Rotagram for Wednesday, November 18, 2020

President Ken begins our meeting with a story about a deeply conservative father visiting his wildly progressive daughter at college. He was worried about exploding their relationship over political differences. Ken’s advice was to respect her opinions and where she is coming from and recognize that she is just as intelligent as he is. The result was great! Father and daughter had a great time and the daughter noticed the change in her father and was happy about it.

Ken goes on to talk about creating common ground when common ground cannot be found, otherwise known as compromising. Listen with respect and sincerity and understand where a person you may not agree with is coming from. It is up to us to continue this process until our nation’s wounds are bound up. Real patriots will put common good of the whole over their personal agenda. We must push our politicians at every level to create common ground for the good of all of us.

Thank you, Dick Mathewson, for sharing this quote with Ken: “Every action done in company ought to be with some kind of respect to those that are present. If we come from this starting point, we cannot fail.” – George Washington

Pledge: Dan K.

Invocation: Sueling C

Club News:

1. This month is Foundation Month for Rotary International. Individual Rotarians can make a huge impact on the worldwide goals on Rotary. Dan O says that investing in Rotray International is like putting money towards your 401k. Our club gets 50% back as a matching grant for future projects that we’d like to do. The other 50% allows Rotary to do all the amazing things around the world. Don’t forget that members get Paul Harris points for donations!

In fiscal 2018 Rotary gave $86,677,399 in foundation grants and this all comes from individual member donations. This money went to disease prevention, clean water around the world, education, helping grow local economies, saving mothers and children, and world peace. For as little as $.60 we can immunize a child against polio. $50 can provide clean water to help prevent water borne illnesses. $500 can launch an Anti-bullying Campaign.

Our Rotary Club has two Foundations:

- Rotary International
- Our Club’s Foundation that funds local charities

Dan O is sending a letter with more info on making Rotary International donations.

2. Rotary Youth Protection Program:

Dan O is sending link for us to get certified. Keep an eye out for Dan’s email. We all need to be certified to participate in any program or event that is with children. including our High School Track Meet

3. Glynnes and Christian are working to revive Reading by 9.
. They’ve set up 1-2 reading days for 4th graders
. They are looking for Rotarians to volunteer as readers for roughly 30 minutes- and hour

Special Recognition: Once again our amazing Susan and Dan O. They attended a weeklong training for Dan’s upcoming District Governorship. This was an agenizing 9am- 8pm Monday- Saturday training via zoom! Yuck!

Guests: Jane Mathewson

Announcements:

1. Zoot’s Announcement- Thadd Sanford was interviewed for Zoot’s class on soft skills in business. Soft skills in business will be a Rotaract program in the near future.

2. Monica’s Announcement- Diapers! Monica is collecting diapers for the parents of our community until 12/15.

3. Bailey’s Announcement- GigabitNow has decided to give all Rotarians in our club a $50 coupon for either of the two available packages. If you didn’t get the email from her with the details, give her a call.

4. Rick’s Reminder: CIA this year is $30,000. Solicit those donations in the community!

5. Next week’s meeting will be a holiday social!

6. Fullerton Schools Got Talent has been added to the calendar. March 6, 2021 tentatively at La Habra Performing Arts Center.

Time for Fines! Fine Master: Scott Dowds

Larry B, Rick C, Dan K and Joe A all had Rotary anniversaries - $5 each
Bob Pletka’s wife had a birthday- $5
Vimal had a wedding anniversary- $5
Dick M had a wedding anniversary BUT because of the great work he did running Reading by 9 he will not be fined. Instead, Glyness and Christian will both be paying $5.
Bob B’s wife had a birthday as well - $5
Happy birthday Kim Barlow! $5
Scott fined himself for all the things he said he would help Dan and Susan with and never actually did. Hah, that’s $10!

Rick C again! CIA date keeps moving and it annoyed Scott so now he is being fined for it. - $5 BUT wait, John Phelps picked up the fine because Rick is doing a good job in his opinion.

Program:

Our program was presented by President Ken, himself and Zoot Velasco.

Ken introduced the informative program with an explanation as to how and why individual Rotarians should be donating to our local Club’s Foundation. Our local Foundation supports local charities. Rotarian’s can become a Rotarian forever if they include the Fullerton Rotary Foundation in their Will. Marty Burbank will be creating a very easy to understand and complete Donation form to add to your records.

Next up, Zoot! Zoot explained to the Club members how endowments work and why they are so important to the success and vitality of our Club.

Zoot believes that Baby Boomers are the last generation that will give to endowments, because the next generations will handle their wealth differently. This poses a potential issue for service clubs like ours. Service Clubs with endowments will survive the digital age because they have money to do so.

Zoot gives an example: The Muck had a guild of almost 150 people when Zoot first took over. He noticed that as these older folks passed away, the same amount of time and effort put in by the center guild did not translate in their estate plans. Big bummer! They decided to start a Legacy Club which eventually assisted in the growth of endowments.

Rotary Club example: Bakersfield’s local Club has a $3 million endowment which has allowed them to have a full-time paid admin and a paid pianist at all their meetings. They are also able to give $6,000 annually to the community without raining any of the funds.

Give to our local foundation! Individual members can set up an endowment for programs new and old- Track Meet, Fullerton’s Got Talent, CIA, etc. If you care about the sustainability of our club, consider adding the club to your estate plans.

Last example (and it was a good one!) Let’s say $100,000 was donated to the club tomorrow. That would be great, but we would probably burn through it in a year doing all the great things we do for the community. Now, if $100,000 was an estate gift, the club would get 5% of the total amount ($5,000) a year, forever and the principle never gets touched. Forever is a long time! Since Zoot has joined the Club, roughly 40 people have passed away. To think if each of those members included the Club in their Will like this, we would never have to do another fundraiser, we could have a paid Admin, and so much more!

If you have any questions about endowments or the sustainability of the club please contact Zoot, Rick, or Ken.

Closing Thoughts:

As you all know, President Ken is a licensed psychologist. He has deemed our Club members totally nuts and believes Zoot is nuts for presenting to our nutty club. With that said, he gifted Zoot a Rotary Club of Fullerton branded can of nuts and a tote bag for giving such a great presentation.

“I don’t care if you are black, white, straight, bisexual, gay, lesbian, short, tall, fat, skinny, rich or poor. If you are nice to me, I will be nice to you, simple as that.” – Unknown

“If we lose love and respect for each other, this is how we will finally die.” – Maya Angelou

“It may be important to great thinkers to examine the world, to explain and despise it, but I think it is only important to love the world not to despise it, not for us to hate each other but to be able to regard the world and ourselves and all beings with love, admiration and respect.”- Herman Hesse

Now, go out and be good people and great Rotarians!

Meeting Adjourned.