In the Beginning...
As a splendid Fall morning turned into a splendid Fall afternoon, members of the Rotary Club of Ojai trooped into the fellowship hall at St. Thomas Aquinas church to assemble in the spirit of service above self. And food and fun.
Greeting our motley assemblage was our newest member Renee Fauvre Halbrook, who also helmed the camera chronicling for the meeting. Desk Duty Deirdre brought her dog to charm the crowd out of their lucre while Andy Gilman and Bill Prather set up the room for the much-upgraded audiovisual experience, which includes a half dozen Zoomers.
At or about 12:15, our guest and returning president Dr. Carl Gross took up the mic like a cudgel to flog order into the chattering flock of Rotarians, as current president Betsy Watson was still on her trip to Turkey.
Fern Barishman (yes, THE Fern Barishman) led the pledge, while Marty Babayco invoked us with a message of peace and inclusiveness.
Visiting Rotarians and Guests
Visiting Rotarian:
Linda Jordan from the Ojai Rotary-West
Guests:
Betsy Stix, Right Honorable Mayor
Lauren Davis, better half of presenter Kevin Davis
PRESIDENTIN’ — As a nod to Carl’s year as president back in Ye Olden Times of 1996-97: "Back then, we started the meeting with a joke. Allan and Jack Jacobs were replete with lawyer and accountant jokes. So here goes:
A doctor, lawyer, and a Rotarian in charge of fundraising all die and arrive at the Pearly Gates about the same time. St. Peter tells them they may each have one thing to take with them to Heaven.
The doctor is first and asks for $1 million. This is given and proceeds to enter Heaven. The lawyer, not to be outdone, asks for $2 million. "Very well," says St. Peter and opens the gate to Heaven for the lawyer.
Finally, it is time for the Rotarian, who had just finished a fundraising project for The Rotary Foundation. St. Peter asks him what he would like to take to Heaven. The fundraiser moves up very close to St. Peter, and in a soft voice asks, "It it's not too much trouble, could I just have the names and phone numbers of those two people who were ahead of me in line?"
This Day in History:
1797--André-Jacques Garnerin, an inspector in the French army who encouraged the use of balloons for military purposes, made a balloon ascent in order to give his first exhibition of parachuting, when he jumped from a height of about 3,200 feet (1,000 meters). Talk about a leap of faith!
Announcements:
Linda Jordan. OUSD’s Public Relations Director and Head of OUSD's Family Fund Fundraiser, talked about the 100 families that received clothes and school supplies as a result of the money donated by both clubs, and the coming Bike Giveaway on Nov. 8-10. So far, 117 students have been given bikes to get to and from school or their jobs.
She also gave us a heads up about the Virtual Bingo Night on Saturday, Nov. 6th. The games, fun and prizes will raise money for students to attend the Catalina Island Marine Institute, where they spend three days camping out and learning about marine biology. Tuition is $350 and the goal is to raise enough money to send 58 students to the institute, all of whom fall below 130 percent or less of the poverty level.
POLIO NATIONAL IMMUNIZATION DAY:
President-Elect Kay Bliss ran us through a fascinating program about her trip back in 2018 to India for the NID, which is coming up Jan. 28th. She said that polio is on the verge of eradication, in large part because of Rotary’s efforts to support immunization efforts around the world. The focus is on India, where the cases have d
windled to near nothing. But vigilance is key.
She said the 3-day event begins with parades and fanfare, followed the next day by the “three drop” protocol, then the final day with a sweep through the neighborhoods to make sure that no child is left behind.
She attended “more Rotary meetings than I care to remember,” she said. Especially fun, though, was living with the host families as they went about their business, including the search for a suitable arranged marriage for their 28-year-old son.
COMMUNITY SERVICE
• Sue Gilbreth asked for help with Operation Snowflake, a holiday event sponsored by the Ventura County Military Collaborative, a nonprofit for local veterans struggling financially. The club has placed a box at the sign in desk through November 19th, seeking toys, gift cards, gift baskets as well as cash.
• Kathy Yee reminded us of the Fifth Friday event on Oct. 29th at 5:30 pm, meeting up at Majestic Oak Vineyard for libations before heading to Libbey Bowl for the Ojai Storytellers Festival.
Rotary Humor
FINING
Dr. Gross introduced thusly: "Our prince of extractions, master of deductions, and purveyor of penalties—Larry Wilde” to an impolite smattering of applause.
Confessing were:
- Bill Hatch for neglecting to mention Operation Snowflake.
- Dr. Tiffany Morse for the help and support she received for a tough week at the school district, with the anti-mask graffiti and threats she’s received.
- Bill Prather for his travels to New England, Sedona, and the Grand Canyon, where he got snowed on.
- Christine Golden wanted to know about Fern Barishman’s recent date, which Fern ‘fessed up that went well but as the gentleman was seeking a travel companion, it was not a good match.
As a fitting segue, Larry thereupon asked some questions about Fern, to see if anyone was listening to her recent Get Acquainted Talk. Her main hobby is painting and she said she’d be a terrible mom, which stumped Bill Hatch and Don Reed both.
Program:
Kevin Davis, First Amendment Foundation of Ventura County (and club member), was introduced by Andy Gilman:
Kevin Davis is the founder of The First Amendment Foundation of Ventura County, co-author of the internationally acclaimed “Community-Powered Journalism: A manual for sustainability and growth in independent news,” and co-owner of KLJD Consulting, a business and HR consulting practice that is based in Ojai, California.
Born in London, GB in the mid 1960s, Kevin emigrated with his family to Culver City, California in 1978. Graduating from North Hollywood High School in the ‘80s, Kevin went on to attend California State University, Northridge, becoming the first person in his family to attend university. Kevin moved with his wife Lauren and (what would end up being) both kids to Ojai in 2018.
Kevin primarily works on helping media and technology companies focused on journalism and civic engagement become sustainable, by diversifying their revenues, and being more responsive to the communities that they serve.
Prior to starting KLJD, Kevin was the inaugural CEO and Executive Director of the Institute for Nonprofit News or INN (originally known as the Investigative News Network), a trade organization of 350 nonprofit newsrooms across the U.S.
Kevin is also a regular returning lecturer in the Future Media Management Programme at the Stockholm School of Economics - Riga, for which he is flying out to Estonia this Sunday.
Davis led us through his project to establish, fund, advocate and support journalism in the county, saying that major media outlets reached as few as 10 percent of the population, and misses many of the underserved Hispanic and other communities altogether.
He led off with a slide about the First Amendment being the only part of the constitution that singled out a private business for special protection, given that the founders knew the importance of a free and vigorous press to keep the system honest.
But the problem is that trust in the media is at an all-time low and many news organizations are either closing or downsizing, leading to “news deserts and zombie newsrooms,” where communities have no news sources or biased information is repackaged. Part of the problem is also that tech platforms have led to a decrease in advertising revenue - for example, Craigslist gutted classified ad revenue, which once made up 35 percent of some larger paper’s income.
Kevin’s project will try to learn from people who they are trying to serve, to better understand different viewpoints, and gain an updated picture of the local “news diet” for both traditional and tech platforms like Facebook and Twitter.
The foundation can then fund investigative and enterprise projects that serve those needs, and to collaborate with other organizations and media. An important part of the outreach will be to teach “news literacy” to help combat false information and “bad actors” who deliberately muddy the waters. Reaching students to promote journalism careers is another part of the foundation mission. He asked us to keep the Foundation in mind for annual giving and support.
Kevin took a few interesting questions from the audience, including explaining that NextDoor is unreliable because “if you’re not paying for it, you are the product.” And that mischief runs amok on such platforms, with trolls spreading lies for fun and profit. “And Facebook is much worse,” he said, “because they own everything” and there’s no trusted archive, no transparency and everything is about obtaining more eyeballs through outrage and anger.
Kay Bliss asked how he could be sure that donors wouldn’t try to use the foundation to their benefit. Kevin said that there are three levels of protection: first, large donors much sign a neutrality agreement, a strong board of professionals who keep the foundation fair and honest, and having multiple sources of funding, so no one donor predominates.
As Carl concluded after Kevin’s presentation, “We get some of our best programs from our members."
Closing remarks:
“Restriction of free thought and free speech is the most dangerous of all subversions. It is the one un-American act that could most easily defeat us.”
— William O. Douglas
