In the beginning...
President Bill assembled the Rotarians and Guests for the pre-deluge festivities. Bill welcomed all to the “Best Rotary Club I Know!”
Kelley Rasmussen led the Pledge of Allegiance to this great Country.
Betsy Watson delivered the following inspirational moment. If the world followed these guidelines, we would be waging peace, feeding, education, and housing our world.
Inspirational Moment:
Kindness No Obligation (The Sonnet)
Those who feel kindness is an obligation,
Don't really feel but crawl as walking dead.
Those who think society ain't their responsibility,
Don’t think, they're just specimens of mental midget.
Giants are those who lay themselves down,
For the welfare of every single soul around.
Intellect is a tool for, not a subject of, greatness and glory,
The root of all greatness is a gentle heart unbound.
Kindness is more than a trait, just like accountability,
These things make a human out of an animal.
Selfishness is more than a flaw, just like egotism,
These things keep an animal from becoming human.
Little selfishness is ok so long as your humanity is in charge.
We've been animal long enough, now let's be giants on guard.”
― Abhijit Naskar, The Gentalist: There's No Social Work, Only Family Work
We were then directed to our buffet line: Tortilla Soup and Salad. Yum!!
Rotarian Visitors and Guests
We welcomed Greg Patterson of the Westlake Sunrise Club, guest of Bob Davis.
Our Boulder Rotary Club snowbird, Alexia Parks was in attendance.
Guests included Dolan Halbrook, spouse of Renee Halbrook and Carla Sherman, guest of Taundra Roddick.
Thank-Yous
Many hands make light work, but it takes those hands to make our meetings and our Club function smoothly and efficiently.
Room Setup-Kelley Rasmussen and Taundra Roddick
Reminder Editor/Photography-Carl Gross
Flag Salute-Kelley Rasmussen
Inspirational Moment-Betsy Watson
Roving Mic-Catherine Lee
Greeter-Betsy Watson
Welcome Desk/Treasurer-Dave Brubaker
Pre-meeting tickling of the ivories-Fern Barishman
Upcoming Programs: Jack Jacobs
2/9/2024-Adryon DeLeon-Adryon de León, born and raised in the tiny artist’s village of Ojai, CA where she cut her teeth in a Baptist congregation. Over her formative years, musical theater infused de León’s life resulting in a unique theatrical, gritty, and soulful sound. Currently, she is a featured principal vocalist/performer for the Disneyland Resort, has performed background vocals for Macy Gray, Patti Austin, The Growlers, and George Clinton. In 2013, she joined the acclaimed Los Angeles-based soul & funk group Orgone. Orgone’s release, Reasons, features tracks spotlighting de León in a main writing and collaborative role.
2/16/2024-Beth Pratt
A lifelong advocate for wildlife, Beth Pratt has worked in environmental leadership roles for over thirty years, and in two of the country’s largest national parks: Yosemite and Yellowstone. As the California Regional Executive Director for the National Wildlife Federation, Pratt leads the #SaveLACougars campaign to build the Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing, which broke ground on Earth Day in 2022. The largest wildlife crossing of its kind in the world, it will help save a population of mountain lions from extinction. Her innovative conservation work has been featured by The New Yorker, The Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, BBC World Service, CNN, CBS This Morning, the Los Angeles Times, Men’s Journal, The Guardian, NPR, AP News, and more.
Di Angelo Publications released her book, I Heart Wildlife: A Guided Activity Journal for Connecting With the Wild World, in 2020, and Heyday Books published When Mountain Lions are Neighbors: People and Wildlife Working It Out In California in 2016. Her new book, Yosemite Wildlife, will be published by the Yosemite Conservancy in 2024. Beth has also contributed essays several books including The Nature of Yosemite: A Visual Journey, and Inspiring Generations: 150 Years, 150 Stories in Yosemite. She has also given a TEDx talk about coexisting with wildlife called, “How a Lonely Cougar in Los Angeles Inspired the World,” is featured in the documentary, “The Cat that Changed America,” and the new reboot of Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom.
Beth spends much of her time in Los Angeles, but makes her home outside of Yosemite, “my north star,” with her six dogs, two cats, and the mountain lions, bears, foxes, frogs, and other wildlife that frequent her backyard. More information at www.bethpratt.com or www.101wildlifecrossing.org
2/23/2024-Offsite Meeting-TBA
3/1/2024-J. B. White-JB White is a long-time Ojai resident and screenwriter with a long list of credits, including the recent Hallmark film, “Get Me to the Wedding on Time.” As a multi-genre writer he’s also adapted the Peter Benchley book, “The Beast” and written the horror film “House of Frankenstein.”
He has a long list of credits for the Hallmark Channel but he didn’t start out to be a screenwriter. He dropped out of Stanford, where he was friends with a budding actress named Sigourney Weaver) to pursue a career as a singer-songwriter. He worked in the legal trade as a side hustle before making the leap in writing with piles of spec scripts, which landed him an agent. He moved to Ojai in 1993 to raise his children. After writing a script that drew favorable attention from Andy Griffith, he embarked on a flourishing career as the go-to writer with NBC, before moving into motion pictures. He keeps the musician dream alive, producing and performing concerts around the area, including with the Household Gods, known as Ojai’s house band.
Fining and Confessions—Steve White-Our Bellingham Rotary snowbird was the first Visiting Rotarian to run this show. Bob Eisler was his bag man. After confessions, Steve led us on a “spell or pronounce towns in Washington. Dave Brubaker, Sue Gilbreth, Betsy Watson, and Jack Jacobs went down in flames. It was only Tony Thacher who gave the correct answer.
Announcements
DGE Sherry Sim reports that on March 9th, our Rotary District 5240 will host a Zoom district training assembly from 9 AM-3:45 PM. There will be a keynote speaker, sequential sessions offering 18 choices on various Rotary topics, including fundraising strategies, power of story telling, etc. It is free to all. It is a great opportunity to learn, engage, and be inspired.
Fred Fauvre took the podium to announce the 93rd rotation around the sun of Dr. Bob Skankey. Fern played and we sang Happy Birthday. Bob was present on Zoom. Congratulations, Bob!
Program: Get Acquainted Talks-Renee Halbrook and Andy Gilman
Renee Halbrook
Renee took the podium first and spoke of her life growing up in Ojai. She attended UCLA, majoring in Environmental Studies, French, and Premed. Renee was also an exchange student in Europe.
She spoke of her solo travels in New Zealand and Southeast Asia.
Subsequently, she obtained a Master’s Degree in Education and French. She met her spouse, Dolan at the Local Hero Coffee Shop and married 1 year later. She held leadership positions at Sun Microsystems.
They moved to Portland where she had her first child, Zoey. With the CoVid and political unrest/violence, they returned to Ojai. Her mother in poor health and father needing help, they moved back to Ojai and eventually moved in with Fred to provide help and support after the loss of Shirle, her mother.
Andy Gilman
Andy also grew up in Ojai. He was no stranger to work with his first job at 11 years old, trimming roses, washing dishes, and cleaning carpets at Bayless Market (Westridge Midtown for you newbies).
He joined BST (Behavior Science Technology), an Ojai firm that analyzed and consulted with major businesses on safety and creating safe working conditions.
He found school dull and boring, so he started a parent co-op which became Ventura Charter School, now in its 12th year.
In addition to his promotion and communication expertise, Andy works with organizations to improve their effectiveness, social impact, governance, workflow, information management, and client retention. He is a founding member and former Board President of Ventura Charter School of Arts and Global Education, a board member and Managing Director of The Agora Foundation, and currently works with Oak Grove School, CASA of Ventura County, and The Ojai Chautauqua. He is a member of the Ojai Valley Land Conservancy, the Ojai Valley Green Coalition, Food for Thought, and Paso Pacifico.
Andy has a BFA in Design from California Institute of the Arts and a Master's degree in Liberal Arts from St. John's College
He was introduced to the Great Books Collection of Western Thought. This has been used in classrooms to great effect. This developed in the Agora Foundation, using the Socratic model of teaching where teaching is in the form of fundamental questions. The goal is to come to the truth through discussion.
His other venture was the creation of the Chatagua Group which hosted a variety of public seminars on subjects including GMOs, Water, Fracking, the housing crisis, etc. There are over 30 subjects which are available by video.
He was married to Kate Komaiko since 1993. He has a large family in Ojai including 5 generations. His passions include gardening, pickling, hiking, restoration of hiking trails, and music.
He concluded his talk with his first public announcement that he is running for Mayor of Ojai. He asks the question, “Why am I doing this?” His answer: “I feel compelled to”.
Renee and Andy, what great presentations. Thank-you for allowing us to get to know you better!
Final Thoughts
President Bill closed the meeting with two quotes:
“A real friend is one who walks in when the rest of the world walks out”
And
“Real friends don’t let their friends do silly things…alone.”
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