El Cerrito Rotary: The Wheel November 5, 2009

Editors:  Gary Buffon & John Ferguson Jr.

Week of November 5^th     

President Elect Karen welcomed everyone to the Friendly El Cerrito Rotary Club.  Jim led the flag salute and Gary B provided the thought for the day.

Secretary John:  Asked Gary B to introduce our visiting Interact Board members including:  Stephanie Wong, Eric Mai, Luke Twombly, Keith Soneda and Jonathan Lee.

Announcements:

-     Kathleen gave us a summary of the dictionary program and shared some of the thank you letters written by the children who receive the books.

-    Lee reminded us of the half price sale on Foundation donations.  Give a dollar and get credit for two as long as you give 100 up to 500 dollars

-    Gary B shared the letters received from the National Park service acknowledging the volunteering of the Interact members at the Home Front Festival

-   Stephanie Wong VP of the Interact club passed out certificates to the Rotarians who donated to Black and White dance fundraiser last year.  The Interact club grossed $8k and was able to donate $6k to the LN-4 hand project for District Interact.

-   Stephanie announced the District Interact Conference at El Cerrito High on Sunday from 9a to 2p and asked any Rotarians who can make to come and join the fun.

-    Jim Spain gave us details of the Reno Train trip and challenged us to get enough people to fill more than four seats on the caboose of the train and handed out application forms so we can make this happen.

Happy dollars:   Charlie is happy that one of his clients made a 2500 dollar donation to our foundation.  Jack is happy about having the line-up of workers for the GGF’s concession stand on Sunday.  Jim is happy that Sil had him buy raffle tickets at Rotary (but wanted his money back when he did not win).

Sgt at Arms Nancy:   Involved nearly everyone in the guess the magic number game.  There were more losers than winners but the club coffers won.

Today’s Program: 

Gary B introduced Jonathan Lee and Keith Soneda the two Interact members who attended Camp Venture last June.  Jonathan and Keith provided a summary of their experience.  They each summarized what they did in their business simulation project.  Jonathan and his team created a bicycle rental business and Keith and his team created a high end restaurant that served organic food.  They shared with us the steps they took of assigning executive roles to the members of their teams and then went into the various aspects of the business creation they had to complete. 

It is apparent that Camp Venture is an entrepueral camp with a lot of depth and technical aspects.  Keith indicated that he had attended a workshop prior to Camp Venture but it did not teach him as much as he learned at our RYLA (Rotary Youth Leadership Activity) camp.  Both Jonathan and Keith enjoyed the camp and thanked us for sponsoring on this educational and interesting experience.  Both young men answered a number of questions before they received a round of applause from the Rotarian for doing their presentation.

Jonathan Lee and Keith Soneda – Share their Camp Venture experienc

 Today’s Lottery Winner:   Charlie had his ticket selected and drew a cats-eye Marble.  Next week the pot is $125..

Thought for Week:

If the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch.

--Matthew 15:14