We met upstairs in the Elm Room, beautifully decorated for Valentine’s Day. Thank you, Carol Tanzi, for sharing your design talent with us, and to Marilyn Orr for assisting. Each table had a beribboned bottle of wine, won by whomever was sitting on a chair that had a special tag underneath it. The quality wine was graciously gifted by Professor Mike Kimball from his impressive cellar.

 

Lunch was a delicious buffet of Caesar salad, eggplant parmesean, salmon and vegetables. Thank you Jonnie and Sapore! Christine made heart shaped chocolate and shortbread cookies.

 

Christopher handled the tech once again – deepest thanks for this crucial job!

 

Rabbi Jay Miller shared with us  former State Senator, current Santa Clara County Supervisor

Joe Simitian's Tips for Successful Advocacy For All of Us In All We Do

 

1. Develop a relationship before you arrive - year, an hour, a 15-minute phone call.

2. Understand what motivates your audience.

3. Understand what is possible and what is not.

4. Find a floor manager (regardless of the forum)

5. Tell them what you want.

6. Tell them why they care/why it matters to them.

7. Bring them solutions, not problems.

8. Describe the elements of a solution, rather than insist on your solution.

9. Do not chastise, insult or threaten any one.

10. Understand that sometimes less is more.

11 . Layer your campaign.

12. Persistence pays off (with all of the above.)

13. The value of a "thank you."

 

Thanks to Jay for those wise words! 

 

Fritz added that early in his career, he reported to someone who required that each situation come to him with:

And that has been a help to him ever since.

 

Alden introduced some guests from Yreka, California. Christine brought her husband, Jeff, and also Al Royce, her colleague on the Hillsborough City Council. (It was Al’s 3^rd meeting, and his membership application is being submitted).

 

Fritz noted that new member Karina broke the record for shortest time between being pinned as a new member and giving a presentation, both which occurred at last week’s meeting.

 

Fritz noted that the day is National Kite Flying Day.

 

Jennifer announced the upcoming joint meeting with Lion’s Club on February 22, with our club hosting at the Burlingame Community Center. There will be a raffle, and Jennifer is looking for raffle prizes.

 

Sunday, April 30^th will be our club’s first annual Burlingame’s Got Talent fundraiser, 5-8pm in the Sequoia Room at the Community Center. Please volunteer to help – or perform!

 

Fritz asked us to share our best and worst Valentine’s Day stories as we commenced some social time.

 

Long-time senior executive at Visa Win Derman noted in his highly engaging talk on the history of Visa that in 1976 Visa handled $20 Million in transactions. In 2022 that figure had grown to $11.6 Trillion.

 

As Win made clear, the story of Visa is a story of unrivaled business vision and execution.  Visa came from a very modest beginning as Bankamericard to now being the universally recognized worldwide payment system.

 

Once competitors, Visa and Mastercard are now jointly owned by their member banks.  Visa commands 53% market share as compared to MasterCard’s 32%.  (American Express has long remained at 7% share).  

 

The history of Visa is one of insurmountable problems that were surmounted.  In the 1970’s, for instance, Visa was faced with a fraud rate approaching 10%, which of course is unsustainable.  Visa introduced in 1974 an electronic system to instantaneously switch transactions back to member banks for approval.  The fraud rate now hovers at .2%-.3% as daily transactions have grown from 180K to 250M.

 

Visa (actually Visa International Service Association doing business as Visa) has become a ubiquitous international brand, having overcome the vexing issue of being known as a different product in every different country.  

 

Rotary thanks Win for his fascinating inside look at one of the nation’s great business accomplishments and ongoing success story.

 

 

Respectfully submitted

Christine Krolik