Rotagram for Wednesday, December 20, 2023

Last meeting of the year was called to order by club president Jim Ripley who started off with a joke, “I was having a conversation with my dog last night and he was chewing me out, so to speak, about not allowing him to bring sticks in the house. And he said, ‘hey, you just brought a whole Christmas tree in the house!’” A Christmas Miracle with our CIA awards, not only have we met but have exceeded our goal for 2023. “So, thank you very much!”

For our Commencement Ceremonies, Minard Duncan gave us our Patriotic Moment leading us with the Pledge of Allegiance. Jeff Hutchison gave us our Invocation leading us in prayer. “Dear Heavenly Father, we are grateful for this Christmas season and all the joy that it brings. We give you thanks for our families and our Rotarian friends. We ask that you bless us and keep us grateful in the midst of this crazy world we live in. Let there be peace throughout the world and let all of us be blessed in the new year to come. We ask for all this, in your name, Amen!”

Today’s guests include, Sarah Kanlon, guest of Zoot Velasco. Madison Amirenteshami, guest of Randy Tierney.

Our Song Master today was Bill Edman who led us in “Let’s All Sing Like the Birdies,” a song made popular by the Disneyland attraction, Walt Disney’s Enchanted Tiki Room.

Bailey Klein was our Recognition Master. She started with the birthdays and anniversaries and then jazzed it up with a fun game. Frank Kawase was asked to stand and be recognized for his 45-year Rotary anniversary. He was fined $5 for it. Mr. John Phelps was asked to stand and be recognized and receive a $5 fine for his 33-year Rotary anniversary. Dan Kiernan was asked to stand and be recognized for his wife’s birthday and was fined $5. Dr. Bob Simon was asked to stand and be recognized for his 20th wedding anniversary. She asked for any humble brags worth $5. Right after, she played a game of musical candy canes with all of the tables. The person at the end of the song without a candy cane would receive a $5 and be eliminated from the competition, “Merry Christmas,” said Bailey. “Yeah, it’s brutal folks. We’re going to get rich!” Bailey did an amazing job as our Recognition Master as she helped generate funds for our club.

Today’s Announcements, “Business In the Digital Age” on January 10 at Fullerton College from 8 am to 3 pm will be our weekly meeting instead of our regular meeting spot for our business conference. “We have some amazing speakers coming from NASA. And you are going to get to go to all of it for free.” Rotarians could stay for the entire $50 event for free. The conference will include a panel of speakers including the social media lead for NASA. Parking is free with a pass that will be emailed to everyone that RSVP’s. Any questions, please refer them to Zoot Velasco. “Fullerton Uncorked” has an official date and venue! Saturday, May 4, 2024, at the Fullerton YMCA. This is a charity fundraiser which all proceeds will go towards the Fullerton Rotary Foundation which supports dozens of other Non-Profits and projects that improve our Fullerton Community. A fun filled evening of live music, wines, and food from local restaurants. Presale tickets are available now, no tickets sold at the door. Sponsorship opportunities available, for details email:FullertonRotaryClub@Gmail.com. For more information visit, www.fullertonuncorked.org. The Rotary Club of Fullerton Clock official ribbon cutting event will be on Wednesday, January 24th during the normal meeting times at the Beer Garden Plaza. Please save the Date! During his clock announcemen.,

Bill Mathy told a Christmas dad joke, “What do you call a Christmas door decoration made out of $100 bills? A wreath of Franklins (Aretha Franklin). Leslie McCarthy announced that the club’s Christmas soirée was a positive success. She thanked the committee involved including, Carrie and John Phelps, and Susie and Joe Lins. Sally, Judy, Miko, Terri, Brett, and Cathy were asked to stand and be recognized for all of their work as part of the committee. “Awesome job guys. I really appreciate everything you did and I think the club had a good time.”

Today’s Program at Hand was introduced by President Ripley, “It’s always a pleasure to have someone from our club do a Craft Talk. It gives us a great opportunity to learn a little more about them and what they’re about. We have a great treat today, please welcome Magazine mogul Randall Tierney.” Randall thanked everyone for letting him do his Craft Talk presentation and for accepting him as part of the club as part of the merger with South. “I’m really enjoying getting to know you. Thanks to Matt Rieskin for being my sponsor and introducing me to this club.” Randall’s Craft Talk consisted of a little about himself and his magazine, Parenting OC. Randall grew up in Cambria, California, where his father, Tom Tierney, founded the Cambria Rotary Club in 1970 alongside others. “It’s near Hearst Castle, halfway between San Francisco and Los Angeles.” Randall’s father still operates his construction business and he goes to Rotary lunch meetings every Friday and his biggest contribution to Rotary services, as of now is to dress up as Santa and hand out gifts during the Toy Drive, “somehow, he always gets the moms to sit on his lap.” Mr. Tierney has been living in Fullerton with his wife, Rhonda and his Shih-Tzu Bella for the last 20 years. His son Shane lives in Prague where he plays American Football in the Austrian League for the Prague Black Panthers. Shane recently got married with a traditional Czech woman in July, “so he won’t be moving back to the U.S. At first, I felt a little sorry for myself about that but after a while, we made the best of it, traveling to Europe, taking him along, seeing other parts of different cultures.” Randall says he’s learned quite a bit about Czech traditions and their “unusual” Christmas rituals. During high school in Cambria, Randall would spend his lunch hours in the library getting lost in magazines, “I liked Popular Science, Rolling Stones Magazine, and Mad Magazine. I never thought back then that I would actually have a career in magazines.” The Film Industry is what he was eyeing, first as an actor, then as a film director but not a magazine editor. After high school, Randall left Cambria for Santa Monica College where he studied theater and played the lead in “The Slave of Love.” His acting aspirations were put on hold when he did not get accepted to UCLA Theater School, “I didn’t have any connections or an uncle in the biz.” He then changed his major to English when he realized that writing papers for classes became easy for him. Acting became a side hustle for him when it became clear to him that he was better at writing than acting. After college, he hung around the Santa Monica area and took on odd jobs for low pay, he remembers parking cars at the Playboy Mansion, waiting tables at an Italian restaurant and working for free helping a Chinese fashion photographer launch a magazine called Focal Point, “I wrote stories about fashion photography in Los Angeles and in exchange, I got free rice from a large stove pot and free beer.” Because of his time at Focal Point, he was able to land a gig at a Flight Magazine for an airline for three years. There, he learned the trade under mentor Al Austin, calling this time in life his “graduate school of magazines.” The year was 1983, from there on, Randall’s life was all magazines and the access that was given to him as a member of the press. “I lived the life beyond my means, and I’ve traveled to exotic places.” He’s written for the Hollywood Reporter where he was special issues editor like the 100th episode of Seinfeld or the 75th anniversary of Paramount Pictures. He tells about Arnold Schwarzenegger calling the Hollywood Reporter’s office, “Hello, Reporters, Special Issues Department, this is Randy.” “This is Arnold. I heard you want to do a special issue all about me? We can talk about it if you come on down to the trailer.” He calls that afternoon a lovely one sipping green tea with Schwarzenegger in his trailer on the set of Last Action Hero. After 10 years at the Hollywood Reporter and the birth of his son, Shane, he became a group publisher for several parenting magazines throughout the west, including, Colorado, Arizona, L.A., San Diego and O.C. Parenting in Orange County. Unfortunately, because of the change in times which affected advertising money, the plan of corporatizing 35 parenting magazines across the nation failed and most of the publications were closed by 2004. “When I was laid off, that’s when I knew what to do. I asked to take over Parenting O.C. and I did. Next month will be my 20th anniversary of Tierney Publishing.” At Parenting O.C., its small staff of Randall, guest Madison, two salespeople, one editor, and one art director. Parenting O.C. distributes 35,000 copies all over OC to 850 different locations. Randall is very proud of how far he’s come as a publisher, he took questions from members to end his Craft Talk. President Ripley awarded him with a certificate in his name to Working Dogs 4 Warriors, a nonprofit dedicated to helping our Nation’s Warrior by training and donating service dogs to Veterans and First Responders.

Last thing on the agenda was the 50/50 drawing. Lucky ticket holder ending in 4796 wins the money! Matt Rieskin knows how to play the long game because not only did he sponsor Randall into the Fullerton Rotary Club, he also wins the prize money. Congratulations to Matt! The following week, we are dark. The club won’t meet again until January 3. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!