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Weekly Program
Meeting Notes for February 4, 2021
Scribe Notes, February 4, 2021 (ZOOM Meeting)
By:  Hermann Welm
 
(There were 27 participants signed on for the meeting.)
 
President Chris “Top Gun” Gallagher opened the meeting and reminded us that this year’s Rotary International President is Holger Knaack from the Rotary Club of Herzogtum Lauenburg-Mölln, Germany, and our theme is “Rotary Opens Opportunities.”  
Our Greeter, Steve Porschet, led us in the Salute to the Flag and his Thought for the Day:  “The first responsibility of a leader is to define reality.  The last one is to thank you.  In between, the leader is a servant.” (Max Depree, CEO of the Herman Miller Furniture Company and author of “Leadership is an Art”).
Steve mentioned that he’s expecting to spend a lot of time in Eureka this year, on business trips. 
 
 

Visiting Rotarians:  None

Guests:  Thomas Files, of the Cal High Interact Club; Ted Shapas, our speaker, attending his first ever Rotary meeting!
Top Gun’s “News You Did Not Hear:
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
AND, the BEST one EVER!
 
Announcements:  
The Top Gun was saddened to announce that George Gayler has resigned from the club.  George has been a member since 2004.  He further mentioned that the Board of Directors, at its last meeting, discussed the possibility of establishing some sort of “alumni” status for long-term members who have moved on in life but still want to stay connected to their friends in the club.  Nothing was firmed up.

Top Gun also mentioned that the San Ramon Historic Foundation WILL be holding their Annual Crab-Feed Fundraiser on Saturday, February 27. Meals, at $60 per person, include about two pounds of cleaned and cracked (and presumably dead) crab, pasta, salad and French bread.  Order at WWW.SRHF.ORG/EVENTS by September 22nd, and then pick up at the Dougherty Station parking lot between 2:00 and 5:00 pm on the 27th!
Thomas Files, of the Cal high interact Club, gave us an overview of what they have done and will be doing this school year:
-    Their District Conference had over 100 attendees from across Northern California; their club led a workshop on Public Speaking. 
-     Other activities:
-    Cards For Teachers 
-    Over 100 Bags for Savers Fundraiser 
-    $42 Chipotle Fundraiser 
Upcoming: 
-    Feminine Product Drive until the March 5th, working with Cal High’s SHE club;  collecting menstrual, general hygiene and sanitization products.
-    A Time Management & Stress Relief session for students, on February 7th. From 11:30 to 1:00 pm.
-    Study With Us Zoom 
-    Vocational Day: Saturday, March 20th 10 am-noon.
If any members would like to stay informed of what the Cal High Interactors are doing, please email Thomas and he will get you on their mailing list.  Tgf0915@gmail.com.
 
Recognitions:  Judy Lewis for her December 3rd birthday, which she celebrated with five friends.   Mike Conklin for his birthday on January 7th; upon which he took Top Gun to task for being so late in recognizing this momentous event!    Priya Jhingan for her birthday on February 3rd; she had a family meal WITH ice cream!  And lastly, PP Gary Sloan for Barbara’s birthday today; he listed off a couple of dozen things that he’s giving her, however, nobody really believed him!

Program:
PP Colette Lay introduced Ted Shapas, from the  San Ramon Valley Genealogical Society.  Ted received his PhD in Entomology (for Top Gun: that’s the study of bugs!) from the University of Wisconsin and is now retired.  He pointed out that most of the people don’t become interested in this hobby until they are older.  Younger folks, as most of us can easily attest to, don’t seem to have much of interest in their family history, often until it is too late to learn about it from grandparents and parents!
According to Ted, genealogy is the second most popular hobby in the US, after gardening.  It is a way for people to learn who they are and where they came from, generally by creating a Family Tree.  Also, you can often discover that your family’s name has been changed over time.  And, by way of DNA testing, you can identify cousins all over the world and attempt to contact them.
The arrival of the Internet has dramatically changed the way an ordinary individual can do genealogical research!  “Ancestry,” “MyHeritage,” and “Family Search” now provide information storage, search and sharing opportunities.  Many old records, such as Ellis Island registrations and ship manifests are also being digitized and thereby made available to the public.  Plus, there are over 10,000 Facebook groups worldwide that are devoted to genealogical research.  One of the sites Ted highlighted had a volunteer translate an old handwritten document from Old Russian to English; that group was out of Poland!
The latest change is the easy availability of DNA testing that is once again changing genealogical research dramatically!  As we all have seen from personal experience or thru friends and family, commercially available DNA tests, when shared, can be used to finding cousins, getting a record of ancestral origins and migration paths, clues for adoptees, health-related information, and  --  much to PP Dr. Bill’s chagrin  --  leads for  law enforcement!
Ted Shapas went on to describe his personal research experience which led him to discover that the family name had been changed and that in using the most likely old name that popped up he found a cousin in a small village in Lithuania!  And in 2008 he went to visit these relatives!
To learn more about genealogy you can subscribe to one of the research services mentioned above, visit the local Family History Center, run by the  Morman church but available to all (Alamo has the closest branch), join a Facebook group and/or join a local Genealogical Society.  Ted’s group, the San Ramon Valley Genealogical Society, has about 140 members and meets monthly in Alamo.  https://srvgensoc.org.
But, be READY for this:
 

Raffle:  Julie McKinney once again organized this.  The pot of over $300 was NOT won by Colette Lay so it will scale up by $10 next week.  Only 14 marbles are left in the bag and one of them is NOT blue!
Next Week’s Program:   Another ZOOM meeting will be a Valentine’s Day celebration, so ”bring” him/her along!   Our Greeter will be Tom Port.
 
 
 
Greeter Checklist
When you are called to be a Greeter for a Zoom meeting, take a sec to review the checklist Priya put together. Thank you, Priya!
 
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