Burlingame Rotary Club
Founded in 1925

Lunch Meetings are held every Wednesday for the Rotary year 2019 - 2020. 

Be safe and stay healthy.
Welcome President Cheri Carr
Meeting date: June 17th 2020
Location: Zoom
High Gear Writer: Frances Boscacci
 
What about today? Beautiful sunny day for a Rotary gathering.  Friendly faces in the ZOOM screen were a refreshing site to see. A sign of the times: Shelter-in-Place!
 
Pledge: led by Suzanne Juptner- Thank you Suzanne!
 
Invocation: Thank you, President Cheri, who shared some very inspirational quotes: “In every community there is work to be done, in every nation there are wounds to heal, in every heart there is the power to do it” Mary Ann Williamson. From Coretta Scott-King, “the greatness of a community is most accurately measured by the compassionate actions of its members”. And from George Bernard Shaw: “I’m of the opinion that my life belongs to the whole of the community and as long as I’m alive it is my privilege to do whatever I can. I want to be thoughtfully used up when I die, for the harder I work, the more I live.”
 
Visiting RotariansBrad McCulley, our guest speaker, welcomed as the only visitor.
 
Announcements: - President offered sincere gratitude to Burlingame Rotarians, Mayor Emily Beach, Charles Voltz, and Cheryl Fama for their participation in the community-wide Pandemic response initiative “Burlingame Collective”. As per Mayor Emily Beach, the concept of this initiative was proposed by our “Change Agent and Thought Leader” Charles Voltz. Thank you Charles and fellow Rotarians! Also thanks to all for participation in last week’s meeting, hosting the visit by the Par 3 management, thanking our club for our (pandemic relief) gift generosity. Continuing to wish a very happy birthday and anniversary to all June birthdays. Lastly, remember to continue to enjoy Burlingame Rotary’s Friday Zoom happy hours, as gracefully arranged by our dear Mary Murphy.
 
Speaker Introduction: Wendi Upchurch welcomed our speaker Brad McCulley, City Librarian for Burlingame Public Library, reminding us how lucky we are to have Brad’s regular presentations and updates. Wendi graciously enlightened us with a guessing exercise, and we learned a couple of great new facts about Brad: He once lived, as a student, in Leningrad, Russia. And currently he rides his bike weekly, from San Francisco to Burlingame. Who knew?  
 
Program: Brad McCulley. City Librarian for Burlingame Public Library- Conversational Presentation covered the following points:
 
In the past, libraries have been preparing for the Pandemic for the last 10-15 years. Several librarians, including our own Pat Harding (Rotarian Bill Tiedeman’s wife) made a large impact, already working on, and dedicating resources to Online Services. This paved the way for the work being done now and positioned us well. Ninety percent was already in place before the closing of the library last March.
 
In the early days of the Pandemic, the thought was Shelter-In-Place (SIP) would last two weeks at the most. There was chaos and worry for days. With the realization that the situation would take longer to normalize, personnel discussions and actions working from home ensued, and the following were agreed as a group to become the main 6 priorities: 1- Customer Service:  How are we going to meet the needs of the community? We cannot be in the library but have great online resources. This is the “front facing” priority and was discussed more at length later.
 
Internal Communications: How to talk to each other quickly & efficiently? Email, phone calls, texts?
 
Public  Communications: How to? Not everyone uses email or checks website. Done postcards, physical signs, other public announcements, making sure people knew they could contact the library.
 
Operational Continuity: Behind the scenes activities, such as pay checks, bills, IT, administrative duties.
 
External Support: How are we supporting fellow departments with our access, such as Public Works, Parks and Rec Center, and even San Mateo County. Staff wellness, while navigating the difficulties of working from home was also part of the needed external support.
 
How do we  re-open? And how to provide the services like they have been provided in the past?
 
Jumping back into Customer Service: This is the “bread and butter” of Library activity. Described below, are e-resources, programming, outreach, other resources. Library wae set up already but started providing a lot more on line programming. For example, children story times’ attendance has skyrocketed, by the number of log-ins (1,400 log ins recently!) and it includes teens resources as well:
  • E-books: Have become much easier to access, now with 7 platforms. The main platform is “Overdrive” which was introduced by Pat Harding. It is very easy to use now, with about 45,000 unique titles. This is shared with the county but there is also funding for prioritization for Burlingame residents. E-book circulation more than doubled from last May to May 2020.
  • Video streaming: “Canopy” is the platform with great movies and documentaries.Limit of about 10 per month. Can stream to computer or TV, easy to use, like Netflix. Current topics, like racial equity topics, such as Black Lives Matter movies and documentaries are available.
  • E-Magazines: have become very popular in the website. There are about 150 titles. A deal with a new provider, coming up soon will provide 3,500 titles.
  • The New York times is also on the website, provided by the state. Detailed instructions available.
  • Foreign Language learning tools are available, such as “Pronunciator”.
  • Online classes, any class you can think of is available on the site.
  • Ancestry.com allowed the Library to be accessed remotely since SIP .
  • Scheduled Programming: Book talks, classes, homework, tutoring, story time, are all online now. And this was the biggest change that has occurred, and have had great online attendance during SIP.
  • Wi-Fi “hot spots” are being provided, some still loaned out to those who can’t afford the internet. People can also sit in the front porch of the library and use Wi-FI.
  • Phone or Zoom reference calls, Monday-Friday can call and get assistance and recommendations.
  • Curbside pick-up of physical books is available through an ordering process now, via the Library website. Also, book drop off and donation.
Are we meeting everybody’s needs right now? Answer would be NO. There is an older demographic that either is not tech savvy or has been homebound for a while, with a physical delivery service that had to be interrupted.
 
Back to external support: Librarians and staff helped small business in the beginning of the Shelter-In-Place to apply for relief loans etc. They also used the library 3D printers and/or sewing machines to print face masks and “ear savers”.  Library kits have been provided to homeless shelters too, so they can temporarily use the online resources.
 
Re-opening: Mandate is NOT to open until Stage 3 of the pandemic recovery has been reached. We are still far from there, and won’ t be opening very soon, or have any date established yet.  But a plan to re-open is developed.
 
Questions and Answers:
 
1 Could we help you by providing volunteers? Asked by Emily Matthews.
 
Answer: Please shoot me an email, as I’m creating a list of volunteers.
 
2- Jennifer Pence: Could I get a Library Card by having my business in Burlingame and not residing there?
 
Answer: No. But if you reside in a different county, you MAY get a Burlingame Library card through the website and use it.
 
3- Julius Aires: Asked if e-books were as expensive as he has read about?
 
Answer: Yes, because there is a pretty high cost to the library.
 
4- President Cheri: Any initiatives being addressed through library to alleviate Senior citizens’ isolation/ lonely times, needing help?
 
Answer: Tried it with mail outreach, but have had hands tied for the most part due to Covid limitations. Some care cards have been delivered, so just got approval to start delivering books safely. Library staff feels busiest than ever which has been challenging too.
 
5- Jim Shypertt: Is the system of air circulation safe inside the Library?
 
Answer: Yes. According to facilities department building is definitely safe, with more than the minimum of air being circulated. Even the HVAC association has confirmed this.
 
President Cheri offered gratitude to our speaker, Brad, for a wonderful presentation. Lastly she shared Alden Cunningham’s words of gratitude to Burlingame Rotarians for welcoming him in our club. This time we’ll miss him for a longer time, but looks forward to coming back in the Fall of 2021. He will be working on developing “Rotary Means Business” program in Pennsylvania. Thank you Alden!
 
We closed the meeting with a light hearted tone, “questionable jokes by President Cherie” …LOL… Thank you all!! 
 
Club Member Announcements (Alden Cunningham)
Jokes by President Cherie
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Speakers
Jun 24, 2020
Jul 08, 2020
World Marathon Challenge
View entire list
Member Birthdays
Mike Kimball
June 2
 
Peter Comaroto
June 7
 
Jennifer Pence
June 18
 
Joseph Galligan
June 19
 
Anniversaries
Charles Voltz
Mary Hunt
June 28
 
Joe La Mariana
Terri Baldocchi
June 30
 
Russell Hampton
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