Photography Courtesy of Jerry Meshulam

Meeting

The meeting began with the pledge of allegiance.

	Debbie Klein gave the thought for the day from Anne Frank, "laziness may appear attractive, but work is satisfaction." "Let's hear it for work," said President Rod.
	Joe Gazdowicz led the group in the song, "This Land Is Your Land."
	Some of the visitors for the day included Pam Davis from Santa Rosa West, Mario Ramos and Gene Nelson from the Rotary Club of Sebastopol. Linda Johnson introduced her guest for the day, James Conner. She congratulated him on being a new grandfather.

Happy Bucks and Recognition

President Rod shared some of the thank you notes the club has been receiving since the grants have been sent out. The Ceres Project expressed their gratitude for the $1,502 grant they received to buy new kitchen equipment. Another note was from the Analy band, thanking the club for the grant money to buy two new violas. The Sebastopol police department thanked the club for the donation for the K-9 unit. Food For Thought expressed their ongoing gratitude to the club for the continuous support they've received as well as a $1,000 grant that enabled them to purchase a food storage cooler.

David Mark Raymond announced that more than $700 has been contributed to the Rotary Foundation so far this year from our club alone, in large part due to the leadership of Mark Olson. This money is used to help fund the Polio Plus Program. David reminded the club that 50% of the money that is donated to the foundation comes back to us to fund our local grants 3 years later. David initiated a contest for the club. Over the next 3 months, the club will match any members' donations to the Rotary Foundation up to $8,000, which counts towards Paul Harris Fellow points. Since the beginning of the year, each member of our club has donated, on average, $205.

President Rod said he was told to lighten up on the fines because all the members have paid their dues in full. However, he said he wasn't going to completely give up on fines. Scott Hensey was fined five dollars because Jane's birthday is coming up on the 28th. Rod gave Linda Sinkay a hard time for sitting at a table full of Past Presidents. "You have to be President for a year before you can be a past President and I'm next in line," he teased. Rod encouraged Joe Gazdowicz to share some Happy Bucks because he recently sold a car. "They were finally able to turn the water back on," joked Joe. Kathryn fined the President himself! Dan Needham expressed his thanks, to Jerry Meshulam and Richard Levin, who helped him with a project at work, with some Happy Bucks. Al Lustig shared his Happy Bucks that after a slow season in his business, he recently landed a big kitchen, family room and bath remodeling job. Warren shared that he recently hosted 2 IRS agents, but his Happy Bucks is for the fact that he was only charged $300. Madjid Zeinal shared $20 because he was voted Best Chiropractor in Sonoma County in the Bohemian Newspaper.

Club Assembly

President Rod began the assembly by talking about how being a Rotarian has much more meaning than simply coming to a meeting every week. It's about the work we do and the friendships we develop. Rod described the similarities between being in Rotary and being a Parish Priest. "It's difficult to match up all the gifts from the members to the various activities of the organization," he said. He invited Madjid to speak about volunteering to be the set-up and take-down guy for the year. He said he enjoys getting to know some of the other members so early in the morning. He encouraged everyone to participate and find something to do that excites them and gets them motivated.

Joe Gazdowicz and Kathryn Graham came to the front of the group to speak about how to bring in new members. Other club members shared some of their thoughts as well.

Then Rod took down some names of people who would like to volunteer to help set-up and take down the meeting for the next couple of months.

Michael McGlothlin came to the podium to speak about community service, which he describes as the life blood of Rotary. He described what the community service community does and reminded the club of some upcoming events.

President Rod spoke about the vocational committee and the gratification of helping to choose the Laguna Student of the Month and the Rotary Youth Leadership Award.

Barbara Barney came to the podium to talk about the International Committee. She described the joys of traveling the world and making new friends in the process of serving our international community.

President Rod added that we can also have an international experience at our morning meetings by talking with Eric, our exchange student from Taiwan.

Gail Thomas gave the group a brief update on the upcoming Guys Can Cook Too event. Mark gave a summary of some of the new sponsors this week.

President Rod almost gave away an auction item for Guys Can Cook Too as the door prize!

As the meeting came to an end, Joe led the group in the closing song, "Happy Trails."

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