Farewell to our Exchange Students, and the Interesting History of Rigid Airships
We bid a fond bon voyage to our two Rotary Exchange Students, Kate Smith and Bekah Mortensen. We were treated to an interesting talk by John Geoghegan, author of When Giants Ruled the Sky, the brief reign and tragic demise of the American rigid airship.
John LeCave led the Pledge of Allegiance.
Scott Bonin, gave the Inspirational Thought: The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity.The optimist sees opportunity in every difficulty. – Winston Churchill Scott added that our Club inspires contagious optimism.
Susan Cole led the song, “My Club” patterned after “My Girl” by the Temptations.
We had several guests today: Kate Smith, on her way to Japan in August, and she brought her Grandma, Lauren Hull.
Bekah Mortensen and her Mom, Kelly and Dad, Greg were on hand to wish her bon voyage to Sweden this weekend.
Geoff Harrison and Allison Johnson from Sonoma County Resource Recovery joined our meeting today.
Lauren Hull, publisher of the Windsor Connections Magazine also joined us.
Welcome, all, and thank you for joining us!
Upcoming Events: July 26, (TONIGHT) Windsor Chamber Get Connected After Hours, tonight at Super Sonoman 7726 Bell Road August 16: DG Jennifer Strong visits, and our distinguished President, Brian Ling, celebrates his birthday. August 30: 5th Tuesday #1. President Brian is starting a new tradition. He has divided the club into groups. Each group plans an alternative to the usual breakfast meeting on the 5th Tuesday. October 1, Saturday, Tentative date for Windsor Rotary’s 35th Anniversary
Beth Smith had a parting gift and notes for each of our Rotary Exchange students, Kate and Bekah. Kate thanked the Club once again for staying by her over the last three years as we all navigated through the pandemic and she finally gets to go abroad. She is very grateful. Bekah echoed Kate’s thanks, and added that the Club has been so supportive.
Guest Presentation: Our Guest Speaker was John Geoghegan, author of When Giants Ruled the Sky; the brief reign and tragic demise of the American rigid airships. John gave a fascinating talk with slides about the truly amazing development of rigid airships – we call their much smaller cousins “blimps.” The USS Macon was the largest and most advanced airship – of the time, and was 140 times bigger than the Goodyear blimp. While planes had a range of 350 miles, the Macon had a range of 10,000 miles. They were intended to patrol the Pacific for Japanese ships and subs. They flew above the clouds and lowered a “spy car” below the clouds on a pendulum type cable to get closer observation. Moffett Field in Mountain View has the hangar that was originally built to house the Macon.
Why did it fail? John cagily answers, “You will have to buy the book to find out.” John focuses on unusual inventions that fail despite their great promise.
Thanks to Set up: Jason, Beth, JB, Larry Greeter: Mike Song: Susan Scribe: Monica Inspiration: Scott Speaker: JB Guests: Kate, Bekah, Geoff, Alissa, Lauren
Next week our substitute president will be Pegi Ball.
Our Pledge of Allegiance was led by Pegi Ball…followed by Bill Bolster who led us in a stirring rendition of “CUPS” by Anna Kendrick … and “We’re all going be missed when We’re gone!”
President Brian started the meeting by acknowledging Susan Cole’s new position as Adjunct Faculty in t SRJC’s Shone Farm tasting room. Susan is clearly the pro to learn from.
Treasurer Ed Turner “paid” for the placement of post-it notes everywhere in his office, by his granddaughters. Now when Ed’s co-workers need a sticky note, they just poke an arm into his office and peel it off a handy surface.
Guests:
Bekah Sorensen and Kate Smith, our Outbound Rotary Youth Exchange Students to Sweden and Japan respectively, are stepping out into their life-changing Rotary Adventures and we wish them well! You are invited to a farewell evening on Monday, July 25, 6:30PM in Pam Moulton’s yard to send them off with our love.
Phil Tappin, a WHS Student who is one of our Scholarship recipients, visited with his parents Mary and Herman. He is on his way to Sacramento State. His background of moving from a very small school to Windsor High School posed some challenges that helped him grow into the confident young man he is today.
Lauren Hull, publisher of the Windsor Connection, was welcomed as a return visitor. The current issue of the magazine has great, positive article about Windsor Rotary.
Board of Directors met on Monday, 7/18: President Brian reported that the Club Board had approved and passed a balanced club operations budget which will be available to the Club. This includes a dues increase of $35.00/per year /per Member.
FINES
Maureen & Mike were acknowledged for their recent recognition as cover models, “Taking Happiness Seriously” in the latest Windsor Connection magazine. They contributed $100 each to the Ken Moulton Scholarship Fund of the Windsor Rotary Community Foundation. Ed collected the $$ right away.
President Brian Welcomed our fellow member and District Area Governor Sandie Krutz who introduced a very thoughtful and informative presentation on the history, accomplishments and opportunities facing Rotary – worldwide in the future. In a video of 2022-23 Rotary International President Jennifer Jones’ presentation to District Governors worldwide, Jennifer explained the meaning of her theme “Imagine Rotary,” based on the phrase in the John Lennon song: “You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one,” which got Jennifer thinking about the good that we all do, and can do, together.
And… many Rotarians were able to be present for the Memorial this weekend for our member and dear friend Ken Moulton. Pam was not present at our meeting because she was driving her niece and nephew to SFO for their trip home to Spain. Ken’s contributions will last well beyond our years!COVID Update from your Rotary Nurse….
07/19/22
NEWS:
SONOMA COUNTY EXCEEDS 100,000 CASES OF COVID-19! NEW VACCINE BY NOVAVAX CLOSE TO BEING AUTHORIZED FOR USE IN USA! FDA HAS AUTHORIZED THE COVID-19 VACCINE FOR DISTRIBUTION. The hope is that many of those who have shied away from vaccinations will consider getting vaccinated with Novavax because it is protein-based and is a type of vaccine widely used for decades.
Subvariant BA.5 is causing widespread COVID-19 transmission in Sonoma County. 33.8 new daily cases (per 100,000 people) Unfortunately this number is probably higher because of so many doing home tests, discovering they are positive, but not reporting their positivity to Sonoma County Public Health. So these infections are not being tracked nor counted! Countywide hospitalizations spiked to 57 a weeks ago with 7 individuals needing Intensive Care support. Health officials are continuing to urge our residents to wear masks indoors when around large groups of people but have stopped short of instituting a mask mandate again.
COVID UPDATE:
Total Cases: 100,499 (last week 99,428) Recovered: 96,510 (last week 95,093) Active Cases: 3489 (last week 3835) Deaths: 500 (last week 500) Hospitalized: 38 confirmed cases and 4 in the ICU (last week 40 confirmed and 1 in the ICU)
Vaccination information….
As of July 17th, 2022, 1,118,487 doses of vaccination have been given to residents in Sonoma County. (last week 1,114,537). We now only have 78% (this has dropped because vaccines are now available to babies from 6 months of age and older) of our population 6 months 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:
Public Health and other health officials are strongly recommending that we use masks because of the surge in infections caused by the subvariant, BA.5. They suggest masks should be used when in crowded, indoor settings, but even outside in large groups. 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.
Unfortunately, the pandemic is not over and we are continuing to see huge surges in infection of COVID-19 in our community. We realize that all of us are so, very fed up with wearing masks and not getting out. We are seeing fully vaccinated and boosted individuals getting COVID. This virus will keep replicating and has shown it can become stronger and more infectious. Hopefully if we are able to convince more people to get their 2nd booster who before were not eligible, and convince those not even vaccinated to consider the new Novavax, it could give our community that boost needed to fight off infections. 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.
Stay tuned for release of Novavax and help others to know what is going on. We want our community safe…..
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 ( jbleep1@gmail.com 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.
