Crow’s Call for September 20, 2018

by: Tom Port

 

John Millich, the “Copy Cat”, opened the meeting in the postage-stamp sized lunch room with the obligatory: “Barry Rassin is R. I. President and his theme for the year is: ‘Be the Inspiration’”.

Greeter Kathie Opila had some sage advice, and it rhymed: “Life by the yard is hard; life by the inch is a cinch”. Kathie, our newest blue badge, lives in San Ramon, has two daughters, is a quilter, and enjoys hiking and travel. She also got the 4-Way Test right. Welcome Kathie.

The Patriotic Song, “God Bless America”, was ably led by Don Jones.

 

Announcements:

The San Ramon Business Expo was Thursday, September 20 and our club staffed a booth. We will likely hear more about that at our next meeting.

 

The Six-Club Meeting will take place at CCCC on Wednesday, October 18. Jeffrey Bleich will be the speaker. After a brief vote it was decided there will be no meeting on Thursday, 10/19.

 

Steve Wilcox reported on a successful Charity Golf Tournament at Ruby Hill.

 

District Governor: On October 11 our DG, John Dwyer will be addressing the club.  Let’s try for a large turnout.

 

Rotary 5160’s Fall Seminar is at Fairfield on Saturday, October 20.

 

Auction: Jerry Marrs is calling for more items such as “experiences”, services, foods and wines, liquors, etc.

 

Global Grant: Ana Dominguez has finally got the funding she needs and thanks all our donors, especially Interact, which came up with $300. There will be a celebration at Peña Pachamama in North Beach on 10/15 at 6:00 P.M.

 

Edgardo is back: We welcomed Edgardo back from his two wheeled mishap.

 

Hermann Welm reports both  his son and daughter have obtained important grants for cancer research.

 

New Member: Rachna Biljani was inducted, with an assist by Dennis Harvey, as a new member of our club. She hails from Mumbai, India, but she and her husband actually moved to San Ramon from Santa Clara. They have an 11 year old daughter.  Rachna is a Certified Financial Planner and describes herself a something of a “nerd” as she is very good at math. Rachna attributes her interest in Rotary to the fact she was raised by grandparents who instilled similar values to those of Rotary.

 

Main Event: Gary Sloan introduced his replacement as the new head of the San Ramon Regional Medical Group, Ann Lucena.  Ann has a long history as a superstar at Tenet Hospitals. Working out of Dallas, TX as an Associate Administrator she oversaw operations at Tenet hospitals around the country. She has a B.A from Stanford and an MBA in business from Harvard. She is also a thespian having acted in various regional theater productions.

Ann offered a survey of the myriad activities and cutting edge technologies adopted and implemented at the SRRMG since its opening in 1990 with 123 beds. The hospital is expanding and has recently opened a new Emergency Room which has a very low “walk-out” rate. It has entered into a joint venture partnership with John Muir in Walnut Creek and this has increased the resources available for patients. The hospital serves children with its excellent pediatric services and their obstetrics department has won awards.

 

She is very proud of the new technology as represented by the Hospital’s DaVinci and Mayco robots. The Mayco is very effective is assisting surgeons with hip replacements.

 

 As she is well aware a hospital is not a place where anyone actually wants to be, the hospital focuses on affording a high quality patient experience. Each patient is regarded as a V.I.P. The success of SRRMG is shown by its 4 Star rating. Overall the SRRMG is regarded as one of the very best East Bay hospitals.

Finally, Ann Lucena expressed appreciation for the some 100 volunteers that add greatly to the patient’s hospital experience.

 

Raffle: Chris Gallagher won the Greeter’s Gift and Steve Wilcox won a chance at the Progressive but no luck!