While President Jerry Winges was soaking up he history of Rotary in its hometown of Chicago, former President Doug Person welcomed all and called the meeting to order.

 

Doug asked Al Royse to lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance.

 

Donna Colson came forward to share her Thought of the Day.  Donna recently returned from Washington DC. It reminded her how wonderful and amazing it is to be an American. There is no place in this entire country where you can feel more patriotic than standing in Washington, D.C. As a board member on the National Trust for Historic Preservation, she had an opportunity to go and have dinner in President Lincoln's cottage and then sit up in the bedroom where he wrote the Emancipation Proclamation. Her brief invocation was simply the words that Abraham Lincoln wrote August 22^nd, 1864, when our country was torn apart, coming back together, and rethinking about what we were going to look like. And his line was, “The nation is worth fighting for to secure such an inestimable jewel.” And that's what we are, a jewel.

 

Next was Rotary Magazine “Don’t Miss This” segment with Jay Miller. However, the monthly publication was not featured, per se, but rather thoughts around having read every issue for many months. He shared with the group that the magazine illustrates how we talk to each other around the world as Rotarians. At a recent conference at UC Berkeley, there were repeated references about the world order, the nature of our society, being patriotic and some talk about governments. But over and over again there was reference to the people in the different countries. This was Rotary and the Rotary Magazine in another setting with the same global message.

 

Jennifer Pence announced the fall career event with the AVID class once again at BHS. We're going to make it almost like a career fair, where each Rotarian who is willing to share some thoughts about their career and their career path will be at a little table, and the students will circulate freely. It will be on Tuesday, November 17th, at 8.30 to 10 a.m. at BHS. A sign-up sheet was circulated.

 

Our fall fundraiser at TopGolf is fast approaching. We will begin collecting bottles of wine, valued at $50 or more, for our raffle baskets.

 

It was now time to welcome our newest member. Membership chair Al Royse invited Mia Compin to come forward along with her sponsor, Christne Krolik. After presenting her with her pin and welcome kit Mia told us a bit about herself. She recently returned to Burlingame from Red Bluff where she had been a member of Rotary. She has joined her mother, owner of Malinda’s on Howard. She looks forward to being an active member of our Rotary Club.

 

 

 

Christine Krolik introduced our speaker, Hillsborough Police Department's chief, Melissa Colla, who is known as Mimi. She is the department's 11th chief, our 1st female chief, and she rose through the ranks. Chief Colla also has leadership roles across San Mateo County, currently as a member of the San Mateo County Police Chiefs and Sheriffs Association, where she serves as the Chief's liaison to the San Mateo County Department of Emergency Management and to the county communication managers.

 

Chief Cola began her talk on automated license plate readers with some recent success stories from Hillsborough.  The first was a burglary that happened in December 2024. Someone had cut the padlock on the maintenance yard, broke in, and stole two of their work vehicles. This was part of a pattern of burglaries targeting tools and work trucks throughout the entire Bay Area. By accessing Flock, within an hour, we had the direction of travel for one of the work trucks. With the assistance regional partners both vehicles were recovered, one in San Francisco and one in Oakland, in less than 24 hours. So, the ALPR did more than just capture the plate. Other examples followed.