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Volume 81 Issue 48 Wed, June 8, 2022

Rota-Scribe: Gerardo Chagolla

Meeting was called to order by President Zoot Velasco who welcomed everyone at today’s meeting. He again, mentioned that June is the last month of his presidency, so we are in the third to last meeting as President. Jokingly, he asked Rotary members to not riot or cause an uproar for President Elect Joe Lins during his first Rotary meeting. Furthermore, there will be no recount but only a peaceful transfer of power. He acknowledged today’s Craft Talk speaker, “The California Insurance Guy,” Rashawn Underdue.

Raco, Travis McShane, and Ken Kaisch were called up front for our commencement ceremonies. Raco gave us our invocation, and asked us to help him say a prayer for the kids of Uvalde, Texas. Mr. McShane led us with our Patriotic Moment, and our Pledge of Allegiance. Mr. Kaisch gave us our Moment of Peace with a poem called, “Sympathy,” which urged us to think about the object, meaning, if you were the object, how would you want to be treated. President Velasco thanked Beverly, Carol, and our new Rotoscribe, Fullerton College Journalism Intern Gerardo Chagolla for helping with today’s meeting. Today’s guest include returning guest, Rebecca Forester from Monkey Business Café. President Velasco, getting “roast” ready, he reminded us why the 1 clap can’t be synchronized, it’s because half of the members wear hearing aids. Very funny shots fired.

Our Rotary Minute was given to us by the funny past President Bob Jahncke. He unrolled his script and to all of our surprise, his script was long enough to hit the floor! His minute was about the history of Rotary clubs. He explained how businessmen rotated at each other’s business’ and developed the service model we use today, “It’s a rotation, President leaving and new one coming in.” Mr. Jahncke has been a member of Fullerton Rotary Club for a while now. He has seen 37 club Presidents. He finished his minute by saying this of past Presidents, “Some were great. Some were medium (jokingly points at President Velasco). But, being President was one of the "most rewarding experiences of my life!” Our Songmaster, Bud Lang was joined by guest performer, Raco on the ukulele, and performed “Hey Good Looking,” by Hank Williams. President Velasco mentioned that he is so happy to have Bud Lang join Rotary and bringing music in to the club, being that the second person to come on to Fullerton Rotary presented the idea of the Songmaster.

Today’s announcements was given by the "Master of the Mike", Ken Kaisch, with a speech entitled, “Get Rid of This Bum.” He once again announced Demotion Night, Wednesday, June 29, at 5:30 p.m. at Coyote Hills. He called it the “Best Party of the Year.”

Wednesday’s Duck Race was back on the screen. It was a dead even race until number 29 and 4 were neck and neck! Number 4, the Mermaid wins! (Fraud is yelled from the crowd) No winner this week.

Today’s Fine Mistress and Recognition Master, Bailey Kline, took the stage to recognize Richard and Donald T, not in attendance, celebrating spouses birthday. Jeff Hutchison is celebrating his spouse’s birthday as well. He stood up and announced plans to celebrate with dinner and a show. He was fined $1. Karen Xie was recognized for her birthday too and Phili Silverman was recognized for his Rotary anniversary. It being Oceans Awareness Day, Ms. Kline quizzed a single representative of each table, and if the representative got it correct he didn’t have to pay and the rest of the table paid $1 fine. “Name 5 of top 10 items that are collected in the ocean,” was one of the questions asked. It was answered correctly. Each member paid their fine.

In a funny segment, President Velasco awarded Bailey with a Changemaker Chip because she is a millennial. She gave it to Matt Hause, because he is a millennial as well. The crowd laughed at the whole interaction.

Humble brag was given to us by Raco. He bragged that his 8th grandchild was born May 1st. His second brag was that his birthday was June 3rd.

Wednesday’s program at hand, presented by President Velasco, was new member, “The California Insurance Guy,” Rashawn Underdue. Rashawn thanked Rotary members in attendance and then proceeded to thank his wife that he has known since they were 13 years old. He got a great ovation. He began his speech with the quote, “Great minds think alike but fools seldom differ.” Mr. Underdue reminds us this, “The Lord laughs at the plans of a man. I revisit the values that I have and I am grateful of what my purpose is.” Mr. Underdue is DIVERGENT- he shows all 5 factions of being divergent; amenity, abnegation, erudite, dauntless, and candor. He is INTJ, an introvert that gains a lot of energy being alone. Thinks strategically. Is a relator. A person who likes Frank Sinatra and Biggies Smalls.

Craft Talk Outline, “California Insurance Guy. Farmers Insurance. WEAREFARMERSOC.com” He starts off by paying homage to his Ancestors. Great great great great grandfather was a Chaplain in the Civil War, James Underdue. James died in 1867. He pays homage to Mrs. Opal Brown (1860-1982) who had a daughter named Lilly Mae Brown (1882-1982). Lilly Mae Brown helped give values to Mr. Underdue early on in his life. Mr. Underdue grew up in the South Bronx, New York City Borough. He had a tough child hood, remembering the times his uncle, a street pharmacists, instilled compassion and family values, self defense and how to be strong in the role of being a provider. He remembers every person he mentioned taught him a specific value which he still holds today. His grandmother was a loving and sweet person. He jokingly said she taught him that Whiskey is great with lime and ice. His high school years at Brooklyn Tech was were he fell in love with education, sports and his wife. They met during football season at the age of 13. After high school he attended Harvick College. It was the first time he felt as a minority. He recalls his roommate having a confederate flag. He majored in Business. He got married in 1998 and moved to South Orange, New Jersey where he worked for Pepsi, which was his first job after college. After 911 happened in New York City, he decided to leave and pursue a career in acting. He moved to Santa Monica and enrolled in Acting University. He’s been featured in shows like; “Castle” “Among Thieves,” and “All of Us.” In acting school, he was taught patience, how to slow things down and be a perfectionist. How to be the leading man in everything you do. He took the time and showed us a part in which he starred in television.

Mr. Underdue is a man with many skills. He trained MMA in Fullerton and slimmed down. He is also a man with tragedies in fatherhood. His firstborn son, Blake, did not make it after being born. At the same time he was dealing with his own mother’s death. It took him 2 years to recover from both of these tragic events. Later on, he says God blessed him with two beautiful daughters, Kennedy and Madison. Mr. Underdue thanks god everyday for his blessings. He mentions that the men at his church saved his life and now he volunteers at church and is training to be Chaplain like his great great great great grandfather, James Underdue. Now, he is a business owner. He credits the man he met 20 years ago at Pepsi, Rick Curtis, who showed him that Farmers Insurance has changed his life financially. He has goals for the second half of his life and jokingly says that Rotary members being in the half of the end of life while he is in the middle. His goals are he wants to travel the world with his family. He wants to serve and lead whenever the opportunity presents itself. His health is another one of his lifelong goals. He wants to live long enough to see his grandkids. He closed his Craft Talk with a quote from the bible, “Why? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as if it were based on works. The have stumbled over the stumbling stone.” Roman 9:32. He received a great round of applause from members in attendance. President Velasco thanked him for a great speech, offered him stock in Rotary, and hit him with a quote from Bronx rapper Grandmaster Flash, “Don’t let the streets beat you up!”

President Velasco with a quote from Reddit’s shower thoughts subreddit, “the sheep spends their whole life fearing the wolf only to be eaten by the shepherd.”

“Be the change you want to see in the world. We are adjourned.”

Invite a Friend and Share Rotary

6/8/22 New Member Craft Talk / Rashawn Underdue
6/15/22 Highlights from Rotary International Convention
6/22/22 Zoot's Last Meeting
6/29/22 Dark at Lunch / Demotion Night at Coyote Hills - 5:30PM
7/06/22 INAUGURAL CELEBRATION WITH NEW PRESIDENT JOE LINS
First Meeting and Preview for Rotary 2022-2023 / Joe Lins
7/13/22 Rotary International District Governor Visit
7/20/22 CITY OF FULLERTON ECONOMIC AND INFRASTRUCUTRE UPDATES
Challenges and Opportunities / New Fullerton City Manager Eric Levitt
7/27/22 CLUB MEMBERS DISCUSS AND PRESENT THEIR STRATEGIES
Members' Round Table Discussions for Charting our Club's Course>
(Published using 100% recycled electrons)
This Edition was published in Fullerton, Ca