Crow's Call for August 15, 2019 (Aug 21, 2019)

CROW’S CALL - AUG 15, 2019

Our President, Lady Grizzly, a.k.a. Colette Lay, kicked off by introducing our greeter of the day, Priya Jhingan (also Scribe of the day, who shall henceforth be referred to in the third person). Priya’s thought of the day came from William Pollard, an eminent physicist and Episcopal priest from the 1900s: “Without change there is no innovation, creativity, or incentive for improvement. Those who initiate change will have a better opportunity to manage the change that is inevitable.”

With her thought of the day echoing her career in innovation, Priya, a Bay Area native, talked about how she studied Product Design at Stanford (go tree!), and has been applying human-centered design to create new products in the tech industry and beyond for the past 13 years. She also mentioned that she has an active podcast on the intersection of business and spirituality, and is currently taking a Saturday class called Compassion Cultivation Training at the Stanford School of Medicine. Upon hearing Priya’s fun fact that she was in a hip hop dance crew for several years, Don Bierman quickly added “hip hop performance” to his list of auction items…

We had several visiting Rotarians, including Joe Morgan from San Ramon Valley, Walt Trembly from Dougherty Valley, and Valerie Vicente from Danville. Valerie actually came to accompany our speaker, Dan McGovern.

We also had a 3rd time visitor, Steven Porschet, who will likely be joining San Ramon Rotary! (That is, as long as Chris Gayler doesn’t mess up his first orientation as Membership Director).

Announcements & Birthdays

Gary Sloan is recruiting 6 volunteers to attend local Rotary club meetings and spread the word about our auction. If you’d like to help out, please contact Gary!

Lady Grizzly referenced the thought of the day when announcing a few changes she’s introducing: starting now, members will no longer be fined for the good stuff (we want everyone to do the good stuff!), birthday/anniversary recognitions are optional and you can opt out, and everyone shall wear pins! If you need more Rotary pins, talk to Colette. This lady is taking charge and will definitely have completed all her Presidential goals within the first three months!

Colette brought up Julie McKinney to read out birthdays and anniversaries. We had several July spouse birthdays, including Brad Lay on 7/7, Linda Tatum on 7/3, Christine Koehne on 7/13, Darlene Gayler on 7/23, Ann Paterson on 7/31, and Scott Gailey on 8/12. Rotarians with August birthdays include Jerry Marrs on 8/7, John Magic Milich on 8/15, and Herm Welm on 8/13. Anniversaries included Dr. Bill on 7/9, Chris Gayler on 7/12, Terry Koehne on 7/19, Pat Paterson on 7/21, Ed Duarte on 7/25, Ray Giles on 8/24, and Mike Thelen on 8/3! Congrats, everyone!

Program - Dan McGovern, President of Eugene O’Neill Foundation, Tao House

Mike Thelen presented his hiking buddy and our returning program speaker, Dan McGovern, President of the Eugene O’Neill Foundation. Though he came to speak about all things Eugene O’Neill, Dan has an extensive background with many credentials, including holding a past office as Deputy Director of Caltrans. It was great to see Dan again!

The Eugene O'Neill National Historic Site is located in Danville, and includes Tao House, which is the Monterey Colonial home of America's only Nobel Prize-winning playwright, Eugene O'Neill. Dan shared with us many fun facts and upcoming events of interest relating to Eugene O’Neill:

As mentioned, Eugene O’Neill is the only American playwright to have won the Nobel Prize and 4 Pulitzer Prizes.
Eugene O’Neill actually lived in Danville when he wrote his greatest plays.
O’Neill’s Long Day's Journey into Night, a Pulitzer Prize-winning play, is interestingly considered by some as Ireland’s greatest play, as well as the greatest American tragedy ever written.
The 20th Annual Eugene O’Neill Festival is happening soon, in both Danville (August 24-September 29) and Ireland (October 9 – 14)! The festival in Danville is truly special, as we get the opportunity to tour the Tao House and watch Long Day’s Journey where it was written. Tao House is reserving one night as a Rotary night, with all 6 local clubs participating. The Festival will also feature O’Neill’s plays The Glass Menagerie and The Second Girl, an Irish music concert, a guided hike to Tao House, a historic guided walk of O’Neill’s Danville, and an O’Neill exhibit at the Danville library.

Upon closing, Dan mentioned that he would be happy to arrange a private tour of the Tao House for our club. Let Lady Grizzly know if you’re interested, and we can get a group together for this special experience!

Raffle and ending announcements

Don Bierman requested members to bring in auction items! He specifically requested a lot of booze - but top shelf, not bottom shelf. However, you can bring in whatever you want, and Don will just keep what doesn’t make it into the auction. How nice of Don. Gary Sloan also suggested that we get a group together to organize marketing efforts to promote auction partners and donators.

To end the meeting, Jerry Marrs had the winning ticket for the greeter’s prize, and Dennis Harvey did not pick the right marble, bringing his latest search for the next fancy leather jacket to an end.