At 12:04 PM Co-President Carl asked me kindly if I would be todays editor. When I say kindly, I mean he even gave me pen and paper with which to record the proceedings. I know what time it was, because after the meeting Co Pres Bill gave me his  co-presidential notes which clearly state “12:05 Call To Order”, and I trust  Bill to be timely.

 

After a hearty Hello and a heartfelt reminder of the worth of our club, to the community and to us personally (that in NOT a direct quote, and may go beyond paraphrase, but it is really what he meant!) Bill continued his remarks with a nice reminder to remember our veterans on this special weekend. His personal family has generations of veterans and support for veterans. Was it my imagination or was there a little more OOMF in our rendition of the Pledge of allegiance, patriotically led by Marc Whitman.  Wendy Barker gave us a very appropriate Inspirational moment on the same subject. Well delivered and received.

 

As usual, there was a pause in our formal proceedings and we all informally proceeded to the food line where we were treated to cheeseburgers, including veggie, with bacon and guacamole, plus all the other trimmings as well as a huge fresh salad with dressing on the side (a personal favorite). And lemon pound cake with 3 raspberries. Remember to thank Jayne for our consistently edible food.

 

Bill asked for introductions of visiting Rotarians. Again, the magic number was zero.  (I’ll bet it we told them we were having cheeseburgers we wouldn’t have had 20 left over).

Way better luck when checking on regular guests, we had our first introduction to our speaker, Kim Hoj, but now, as then, more later.

 

This next bit is apparently part of the contract to get the reminder published:

“Sincere Thanks go out to:

Room set up - Kelley Rasmussen

Reminder editor - Bob Davis (hold the applause)

Flag Salute- Marc - Whitman

Inspirational moment - Wendy Barker

Greeter – Dave Watson

Cashier – Bret Nighman

Roving mic – Bret Nighman “

 

 

 

 

The first announcement was from Kelley Rasmussen who is our Rotarian Sergeant at Arms, “an official whose duties include maintaining order and security “.  It’s a lot more than that. She is also chief scheduler for things like greeter, Inspirational moment, pledge, set up etc. In other words, it’s a lot of dang work. YOU can help. Volunteer before she must ask.  Talk to Kelley. She has sign-up sheets with date, time, and job.  I’m sure, with Kelley, Deirdre’s clarion call “if it’s not fun, it’s not Rotary” will be primary. Another chance for YIRS!

 

Bill brought us up to date about Dave Brubaker’s recent loss of his wife Karen. Services were held at 11 am today (the10^th) with several members of our club in attendance.  Bill asked for and received a respectful and meaningful moment of silence remembering a great lady and friend to so many in the club.

 

 

Tony Thacher, our Mr. all things TRF,  gave the following  fact filled chat about how TRF helps the world in general and our club specifically.

 

 

 

Then, living proof of how all the above starts, Jerry Marynuik was called to the podium and presented with his first, although I’ll wager not his last, Paul Harris Fellow. Thank you, Jerry, It is a delight to see our newer Rotarians doing so well. Our club is lucky to be blessed with so many new members, like Jerry, who “ GET It!”.

Betsy Watson, Community Service Chair, gave a good wrap up report concerning the annual cleanup of the Nordhoff Cemetery.  Working in conjunction with other clubs and organizations, our hardy crew of volunteers worked hard and accomplished much. Gas blowers were NOT used, in fear of waking the dead, and all work was done without disturbing the residents.

And this was her FINAL announcement on Poinsettias:

Rotary Club of Ventura East sells healthy fresh red poinsettias as their major fundraiser.  To order yours through our Club, bring payment (check or cc) to the meeting this Friday November 17.  Each case of 6 costs $68 and will be delivered to your home or business on November 30.

If you prefer to order on your own, use the attached form. Remember Ventura is the Poinsettia city, even if flower comes from Carpinteria.

 

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(available in club runner if you know how to look) nimbly presented by Bill:

Next week: Francis Longstreet, Professor from Lausanne who will talk about a vital concern of our time. (Truthfully, I cannot read my writing. For further clarification go to club runner. I forget how to get in)

Thanksgiving week :Dark

December 1: Get acquainted talks (used to be Craft Talks, harking back to the original idea of Rotary learning about other folk. I like get acquainted better)

Dec 8 : Sergio Arogonas. Bring kids!!!, But if you don’t, he will still bring out the kid in you!! (Tony, if you have any Pixie lunch boxes left, you might have a few available.)

 

 

 

Bill next invited our in house funest fine master, Cindy Frings, up to the podium to extract finances from some while providing fun for all;

But first some important confessions were presented. 

Bret, the longer, lamented his brief memory lapse from last week when he failed to include our Dr Bob Skankey in his discussion of the discovery of germs, etc.  He was right to lament, as what Dr Bob specifically and the Nomad Foundation in general have accomplished in their area is more significant to the Taureg and Wodaabe than Polio Plus.

Dr. Marty Pops, he of the earth rattling oratory of last week, lamented the sorry state of our world today. He wished to recognize Rotary, this Club and the RCOEF as true outliers from the havoc we see about us, and he presented a check to RCOEF.

 

Now Cindy, the Creative, explained her game. Certain member’s pets were asked what they would call their owners if they could speak. The finee was given the moniker, and a list of 4 suspects. Here, as best as I can recall are the result:

Bret, the shorter, failed to identify Larry Wilde as “the commandant!”

Bruce failed to recognize Kathy Yee as “bitch” (probably a good thing!)

Jeff Loebl missed Jerry Marynuik as “Leftover”. Makes me wonder what kind of pet Jerry has.

Patricia Gates did, I think, pick Betsy Watson as “Playmate”. She must know Malcolm.

Marc Whitman missed the obvious that Catherine Lee was “wonderful.”

See how Cindy put the “fun’ in “funding”, 

 

 

 

Bill now had his best pleasure of the day by introducing our speaker, Kim Hoj. In brief, “People here know Kim Hoj for her work at Nordhoff, where she teaches dance. Simply put, Kim, is a master teacher who has inspired students to work hard and to have fun doing it.  Before the pandemic Kim started a second master’s degree program in Dance Movement Therapy. Since mental health is a major concern Rotary International is prioritizing this year Kim’s program is timely.”

 

Kim started her fascinating talk by bringing us on the adventure of her youth. She related how free-spirited dancing and movement in the privacy of her family’s garage gave her the space to release and control the rather evident energy that she possesses until today. She is a living breathing example of the “benefits of movement” which started her on the journey to “Dance Movement Therapy”. She reminded us that movement is our first language. Examples of the wisdom of the body can be truly mind bending. While she is not as active on Nordhoff Campus this year, she recently wrote a successful $300,000 grant for the school to more properly institute movement therapies to the system to make is empirically stronger. She spoke of “Movement for Social-emotional benefit “pointing out that performers perform not only for the audience, but for themselves (lesson learned in the garage). The term Entrainment, not entertainment, was presented as a positive for movement. I think it sort of means that movement helps align things physical and mental, but you may want to ask Kim if I am close. Carefully chosen graphics went a long way in illustrating her salient points. Especially interesting to me was a “movement for self-expression” wheel, representing visually 6 primary and 72 secondary “feelings”  that can feel the effect of and be affected by movement. In the final moments, Kim had us join in a bit of an exercise, called Somatic Presence. In our exercise there were 5 parts, each of which we responded to as commands, BUT only if we wanted too. Very important that all of this is voluntary, but Kim made it so interesting, we all did it! They were Grounding, Breath, Water, Squeeze, and Stretch”. I felt a bit like the Pillsbury Dough Boy at first, but it must have been “entrainment” for I do believe it was mood altering! Many thanks to Kim for fine talk on a subject I found far more interesting than I expected. Flawless delivery with a smile certainly helped! 

 

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