MORRO BAY ROTARY MEETING
February 13, 2018
 
Invocation:  Melissa
Pledge to the Flag:  Jeff Jones
Joke:  Pete....Dr. Geezer and Dr. Young
 
Visiting Rotarians:  Not today
 
Guests of Rotarians: 
Judy brought Bonnie Jones
 
Thanks to Pete and Kathi for hosting our social on Saturday night.  We had good food and an interesting presentation about our Sri Lanka Pre-school Project by Hans Dahlin and his wife.  It is fun to get together and visit with those you may not sit with during our club time.  We are planning another social for sometime in May. 
 
March Madness is coming up with an opportunity for anyone to pick a bracket for $20.00.  At the end of the NCAA tournament, whoever happened to rack up the most points based on their picks, will be awarded a Paul Harris.
 
               Pete Starlings & Katherine Gillen received their yellow badges today. 
     Two great additions to our Club - keep inviting your friends, they will be glad you did. 
 
 
 
 
There will be an Electronic Waste Recycle event at the Los Osos Methodist Church on Feb. 24 from 9am to 1pm.  Bring printers, phones, VCRs, Stereos, Fax machines etc. to be recycled. 
 
Next Tuesday after our Club Meeting, we will have a Crab Feed meeting that might last for an hour or two to finalize our plans for the event.   If you are interested in helping....Please stay for this meeting.  The Morro Bay High School Crab Feed is March 3rd; we will start promoting ours on March 4th.  If each of us sells five tickets, we will sell out.    We will have five weeks to sell the tickets. 
 
Doug brought four boxes to be shipped to veterans overseas.  The cost is a little under $17.00; you can either take a box, or just give Doug the money, and he will take the box to the post office.
 
May 11th is the Golf Tournament....start thinking about businesses you know who would want to be a sponsor, donate raffle prizes or provide golf goodie bag items.
 
Jan donated a coupon from Sweet Offerings for chocolate covered strawberries........Heidi bought it for $20.00.  Thanks, Jan.
 
Jude went to PETS on the weekend....she is very grateful for the opportunity.  Her husband also went and enjoyed it.
 
Dale won the free lunch and Judy used her exemption to encourage everyone to pick up a Bay News because she wrote an article about the Shell Shop.  Pete and Lou discussed family members who work for WINC ...a huge wine company.  Chuck is off to Alaska next week where it is minus 8 at night.  He loves it!!  Sara was in Cancun for six days for an Edward Jones event.
 
Fines:   Heidi’s birthday...$10.00, Ken fined $10.00 but Pete paid it...Steve fined $10.00.
 
Our speaker was Chief Knuckles who said this summer was the busiest the fire department has ever had.....they spent 87 days on assignment.  Our Mutual Aid system is the best in California.  The Command System and the Coordination with law enforcement were good decisions that helped evacuate people and fight the fire.  What went wrong?  Mother Nature.....mainly high winds and low humidity.  Northern California Fires involved 11,000 firefighters.  The Thomas Fire involved 10,500 firefighters.  Morro Bay participated with five engines and 22 personnel as part of the Strike Team.  This year they were able to use a Military Drone to spot the fires....instead of a helicopter.  The cost was $1500/hour, but well worth it.    There will not be voluntary evacuation anymore.....only mandatory.   Thank you Chief and our wonderful Morro Bay Fire Department!!
 
John Weiss said “Celebrate Rotary” is our District 5240 theme for this year.    John was scheduled to be in Monticeto on the day of the mudslide.  We have over 3,000 members in our District so we are able to help in these California disasters.  Six hours after the mudslide, there were two pages filled with the names of Rotarians willing to give a room in their home to someone needing a place to stay.  Several Rotarians were impacted by the fire and mudslide but they have a good attitude and their motto is “The Best Days are Still Ahead”.
                                                                                                                                                             
 
  Thanks to Kathi and Pete for bringing a Valentine Rose for everyone who attended the meeting   today.  
 
 
 
Next week’s speaker will be Lori French....talking about commercial fishing on the central coast...especially crab fishing.  You won’t want to miss this craft talk!!
 
ECasida