MORAGA ROTARY

NEWSLETTER
JANUARY 12, 2016

Brian is a Sergeant in the Moraga Police force

and a Campolindo graduate, where he was a
police cadet. Brian and his wife Suzy have two
daughters: Michaela (11) and Katie (8). He was
born in Lawrence, Kansas, which is very nice this
time of year.

NEXT MEETING: January 19, 2016

Noon meeting; Soda Center

Official visit of DG Ken Courville
Board meeting with DG: 10:30
Greeter and Invocation: Herb Wehmeyer
~~CLUB MEETINGS COMING UP ~

* Jan. 26 - Dan Dunn, Exec. Director of San Ramon

Valley Museum
* Feb. 2 - Jafer Yaghoobi, Author of Let Us Water The
Flowers: Memoir of a Political Prisoner in Iraq
* Feb 9 - No Club meetingAttend Interclub meeting
* Feb 10 Interclub Fab 5 meeting at Rossmoor
*Regular Noon Meeting

** Second Tuesday Evening

~THE MEETING~
The meeting was opened with a happy hour-type
ring of the bell by President Roger, who
announced that we have been serving the
community and the world for 48 years. Greeter
Frank May provided many good Martin Luther
King Jr. quotes as the Thought for the Day, and
led the Pledge to the Flag admirably.
Todays guests were: Jan Gregory, along with
visiting Rotarian Jim Gambier, 33 year
member of Danville Rotary, and our speakers
Rebecca Phoung and Jordan Simpson of the
Interact District. Honorary Moraga Rotarian
Lou Roessler attended also.

~INDUCTION OF NEW MEMBER~

Cliff Dochterman inducted Brian South into
Rotary Club of Moraga in the grand style to which
we have all been accustomed, and we all
welcomed the newest member in the world of
Rotary to our Club as an Associate Member.

Cliff, new member Brian South, Frank, & Rajah

~ANNOUNCEMENTS~
Treasurer Lad Lynch reminded some of us to
pay the January installment of $50 toward our
sustaining Paul Harris fellowships.
President Roger announced that our District
Governor, Ken Courville, will be our special
guest and speaker at our next meeting. Thats
noon January 19th here at the Soda Center,
Orinda Room. He requests our Board meet with
him at 10:30 am here so he can become
acquainted with our programs and activities. He
also announced that John Dwyer of Benicia
Rotary was named as the Designated District
Governor Nominee.
President Roger announced that our own
Kevin Reneau, the President Elect, has been
selected as the Moraga Business Person of
the Year by the Chamber of Commerce.
Congratulations Kevin!! There will be a dinner
in his honor on February 23 rd, and we hope

many Club members will attend. Gary Irwin

will be taking reservations for the dinner.
President Roger also announced that the
Moraga C of C is hosting a FREE
presentation on Tuesday January 19 at
6:30 pm at the Soda Center at SMC. Titled
State of Moraga Business 2016, it will
feature Jay Kerner, representing the new
owner of the Rheem Shopping Center,
Prof. Kristine Chase of SMC, Ellen Clark,
Moraga Planning Director, and that well
known commercial real estate expert, Ron
Mucovich. Kevin Reneau arranged it, so
ask him about it, or just show up, since it is
FREE.

February 10th is the annual Fab Five

Interclub Luncheon, hosted by Lafayette
Rotary and held at the Rossmoor Activity
Center beginning at 11:30 am.
Brad
Howard, resident of Lafayette, Oakland
Rotarian, and Rotary International Board
Member will be the speaker. If you have
heard Brad speak you know he does a
grand job and Im sure he will have
interesting things to tell us all. Lunch cost
will be in the $25 to $30 range. As a result
of the interclub lunch we will have no
Second Tuesday Evening dinner and
meeting next month on February 9th.
Ron Mucovich announced that a special
source of non-toxic crab has been found to
supply the Crab Feed Annual Dinner at
the Serbian Orthodox Church on School
Street on Saturday, February 6 th at the
Trinity Center. Ask Ron for details.

Jordan Simpson, Jim Gambier, and Rebecca

Phuong

Debbie Roessler, wearing the stylish

virtual Fine Free hat, mentioned that the
world famous renowned White Elephant
Sale will be coming up soon, and that she
would provide us secret individual discount
passes to sneak in early to get all the good
stuff first. She has recruited Evie Michon
to help out, perhaps assisting Cliff on
security detail.

President Roger thanked all the members

of the A Nite at the Races committee.
Future meetings will be at 5 pm at Cliffs on
Jan 25, Feb 2, Feb 22, and March 7, all
Mondays. All are welcome. Volunteers
were signed up to stuff envelopes with this
years flyer invitations after the January 19
meeting. You can also use this flyer when
soliciting donations.

Debbie also reported that we continue to

cash in on the Cash4Clunker car
donation program, with donations of a
Subaru, an Audi, and a golf cart netting the
Club a total of $508. The Clayton Rotary
Club that originated and runs the program
has grossed more than $100,000, and now
works with about 25 organizations to split
the revenue.

~HAPPY BUCKS AND

FELLOWSHIP~
Ron Mucovich gave an HB to announce
that crab would be available at the Serbian
Orthodox Church crab feed . . . . Gary Irwin
gave an HB for his #1 Jayhawks basketball
team (unaware they were in the process of
losing it). . . . Dianne Wilson gave a Hang
Ten for Kevin Reneaus honor by the
Moraga C of C. She was the honoree last
year. . . . Rich Render gave a High Five for
his daughter Nicolettes 28th birthday. . . .
Lou Roessler gave a High Five for his
Steelers stirring victory over the Bengals in
the NFL playoffs (Im glad somebody has a
team left in them) . . . . Brian South gave a
High Five for the nice welcome he has
received from the Club.

~THE
RAJAH
MARBLES~

LOSES

HIS

Yes, its sad but true. Lad Lynch had the

winning raffle ticket, but the marble cup
purportedly containing the winning white
marble was AWOL. This has probably never
happened before in the entire history of
Rotary. The Rajah announced that he
would make very sure that the marble cup
would be available for Lad to draw from at
the beginning of next weeks meeting.
Otherwise, what good is a Rajah?

The Rajah with Jordan and Rebecca

~PROGRAM~
Our program today was given by two
members of the Interact District council,
Jordan Simpson, the representative of the
area including Campolindo HS, and Rebecca
Phuong, a Berkeley Rotarian who is the
District 5160 Chair for Interact. They were
accompanied by Danville Rotarian and district
representative Jim Gambier, who has served
on the District staff for many years.
Jordan is a senior at Las Lomas HS and just
attended Camp Royal (amazing experience).
She is also on the Walnut Creek Youth
Council. She has worked on projects such as
the Eggstravaganza, an egg hunt, and Million
Lights movie night.
Rebecca is a fairly recent Cal grad, and joined
Berkeley Rotary 3 days later. She joined
Interact while at Cal, and was District
Governor of Interact in 2010-2011. Her full
time job is with Kaiser in their Information
Technology group.
The goal of Interact is to help students build
community skills, and to work with local

Rotary clubs to help do so. Interact has about

250,000 members world-wide,
in about
11,000 clubs in 120 countries. Our District
has 3500 members in 60 clubs. The largest
club has 40 members.
The District Council meets once a month in
different locations, and sponsors four events:
Kickoff begins the school year, and the
Conference follows. The Winter Retreat is a
two day, one night campout, and the Boat
Cruise is a social activity where individual
efforts are recognized and awards are given.

Scheduled Greeters and Invocators

Jan 26 Ron Mucovich
Feb 2Dick Vance

(Thanks to Herb for keeping the list)

And please remember this week to be a

Gift to The World!
The Rajah

MORAGA ROTARY BOARD OF DIRECTORS 2015-16

President.Roger
Gregory
President-elect
..........Kevin
Reneau
Past
President.Debbie
Roessler
Secretary........
.Kevin
Reneau
Treasurer....
Lad
Lynch
Community Service Chair......Barbara
Bruner
New
Generations....Rich
Render
International
Service
Chair.Tony
Schoemehl
Public Relations .. Gary
Irwin
Membership..........
Frank
May
Director
at
Large...
John
Erickson
Director at Large ..Marv
Ellenberg
Director
at
Large
Cliff
Dochterman
Director at Large ...Linda
May

CALENDAR OF FUTURE EVENTS

Jan 19 Visit by District Governor Ken Courville
Feb 10 Fab 5 Interclub Luncheon at Rossmoor
Mar 12 - A Nite at the Races Fundraiser
Apr 1-3 District 5160 Conference in Woodland
May 14 Moraga Community Faire
TBD -- Rotary Field Day
Aug 5-7 OMPA swim meet food booth

President, Rotary InternationalRavi Ravindran

District Governor.Ken Courville
Assistant District Governor..Mark Roberts

Newsletter editor for January -- Gary Irwin

BUT WAIT, THERES MORE!

Our program committee has released a list
of scheduled programs for the club, on the
very next page!

Scheduled Programs:
January 19th Governor
Ken Courville, Rotary
District 5160

 January 26th Dan Dunn,

Executive Director of the
San Ramon Valley Museum
February 2nd Jafar
Yaghoobi, author speaking
on his book, Let Us Water
the Flowers: The Memoir of
a Political Prisoner in Iran
February 9th No Meeting
due to the Fab Five
Assembly meeting on
February 10th noon in
Rossmoor, where the
speaker will be Rotarian
Brad Howard.

February 16th Linda

Groobin, Manager of the
Caring Hands Volunteer
Caregivers Program
February 23rd Larry
Tessler, SCORE Mentor to

tell us about the business

advice SCORE can provide
to entrepreneurs.
March 1st John Walker,
Principal Campolindo High
School
March 8th Evening at
Trinity Center, School
Street, Moraga Open
(Possible speech contest
sponsored by Orinda &
Moraga Rotary Clubs.)
March 15th noon - Open
(back at Soda Center)
March 22nd - Candace
Andersen, Supervisor
Contra Costa County
March 29th noon Open
(at Soda Center)
April 12th Evening at TBD
location speaker,
Assembly Woman,
Catherine Baker