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Ian Riseley
2017-2018 
President Rotary International
Our President
 Can-Do Sandhu
Lucky Sandhu
member photo
Speakers
May 31, 2018
Women Leaders
Jun 07, 2018
Seven Decades of Rotary Service above Self
Jun 14, 2018
San Ramon Valley Education Foundation
Jun 21, 2018
Year End Club Awards and Recognition
Jun 28, 2018
Global Rotary Grants
View entire list
Schedule of Greeters
May 31
Gayler, Chris
 
June 7
Gayler, George
 
June 14
Giles, Ray
 
June 21
Greco, Guy
 
June 28
Gross, Paula
 
Greeter Protocol
 
When you are assigned the duty of being our greeter, you should remember the following:

1. You should be at the meeting by 11:45 AM in order to greet everyone as they come to the meeting.

2. You should bring a "Greeter's Gift" for the raffle. The gift should be approximately $20.00 in value.

3. You will be leading the giving the inspiration of the day, leading the salute to the flag, and introducing the visiting Rotarians. It is a good idea to watch the visiting Rotarians sign in, so that you can ask them about any complicated names or classifications.

4. If you cannot attend, it is your responsibility to find a replacement.
 
 
Russell Hampton
National Awards Services Inc.
ClubRunner
Welcome to the Rotary Club of San Ramon
Service Above Self
We meet Thursdays at 12:00 PM
Crow Canyon Country Club
711 Silver Lake Dr.
Danville, CA  94526
United States
Phone:
(510) 375-2929
Email:
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Meeting Notes for May 24, 2018
Crows Call
San Ramon Rotary Club Meeting
May 24, 2018
Lucky Sandhu, short timer President with a little over a month to go, called the meeting to order at 12:15p and introduced the Greeter fir the day, Dennis Garrison.  The Thought for the Day comes from a revered book “Don’t Wiz on the Electric Fence” with the thought provoking quote: “Some folks would say a lot more if they didn’t talk so much”.  Oooos and Ahhhs could be heard from the Rotary gallery in response to the wisdom and real application of this thought.  Mike Gunning was selected to lead the club in God Bless America which was sung at the lower register of the scale.  Bill Clarkson, San Ramon City Mayor and ex-San Ramon Rotary member was introduced as a visiting Rotarian having founded the Dougherty Valley Club.
 
 
Lucky shared that Dennis Garrison has been in Rotary since 1996 and is a previous past president in 2010-11.  Dennis announced that he had a special award and asked Gary Sloan (this scribe) to receive a retirement gift from his fellow Rotarian.  Noting the Gary has limited golf skills, Dennis thought that Gary should be introduced to a new sport which was contained in the gift:   A black billed hat, a Curling T-Shirt and a Curling Broom.  Gary was speechless (for the first time in his life) but managed to blurt his great appreciation for the thoughtful and appropriate gift and admitting that he stayed up until 3 am watching the Curling Olympics in deft fascination.
Athena from Interact introduced the new Communications Officer, Akash (which Lucky shared that the name meant “sky”).  Athena shared that the Interact club had conducted 34 lunch meetings earning a total of 558 hours, held 29 volunteer events earning a total of 1647 hours of service provided by 88 committed Interact students.  Amazing stuff!  Colette Lay can be very proud of her leadership of this group.
Other Announcements
Norbert was reminded that the Art and Wind Festival he was supposed to organize is happening this Memorial Day Weekend.  Fortunately, Norbert was not shocked by this revelation and indicated that everything was in place with the weather forecast cooperating. 
Lucky shared that this is the last of 3 fund raisers which included the Auction, Xmas Tree Lot and Art & Wind Festival. 
 
San Ramon Rotary Club received excellent press from the Bay Area News Group and Monica Lander who highlighted our Grads to Patriot day and gave accolades to the club for having been honored by the San Ramon Valley Education Foundation for our contributions to the local schools.  Our effort with the Interact Club at Cal High and our associated scholarship program was also touted in the article. 
 
Lucky also passed around the Diablo Symphony Program highlighting the San Ramon Rotary Club as a major donor.  The club provided $1,000 for the symphony’s outreach program to disadvantaged school kids supporting a needed sound system.
Stacey Litteral did a spectacular job last week in presenting 3 of 4 recipients of the Unsung Hero Award.  Today she announced Carol Lopez-Lucey with The City of San Ramon Parks and Community Service as the last winner of this award.  Carol is represents the best of us as evidenced by her 17 years of service on the Parks and Community Service during which time she developed and named over 30 parks and facilities.   She has served on the Commission as Chairperson and Vice Chairperson several times, acted as the liaison to the Arts Advisory Committee for over 15 years, helped the arts flourish in the city through her work to create a Public Art Program which established five art galleries, the construction of two theaters and the adoption of a cultural growth fee which supports art endeavors.  She raised over $280,000 toward the restoration of a historic 1860’s barn located at the City’s Historic property. In her spare time, she is involved in a local Women’s Club chapter regularly leading youth contest to encourage art and culture.
 
Beck Adams nominated this most deserving candidate who received $250 for a charity of her choice and Unsung Hero certificate from the club.
 
Recognitions
Birthdays abound in the month of May, with Chris Gallagher, Garth Riopelle and Art Kubal getting the honors this week and $50 recognition.  Lucky also celebrated his birthday attending the Interact Joint Board Meeting.  No doubt recounting his high school years, Lucky proceeded to stay up with friends until 4:30 a.m. after leaving the Interact party that Colette arranged.
 
Lucky returned from a business meeting where the big boss inspired visiting brokers to “go figure it out” rather than wallow in a problem.
 
Chris Gayler thanked the Rotary Club for hosting the “Sheep Lady” speaker.  Unbeknownst to members, Chris’ wife announced that one of her bucket list items was to pet a baby lamb and Patsy the Sheep Lady speaker shared that Chris could fulfill his wife’s ambition through her baby lambs.  While this is not the central core of Chris Gayler’s reason for being a Rotarian, it was a great relief for him to not have to Google a search to discover a site that would lead to petting a lamb.
 
Guy arranged another golf outing for interested Rotarians.  Lucky shared that he has not swung a “golf stick” in a very long time which no doubt explains the lack of a registered handicap.
Gary and Colette thanked Edgardo for donating $200 to the Interact for T-Shirts.  This is a multi-year personal commitment made to support our high school club with great appreciation.
 
Presentation
Bill Clarkson was introduced as our speaker.  He is a 40 year resident, 28-year Rotarian and our current excellent City Mayor.  He indicated that his presentation was an “inside baseball” focus with three parts:
 
  1.  Protecting our Neighborhoods
  2. Enhancing the Quality of Life
  3. Citizen Engagement
To protect our neighborhoods, the City Council has sought to facilitate housing growth in a core growth area bounded by 680-Crow Canyon-Alcosta and Chevron.  The Council is seeking to limit development in the western hills having protected Dougherty Valley from further growth.  The Tassajara Valley with limited water supplies is zoned agricultural and should also see limited growth in the years ahead. Four shopping centers will also be exempted.
 
The State is pushing for 1400 more homes with ¾ of those homes as “affordable” for citizens with $35K to $110K income.
 
The City is seeking to develop a “walking district” to improve the quality of life focusing on the City Center where retail, restaurants and entertainment will be available.
Bill shared some examples of the importance of citizen engagement.  A group of citizens was convened regarding the Dougherty Valley excess of trees impinging upon plumbing pipes and water supply where a common sense solution was developed and implemented with community support as a result of citizen inclusion. 
 
In San Ramon, the need for funds to pave the roads resulted in a commission which recognized that the City was well managed with a long term paving problem.  However, they recommended that the City needed to “make the case” for additional funds and/or tax to resolve the problem.
 
Bill shared that property taxes and sales taxes made up a majority of the city revenues with a decline in sales tax portion due to internet shopping.  The City receives 9% from property taxes (and 4% from Dougherty Valley) which are growing at 6-8% per year.  The ration of property to sales tax has historically been 50-50 but now it is moving toward more reliance on property taxes trending toward a ratio of 60-40.
 
Taking questions from the floor, Bill did not think that the City or its citizens would want to monetize some of the many parks the City supports by designating the space for revenue generating purposes, despite the anemic growth of 151 new homes in the area of which 95 were for senior living.  The demand on housing in San Ramon has grown as Silicon Valley housing prices spiral upward.  San Ramon also has low crime rates, top rated schools and more high tech firms in the area.
 
Max’s Restaurant, now vacant will be converted with new construction to serve as an Ulta.  In response to a member’s request that the Ba-Hum-Bug run be moved away from the Christmas tree lot site, Bill directed the club to the City Recreation and Parks commission.
 
When asked about the proposed overpass at Bollinger, Bill indicated that the 2 year environmental review has been completed and two year process to fund the architectural and construction costs with an estimated two year building process following the completion of the City Center.  The Mayor shared that the Iron Horse Trail was planned, review, funded and built in less than one year’s time from 1890 to 1891, recalling the “good old days” of government efficiency.
 
There was a rousing applause for Bill Clarkson following his presentation.  Lucky gave his now patented “Lucky Coin” and Appreciation Certificate with an indication that funds would be donated to support our local library.
 
The club experienced great alarm over allegations of “the fix being in” as our own Geoff Disch not only won the raffle for the greeters gift, a bottle of Champagne but also won the raffle to draw anything but the blue marble worth $130.  A club riot was averted when Geoff drew the blue marble worth $10 rolling the pot up for next week.
 
Come to next week’s meeting if you want to be greeted by Chris Gayler and hear our speaker about “Women in Business”. 
 
The meeting was adjourned on time at 1:15p with everyone in a good mood and better off for having attended this worthwhile meeting.
 
Respectfully submitted,
 
Gary Sloan, Scribe
 
This Week's Greeter: Chris Gayler
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