President Terri Grassi called the meeting to order with a majestic ringing of the Rotary Bell. Wasting virtually no time, she asked past president, Joyce Capelle to lead us in the pledge, which she did with ease. Songmaster Howard Wood led us in a song which didn’t sound bad at all considering that most were improvising the melody. “Smile” redeemed us all with an enthusiastic rendering by the group.   Mark Geiss offered  thoughtful and poignant words prior to the invocation.

Welcome to guests

J Richey introduced the Rotarians who introduced their guests.

Dr. Jim Young- Bob Larsen

Joe Lins- Jeremy and Casey Lins

Leslie McCarthy- Jim Hepker

Jim Lapak-Barbara Powers

Jim Williams introduced Colin Little,  proposing that he be inducted ASAP, but the consensus was that visitors shouldn’t be introduced as prospective members

Announcements

Terri Grassi told of thank you notes graciously sent to our club.

·         Pat Soderquist in appreciation that Ron was recognized posthumously  as a Paul Harris Fellow.

·         Cal State Fullerton, Fullerton Interfaith Emergency Services, Fullerton Police Department, Fullerton School District, Council on Aging, in appreciation of good things the club has done for the community.

Jim Williams announced a Beach Party on Sept. 13^th by the Boys and Girls Club “Good Guys”

Jim Young reminded us that next week’s meeting will be at Cal State Fullerton

Frank Kawase said that Youth Group Study Exchange is looking for candidates.

Bill Peloquin announced a “Really Big Show” coming up on Aug. 26^th by the Orange Empire Chorus

Dick Daybell dropped off 300 books for children for the “Reading by Nine” project.

Rick Crane was acknowledged by a nice round of applause for the great job he did organizing the recent Tri-Club get-together at the Fullerton Flyers game.

Randy McFarland intended to remind all Directors to have their event chairpersons delegate someone to submit photos, write ups and other supporting information describing each and every event/project the club does. This is the only way the club gets credit at District Awards Competition each year. Other deciding factors are high participation rate by the membership and new, unique events/projects. 

Recognitions

Warren Wimer was able to salvage the club’s financial resources by mitigating concerns when an erroneous announcement was made about Mr. Stox a couple of weeks ago.  Mike Oates and Paul Dudley were fined as possible suspects behind the announcement as their sons own Calf Hildago and The Cellar, respectively. The close call gave us something to ruminate on, though.

Restaurant discounts were given out to Dan Fisk, Greg Hickman, Claude Jones, Robert Jahncke, Leslie McCarthy, Bill Hite. Bill Mathy confirmed that John Phelps indeed hiked to base camp of Mt. Everest with his new hip in place. Warren thought it was really a “hip” thing he did!

Raffle

Ken Kaisch correctly guessed that 17 trees are saved for every ton of paper recycled.

Program

Speaking of recycling, Jay Kramer introduced Mark Revella and Connie Christian, of the Sanitation District of Los Angeles County which is responsible for solid waste handling for the 78 cities within 800 square miles. They quickly started “talking trash” to us.

Backyard incinerators had the greatest density in the country in our own Los Angeles County until they were banned in the late 1950s.

Bill AB939 now requires cities to divert 25% of their solid waste to recycling programs. They get pretty through in their efforts, even collecting Freon from discarded refrigerators and using it in their onsite operations!  This now law requires that future plans be initiated well in advance of their deadlines. Included in the long range plans are railway transport of waste to facilities in the desert. Materials are sorted and compressed into cubes on-site before they are transported to the remote facilities for further processing. Leakage into the ground is prevented with heavy duty plastic lining under the material.

Some sites collect Methane and convert it into electricity which is used at the already energy-efficient facilities and the excess is sold to the power companies. Very sensitive  detectors can sense radiation in trucks as they enter the area.

There are many details involved in dealing with the tons of trash we generate each day. Everyone taking a little effort at our end can make a big difference at our landfills and for our environment.