Meeting Minutes for Tuesday, July 12, 2022
 
Meeting began at 12:30 called to order by new President Mike Norcia, to kick off our 99th year.
 
Pledge: John Colwell
 
Inspiration: John Pencer.  The theme was teamwork. He told a story about a manager in a high tech company who brought her team together for a team building exercise. They were all given balloons to write their names on, and then the balloons were put in a room surrounded by 700 other balloons. Each person was tasked with finding his or her own balloon within a certain amount of time. Nobody found his or her balloon. Then the team was asked to go in and find any balloon with a name on it, within the time limit all of the balloons were found.  The collective result is far greater than the sum of the parts. This is what makes Rotary strong: team work. 
 
Visiting Guests: Lydia Norcia introduced Tom Picraux.
 
July 4th: Beer and Wine Garden event at Oak Meadow Park, “First Tuesday” was a big success and we had a great turn out.
 
Promenade Thursdays: We have a Rotary booth in front of Ed Stahl’s travel agency. Come by the booth and visit over the next few Thursdays.
 
Roast and Toast: Great turn out and we watched a wonderful video of the event put together by Suzanne Boxer-Gassman. 
Mike called Nicholas up and presented him with a new past president’s badge.

Announcements:

JFS Backpack Drive: Kirsten Bridges talked about the Jewish Family Services Backpack Drive. We are collecting school supplies, gift cards and donations for the next two weeks for refugee families. You can also go to SighUpGenius and choose a request, go to Target Registry and shop, buy and deliver to JFS, mail a check to JFS, or pick a tag from the JFS website and shop. Tags will be available at the July 19 meeting. On July 31 the backpacks will be put together at the JCC, if you are interested in helping contact Kirsten.
West Valley Community Services Backpack Drive: On August 6 at Westgate Mall by Old Navy, people can sign up to help shop with a child to fill a backpack with school supplies. For more information contact Suzanne Boxer-Gassman.

2021-2022 Awards: Ron Cassel and Gae LaTorre presented plaques of appreciation and special awards for outstanding service to: Jeffrey Barnett, Randy Cobb, Dick Konrad and Tonya McQuade.
Rotary District 5120 Academy Training: Jeffrey Barnett spoke about this leadership course.  This is an 8-month interactive online training that delves into the history of Rotary on a local and international level. It is a way to meet Rotarians from all over California. If you are interested, contact Jeffrey Barnett.
 
Lloyd Grants memorial service will be held on July 23 at 2:00pm at United Methodist Church, Los Gatos.
 
Red Badge Bio: Jean-Marc Blanchard:
 Jean-Marc has family in France and Hong Kong; he is of French and Chinese descent. He attended Harker Academy, Bellarmine and Berkeley. He obtained his PHD in Political Science in Philadelphia. He has two daughters. His field of expertise is International Relations. He has worked with KNN, public finance advisory, Federal Savings and Loan Insurance, Corporation-FDIC with banking regulations. He taught in China at Shanghai Jiaotong University and was a professor and Assistant Dean, and East China Normal University as a distinguished Professor.  He currently works at Mr. and Mrs. S.H. Wong Center for the study of Multinational Corporations, focusing on how politics affects economics and how economics affects politics. He joined rotary because he believes in service above self; service for self; and service =self.
 
Committee Profile: Enterprise Leadership Conference: Andrew Stearns presented.  This conference is a joint effort between San Jose Rotary, Los Gatos Morning Rotary and our Club. We take 96 High School Juniors to Assilomar for a 3-day leadership conference. The students learn how to put a business plan together, how to create a product and service and then present this to the group in a 10 minute presentation. The winners then come and present to the Rotary groups at one of their meetings. Contact Andrew Stearns if you are interested in participating.
 
Mike decided that the theme this year would be sports to take the place of the music theme from last year.  Also 20/20 will now become 30/30.
 
30/30: Andrew Howard is giving $100 to celebrate his daughter Olive for being the IB Student of the Year from Lexington Elementary School for consistently displaying the attributes of a global citizen; and for his son who was on the 9-year-old All 
Star Baseball Team for Los Gatos.
Barry Cheskin gave $30 for accidentally calling Mike during the meeting.
 
Mike’s Rotary Journey and Vision:
Mike joined Rotary in 2003. His first committees were the Great Race and ELC.  He was nominated for President for the 2013-2014 year but in the 7th month his son Nick was diagnosed with leukemia so he had to pull out. Nick is doing fantastic now and has been in remission! Mike attended the Rotary International Conference in Portugal in June 2013. His Club goals for the year:
Service: as much as we can do, structure to maximize impact
Foundation Giving-Global Impact of rotary: Working with local clubs on international projects, District Directed Funds, House of friendship at RI
Focus on Our Members: What are our members passionate about, programs presented by members at the meetings, committee profiles every week and transparency.
 
2033-2023 Board of Directors:
Vice-President- Michelle Myers-Nelson
Secretary- Doug Brent
Asst. Secretary- David Hubbard
Treasurer- Patti van der Burg
Asst. Treasurer- Dan Snyder
President elect- Meghan Burton
Past President- Nicholas Welzenbach
Directors- Jeffrey Barnett, Paul Johnson, Jeff Blum, David Wells, Kirsten Bridges
 
Every month we will have a free raffle for flower arrangements made by Michelle Myers- Nelson. Today Barbara Fishman and Sue Heller both won an arrangement.
 
Mike adjourned the meeting at 1:30