Greetings boys and girls. And welcome to Mark Shirley's first official meeting as our President. But to be accurate, it's actually his 52nd meeting as our President. But who's counting ?

 

So, there was a large group of us this evening. Enough to require 4 tables. Again. And there were only 3 tables set. But the Shadow eavesdropped on a conversation among the Club's movers and shakers, the gist of which was that Eric would be told we want 4 tables set up EVERY WEEK. So, Eric will be told. Now let's see how good a job Eric does in remembering.

 

Mark gaveled us to order, then passed the baton over to Patty - who did not forget her PTR responsibilities. Hear, hear ! Patty then led us in the pledge and for her thought she noted that the nation had just concluded its 4th of July holiday, a holiday for families. Patty had gone to the County Fair for the 4th, together with Holly and Keith. While there she'd seen the many ribbons won by Roy Barron as well as stuff from other MER members. It all served to remind her that Rotary was now part of her family. And vice versa.

 

Guests tonight included Cory and Traci Melanini, previously of Marin Sunrise - both of whom will be joining our Club next week, Helen Abe, our ADG, Malcolm's special gal Barbara Gillette (who was caught filling out an application to join our Club) and Kim Kassner previously of the San Bruno Rotary Club.

 

Good Times included Keith Axtell's remarkable recovery from a hospital stay. Indeed his return was so quick, most folk weren't aware that he'd left. Welcome back Keith. Recently retired Big Boss, John Tanko announced that he and Darby had just become property moguls. Exchanging rent receipts for tax deductible mortgage payments, John and Darby have just bought a home on Marin Oaks in Ignacio. Congratulations, John. Marcia then announced that she was pleased as punch to have received a thank you note from the child she was sponsoring in Mexico. It was written in Spanish, so she couldn't read a lot of it, but she could grasp the gracias and a few other key words which was more than enough for her. Muy Bueno. Roy then admitted to winning more ribbons than he could count at this year's County Fair for his fruit and vegetable entries. You're lucky we didn't fine you, Roy.

 

Curt got a little confused, thinking we were into the announcements section, as he invited all of us up to his island on Clear Lake for the weekend of August 14-15. Based on previous weekends there, this should be a great outing. Details to come. Elsia announced that she'd had some good times last weekend watching her daughter continue to win at basketball. Patty, Holly and Keith then shared a few of their impressions of the RI Convention in Montreal with us. Keith felt that the Convention highlight may have been the private viewing of the Circ d' Soleil ensemble. One of the other Convention attendees thought that it was when Past RI President John King gave her a kiss.

 

Eiko thought that we had a great meeting last week, and indeed we did. In case you forget, that meeting she was referring to was The Taming of the Tanko. And it was indeed a great show. Jayne then told us that she was behind the many bottles of wine which had mysteriously appeared on our tables, which was at least in part a recognition of the continuing strong performance of the Club in supporting the Rotary International Foundation. Despite our small size, we continue to be among the top 2 or 3 contributors in the District, a District which incidentally is one of the top districts in RI in this respect. Mark told us that he'd heard from our Club's President Elect, also known as Mark's Dad who's busy roasting his shorts in Egypt. He says that he'll be back the first week in August.

 

Finally completing the Good Times section of the meeting, we moved into the new member installation phase, where Gene Duffy, one of our longest standing honorary members became a full time, regular member of the Club. Yeah, Gene. Welcome.

Patty then managed the raffle, which consisted of a nice bottle of specialty wine - port or something like that + homemade brownies, from Patty's kitchen. Wow ! And the winner of those was Kim Kassner, a guest/visiting Rotarian, who was nice enough to share his booty with the other table members and therefore deserves a HooHaa. Or whatever for his generosity.

 

And lastly we had a very nice talk by an associate of Mark's at CPMC, a Dr. Linda Clever. At the conclusion of her talk she was given the traditional book, and we were all dismissed. See you all next week.