We greeted our visiting Rotarian ADG Matteo Rizzo from South San Francisco. President Joe La Mariana then asked him to lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance.

 

In honor of the birthday of former President Barack Obama, John Delaney shared some of his more inspirational quotes.

 

 

 

 

Emily Beach gave us a COVID update. Effective yesterday the County of San Mateo now requires that masks be worn indoors in all public buildings.

 

President Joe shared his report from the recent Board meeting, outlining donation highlights from the adopted 2021/22 budget, including $5,000 in scholarships for Burlingame Recreation programs, as their scholarship pool of funds had run dry. Joe gave us an update on the return to in-person lunches. The board decision was made to postpone it until January 5^th, due to the resurgence of COVID. If the pandemic situation improves, in-person lunches could begin earlier.

 

The Board considered two proposals for lunches, from Par 3 and from Green Hills Country Club in Millbrae, and recommended Green Hills. Green Hills offers $30 per person with a 15-person minimum, and Par 3 is at $35 per person with a 25-person minimum (it was noted that if the Club doesn’t meet the minimum number of guests, the Club is responsible for $35 per person on the shortfall). As Green Hills is 10 minutes further north on 101 than Par 3, which may impact some members, members were asked to express their preference. A poll may be going out to ascertain everyone’s preference.

 

A discussion ensued regarding the feasibility of the Club engaging in a local COVID vaccine promotion effort. The prevailing opinion was that, although Rotary is committed to the polio vaccine effort, the issue of COVID vaccines has become a political one, therefore not appropriate for Club involvement.

 

 

The meeting went slightly out of sequence as the speaker was on a limited time frame. Our speaker was Justine Hong, who grew up in Hillsborough and graduated from Duke University before getting her MBA from Harvard Business School. Her first job out of graduate school was with Mayor Pete Buttigieg's presidential campaign, where she was an essential staff member, managing data for the fundraising operation. She moved over to the Biden-Harris campaign, then followed now Secretary of Transportation Buttigieg to Washington, DC. Justine is now Director of Executive Secretariat.

 

Justine was interviewed by Christine Krolik and answered questions about why she chose a career in the public sector, her experiences in the national presidential campaigns, and her current job at the Department of Transportation. Her duties at DOT entail co-ordination of all of the policy documents, communications and correspondence that goes directly to the Secretary. She explained that Secretary Buttigieg is committed to responding to as much correspondence as possible, and it is her responsibility to oversee that effort as well as to streamline all of the communications that come his way.

 

Members asked Justine about the future of transportation in the US, the ability of her department to innovate in an entrenched DC culture, the importance to local municipalities of federal funding for transportation projects, and the impact that the proposed infrastructure package could have on the country.

 

The members thanked Justine for sharing her time and expertise, and more than one commented that it is uplifting to see our best and brightest choosing to serve in government.

 

The delayed newscast was next, and Fritz Brauner and Jennifer Pence entertained us with Olympic trivia and multiple-choice fun facts. Who knew that Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No.1 was chosen for the medal ceremony for Russian athletes (ROC) in lieu of their national anthem?

 

President Joe invited anyone who wanted to stay a bit overtime to participate in the postponed chat rooms. About 10 members stayed and enjoyed a brief chat before signing off.