisco almost on a whim, and accepted a position as a trader at the Pacific Exchange. He got the travel bug again, and left for a period in Singapore as a trader. He returned to San Francisco, where he met his wife, Nicola. He and his wife live in North Beach with their two daughters.
John Mathers (Management Consulting|eVo Associates) and David Dye (Management Consulting|Retired) then presented Casey with a Captain’s hat (complete with a beautiful box). They noted that he must pass the hat on to his successor next year.
Casey introduced the Board members. All of the Board members spoke about their goals for the coming year. A recurring theme was that virtually every Board member asked members to consider volunteering to assist. Please consider volunteering to help our Club!Casey noted that the key theme of his term will be member engagement. He cited the large number of new members who have joined in the past two years. President Casey asked each member to look at the three key areas of our Club: meetings and social events, service projects, and leadership. Every member should be actively participating in at least one of these areas (preferably more than one!). During his term he will strive to increase our member engagement.
Door prize winners were Ann Daugherty (Financial Services: Private Trading|IBN Financial Services) and Stacey Poole (Law: Family| Lerner-Poole). They each received a FitBit.
Photos by Joseph Fang (Financial Services: Advising | Transamerica).
Edited by Scott Plakun (Management Consulting | The Plakun Group).