Good Day fellow Rotarians and friends and family who are reading our weekly bulletin. Today’s
minutes are from TUESDAY, July 12, 2022
Pledge of Allegiance lead by Brian’s guest Jeff Harrison.
INSPIRATION:
Tom Boylan first attended a Santa Rosa Rotary club where Brian Ling’s father was a member. His first meeting was shortly following a substantial earthquake in Nicaragua. A hat was passed to collect money for the Rotary foundation which was all going to be donated to Nicaragua. Tom was impressed and inspired at how easily and quickly the club raised for money for people so far away that they did not even know. People just simply cared enough to help perfect strangers. He joined, dropped out, and rejoined the Windsor club during Maureen’s presidency. Brian was supposed to be next president but emergency circumstances prevented that, so Tom was asked, became president and is now District Governor elect.
SONG:
JB Leep lead the club in a rousing rendition of ‘This land is your land, this land is my
land’.
No visiting rotarians today:
GUESTS OF ROTARIANS:
Lovely wife Debbi Ling, Sonoma county Resource Recovery Geoff Harrison-SCRR, Alyssa Johnson-SCRR, Kate Smith, Bekah Warm welcome to John LeCave, Bev Graham who were in attendance for the first time in a long time.
Brian Ling Inspiration – Before we introduce our guests, I want to share my Rotary Inspiration who is Jennifer Jones, this year’s President of Rotary International. During my in-depth Rotary indoctrination, the past 6+ months, I’ve had the pleasure of hearing her speak at PETS and the RI Convention, as well as a more personal meeting she had with our District 5130 members while at PETS.
She is a fabulous Rotarian and Humanitarian, and she is going to take Rotary to places and plateaus our members worldwide have never seen before. Her theme of Imagine Rotary will unite all 1.4MM Rotarians not just as the Ukraine war continues, but through the many years of recovery once this tragic event ends. It wasn’t planned this way over a year ago when she announced Imagine Rotary as her theme, but John Lennon’s verses haven’t left my brain since Jennifer led us all singing Imagine to close out this year’s PETS conference, just days after the Russian invasion began.
“When did you become a Rotarian?” is the question she is asking all Rotarians while encouraging us to share our story. Also known as that “Rotary Moment”, this year we’ll follow President Pam’s charge to let all of us hear YOUR story.
Today’s program will include a few member announcements and presentations, but instead of a guest speaker we will have what my Rotarian Father frequently called “A Preview of Coming Attractions”, as we embrace this new Rotary year.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
- Bill Bolster presented past President Pam, one of over 30 past fabulous presidents in our club, the gavel plaque.
- Beth Smith is hosting a Bekah and Kate bon voyage party to give them a fun and loving send off. The date is Monday the fun on July 25th at Pam’s house. We are all invited and encouraged to bring appetizers.
- The 5130academy.org Rotary Leadership course is being offered this year. Patrick Dunn has signed up. This is an awesome opportunity to learn a great deal about Rotary. There are still opportunities available to join the class. You are welcome to contact Barbara McChesney if you want to hear about her experience. Applications are due on August 15 th .
Environmental focus: Barbara presented the District Governor Environmental Citation Award.
- Jennifer Strong’s goals are to educate members and create awareness about Rotary’s environmental area of focus.
- Clubs across the district are asked to participate in monthly challenges of their choice following the themes outlined. They turn in their reports to Barbara who will then share with Jennifer. Members are asked to participate however big or small they can. Barbara and fellow ESRAG members will create ideas for each challenge which Jennifer will share with the entire district.
- This month is Plastic Free July. The suggestions for our club are` included in bulletin. Please submit your name via email or by putting your name and task in the basket at the front table at our meetings.
Also from the meeting was the Challenge. I am including the flyer here, attached and below. The flyer explains how to qualify for prizes!!
Please note that one of the qualifying things you can do is to volunteer for Waste Less Windsor this Thursday, 7/28. Please contact JB Leep ( [email protected] 707-403-8100 ) to volunteer.
Brian’ goals and coming attractions:
- Brian’s number one goal is to achieve 120% participation.
- 35 th year anniversary. He is looking for voluntolds to imagine, plan and implement an event in late September. This event will highlight rotary and perhaps be a fundraiser.
- District Governor Jennifer Strong will visit our club on August 16th with a social the evening of Aug. 15th . August 16th happens to be Jennifer’s birthday. She will be bringing a gift to be auctioned off and we will give her a gift to auction at the next club she visits. Diane Brabatz has offered to create the gift basket. Kurt suggested no plastic.
- 5 th Tuesday meetings: Brian has divided club into 4 teams as there are 4 5 th Tuesdays. Each team will organize the 5 th Tuesday meetings. The team can create the meeting anyway they like and it doesn’t necessarily have to be on a Tuesday. See the attached schedule to know which team you are on. ***Leslie fined Brian for making the print too
- small. (He’s trying to minimize paper.) He enjoyed the heckling from the club “We tried that and didn’t work”, “we don’t do it that way” etc.
- DGE Tom Boylan’s goal is 20% growth throughout the district. Brian’s goal is 20 new members in our club over next 2 years. Renee is continuing as membership chair.
- Jennifer Jones’ is hoping to increase membership of women internationally by 30%.
- Michael Juric suggested that the 5 men who participated as hula dancers at Pam’s debunking could now use she and her as their pronouns contributing to the overall growth of women members.
- Looking for Club/International Service Committees.
- Brian is looking at best practices for communicate with members recognizing the huge
- numbers of emails.
- Brian is also looking to create a new task force for communication and investing.
- Fundraising is in question this coming year.
A. Leadership Team –
- IPP Pam Moulton, PE Doug Williams, and PN Barbara McChesney in the P-Line
- Co-Treasurers Ed Turner and Carol Martin
- Secretary Catherine Hanron
- Renee Hyde – Membership
- Pegi Ball – Youth Service
- JB Leep – Programs and chief technician
- Barbara McChesney – Environmental Service
- John Hackenburg and Dianne Brabetz – RI and Club Foundations
- Sandie Krutz – Assistant District Governor
- Joan Mora – Fun and Socials
- Chris Landwehr – Meeting volunteer coordinator
- Leah Hansen – Sunshine and member acknowledgement
- Michael Juric – Scholarship coordination
- Dan Meyers – Students of the Month
- Consultants to the Club/International Service Committees – Sue Nelson and Susan Cole (Yes, we’re looking for new committee leaders or I’ll get impeached before we celebrate the big 35!)
We’ll also have a few Substitute Presidents, new whistle blowers, and a few task forces to recommend changes to our Communication Strategies and structure of the Windsor Rotary Community Foundation. He would like to see some some new names in leadership as the team is very similar
Brian thanked all for coming and for giving him the honor to serve as our president.
Final words. . . Imagine there’s no heaven
It’s easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us, only sky
Imagine all the people
Livin’ for today
Ah
Imagine there’s no countries
It isn’t hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion, too
Imagine all the people
Livin’ life in peace
You
You may say I’m a dreamer
But I’m not the only one
I hope someday you’ll join us
And the world will be as one
Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world
You
You may say I’m a dreamer
But I’m not the only one
I hope someday you’ll join us
And the world will live as one
COVID UPDATE…..
07/12/22
NEWS:
VIRUS LEVELS HAVE RISEN ACROSS THE NATION AS THE EVER-MORE CONTAGIOUS SUBVARIANT (BA.5) ARE CAUSING INFECTIONS! 112,000 NEW CASES PER DAY ARE BEING REPORTED – how many more are not being reported as people home test. The White House and health experts are seeing to blunt this virus by offering every adult in the USA a 2nd booster while the vaccine producers work on “tweaking” the booster for October as a means of stopping the surge. US regulators are committed to updating the 2020 vaccine recipes for the Fall boosters with new formulations. They hope to defend against the ultra-contagious omicron subvariants and hope that these may appeal to those people who have been holdouts to consider getting vaccinated.
VACCINATIONS FOR CHILDREN 6 MONTHS TO 5 YEARS OF AGE ARE AVAILABLE! Both Pfizer and Moderna were cleared by the FDA for use in young children. The CDC is recommending one booster for children age 5 and older several months after their initial series of vaccinations.
COVID UPDATE:
Total Cases: 99,428 (last week 98,414) Recovered: 95,093 (last week 93,887) Active Cases: 3835 (last week 4030)
Deaths: 500 (last week 497)
Hospitalized: 40 confirmed cases and 1 in the ICU (last week 40 confirmed and 1 in the ICU)
Vaccination information…. As of July 10th, 2022, 1,114,537 doses of vaccination have been given to residents in Sonoma County. (last week 1,111,745). We remain at 83% of our population 5 years and older who are fully vaccinated and 6% have had at least one (1) dose. Vaccines are still available, still be given and special consideration is being given to some of our minority communities within our county to try and educate, encourage and offer vaccinations.
MASKS:
Masks are encouraged right now to be used because of the surge in infections caused by the subvariant, BA.5. They should be used when in crowded, indoor settings, but even outside in large groups where you do not know the people, around people who are elderly, have underlying health issues or are immunocompromised. Plastic shields in stores are coming down, have come down and there appears to be a more relaxed stance in stores and markets. However, judge your situations, how long it has been since you had a booster and how long you will be in the situation. Masks are now optional on airplanes; however, they are still required in airports and most other forms of public transportation. The CDC is still recommending masks on airplanes.
The pandemic is not over and although we are weary of living behind masks, we are facing increasing infection rates due to the highly contagious subvariants. We are seeing fully vaccinated and boosted individuals getting COVID. We are having to live with this virus that keeps replicating and seeming to get stronger and more infectious. Hopefully we will see more people getting their 2nd booster who before were not eligible and give our community that boost needed to fight off infections.
Although infected people are not being admitted, they are getting sick and the hope is a newly reworked formula for the Fall will give us the option of another booster tailored more to the subvariants. Until then, stay safe, wear your mask and help to keep everyone safe who is immunocompromised or has underlying health issues to ensure we are vaccinated and boosted!
TESTING:
Go to socoemergency.org to learn more about free COVID -19 testing in Sonoma County. Look for COVID-19 Testing and Tracing in Sonoma County. In addition my staff at At Home Nursing still are available to provide you COVID testing if you need it (PCR), FIT testing for a N95 mask so that it fits properly or answer any questions you may have. Call our office at 707-546-8773 to schedule an appointment. If you want to schedule either a booster or the vaccine, appointments can be found by visiting: https://socoemergency.org/events/category/pop-up-vaccine or call 707-565-4667.
Hopefully you are staying safe, healthy and well.
Fondly,
Di