DIGITAL EDITION   No. 133   July 8, 2015 EDITOR: Julia Parranto PHOTOGRAPHER: Nicole Le

Our Program for July 15th:

ROTAPLAST

Rotaplast International is a non-profit, 501[c[3] humanitarian organization providing free reconstructive operations and treatment for children in need worldwide. Rotaplast celebrated it’s 23 year in January of 2015. Dr. Capozzi will talk about the journey of Rotaplast and the accomplishment of supporting 200 missions in 24 different countries and operating on almost 18,000 patients.

UPCOMING PROGRAMS

Wednesday, July 22nd:  Ebola
Wednesday, July 29th: Cuba – Then and Now

USEFUL LINKS

Visit our district at: http://www.rotary5130.org
Check out Rotary International at: http://www.rotary.org
Come see us at: http://rotarymeansbusiness

OPENING CEREMONIES

Our very dapper, natty and presidential leader, President Doug rang the Bell to start off our meeting, while Past President Marnie Goldschlag was drinking heavily in the rear of the room.

Pledge of Allegiance:

Our pledge was led by the man in the Hawaiian shirt, Steve Olson.

Invocation:

Kris Anderson read a poem by Dr. Maya Angelou, the point of which was we should all eat more meat and smoke more cigarettes? To hell with health food!

VISITING ROTARIANS

Nona Lucas introduced Assistant Gov. Linda Sinkay from the Sebastopol Sunrise Club.

MEMBERS WITH GUESTS

Jack Abercrombie introduced Kathy Schwartz, a new member in training (shorthand for candidate in process). Kim Murphy introduced her husband DeWayne. Rich de Lambert introduced Brandon Ulrich, who may come back to the Club. Will Haymaker introduced Dr. Shari Shamsavari, who may join our Club. Jose Guillen introduced our speaker, Ruben Arminana.

SUNSHINE REPORT

There was no sunshine report today.

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The meeting was interrupted by President Doug, who noticed that Marnie needed another drink, so he instructed the wait staff of the Flamingo Hotel to cater to her needs.

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RAFFLE

The Raffle was taken care of by Joy Parker and Rich de Lambert today, who changed things up a bit. Wayne Rowlands thought he won the raffle, but instead got a booby prize of some Burchill Bux; Roy Thylin then won a bottle of Gnarly Head Chardonnay, and then Chuck Barkley finally got to see if he could win the pot. He did not; he went home with his $10.

ANNOUNCEMENTS

Richard Lasovick announced that he had forgotten to distribute fliers after his Craft Talk last week. If you or anyone you know can make a kidney donation, we would like to keep Richard!

Nicole Le announced that there will be a family social at her house on August 30, 2015 from 11 AM to 2 PM. This is a new concept in our club and it is meant to get our children together with other children of Rotarians. President Doug noted that the club will be providing the food.

Elizabeth Karbousky announced that there will be a meeting of the Social Committee at her house on Thursday at 4:30 PM.

Kathleen Archer did a shout out for all the World Community Service people who helped at the Giro Bello lunch stop, especially the Gospe family and member in training, Kathy Schwartz.

OUR THERAPY MOMENT

Cathy Vicini gave us some fashion tips: spiked hair and bald spots? Miniskirts and support hose? Speedo’s and cellulite? Unbuttoned disco shirts and a heart monitor? In-line skates and a walker?

Great ideas!

PRES. DOUG AND OUR CHILDREN

Pres. Doug showed us a commercial, 20 seconds long, which featured a child asking his father several questions. Pres. Doug then suggested that children would be a great addition to our Board. If you have a child in the 7 to 12-year-old range, president Doug would like to form a committee of children to advise him on how to handle this club and our meetings. (Apparently, he needs a lot of help.) Any volunteers?

ROTARIAN BIRTHDAYS

According to Elizabeth Karbousky, there will be no more cheesy gifts given to Rotarians, and no explanation for why that will be. However, we did manage to sing happy birthday to the four Rotarians who came to the front to be serenaded.

4 WAY TEST QUESTION

Bald or bold? President Doug’s accent is becoming a problem! When it became clear that president Doug was looking for a bold Rotarian, not a bald Rotarian, Julia Parranto was the only volunteer to be put on the spot, and she recited the four way test, without looking, and with very little prompting. In other words, your editor nailed it! And received a four way test mousepad from President Doug.

PRESIDENTIAL RECOGNITIONS

Kris Anderson took a long, meandering trip and was asked to pay by the mile, but chose to donate $100 to her Paul Harris to get Doug’s year started off well.

Tim Delaney married off his youngest son down in San Luis Obispo and for some reason decided to sing us a Jan & Dean song: “two girls for every guy.” That was worth $100 to Tim’s Paul Harris.

Ann Gospe thanked the club for the support we’ve shown after the passing of her Mother, who apparently was an incredible woman and nurse, and for that reason Ann donated one hundred dollars to Polio Plus.

President Doug then thanked all the helpers today: greeters. Tim Delaney and Sam McMillan; lunch ticket taker – the Brown basket that never left its post; lunch ticket sellers Lena Humber and Ann Gospe.

OUR PROGRAM

Jose Guillen introduced our speaker for today, Dr. Ruben Arminana, the president of Sonoma State University, who gave us a very interesting and seemingly extemporaneous history of higher education in both the United States and the world.

Some fun facts from Dr. Arminana’s talk:
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• the UC Davis campus was originally a farm for students at UC Berkeley;
• the Morril Act, passed at the outset of the Civil War, provided for land-grant colleges in every state; each state got 30,000 acres for every Congressman;
• Cornell University in the state of New York, took some of its land in Wisconsin, purchasing acreage there that was rich in lumber, and as a result, Cornell is a very wealthy institution;
• in 1940, only 5% of American men had a college degree, now it’s more like 30%;
• the shift from male-dominated colleges to gender equality has been revolutionary: Sandra Day O’Connor was one of only three women in her law school and law schools are now at least 50% female;
• Arminana made the point that we have an economy now that requires people to have knowledge based jobs, not brawn based jobs, and he made a big point about education leading to prosperity;
• Arminana regularly tells students that if they want to be millionaires, all they have to do is go to college and graduate because then they will make 1,250,000 more dollars in their lifetime than if they only had a high school diploma;
• community colleges are synonymous with junior colleges; SRJC is one of only two junior colleges in the state not to change its name to a community college;
• Access, cost and quality are the three pillars of California education, although costs have gone up in the last several years. In fact, Dr. Arminana noted that college used to be free in the state of California. Hmmm, didn’t Bernie Sanders just propose that?
• Arminana claims that California is the most economical place to send a college student, an assertion which was quickly disputed by past president Marnie Goldschlag, but she was drunk, so who knows?
• The California State University system lost a third of its revenue after 2008 and it’s amazing that that it has survived;
• if we want to have an innovative economy, we have to educate our young.

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OFFICERS

Rotary Club of Santa Rosa Officers

President:Doug Johnson, President Elect: Jose Guillen, President Elect Nominee: Julia Parranto, Past President: Mark Burchill, Secretary: Jack Abercrombie, Treasurer: Cecil G. Humes, Sergeant at Arms: Jack Geary

President Rotary International

K.R. “Ravi” Ravindran, member of the Rotary Club of Colombo, Western Province, Sri Lanka

Governor, District 5130

Erin Dunn, member of the Rotary Club of Fortuna Sunrise

Attendance Secretary

Jack Abercrombie P.O. Box 505 Santa Rosa, CA 95402 707-538-4770

Board of Directors

Jack Atkin, Karen Ball, Tim Delaney, Tim Fawcett, Gesine Franchetti, Bill Hatcher, Will Haymaker, Elizabeth Karbousky, Steve Olson