The meeting was called to order by President Andrew Stearns.
Inspiration
Suzanne provided our inspiration with the adage, “when life gives you lemons make lemonade.” She reflected on our time in lockdown, and espoused the benefits of the technology we have adapted to, and the inspiration it has provided us to change.
Visitors and Guests:
- Sesh visited from the Saratoga club.
- Tina’s sister Terri Trotter, and her son Colin were here.
- Karen Anderson who is applying to be a member was also a guest.
- Don McCleve’s daughter-in-law Jennifer was a guest as well.
We celebrated Rotarian birthdays today with Sandeep G., Judith P., Ericka B., Marlon S., Richard B., David H., Canan S., Michelle B., Marshall S., and Lydia N. Don McCleve played a wonderful Happy Birthday to them on the piano.
PSA
Call the older adults in your life to make sure they have an appointment for a vaccine.
Polling
Doug Brent put a polling question up to test our capabilities with polling. A screen with a polling question popped up and we were able to then respond to a survey during the zoom meeting. 55 of 59 people were able to see that question.
Wine Fest
Suzanne gave us a run down of the wine fest. We had a really fun night with lots of positive responses. There was a big team, and Tina and Patti really did a lot of work here and we certainly appreciate all their hard work. David Wells set up the online auction which worked really well. Amy and Rochelle did a great job on the PR and marketing too, and that really made a big difference. The San Jose youth orchestra really did a great job with the online performance as well. Terri and Tina packed up the food boxes, and the team found ways for us to safely pick up our boxes. Patti also came up with a way to display the auction items at pickup which helped with the marketing. We also gave Colin a special thank you for all his help with the technology. On the financials we raised nearly as much as we did in 2019 which is a huge accomplishment.
20 for 20
Ron Cassel and Tom Boyce had a special 20 for 20 where they both celebrated their 59th wedding anniversaries (which occur on the same day), and both donated $59 each for the Charities Foundation.
Avis also had a 20 for 20 for her broken eggs for St. Luke’s.
Robert Chaykin did a 20 for 20 in honor of Tina for her 3x phone calls to pick up the basket for the Wine Fest.
Patti did a 20 for 20 for Tina’s sister Terri and dubbed her ‘Hammer Light’.
Suzanne also did one about the donation from left bend where if we purchase this week, 30% will go back to Rotary.
Dan Snyder did a 20 for 20 because K-6 went back in person yesterday in Los Gatos!
Today’s Program:
Mike introduced Barrie Mullens who is the director for autonomous marketing at Nvidia. Barrie gave a presentation on the Metropolitan Education District (MetroED) Foundation. MetroED is 2 schools with one goal of sustainable and successful careers through modern vocational schools. It is focused on high demand careers in the Bay Area where students can build soft skills, like work ethic, teamwork, and collaboration. He played a success story of a student who went through the program medical assistant and now is an office manager at a doctor’s office. Some of the benefits of this program are that the students are more engaged and 68% work in the career they start at MetroEd. They serve students from underserved and under-represented communities, as well as offering scholarships to incoming high school and adult learners. Their model for success is more about funding education early in the career rather than the reverse which is more standard in universities. He ended with a slide that showed the alignment of MetroEd’s initiatives, and those of Rotary like Service Above Self, Diversity and Inclusion, etc, and a call for Rotarians to develop a long-term partnership with MetroEd.
Click here to view the slides from this presentation.