Rotagram for Wednesday, March 22 2023

Meeting was called to order by club President Joe Lins. He welcomed everyone in attendance, “good afternoon, everybody!” Today’s important facts, he tells a tale of a turtle being mugged by two snails. When the turtle was questioned by the police, he shakenly answered, “I don’t know, it happened all so fast!” Not the response he was looking for but luckily he had Plan B in the background. The screen showed a funnies cartoon with a cow and a farmer at the dinner table. The farmer places a bucket on the table and the cow tells the farmer, “slow down, we just met.” This received a huge laugh, “I just think this is damn funny. The cow is with the farmer and the farmer has a bucket…. Why am I explaining this?” said President Lins. World Baseball Classic finals, Japan defeated the U.S. to claim their 3rd championship, making them the second team since the beginning of the WBC to win a championship with an undefeated record. “You got Ohtani striking out Trout to get the win over the U.S. That’s just history in the making. I am happy for Ohtani, but, I would have preferred a home-run by Trout to give the win to the U.S.” Another important fact, the rains in Southern California have caused high school sports major problems. “Coach Brett Kay of JSerra Catholic High School has been very generous to the high school baseball community by inviting other teams to hold their games on his field.” President Lins tips his hat off to Coach Brett Kay and says that he is a great example of helping each other out at the high school baseball level.

Today’ guest in attendance were Kendra Tankersley-Davis from Crittenton SoCal, guest of Bev Berryman. Dub Drees, guest of the smartest man in the room Dr. Thad Sandford, is from St. Jude Memorial Foundation. Welcome guests.

President Lins asked Zoot Velasco, Giselle Monterrosas, Bailey Klein, and Nikki Rogers to come up on stage. He asked Zoot to say a brief word about Giselle, one of our newest members, “We are going to really miss our former Joya Scholars Director who is now in the Anaheim Rotary Club. The good news is he brought this amazing young woman who is going to take Joya Scholars to new height and has joined our club in his place.” Zoot took the time onstage to inform President Lins if he was aware that the alphabet had 25 letters in the past, “nobody knows ‘Y.’” Bailey Klein spoke a few words about Nikki Rogers, “she’s very involved in the community. She lives here in Fullerton. She is great and please welcome our new members.” President Lins provided them with their own Official Rotary Members pins. “Please stand and give our newest Rotary members appearing to the world a welcome.”


	Our Newest Rotarians are Introduced to Our Club

For our Commencement Ceremonies, Bill Edman gave us our Patriotic Moment. “When I say the Pledge of Allegiance, I think about Veterans. I think specifically about my father and father-in-law, and my two uncles, who were in the Air Force. If you could please stand and help me with the Pledge of Allegiance.”

Dr. Thad Sandford led us in grace, “I am thankful to be a part of this club that devotes itself in helping others. I am thankful to be a part of it. I am thankful to be a part of you.” He asked all members to reflect.

Our Songmaster, Bud Lang, asked the audience if anyone knew what tomorrow was. National Puppy Day was Thursday, March 23, 2023. So in honor of that, he played a song by band Three Dog Night called “Joy to the World.” He invited anyone that wanted to perform with him to come up. Great Job to the Bud Lang Experience Band!

Today’s announcements, Past President Zoot Velasco announced President Joe Lins demotion night, “the last Wednesday of June, we are going to have a deflation of Joe’s ego, to make up for all this inflation.” Zoot is looking for ideas for demotion night by April 1st. “Send your ideas in March because we would love to have more wonderful ideas. By the way, I have some great ones!”

Bailey Klein announced the next recruitment event on April 26 during the Rotary meeting. She wants members to bring prospects, people who may want to join Rotary, to the event. There will be raffles and tickets will be given to both the prospect and the member. Prospects will be given goodie bags so they have something to go home with.

Rebecka Forrester announced Giving Day at Monkey Business Café. Miko announced the Top 100 Banquets. Rick Crane announced Titan Baseball Day, a Fullerton Rotary Club fellowship event, taking place April 18th. President Lins will be throwing out the first pitch at the event. Daniel Stewart announced Love Fullerton, taking place on Saturday, April 22. Daniel will send an email with more information about it to all members.

Today’s Finemaster/Recognition Master was Travis McShane. Minard Duncan wanted to let him know that he clapped for Travis more than anyone else in attendance, to which Travis promise to grant him a fine free day. Travis recognized Leslie McCarthy for her 38th wedding anniversary, “we are so excited to celebrate it. He is going to Las Vegas. I am going to Paso Robles,” Leslie proclaimed. This got a huge round of applause and laughter, “that better be more than $5 that you’re putting in the fine net!” said Travis. He went through his list, but no members were present. Marty Burbank informed Travis that today was Monica Fernandez’ birthday. Travis put $5 in to the fine net for her for not recognizing her birthday.. Travis took the liberty of looking up holidays by day. He is aware of National Puppy Day, “Today is National West Virginia Day. National Bavarian Crepes Day. National Goof Off Day is the one we are going to key on.” He asked for one person per table to stand and be recognized as the table’s goof off representative. He asked for each goof off to place $5 in the fine net and walked off the stage in a winning manner. Good job Travis! President Lins is the real winner of the day, “I may be the biggest goof off at my table, but who is the luckiest guy in the room right now? Look at my table.” President Lins is referring to him sitting in a table of beautiful women. One more beautiful than the next.

Today was also election day, he asked President-elect Jim Ripley to come up. He asked for members’ help voting for members of his board starting in July.

Our Program at Hand was introduced by President Lins, Craft Talk with Jordan Garcia. “Jordan is a great guy and he is doing a great job over there at the YMCA.” He tells an anecdote of a time he visited him at work. President Lins knew he was in the weight room. After about 5 minutes of convincing the receptionist that he needs to talk to him, President Lins walked to the weight room to find him. Jordan asks him if he wanted to work out with him to which President Lins answered, “No, I don’t work out in the afternoon. I barely make it in the morning.” Jordan takes the stage and he thanks everyone in attendance, “Jordan has a flaw, he is a 49ers fan.” He warns everyone that he has not a lot of life experience so his presentation by be a quick one. Jordan is an enormous sports fan, he has been playing sports all of his life. “Now, I work at the YMCA, which is a sports and fitness organization. The theme of my presentation is wrapped around sports.” He started his presentation by Billie Jean King, “sports are a microcosm of society.” For Jordan, sports are a microcosm of his life. “I was destined to be a sports fan. I was born in 1996 during the Bulls best basketball season run. Kobe Bryant was drafted that year.” Jordan was born on Halloween. He was named after Michael Jordan. His top 5 starters are his father, Mark Garcia, who works in property maintenance. His mother, Maria Garcia, who works as a nurse in the ICU. His older brother Miles Garcia, who is a teacher in Los Angeles. His girlfriend and him round off the top 5. According to Garcia, she was acquired through free agency in 2020, “we are not accepting trades. No free agency signings. We also have to substitutions on the starting 5.” Jordan has a championship winning team on his hands. His family is everything for him, they’ve been very supportive of him. He remembers when he first started at the YMCA, his parents asked him if he was sure he could do that work. Years later, he is still there but on a bigger level of play. His scouting report speaks for himself, his strengths are in leadership, as he has been in a leader position for most of his life. Public speaking makes him nervous but he excels at it. His volunteer work is another one of his strengths. Room for improvement, he is a little shy, “if you don’t know me, there is a reason. It’s because I’ve never talked to you before but I am working on it.” He failed pre-school twice because of his shyness and his sleeping habits, he jokes. “You can fail pre-school for being too shy. So I did it twice. It set me back a little bit but I caught up in college.” Jordan says he is a natural introvert nor does he have any party tricks, “my trick is that I don’t show up.” Another room for improvement, according to him, is confidence. He says he is a sell yourself short kind of guy. Every scouting report comes with a tendency in sport, his number one tendency is that he can’t go left in basketball. “Number two, when I am nervous, I drink a ton of water.” During high school, he involved himself in sports and other activities to keep busy. He went to Oxford Academy College Prep High School in Cypress. There, he tried to widen his horizons by stepping out of his comfort zone. He did track and field, orchestra for five years playing the viola. He was also in student senate where they planned a lot of events and student socials for all of his classes. He says he enjoyed his high school experience. He quoted John Wooden, basketball coach, as his biggest thing he learned throughout his high school experience, “happiness begins where selfishness ends.” He remembers of his community service and volunteering during his formal days, “I spent a tremendous amount of hours volunteering my time to really give back to the community. That’s where I really found happiness because I was being selfless.” He says that he found a lot of fulfilment by giving back to others through his community. He was Lieutenant Governor at the Key Club where he promoted volunteering in the community, and formed values, created leadership and character building. He idolizes Kobe Bryant, “dedication sees dreams come true.” In college, he realized he needed to focus with what he was going to do for the rest of his life. He went to CSFU and majored in kinesiology, and got a job in recreation on campus. After he graduated CSFU, he went to grad school at Cal State Long Beach, where he received a Masters in Sports Management with a focus in Event Management. He says that his best experience was when he interned for a company called Create Event, which works with the NFL. “On February 2nd, 2020, I was at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami for the Superbowl.” A month after the Superbowl event, COVID lockdowns took place, which ruined his opportunity to get hired on full-time with Create Event. In December of 2020, he says he was working remotely for CSFU until that ended because he was no longer a student. He had to find a new job and he came across the YMCA. He began his career with the YMCA in January 2021, as a health and wellness coordinator. There he taught a few classes and managed the group exercise instructors which landed him the position where he is now. His last quote of his presentation was, “success doesn’t stop when you get there.” He applied for Executive Director when Rikki Bains moved on. “If I had to tell you one thing. I definitely wouldn’t have thought I’d be where I am today. This is a position that is traditionally held by people a lot older than me.” Jordan is only 26 years old and has a ton to learn. He credits Fullerton Rotary Club members, and Fullerton City leaders as his mentors and as the reason that his YMCA branch earned Branch of the Year for 2022. Random facts about him, he like Korean, Italian, and Japanese food. His top hobby is exercises, basketball, friends and family, and video games. He is a Lakers and 49ers. He enjoys podcast and Netflix. His dislikes are, raisins. Great presentation by Jordan Garcia. President Joe Lins took the stage, “good job Jordan. That introvert stuff, I don’t believe that.” He awarded Jordan with the highly coveted speakers gift. “Wouldn’t Jordan Garcia be a great President for this club as well. You’re very inspirational.”

Jim Ripley returned to the stage to announce who will be part of his Board, “Rick Crane! You’re not going to be on the board buddy, sorry. There’s always next year.” Theresa Harvey, new member Matt Reekstin. from Fullerton South, and Tom Duarte will be part of his Board.

Last thing on the agenda, the Opportunity Drawing worth $31. Lucky ticket holder 6369939, Marty Burbank wins the drawing. Save the Date, Titan Baseball April 18, District Chili Cookoff on April 8th at the Santa Ana Zoo with a vendor fair hosted by Fullerton Rotary Club. Zoot Velasco is making 5 gallons of chili, “that scares me as much as demotion night does.” Fullerton Mayor Prayer Breakfast on May 5th. The week of Wednesday, March 29th, there will be no meeting due to the State of the City Address. “Thanks for coming today. We will see you Wednesday, April 5th. If you need anything from now until then, please let us know. Charge On! Meeting adjourned.”