Our Program For Wednesday, December 18, 2019

Wednesday January 8, 2020: Director of Santa Rosa Symphony
Wednesday January 15, 2020: Bill Diles – Kenwood Hearing
Wednesday January 22, 2020: Public Safety Awards

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

Pledge: Chip Rawson
Reflection: Chip covered the invocation with a Christmas song, performing All I Want for Christmas is You.

Visiting Rotarians

From Gig Harbor Washington, Gary Schneider

Guests

Speaker Sheba Person Whitley was our guest today.

Sunshine

Ginny reports that sunny in spite of the rain!

Raffle

Michael Moore announced 1595 was the winning ticket. With a “Woohoo!” Diane Moresi leapt from her seat only to draw a bad marble…..😞

Cathy Tells a Joke

It’s Christmas morning and Sam wakes up one morning to find a gorilla in a tree near his house. He looks in the phone book for a gorilla removal service until he finds one that answers the phone.
“Is it a boy or girl Gorilla?” the service guy asks.
“Boy,” is the Sam’s response.
“Oh yeah, I can do it. I’ll be right there”, says the service guy. An hour later the service guy shows up with a stick, a Chihuahua, a shotgun, and a pair of handcuffs. He then gives Sam some serious instructions: “Now, I’m going to climb this tree and poke the gorilla with the stick until he falls. When he does, the highly trained mean Chihuahua will bite the gorilla’s testicles off. The gorilla will then cross his hands to protect himself and this will allow you to put the handcuffs on him.”
Then Sam asks, “What do I do with the shotgun?”

The service guy replies, “If I fall out of the tree before the gorilla, shoot the Chihuahua!

Announcements

Keven Brown announced the Pre Holiday party will be held Thursday, December 12th at Corrick’s. The store is decorated and ready to go and Keven is giving a discount of 50% to Rotarians who attend the party. What’s that, Keven? Oh, it’s 15%? 😉

Judy Glenn could use a couple more people to sign cards and to attend the Nutcracker event.

Dictionary Distribution is coming up. Ted Wilmsen is hoping everyone will do the school they did last year. There are still a couple of slots open. Please check with Ted.

It’s bell ringing time! Rio Ray said we raised over $2,300 last weekend. It’s another opportunity is this weekend to ring your bell! Sign up online or in person with Rio, who btw, has the coolest first name in our Rotary club!

Ray Giampaoli has sent out sponsorship requests and there is a Christmas sale for ridership. Please, help increase this year’s sponsorship!

Pete Lescure announced sign-ups are needed to help with duties.

Sam has lamb! (No, he’s not on the lamb…that we know of) Let him know if you are interested for his remaining “stock”.

JC’s son’s will be doing a short presentation. AND Karen’s Ball’s choir will be here next week singing our favorite toons.

Debi Zaft announced that we’ll remain at the Flamingo next year, but the facility cost will be covered in the dues and spread over the entire club membership regardless of attendance. (Brilliant idea and you can write that amount off your taxes, and/or pay it over time on your credit card!!) The great news is that lunches will now be $20 starting Jan 1^st!!

Program

Sonoma County Economic Development Director Sheba Person-Whitley was today’s speaker. Ms. Person-Whitley was raised in North Carolina and received her undergraduate degree from NC State University and a Master’s at Southern New Hampshire University. She has been in Sonoma County for about 6 months and serves as the Executive Director of the Sonoma County Economic Development Board.

Today, Ms. Person-Whitley talked about how the EDB works to promote economic development in the county through a variety of programs. Her organization reaches out to multiple agencies including area Chambers of Commerce to assist and develop economic development. She discussed personnel retention and talked about a comprehensive study of employee retention which will be released after the first of the year. With an unemployment rate of just over 2%, Sonoma County faces a critical shortage of workers at all levels. She pointed out that many young workers leave Sonoma County for reasons other than the high cost of living, some moving to San Francisco and other more expensive Bay Area communities because they offer things to that Sonoma County does not. Sonoma County is great if you like hiking, going to the beach or wine and beer tasting. If that’s not your thing, however, Sonoma County might seem like a sleepy community more suited to seniors. Her organization is working with others in finding ways to attract more young people to the area.

Ms. Person-Whitley discussed making the economy more diverse. Workforce shortages due to a very low unemployment rate is particularly hard on manufacturing. Her organization is exploring ways to help businesses grow and to attract and retain personnel. Issues such as a shortage of affordable housing is another issue they are trying to address. Downtown Santa Rosa is currently looking for ways to create more housing in the downtown core which should elevate downtown businesses who have are struggling, citing parking, homeless issues and shortage of pedestrian traffic as issues that need to be addressed.

Governor, District 5130

Kathy Flamson

Attendance Secretary

Debi Zaft P.O. Box 505 Santa Rosa, CA 95402

Board of Directors

Club Service I, Membership, Michael Moore
Club Service II, Club Meetings, Holly Garretson
Club Service III, Fundraising, Ryan Thomas
Club Service IV, Member Activities, Anne Gospe
Club Service V, Information Technology and Records, Brandon Urich
Community Service I, Member Involvement, Rio Ray
Community Service II, Youth, Andrea Geary
Vocational Service, Carolyn Fassi
International Service, Dan Balfe

DIGITAL EDITION No. 341 December 11, 2019  EDITOR: Layne Bowen PHOTOGRAPHER: Kris Anderson PUBLISHER: Richard Lazovick