President Cary Koh called the meeting to order and began the meeting by asking Bob Doerr to lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance.
Rabbi Jay Miller took the stage for the Invocation. He reminded us that these are the High Holy Days for the Jewish faith. It began with Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, at sundown on September 15 to be followed by Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, later in the month. Jay will be spending this holy celebration with his family in Seattle as he does each year.
Cary then asked Raul Pulido to report on the recent District International Service Workshop that he and other members of our club’s International Project Committee. Part of the committee’s efforts are focused on getting other District 5150 clubs to donate their DDF allotments to our newest international project in India. He admitted it is a challenge as these clubs all have pet projects of their own.
Our master of birthdays and anniversaries, Mark Lucchesi, took to the stage to announce the names of those born in September under the Zodiac signs of Virgo and Libra.
Jeff Krolik then approached the podium to test the membership on their basketball trivia knowledge. He instructed everyone to grab a writing utensil to be ready to answer ten multiple choice questions. To test your own knowledge if you missed it, just watch the Zoom video.
We then moved on to the program. Jeff introduced our speaker then turned over the podium to him.
Pat Gallagher, the long-term head of marketing for the San Francisco Giants, delivered an outstanding presentation on his 32 years in baseball, which he called “being in the fun business.”
Pat began his Giants career in 1977 and faced the challenge of turning many negatives into positives. The biggest challenge was attracting fans to Candlestick Park, notorious for cold and wind. Gallagher told of how the Giants created the “Croix de Candlestick” – a medal awarded to fans who stayed to the conclusion of an extra-inning night game.
Gallagher related how he hired the famous highwire performer Karl Wallenda to walk a tightrope strung between the foul poles in between games of a doubleheader. Attendance spiked for the event, but Gallagher told of how he was criticized by ownership – fans were glued to their seats for the performance, thereby costing the Giants significant concession revenue.
According to Gallagher, the Giants approached marketing with a sense of humor, such as creating an “anti-mascot” in the Crazy Crab, who was meant to be booed when he appeared.
Gallagher gave an inside account of the Giants long journey to build a new ballpark – losing 4 elections before succeeding with the privately-financed Pac Bell (now Oracle) Park. (Surprisingly, Gallagher told of how Pac Bell Park was almost Old Navy Park, as the retailer had a fully negotiated deal for naming rights, only to get cold feet at the very last minute.)
All in all, an entertaining and informative presentation – thank you Pat.
Our very own Burlingame Rotarian, Mark Lucchesi has started a podcast for the Burlingame Historical Society called "Burlingame is a Small Town." He has interviewed a number of Burlingame Rotarians as well as other prominent folks in our community. You can check out his YouTube podcasts 