This week’s meeting kicked off with two thoughtful quotes from Rich Mucci who reminded us why Mark Twain is one of Rotary’s most frequent contributors.
Marc shared a story regarding U2 and The Edge who was on the cover of this month’s Rotarian magazine. He then overwhelmed us with several hundred inspirational quotes set to U2s “Sometimes you cant make it on your own” which helped set the tone for the rest of the morning.
Marc also highlighted Kurt Mitchler this morning, Kurt donated his hair to a Children’s Cancer charity over the weekend. He had been growing it out for over 2 years and does this regularly to help raise money for a very well deserving cause.
We had 2 guests this morning, Ida from Healdsburg Rotary and the Districts Assistant Governor and Retired Fire Chief Doug Williams.
Sue & Pam shared their recent experience in Healdsburg of helping prepare an exhibition highlighting the homelessness issues in our area. They shared a story of redemption for a man they partnered with, Rick, that had lived on the streets for some time having become addicted to meth at 10, but thanks to some help he received he is now reformed and was a key part of this event. Sue also gave a special mention to several members of the Rotary club that helped ensure the event was a great success.
Warren reminded everyone that Salmon fishing is probably the single greatest use of time known to man (and women too obviously!). He reminded everyone of the upcoming fishing trip the club is taking and invited anyone that is interested to follow the instructions from the email that went out to register and participate.
Tom updated the club on the Thank You ad the club is running in the local papers as a way of recognizing our sponsors. He also gave a special shout out to LeAnne Scally and 5th Street Financial as their ad was accidentally left out of the event program on the day.
John, Steve & Marc filled us in on the 3 amigos and clarified the way they expect the structure of the club to flow. The goal is to get full engagement throughout the club and to maximize the board’s ability to focus on decision making. John is looking forward to rolling out a “2 to 5 Campaign” which is aimed at optimizing the clubs committees and ensuring that each area has enough people to call on for support. Anyone interested in participating or in meeting with or even becoming an amigo is encouraged to ask. Everyone is part of the club and welcome to help in any way they would like.
Rich was thankful for a recent trip he took down the Amazon river. He regaled the club with fantastic stories of Pink Dolphins, Piranhas and Indiana Jones (well maybe not the last part!). He also let us know that the organizer is setting up another trip in February to visit the Mountain Gorillas.
This weeks guest speaker was Xerxes Whitney. Xerxes did a tremendous job of conveying his fantastic ability to motivate and energize a crowd with his presentation. He focused on a few key areas all built around “Bringing my awesome attitude”. He shared that he always asks people to focus on bringing their attitude and effort as those are the 2 things they can control. He also thanked the club for a $250 award he had received previously.
Xerxes went on to talk about a number of things, he asked the club “what does inspiration mean to you?” and shared the story of his grandmother who inspired him by helping shape his life at every turn. He finally shared one of his acronyms for life, PLAY.
P-Point Positive Approach
L-Love
A-Appreciate & Acknowledge
Y-Yourself-Take care of you