Photography Courtesy of President-Elect Jerry Meshulam

Service to Youth Award

Welcome

The morning meeting was preceded by a slide show about our Rotary committees and leaders. Our Club Service Chair this year is Al Lustig. Club Service is the avenue of service which focuses on strengthening fellowship and ensuring the effective functioning of the club. The Club Service Committee oversees assignments (Pledge, thought, song, joke, and raffle prize), audio-visual needs, room setup, newsletter, program speakers, and fellowship events.

Debbie Klein is our membership chair. The Membership Committee develops and implements a plan for recruiting and retaining club members. The Membership Committee oversees the development and promotion of a sense that membership growth is every member's role, the processing of new member submissions, the disclosure of Rotary information to prospective members, new member introductions, and membership moments.

Barbara Barney is our International Chair. International Service encompasses actions taken to expand Rotary's humanitarian reach around the globe and promote world understanding and peace. The International Service Committee identifies projects worldwide to support with donations from our fundraisers, oftentimes partnering with other Rotary clubs. The International Service Committee identifies hands-on opportunities to participate in, working on the projects we fund.

To officially begin the meeting, President Linda rang the bell.

Terry Kelley led us in reciting the Pledge of Allegiance.

Helaine Campbell shared the thought for the day, "A visionary is one who can find his or her way by moonlight and sees the dawn before everyone else."

Joe Gazdowicz led us in singing 'Oh What a Beautiful Morning'.

Our visiting Rotarians for the day, all from the Rotary Club of Sebastopol, were Sarah Gurney (Mediator and Mayor), Bill Cole (Retired), Tom Boag (Technology), and Gene Nelson (Minister).

Gail Thomas introduced Duane Phillips and Jared Dryfus. Joe Gazdowicz introduced Nancy Woods, guest of John Balletto. Brian Purcell introduced his wife Jan, his son Luke, and their German exchange student Marc. Linda Johnson introduced our new member, Karen Cauthen, and Petter, our Swedish exchange student. Marty Webb introduced the speaker for the day, Chris Smith. Darlene Hawley introduced Patrick Slater, candidate for City Council. Terry Kelley introduced Dean Bringham, from the Sebastopol Senior Center.

Meeting

Petter Sjorberg, our Swedish exchange student came to the podium so we could get to know him a little bit better. Petter said his first week of school was fun, but confusing. Now that he has been going for a few days, he says it feels a little bit more natural and he is making friends. Petter said he is taking English, Government, History, Spanish, and a video production class.

The winner of the caption contest this week was Terry Kelley. The photo was of someone lying on the floor under our club banner. Terry's caption was, "I'll get you my pretty!!!"

Celebrating 49 Years of Marriage!

Connie King's birthday was on August 18th. Connie King is Kim Cottingham's partner. Kim is on a short-term leave of absence due to business commitments. Connie's mom is terminally ill and is living with Kim and Connie. Marie Davis' birthday was on August 23rd. Bill Kidd's birthday is on August 30th. Julie said she is taking him to see Van Morrison in Las Vegas for his birthday. Steve Darling's birthday is also on the 30th. Diana Curtis' birthday was on August 18th. Curt surprised her by having her son, daughter-in-law, and grandson waiting for her when she got home from work. They went to the city to have dinner where they met up with her brother, sister-in-law, and Curt's brother. She said it was the best birthday she's ever had. Brian Bauer's birthday is on August 30th. He is going on the Peter Wolf survival retreat on the Lost Coast. Rich Levin's birthday is also on the 30th. He will be spending his birthday with his family.

Gail and Bob Thomas's anniversary was on August 19th. Their family from Chicago came to visit and they went on a picnic in Spring Lake. August 26th is Bruce and Helaine Campbell's wedding anniversary. They have been married 49 years. They are going to Fort Bragg to have a non-Rotary weekend to celebrate.

We received a voicemail message from a local supporter telling us that we misspelled 'gator' as 'gater' on our Cajun Festival webpage. Good lookin' out. Gail Thomas announced that there is a sponsorship form on all of the tables. She encouraged us all to find sponsors for the event. President Linda said that we need people to sign up for shifts NOW if they know they can do it because we are at the point that we have to start looking outside of our club for workers. Terry Kelley said that unless you have specifically told him that you cannot be at Cajun and you have not yet signed up for shifts, then he will start assigning jobs to people. Ron Cutler said we need about 15 five gallon propane tanks for Cajun. If anyone has one, please bring it to the event full with your name on it so we can give them back to the correct people.

Julie Kidd and Linda Johnson came to the podium to introduce our new member Karen Cauthen. Linda Johnson is Karen's sponsor. Karen has been married to her husband, Bob, for 32 years. She is originally from Massachusetts. She spent four years in the Air Force. Karen attended nursing school in New Mexico. She is a Certified Pediatric Emergency Nurse. Before moving to Sebastopol, she was a Chief Nursing Officer in Needles, California. She is currently the Chief Nursing Officer at Palm Drive Hospital. Her husband is the Senior Operator at the Laguna Waste Water Treatment Facility. She enjoys camping and staining glass. Welcome Karen!

Luke Purcell and Marc came to the podium to talk about their short-term exchange student program. Earlier this summer, Luke went to Coburg, Germany and stayed with Marc and his family. It was an interesting and eye opening experience for him. It was really hot when he was there, but they had good swimming pools. He took a tour of Berlin with Marc and they rode bikes together. He went to Mark's family's vacation home near Austria. He saw a Bavarian parade where the locals wore traditional garb.

Marc has a six year old brother and a twenty-two year old sister. Marc and the Purcells went to the Academy of Sciences in San Francisco. They went shopping at the mall in Santa Rosa. He got to see the Golden Gate Bridge and rode the cable cars in San Francisco. He went to the Purcell's vacation home where they had a private beach. They also went to Armstrong Woods, the ocean, and saw the Air Show on Sunday. Overall, he has had a great time in the United States.

Marty Webb came to the podium so President Linda could give him his sweatshirt back that he lost. President Linda said she would normally fine him for the sweatshirt, but since he did such a great job organizing the picnic, she gave him a star pin instead.

Runner Up Golf Team in the 85th Annual Rotary Club of Sebastopol Golf Tournament

Program - Chris Smith - Press Democrat

Marty Webb introduced our guest speaker for the day, Chris Smith. He is a Columnist for the Press Democrat. His column runs three days a week in the paper. Chris wrote an article about the Analy Centennial event and the next day the event sold out.

Chris Smith came to the podium and thanked us for having him. He said he is preparing to go to Burning Man on Monday. He said he is going to take his tie-dye T-shirt that says "Just because I go to Analy doesn't mean I'm a hippie" to see if he can trade it for something while he's there. Chris is going to another Rotary meeting later today in Santa Rosa.

Chris grew up in Riverside, California. He studied Journalism at San Jose State University. He first visited Sonoma County in 1973 when he visited a friend at Sonoma State. He said the college looked like someone put a prison in the middle of a cow field. After college, he moved back to Riverside and wrote for the Riverside Press. He and his girlfriend drove up the coast one weekend and they stopped for breakfast at the Pinecone Café in Sebastopol. He heard a rumble and a train came billowing down Main Street. He immediately liked the area because he had never seen anything like that in Riverside. They traveled up the Coast all the way up to Gualala. He saw a little building that said 'Independent Coast Observer', a newspaper office. He went inside and asked about the newspaper and what they covered. The woman working that day said they cover topics such as Elk. He asked if they needed a reporter. The woman said they had a reporter but he quit a week before. He talked the publisher into hiring him. Chris moved up to Gualala in December of 1976 and rented a single-wide mobile home at Point Arena Campground. He covered topics such as an organization called 'Save Our Salmon'. He enjoyed working for the Independent Costal Observer, but he was making minimum wage and starving to death. He saw an advertisement for a Correspondent job opening for the Fort Bragg/Mendocino area for the Press Democrat. He got the job. He also took photographs for the PD. When his photos ended up on the front page, he was paid $15. In 1978, the PD offered Chris a staff job.

In 1985, the Press Democrat was sold after being a family owned independent newspaper for almost 150 years. The New York Times purchased the Press Democrat, which helped to grow the newspaper. In 2007, the business plan that newspapers had being operating under for the last 200 years collapsed. Classified advertisements used to be the way people sold their homes, looked for jobs, and sold a piece of furniture. Now the internet is making classified advertising somewhat obsolete. People use websites such as Craigslist now instead. The classified ad section of the PD has decreased by about 80%. In addition, some of the PD's biggest advertisers, such as Mervyn's, Gottchalks', Good Guy's and Yardbird's, went under due to the recession. Since 2007, the Press Democrat has lost about 50% of its workforce. Some day in the future, the Press Democrat will print its last issue. The publishers think it may happen as far as twenty years from now or as soon as eight years from now.

The irony of the newspaper industry now is that with all the technology these days, more people than ever are reading the Press Democrat online, but they are not paying to read it. Prospects are looking up a little bit. The publisher of the PD said he may be able to give back the pay cuts they took last year.

The Press Democrat is more than information. It's an experience. You're fighting over the comics, cutting out recipes, and sopping up the dog pee. Some day that experience will be gone. Will the connection to the community still exist when it's just www. instead of something you pick up off your front porch? Chris hopes to keep writing for about another ten years.

In 2001, Chris became a columnist when Gaye LeBaron retired. He plans to retire someday, but he won't get much in terms of retirement from the PD. He does have a garage full of boxes of T-shirts from when he was going to replace Gaye LeBaron. He thought the newspaper would love the slogan and put it on billboards and the sides of busses, but they did not love it. Chris unbuttoned his shirt to show us one of his shirts. It said 'I'm Not Gaye'. He encouraged us all to keep reading the Press Democrat.

Mark Olson donated concert tickets to see Chris Isaak on Sunday August 29th at Rodney Strong Vineyards. Joe Gazdowicz led a live auction to sell the tickets. They sold for one hundred dollars, which was donated to the International Committee.

Marty Webb reminded us that we need nominations for the Youth Service Award. Anyone in the community who is active in youth activities, such as Little League or Boy Scouts, can be nominated. Nomination forms can be submitted to Marty.

Joe Gazdowicz led us in singing 'Happy Trails'.

Raffle

Terry Kelley won the raffle prize for the day, but he didn't pull the right card, so he won a basket of goodies instead of money.

Caption Contest

Caption Contest Email the Editor with your Caption and Win a Prize

Terry Kelley - Last Week's Winner

About Rotary Fellowships - by Jerry Meshulam

What do you get when you combine your hobby with Rotary?

Are you passionate about your hobby and want to share that passion with other Rotarians? Check out the Rotary Global Networking Groups: http://tinyurl.com/yrde8q

If you enjoy wine, golf, quilting, chess, license plate collecting there's a fellowship group for you and dozens more, too.

I love to ride my bike on the scenic back roads of Sonoma County. Of course, Rotary is also a passion and combining the two is just about as good as it gets. The Rotary Club of Ukiah organized their first bicycle fundraiser this June with their Mendocino Monster ride. I did the 78 mile version that started from Mendocino College with a long climb out Orr Springs Road to Comptche.

We also got to ride on 40 miles of the Masonite Road, a private road through the forest that is normally closed to traffic. It felt great to support their local Rotary projects. Last October I rode out at sunrise from the Lakeport Marina for a clockwise spin around Clear Lake in support of the Lakeport Rotary.

Yesterday I found out about the International Fellowship Cycling to Serve. It's a group of Rotarians dedicated to promoting cycling as an opportunity for fellowship and international understanding and peace through cycling activities. How cool is that?

Most of the cycling activities are based in Europe, the international epicenter of cycling. But with the success of the Tour of California and locally, Levi's Gran Fondo attracting 6,000 riders to Sonoma County from around the country, cycling is hot in Sonoma County.

I contacted the USA/Canada membership chair and he was thrilled to have me interested in the group. I'm joining the Cycling to Serve fellowship and looking forward to promoting Rotary as I roll through the countryside. I'll let you know how it goes.

Let's hear about your passion, too.

Dates and Times