President and Commander in Chief, Pat McKinley opened the meeting today.  The Howard Wood Septet led us into a “Beautiful Day” with a great big “Smile.”  A discussion about sponsoring a new North Orange County Rotary Club was brought forth for voting.  A cost of $500 will have to be born by each of the clubs.  Reverend Greg Hickman led us in the pledge prior to the Howard taking the field with Zoot Velasco, Jimmy Williams, Dean Stockwell, Terry Grassi, Joe Lins and Bob Savage and Dr. John Derry invoked from God a blessing on all we do.

Bob Savage introduced us to visitors and guests:

Ray Hansen introduced us to Bob Burnett
Allyn Lean introduced us to Father Richard Avery from Blessed Sacrament
Kathy Allred introduced us to Larry Bennett who introduced Kathy to Rotary originally.
Vern Andrews introduced us to “King Crab” Darren Baca from the YMCA
Pat McKinley introduced us to Deacon Jay Milam

Announcements by Terri Grassi (a program unto herself)

• 9/10/08  come to the Muck for Free art activities for kids and adults, Zoot Velasco has all the pertinent details
• 9/12/08  the non-profit coffee shop to benefit Fullerton charities has their grand opening, Reverend Greg will be happy to meet you there for a cup
• 9/12/08 Kiwanis Golf Tournament with 100% of the proceeds to go to the Fullerton Youth Park on the corner of Truslow and Richman, Kevin McCarthy is accepting all offers
• WTLC is in desperate need of help with foodstuff, donations to get them through the budget crisis
• 9/13/08 Crab Fest at YMCA, Vern Andrews has tickets for you all
• 9/15/08 Crittenton Services Golf Tournament is looking for players or sponsors.  Mike Oates is taking bids from interested parties to keep him OFF the golf course on Monday!
• 2/27/08 YWCA Chocolate Fantasy honoring Buck and Bobby Catlin as YWCA Man and Woman of the Year
• 9/27/08 Anaheim Octoberfest for Rotary, free tickets available from Terri Grassi  to be held at Oak Canyon Nature Center from 12:00 noon and 5:00 pm
• 9/11/08 Rick King Orange and Villa Park Club speaking on “Rotary Fighting Global Terror” at a cost of  $25.00 to be held at Turnip Rose.  Call Donald Saltikov, (714) 639-8548
• 9/27/08 Fullerton South’s Uncorked
• 11/15/08 Foundation Dinner and recognition of Paul Harris Fellows at a cost of $75.00, held at Norwalk Marriott Hotel.  Keynote speaker is Rotary Foundation Trustee, Carolyn E. Jones, PDG District 5010, Alaska
• Group Study Exchange to Bavaria, needs Team Leaders and members.  You need to be able to take 1 month off from work and must be Rotarian.  Contact Tito Parola at (714) 771-6900 if interested
• 11/3/08 Newport-Irvine Golf tournament at Newport Beach Country Club

Proposed New Members

Teresa Prado - A&A Air and Radiator, proposed by Greg Hickman

Deacon Jay Milam - Police Chaplain, Fullerton Police Dept, proposed bt Pat McKinley

Michael Saluards - Mullahey Chevrolet, proposed by Fred Johnson

Rotary Mystery Night is in great hands with Ken Kaisch at the helm.  Sign up and bring your booze.  It will be on 10/12/08 at 1:30 p.m. Come with a wonderful date at cost of $25 each.

The Fullerton Rotary Foundation is looking for a one time unmet need in the amount of $10,000 within the local community.  Give applications to Buck Catlain, Rick Crane and Vern Andrews by the 15th of October.

Next week Rotary Board needs to get here at 11:00 to meet with the District Governor before the regular gathering of our group.

Recognized for their wonderful contributions to our club, Mark Geiss fined the following:

• Leroy Fulton – 57th Anniversary
• Deborah Sanchez – For a spouse is maturing nicely
• Kimberly Nguyen – Birthday today
• Jim William’s wife Sally also has a birthday
• Chuck Munson – Jolene’s birthday who had 2 parties to celebrate
• Fred Johnson – Anniversary for 27 years
• Mike Oates was fined as a ringleader for his annoyance emails and whining.  The fine doubled when he couldn’t answer the question, “How many Texas football players does it take to screw in a light bulb?” 
• Bill Schenk –  Fined for being the 1st person to get short cake at his table as pointed out by his good friend Dan Kiernan
• Chet Schultz pointed out it was cobbler not shortcake and was fined for correcting Finemaster Mark
• Warren Wimer was fined because he fined Mark McGee for telling the 3 legged chicken joke. As that was Finemaster Mark Geiss’ best performance in a comedic role, he was a little put out that he did not get the recognition.
• $1.00 for driving a Cadillac on a rental basis put Kathy Gach in Mark’s sites
• Nate Kvetny got fined $1.00 for whining before he even heard why he was to stand up.
• Mayor Pro-Tem Dick Jones was fined $5.00 for shameless self promotion, lowered to $1.00 as he need the extra cash for his re-election campaign
• Why don’t oysters give to charity?  Because they are Shellfish!  Groan
• $5.00 to Geiss because the last joke should have remained unspoken.

Raffle:

Bill Peloquin picked Jim Williams for help “Your Precious Love” by Jerry Butler was not correctly identified by either and a $10 consolation came in from Mike La.

Bill Klinghoffer as chair got to introduce us to two of our newest nine.   If you missed their wonderful discourses, the highlights are itemized below and corner them to introduce yourselves, make them welcome and then ask about:

Mitch Hovey-Superintendent of Fullerton School District

• Ended up serving in public education when he started on a medical engineering degree because of basketball
• Ended up fluently speaking, reading and writing Spanish because of basketball
• How he received a “Kool Teacher” award presented by two of his toughest kids while teaching English in East LA and coaching (you guessed it) basketball
• About his brief segue into the police field when he was confronted with the problem of protecting his school kids from automatic weapon fire
• He is now in his 37th year in education and 29th year in public school education
• He is supported by his lovely wife and four children
• He is starting his 2nd year in Fullerton School District and is very happy to be part of this community in the field of education!

 Ed Atkinson-Principal from Sunny Hills High School

• Was able to fly under the radar with his great smile and polite demeanor
• How father and family really stressed the importance of education and who graduated first with their AA
• What a “Hooter” is
• What his Mom bribed him with not to play Pop Warner football and why he won’t eat chicken fried steak to this day
• What two things kept him from signing with a pro football team
• Who his favorite two Fullerton educators are (both members of our club)
• How he came full circle by becoming Principal of Sunny Hills High School
• He is expecting his first child in November and celebrating 12 years with his wife, and there is no place he would rather be!

Fred Johnson closed the meeting with a thought – “I would never belong to a club that would allow me to be a member” attributed to Groucho Marx or Benjamin Franklin (depending upon who you were sitting next to today).