Rotagram for Wednesday, May 20, 2020

President, Mike Cochran welcomed everyone to the seventh Zoom meeting for the Rotary Club of Fullerton. The country is slowly opening up again. It is hoped that California will follow suit and permit its citizens to once again engage in social activities keeping the proper physical distance of course. One thing about attending a zoom meeting is that you can’t sit at the back table and discuss amongst yourselves whatever topic is of interest that day. Zoom puts everybody right up in front.

Club news: Nothing has changed from last week with respect to the reopening of Coyote Hills for club meetings. A letter will be going out on behalf of the Club and the Fullerton Rotary Foundation going into further detail concerning the options available to members with respect to the last quarter billing and lunches which were paid for but never eaten. It is encouraging to see that the numbers of participants in our zoom meetings are equal or greater to the number of participants when we met at Coyote Hills.

Things in a COVID-19 World: In Kuwait the coronavirus pandemic is hampering the lives of polygamist men living there. They are struggling to spend time with their wives in separate homes. Such a problem. An animal sanctuary in California has rescued 1000 hens from an Iowa egg farm that was planning to euthanize the birds. The animal sanctuary transported the chickens back to their new homes in California by chartered private planes. Elvis Presley‘s Graceland says it will reopen Thursday after it’s shut down tours and exhibits due to the new coronavirus outbreak. There is a road trip opportunity here. And as if the coronavirus wasn’t enough in Virginia, West Virginia and North Carolina some 17 years after making their last appearance a vast army of cicadas were said to soon emerge from their underground nests. A scientist explained that the scale of these emergence events is astounding, with as many as 1.5 million cicadas emerging per acre. Wonder if they will practice social distancing?

Club news: The club received letters of thanks from FLOCK for their CIA award and from St. Jude Medical thanking the club for Project Shield. Our district governor confirmed that local Rotary clubs have raised over $132k; producing over 67k shields with participation from over 40 clubs. Farrell Hirsch announced that the Muck will be hosting a drive-in theater event featuring the Princess Bride. All three events sold out within an hour.

Mike Cochran led us in the pledge and Travis McShane gave today’s invocation. Recognition Master today was Frank Kawase, who recognized those born in the year of the Rat. Randy McFarland is celebrating his B-Day and John Phelps better half, Kerry, is celebrating her B-day on the 30th. John was born in the year of the Ox, which make him and Kerry a perfect match. Cathy Gach and her husband, Donald, are celebrating their wedding anniversary on the 27th.

Our featured speaker today was our very own, Zoot Velasco, who gave us some insight on how non-profit organizations are functioning in this COVID environment. This is a challenging time for non-profit organizations as they struggle with fundraising and loss of income from having to cancel their fundraising events due to social distancing requirements. Many of the larger organizations are reinventing themselves through social media and partnering with other organizations. There are limited grants available, but all organizations are working harder than ever with fewer staff as they are forced cut expenses. Zoot also shared a video summary of the recent economic forum produced by the Mihaylo College of Business and Economics, that predicts a W-shaped economic recovery with GDP and employment not getting back to pre-COVID numbers until sometime in 2021. All we can do at this moment is to turn lemons into lemonade until things begin to return to normal.

Closing Thoughts: “When they call role in the Senate, the senators do not know whether to answer present or not guilty”. Theodore Roosevelt

“To the man who only has a hammer, everything he encounters begins to look like a nail”. Abraham Maslow

“Few things are harder to put up with than the annoyance of a good example”. Mark Twain.

So much is changing in our lives. No one knows what our world will look like in 60 days 90 days or six months out. We as Americans are resilient people and we will find a way to regain America, regain our ability to go out and be amongst our families, our friends, and our fellow Rotarians. Zoom meetings have been a blessing because it has kept us together. Project shield was a fantastic and wonderful District wide effort to help our first responders. These are things to be thankful for.

It is hoped that in the next month or so we will be able to again meet and not on some computer screen. The Rotary Club of Fullerton is approaching its 100th year. The COVID-19 pandemic has tested the strength of our club the strength of our members and we have risen to the task. We should all feel good about our club and about where we are heading for our next hundred years after our centennial.

So again, go out and be good people whom I know you all are and go out and be even greater Rotarians. Set the example in our community for what can be done when you put service above self. Thank you for zooming with us today. Please return your seats to an upright position and store your food trays appropriately. See you on our next ZOOM flight.