1. Opening: Ring bell. “Welcome to the Rotary Club of Fullerton”

2. Opening Commentary: Ken Kaisch

Over the past 4 months, I have used this opportunity to talk about the importance of Rotary and Rotary values. You have heard me talk about our motto, Service Above Self, so often that you probably dread hearing my voice. Recently, from a totally unexpected direction, the importance of Rotary and our values was reaffirmed.

Twenty years ago, a book was published that detailed the increasing atomization of our American culture. Backed by mountains of data, the book, Bowling Alone, detailed how Americans were falling away from civic, social and political engagement, and were moving instead towards a kind of atomized individualism where everyone stands alone, separate and fundamentally disconnected from the fabric of our culture. We have watched these prophesies play out in the unrest which has swept our country starting with women’s protests in the #MeToo movement, the Black Lives Matter movement, and the current political campaign which, hopefully, is now at an end.

Sadly, the author did not describe any clear way forward, but recently he and a co-author have published a book which envisions an answer to our collective problem. The book is titled, The Upswing: How America Came Together a Century Ago and How We Can Do It Again. To provide the answer, the authors looked to our past. Roughly 130 years ago, during the so-called Gilded Age, America suffered from civic and social strains remarkably similar to our own. This was the age of the Robber Barons, the great titans of industry who built the companies that put our country on the map. It was also an age of huge social unrest. Workers labored in unsafe factories and mines. They tried to organize into unions and the Robber Barons hired ‘goons’ to break the strikes, killing and injuring hundreds with impunity. The gap between the haves and the have-nots was very wide.

It was the time of Jim Crow in the South, with rampant and overt discrimination in the “Land of the free and the home of the brave.” In many ways, the country was divided then, just as it is now. It was every man for himself and dog-eat-dog.

Then we had about 40 years of intense and wide-spread trauma. The US entered WWI. Then we had the Great Spanish Flu Pandemic of 1918. Then the Great Depression of 1929, which waxed and waned for roughly 10 years. Then WWII and a world convulsing in a global conflict. Then the Cold War, Korea, and the Cuban Missile Crisis.

This series of collective traumas had a dramatic effect on our national psyche. These traumas shaped an America that was more equal, less contentious, more connected, and more conscious of shared values. If you will, the 50s and 60s gave us a respite from the conflicts of the prior 40 years. And then in the middle 60s, we reversed course. We have become steadily less equal, more polarized, more fragmented and more individualistic. We went from “me-me-me” to US, and then back to “me-me-me”.

Having a clear problem statement helps us envision the solution. We need to return to a culture of “WE.” This suggests that we need to restore civic and social engagement – we need to create bridges, we need to build new institutions to address our new problems. We need to share our frustrations and figure out reforms that will endure. It means that local service organizations need to step up and make things better right here! That’s us. That’s Rotary.

We are one of the few organizations that bridge political, social, racial, and religious divides. And the key to making bridges is to move from broad categories of action and get specific and real. We, as a group of Rotarians, need to find specific actions that can bridge these multiple divides, one at a time.

I want to hold up several great leaders who are part of our Rotary Club. There is Christian Esteban, who is leading an organization to help kids in a poor neighborhood reach for a college education. There is Dick Mathewson, who led the Reading by Nine program and Glynnes Speak who is now taking that program in hand and looking for ways to revive it. There is Joyce Capelle, who has spent her career helping girls and women recover from incredible abuse. She is joined in that effort by Amy Gaw, working in another organization towards similar ends.

This is Rotary at its best. Working together to solve real problems! Working together to make a real difference. Working together in Service Above Self. This is Rotarians pitching in to make our community and the world a better place.

3. Patriotic moment: Dan Ouweleen

4. Invocation: Bob Muschek

5. Club news:

• Our first order of business today is the induction of a new member, Rick Price. Rick is a former member of our club, a fellow who always has a cheerful smile and is willing to lend a hand. Rick Crane, who has felt terribly lonely as the only Rick left in the club, has been working on his old buddy, to get him back in the club. Rick, would you please introduce Rick.

o Rick Crane introduced Rick Price. Rick is a past member of our club who took some time off. Rick Crane and Rick Price served on the planning commission in the past. Rick was a Rotary member from 1997 to 2014. Please welcome Rick to our Club.

o Rick Price said it is great to be back and that over his time out of rotary he kept in touch with several members and he is looking forward to participating and contributing where he can. Rick was welcomed into our club by President Ken.

• We have some cool projects coming up. Monica Fernandez has identified a need in our community – financially strapped parents who can no longer afford diapers. She will be rolling out a project on Nov 15. If you would like to help her get it started, give her a call.

• Rotary Youth Protection program. Dan will be sending everyone in the club a link to do this online. It takes about 45 minutes, and if you are going to be involved in the Track Meet or Fullerton’s Got Talent, you need to complete this program.

• Finally, Glynnes Speak and Christian Esteban are working together to revive our Reading by Nine program. More on this later…

6. Introduction of guests President (until we meet in person)

• Matt Howells
• Jane Mathewson (Dick’s wife)
• Don Gach (Cathy’s husband)
• Debbie Hutchinson (Jeff’s wife)

7. Announcements:

• Now is a great time to invite your friends to a Rotary meeting. Everyone is bored with the quarantine monotony, so Rotary is a welcome respite.

• Bob Muschek is not moving to Colorado Springs, a great relief to his president. That being said, Bob would love to train someone for next years, so please contact him if you are interested.

• Next week, our speaker is Greg Schultz, president of Fullerton Community College.

• Other announcements….

o Rick Crane, Dan Ouweleen sent out Community Investment Award applications on October 25th and wanted to remind members to go out and let organizations know to to submit for Community Investment award grants.

8. Finemaster – Zoot Velasco

• Bill Kincaid 70 wedding anniversary with Shirley, congratulations to Bill. Half the club was not born when Bill was married to Shirley. At that time the average home was worth $7,354. In 1950 a new volks wagon beetle could be purchased for $1,200.00. tuition at the university of Pennsylvania was $600.00. A loaf of bread was $0.12. Harry S. Truman was President. No fine for Bill. Zoot asked for volunteers to who is married and sees that 70 years is a really long time and would like to themselves get to 70 years of marriage to contribute a dollar. Contributors: Farrell H. $2.00, Rick C. $1.00, Jim W. $1.00, Bill Hite $5.00, Jeff $5.00, Howard M. $5.00, Dawn Bowman $5.00, Bob Pletka $5.00. Zoot Velasco $2.00.

• Joyce Capelle, on Nov. 11, 2020 (66 years old) Member sung happy birthday to Joyce. Fine is $5.00

• Frances Hunter & Brett Ackerman, 7 years in Rotary, congrats to Brett & Frances. $5.00 fine.

• Dave Bates, 49 years in Rotary, congrats to Dave with a $5.00 fine.

• Zoot also recognized the following: Brett A. Ricky Banes, Bob Pletka, Joyce Capelle, Amy Gaw, David Gillander, Christian Esteban, & last but not least George Shultz, Run schools and non-profits bestow upon you good luck and good graces for all you do for our community. It was Charles Swindoll who said life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react to it and all of you are reacting in a way that keeps our communities strong.

9. Introduction of the program

10. Introduce speaker –

• Introduction of speaker – John Phelps make our introduction. Dr. Pletka has been an educator for 30 years including 8 years as our superintendent and 2 books and six kids but “who cares” (who cares is a Phelps-ism). But you don’t want to hear from me but rather from Bob about the challenges the schools are facing so take it way Bob.

• Presentation by speaker – Dr. Bob Pletka Superintendent of Fullerton School District

o Thank you so much I appreciate being able to speak to you, this really is about people coming together to help get our kids back into school. I want to take you back a little and share a few initial challenges. How do we open schools safely and redesign really everything we have done in the past, how we give out supplies and lunches, etc. One of the most challenging things was the information kept changing, sometimes daily there in Feb. and Mar. we would hear masks are useless than later we would hear no masks are helpful. He heard once that school would help in decreasing community spread then one week later we had a recommendation to close our schools. Another challenge was that gov. at the state and local level had different recommendations. I am not an infectious disease specialist, so we really had to rely on the experts and even the experts were changing their mind on what we needed to do. One of our first early challenges was how do we serve meals to children. When people were trying to file for unemployment benefits they could not even get online. I had one parent come up to me and tell me that these meals the district was serving were the only means his children had in the last 5 days. We were really proud to be able to offer meals as we did. would get. They served almost 3/4 million meals to kids between march and july. Part of our story was our partners, the community of Fullerton. Another challenge we had was just that even our kitchens were not large enough to socially distance the kitchen staff to serve food and a higher volume than we normally did. Local businesses reached out and helped up prepare those meals to feed our kids. Organizations such as Rotary are just another example of the good people we have in our community. We also had churches came forward who adopted kids and provided clothing. The moral question was do we open the school or not. When do we open, and under what conditions? How would I feel if we open and someone dies? We did not want to just open but rather open in the safest way possible. What about the parents who work and cannot get childcare because of covid? So my sister called me and said I don’t know what to do as her son had gone from being a top student to really struggling on school zoom meetings. Sad to say too are some of the social emotional challenges. We had another boy who had a lot of friends and great relationships with his teachers but he had a tough home-life. And we don’t know why but this young man committed suicide. These student need their teachers and their friends. Through prayer and meditation and consideration we came to a conclusion that we should open but we needed to do it in a really safe way. We had to change everything to do this. We had to install hand sanitizers on the entry to the bus. We also had to socially distance kids on the bus. We set up a screening area where all kids on arrival to school their temperature is taken. We had handwashing stations throughout the school. We provided training on how to wash hands. Socially distancing. We not only had to change the classroom itself but we had to change the model so we could accommodate all fo the students socially distanced. Student Restrooms, adding in the touchless, removing hand dryers and blowers. Lunches, we had to change from a service to a grab and go type service. So those were some of the challenges. Fear. We had students, parents and teachers who were fearful and worried. Courage is not the absence of fear but rather taking action in spite of fear. Not only teaching via zoom but also teaching student that are physically in the classroom. Campus redesign – Flow, new features such and handwash and sanitizers etc. EV free church allowed us to use their facilities so kids can attend school and be socially distanced. We have such a great community with great businesses and non-profits etc. We been open now for 3 weeks. School options. Distance Learning, in-person options. Home school option for those who want to teach their children at home. Hybrid option (2 days in-person, the rest via zoom)

Cases of Covid: We have been averaging about 1 case per week. These are not case where one student gave it to another student but rather they got it from a parent. So far in-person learning has been good, not flawless and not without fear or worry but it’s been about generosity and courage. In our school and our community we have a lot to be proud of.

Questions: Have any staff decided not to come back? Most of our staff have come back. We have had to do hiring to do the social distancing required to operation within the guidelines we’ve adopted. One Rotarian asked about a teacher he knows who found distance teaching to be a challenge. Bob said teaching via zoom is a challenge and again just a kudos to those teachers who have stepped up and embraced the way we must do things at this time. Question: When you hire someone on a temp. basis all of the screening you normally do. To make this work we’ve become a fingerprinting center on-site that makes the turn around a little more quicker Comment: I think the city is blessed to have Bob in his leadership role and I have tremendous respect for Bob. Question: We read in the paper that the teachers union has been slow to support in-person learning. Response: Bob said that Fullerton is the biggest small town I’ve ever lived in. I am fortunate to work with teachers that this is their family and friends. The union has worked with us and the union administration has worked with us and I think it’s helped us be even safer.

• Speaker’s gift. Many thanks Dr. Bob for your presentation. Speaker gift was a can of nuts presented by President Ken in honor of his presentation today.

11. Conclude the meeting:

• Thanks to all of our guests and Thanks to Dr. Bob Pletka. Round of applause for Dr. Bob Pletka.

12. Our closing quotes for today focus on bridging divides:

• From Will Rogers: “As bad as we sometimes think our government is run, it is the best run I ever saw.”

• “Nothing makes a man broad-minded like adversity.”

• “The measure of your quality as a public person, as a citizen, is the gap between what you do and what you say” Ramsey Clark, former Attorney General

• Lastly, from that font of everyday wisdom, the author of Dear Abbey: “Love is what enables us to bridge the gap of disappointments when others don’t live up to the expectations we have of them.”

• With that, my friends, “Go out and be good people and great Rotarians!”

• The meeting is adjourned. Ring bell