Meeting Notes July 29, 2014

Posted by Millie Anderson 
on Jul 28, 2014
 
President’s Message:
     "If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them."  ~ Henry David Thoreau, Walden.
     Odd quote to start a message about committee assignments, I know.  But given that we have never, EVER had functioning committees since I joined, I’m wondering if the thought that we could have them this year could be a castle in the air.  So, this quote bucks me up as I think to myself “how do I build the foundation when it seems as though half the members are past-Presidents, and our culture does not seem to be one that readily accepts committees as normal?”
     The only answer I can think of is that you lay a foundation a brick at a time, bottom up, and try to be a solid as you can in lining up those bricks.  So, having taken almost all of you to at least coffee, if not lunch, and having found out your personal hopes for working with Harbor (or NOT working this year, which I found out, too)…I am now going to rely on my trusty “Survey Monkey” to finalize what members actually want to do this year.  Then the Board Chairs will know who wants to help, and we can build from there.  Some of you may want a one-shot deal (e.g. “I will help this spring with the fundraiser”) and that seems to be it.  Others may prefer scatter-shot (“I will pick up litter, work with Davidson Career Day, and distribute dictionaries”).  With any luck at all, a few hardy souls will say “I am here to help as needed; just give me advanced notice.”  (Bless you, John Noerr!).
     So what I ask this week is…voluntarily answer the survey.  That’s it. Just answer. I figure it isn’t really “work” if you look at it as something that will help your life in Rotary. It is play!  
     I started with Thoreau; might as well end with Mark Twain:  "Work and play are words used to describe the same thing under differing conditions."
Your President, Susan Lundy laugh
 
Meeting Notes for July 29, 2014
 
Exactly at 8:15 am Susan opened the meeting with Buenos Dias!
 
Today’s Spanish word is: Claro! Meaning, “of course!”
 
Carol Scott greeted us this morning. Carol is a realtor of 25 years, with Bradley Real Estate, primarily residential. Tom Sutton will greet us next week.
 
Great to see Jeff Allen back in the saddle! Thanks for making the effort to attend and keep up that perfect attendance record, Jeff!
 
Cindy introduced our Rotarian guests: ADG Jayne Hulbert of the Marin Evening Club and Bridget Fass of the San Rafael club.
 
Good times: Cindy Stameroff’s birthday was celebrated with song!
Theresa is currently off to Montana, so is Kramer, and Aref is in Lebanon. We will hear about their adventures when they return.
Stacie was tickled to announce that she sang the National Anthem at a recent Pacifics game. She’s looking for more opportunities to do so!
Carol said she recently saw John Luce and he says hello to the Club!
 
Announcements:
Next Board meeting will be held on August 18, Monday night, at Susan’s house. The next morning, Aug. 19, we will have a regular Rotary morning meeting with DG Chris Gallagher as speaker.
 
Carola Detrick has submitted her member application, which has already been approved by the Board. This serves as the announcement to the Club and anyone has 7 days from July 29 to submit an objection to Theresa or Susan (better Susan, as Theresa is on vacation).
 
Barbara Weldon introduced our speaker, Meilyn Santana. She is an impressive young woman from Brazil, with a Masters Degree in Public Health from USF. She is the Referral Department Manager at Marin Community Clinics in San Rafael now, formerly with Operation Access. The mission of Marin Community Clinic is to improve the health of our patients and community by providing high quality, cost-effective, culturally sensitive, patient-centered health care. They offer services in 4 locations in the county. The Greenbrae office just moved from MGH to their new location in Larkspur. Multiple services are offered and they accept insurance, Medicare, Medi-cal, and are serving the entire population not just low-income. She talked about the amount of confusion and problems around the ACA including the negative stigma, new Medicare rules, what health care plans cover which services/specialists and the humungous backlog of applications at Marin Co Dept of HH&S. She said Medical patients can apply at any time, and anyone can still apply for Covered CA if there’s a loss of job, having a baby, moving. Also to help the situation, they are hiring new enrollment counselors, making counseling free, and offering Saturday hours. There are 17,000 uninsured residents in Marin, 40% of whom are undocumented. CalFresh is coming as well (subsistence program). Helpful website: www.insurancehelp@marinclinics.org. As a side note, they work very closely with RotaCare, receiving many referrals from RotaCare.
 
See you next week! The speaker will be: Richard Jensen, of LITA (Love is the Answer)
 
Your ever-improving scribe,
Millie Anderson