President Joe La Mariana called the meeting to order at the stroke of 12:15.
Pledge of Allegiance: With his flag-filled empty bottle, once containing Pliny the Elder beer, Joe asked Col. Alden Cunningham to lead us in the pledge.
Invocation: Mark Johnson delivered a Thanksgiving message listing things for which we all should be grateful.
- We are very thankful to have longstanding friendships and being able to be connected on Zoom during the COVID era
- We look forward to getting together in person soon
- We are thankful for our special caring for each other, our bond of friendship, and our love of our community
Unfortunately, no Three Amigo’s this Thanksgiving meeting due to a scheduling conflict and we’ll miss the masterful and insightful and loving fellow members Jay, Paul and Michael.
- Our club is always thankful for our special connection with the religious in our community and we are so fortunate and proud to have them as members:
Rabbi Jay Miller, Rev Paul Watermulder, Father Michael Mahoney
- They are key leaders in our community – they listen, they counsel, they lead us, and are our friends we all can talk to.
- This has always made our club so extra special and truly more meaningful
- We love you all and are very thankful you are in our lives
- We are thankful for everyone caring for each other and helping out
- We are thankful for being able to see each other weekly on Zoom and talk and listen and being “engaged” as best we can in these unique COVID circumstances
- We are thankful for the early and plentiful rains
- We are thankful for busy Burlingame Avenue (remember March/April of last year it was empty and no cars)
- We are thankful for our positive “can do” spirit and raising money and supportive donors and volunteers at golf tournaments in ways never done before
- We are thankful for our smiles and “let’s have FUN” attitude!
- We are thankful for the FUN FAIRIES party tomorrow (Thursday 11/18) party for everyone at Suzanne Juptner’s home from 6-9pm!
HAPPY THANKSGIVING AND HAPPY BURLINGAME ROTARY TO ALL!!!
Announcements:
- Fun Fairies party this Thursday at the lovely home of Suzanne Juptner.
- The next Board of Director’s Meeting will be held Wednesday, December 1 at which time we will confirm the date of our return to in-person Rotary luncheons. Stay tuned.
- The Holiday Party will be on December 15 at Saprore in Burlingame. We need your RSVP by December 10th.
- Joe gave us a few upcoming District event dates. All can be found on their website. Home Page | District 5150 (rotary5150.org)
We then moved to a breakout session…successfully with stand-in host Marilyn Orr.
Newscast+: Fritz Brauner and Jennifer Pence moderated a somewhat free-form conversation centered around Thanksgiving traditions. Fritz asked for a show of hands as to who preferred pumpkin pie to apple pie. For a Thanksgiving celebration pumpkin pie won out. Then he asked who had memories or stories about a crazy uncle. Emily shared that her household actually has a “Crazy Sophie”. Her daughter decided that the family would spend Thanksgiving in Las Vegas. You go girl!! Bob Doerr told us about his Uncle Chick, who along with his aunt enjoyed their cocktails to the extreme creating mayhem and humor. That, of course, provided a segue into a discussion of alcohol at Thanksgiving dinner. Fritz had a few stories when he was a child of his mother delaying the cooking of the Turkey so the adults could extend cocktail hour. Most members indicated that indeed wine was served before, during and sometimes after the feast. Jennifer, however, noted that in her mid-western household there was no alcohol served. That changed when she married Adam and now spend Thanksgiving with his family.
Program: Since
Christine Krolik, who arranged for the speaker, was out of town
Emily Matthews introduced
Lauren Mayer. Lauren has worked as a music director, arranger, and songwriter for many Bay Area theaters, including TheatreWorks, 42nd Street Moon, and Broadway By The Bay. She is also a cabaret performer and a five-time recipient of the San Francisco Cabaret Gold Award, and she is on the faculty of the SF Conservatory of Music. In addition, Lauren is the composer/lyricist for "Living Large," a musical about actress Marie Dressler, which will have its premiere in December at Potrero Stage in San Francisco.
Lauren gave us some background on this new musical. She explained a bit of the creative process that is involved in developing a musical, from finding a playwright to composing the music and lyrics. She collaborated with a local playwright, Diane Sampson. This new musical, Living Large, is based on the life of a silent movie actress from the 1920s. So, the music needed to reflect that era. Lauren shared a couple of numbers from the play. Tickets are on sale now.
To hear the full presentation, go to the recording of the full Zoom meeting
President Joe presented Lauren with the virtual certificate confirming our donation of 5 polio vaccination in honor of her program.
But wait, there's more!
Our member, Bobba Venkatadri, was invited by International Chair, Naveen Dasari to attend the weekly meeting of the Rotary Club of Vijayawada while he was visiting India.
All are planning to meet later to prepare a draft MOU between this club and KEATS and also finalize the draft of Grant application in the revised format for our proposed International Project.
Bobba reports that things are moving well on the construction front and our host club is highly motivated and supportive of the Digital Classroom project.
