Rotagram for Wednesday, Apr 15, 2020

President Mike Cochran opened the meeting, which was the Second Rotary Club Zoom Meeting ever. “Ground Hog day seemed a silly premise for a move. Yet here we are in day 7,495 of social distancing”.

Club News: We have 4 almost-Rotarians waiting to be inducted; CI Awards had to be mailed out this year; Rotarians continue to assist Dan Ouweleen with the assembly of face shields for St. Jude’s Medical Center; results from Operation Reach Out – membership seems to be doing as well as can be expected, and Dan Ouweleen was seen in three different locations in Fullerton at the same time.

Things in our world: April 14th (UPI) The nonprofit group that oversees the creation of new emojis said there will not be any new characters added in 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Unicode Consortium said version 14.0 of the Unicode Standard, that had been originally planned for release in March 2021, is being delayed by six months until September 2021. April 14 (UPI) An Indiana man awaiting his $1,700 stimulus payment said he check his balance at an ATM and instead discovered ay mysterious sum of $8.2 million. Charles Calvin of New Chicago said he visited the ATM at his local Family Express on Friday to take out $200, and he then decided to check his remaining available balance to see if his stimulus payment had been deposited. The volunteer firefighter said he call his bank first thing on Monday morning! And a Florida judge issued a letter to all lawyers in his district reminded them to get out of bed and put on shirts before teleconferencing into online hearings.

The pledge today was conducted by President Cochran and Christian Esteban gave the invocation. During the Zoom meeting today, a few of the member’s wives acted as guest in the background.

Announcements: Dan Ouweleen mentioned that the club has raised $6,650 for the purpose of buying the materials need for the face shield project. He encourages membership to continue to donate to ensure that they would be able to meet demand. Mike Cochran mentioned that his wife Gail is willing to make Rotarian’s a face masks for free provided you drop off an old Rotary t-shirt (that has been washed) with the Rotary logo at their home. Joe Lins recognized Dan and Susan Ouweleen for all the work they have done with the face shield project. Zoot Velasco, Zooming to us all the way from Paris France, posted a YouTube video regarding COVID Survival Kits. The link is at: http://zoot.odbean.com/ Rick Crane let us know that the Community Investment Awards have been mailed out. Recipients may receive a check in the mail from either the Rotary Club of Fullerton or the Orange County Community Foundation.

Today’s recognition master was Bill Mathy: Bob Bean is celebrating a Rotary anniversary of 47 years; Alan Bridgford is celebrating a Rotary anniversary of 63 years as well as Dean Heiser of 36 years. Brags today included Mike Cochran who is grateful to be in the best Rotary Club; Dan Ouweleen recognized Joe Lins for providing hand sanitizer for the volunteers assembling the face shields; Ken Kaisch mentioned that he plans to place an add in the Fullerton Observer offering his counseling services for those overwhelmed by the affects of the Coronavirus; Kathy Gach recognized Susan Ouweleen for all of her work behind the scenes and Bob Muschek mentioned that the club was recognized in the most recent Fullerton Observer for our work in assembling the face shields.

Our guest speaker today was Jennifer Fitzgerald, the current mayor of Fullerton. Mayor Fitzgerald thanked the club for their efforts with the face shield project and gave us a brief summary of what is happening with the City during the current lock down. City Hall is currently closed, but most of the city staff is working remotely except for the essential employees. Parking lots for the city parks have been closed to limit the number of people accessing the parks to maintain proper social distancing. Humorously, she mentioned that the Fullerton PD had to kick Keenan Allen (wide receiver for the Chargers) off Lions Field as he conducted a scrimmage with a group of off-duty LA police officers. Mayor Fitzgerald also mentioned that crime in the city is down considerably, but they are facing challenges that include dealing with significant job losses in the city, the homeless, as well as multiple family homes where social distancing is not happening. In terms of city finances, they anticipate a financial loss of $3 million in 2020 due to the significant decline of revenues from sales and hotel taxes, other fees, and the loss of rental income from parks and recreation. She emphasized the need to get people back to work as soon as possible and is currently working with a coalition of other mayors for the purpose of lobbying Sacramento to make sure that the city receives their far share of the stimulus money being provided to the states from the federal government. She is also asking the state to freeze the CALPERS discount rate that is used to calculate the city’s share of the CALPER pension plan contributions for a period of 2 years.

Jim Williams gave a special thanks to Jennifer for her many years of service for the City of Fullerton as did President Mike Cochran.

In closing today’s meeting, President Cochran encouraged members to order a lunch to go from a local restaurant in an effort of support for the next meeting. He also mentioned that next week will be Hawaiian Shirt Day, so please where your favorite Hawaiian shirt! Thank you to all that participated today. Go out ant be good people and even greater Rotarians. As the British Government told its people during World War II, “Keep Calm and Carry On”.


15,000 Masks the 1st weekend, 13,000 Masks on weekend 2, still going. . .