Program July 2, 2009

Club Dark / Fourth of July

No Meeting July 2nd.

Mark Your Calendar for July 9th when we have a special Nepalese Musical Performer and Celebration of Tracy's Term as President. 

El Cerrito Rotary: The Wheel

El Cerrito Rotary

The Wheel

Editors:  Gary Buffon & John Ferguson Jr.

Week of June 25^th   

(www.rotary5160.org)

www.elcerritorotary.org

President Jack welcomed us to the friendly El Cerrito Rotary Club.  Alan led us in the pledge and Jack gave us the thought for the day.

Introduction of guests and Visiting Rotarians:  Mark Scott introduced John Stashik, the Vice President of the El Cerrito Chamber of Commerce.  John F. introduced his friends Taylor Wang and Candace Hyde-Wang.

Announcements:

-  We have signed a deal to work 4 more Sundays at GGF beginning in August.

-  There will be no Rotary next week due to Saturday being July 4th.

- Jack showed us some black and white pictures of our oldest member Marv Collins putting up an El Cerrito Rotary sign.

Happy dollars:  Pat was happy to show us her talking Mother’s day card she received from her son.  Alan was happy to be back and announced that he is now married and has a baby girl.  Lee was proud to announce that his daughter will be leaving soon to attend Oxford, and also mentioned he is willing to take your Rotary Foundation donations at his office should you like during our off week next week.  Mark Scott complemented the awesome mixer thrown by El Cerrito Mechanics Bank (Go Nancy!).  Lastly our guest Ken Burns was thrilled that someone bought his lunch.

Sgt at Arms:  Not on duty today.  Until that is…. Mark filled in for Jim and read a letter that will be sent to collect all the money Sgt at Arms saved by being the Sergeant.  Pay up please Sarge!!.

Today’s Program:  

Today’s program was put on by a former member and current Editor of The Contra Costa Times Chris Treadway.  Chris gave three points on why he believes that newspapers give a superior experience than online news.

1.     If you drop it, it doesn’t break.

2.    If it’s stolen you can get another one.

3.    It’s absorbent in a pinch.

He then showed us two papers from his collection.  The first of the two was from the morning after President Kennedy was assassinated.  The second was from the morning after President Obama was elected.  Both, he says, are also reasons why newspapers play a special part in our lives.  After Chris’ presentation he began to take questions.  Most of which had to do with newspaper’s downfall, and what he thought would remedy the situation.  In his opinion it sounds like there’s more of a place for newspapers on the local level than on a national one.  But if newspapers are going to survive, they’ve got to find more creative ways to offer advertising space, since advertising is what makes newspapers as affordable as they are.  We were all thankful for the awesome presentation and Q&A time Chris provided.  He encouraged us to contact him if we had any other questions, thoughts, or story ideas.

Here’s Chris telling us about the current status of the newspaper business.

Today’s Lottery Winner: Neal Wells won the drawing for the Genie Stone, and our guest Taylor had his ticket pulled and drew a cat’s-eye marble that won him a bottle of wine.  Next week the pot is $235.

Thought for Week: “ If you don’t know where you are going, any road will get you there.”- Lewis Carroll