El Cerrito Rotary: The Wheel July 8, 2010

President Karen welcomed everyone to the friendly El Cerrito Rotary Club. Kanti led the flag salute and Jane provided three thoughts for the day in honor of Karen's first meeting.

Secretary John:  Had Karen introduce her guests, Patirce Curtis and Linda Schneider.

Announcements:

• Karen told Tracy her Past President’s pin is coming
• Karen introduced her officers and board members and shared her goals and a calendar of events through December
• Jane announced the District Governors visit on August 5 and reminded everyone to be at the meeting
• Karen noted the change of location for the July 13^th visioning session.  It will be at the Albany Chamber 

Happy Dollars:   Mark S have $5 for the great time he had at the R/I Convention in Montreal.  Tracy also had a great time and suggested everyone who can to go to a R/I Convention.  Steve is happy to be the Past Treasurer and said he knows Michael Chang will do a great job.  Ilhami he gets to sit with different Rotarians each week.  Frank is happy he had a great time on his vacation in Hawaii.

Sgt at Arms Nancy:  Not on Duty Today

Today’s Program: 

Karen introduced our guest speaker Sophia Raday who is a friend of Karen’s and an author who wrote a book entitled Love in Condition Yellow.  Sophia gave us a brief introduction by telling us how she got to this point in her life with a life partner who is so dramatically different than she is.  Her husband is a West Point Grad and Army Ranger who now is an Oakland police officer.  Sophia graduated from Stanford and was a peace activist and got arrested by campus police for protesting war. 

She decided that her adventure would provide others a great story on which they could evaluate relationships, especially intimate relationships.  Based on career as a writer she wrote a book entitled Love in Condition Yellow.  The color code she uses comes from one of the greatest teachers when he was in the military, the late Col Jeff Cooper.  Cooper believed that military members have to be both physically and mentally tough in order to be effective and perform their mission.   The color conditions system of yellow speaks to the conflict that Sophia and her future husband encountered during their courtship.  

We were treated to excerpts from her book along with a short background of situations as their relationship grew from dating to marriage.  Sophia’s presentation was quite interesting and stimulated a number of great questions from the Rotarians.  At the end Sophia offered to sell her paperback edition of the book. Thanks Karen for getting your year off to a great start with Sophia's presentation!

Karen holds the book that will be presented to El Cerrito Library in Sophia honor

Today’s Lottery Winner:   Gary B. had his ticket drawn and drew a black marble costing him $5 but he did win the bottle of wine.  Next meeting the pot will be $60.

Thought for the Week:

The human heart, at whatever age, opens only to the heart that opens in return.

--Marie Edgeworth