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| The Summary of the July 25th Meeting |
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The Membership and the Fun&Fellowship Committees formed the greeting line for today’s meeting. I’m guessing you all know about the Membership Committee. It’s the one that decides who gets into our Club. How I got passed this Committee I’ll never know. You may not be familiar with the Fun & Fellowship Committee because it’s a new name for the Membership Involvement Committee. They put together Rotary After Hours events and Firesides and other “fun” things for us to do. I guess it was decided that the new title would more accurately reflect the Committee’s true mission.
President Mike rang the bell signifying the “two minute warning” at 12:23. This is a tradition yours truly started 6 years ago but it disappeared last year. I’m glad to see it back. About two minutes later the real President Mike (not the dummy we had last week and I don’t mean President Elect Carl Salas) rang the bell to start the 4893rd meeting of our beloved Club. You had to be there last week to get the dummy reference. President Mike thanked President Elect Carl for pinch hitting for him last week and gave some lame excuse for missing the second meeting of his presidency. Something about a trip with his kids and going to Lourdes for healing water. Like that stuff is more important than being President of our Club. Ray Silva and Paul Tumason next lead us in singing America the Beautiful and Catherine Tompkison-Graham delivered the Invocation.
President Mike proceeded to thank the aforementioned Membership and Fun&Fellowship Committees and asked Red Badgers Jennifer Riva-Kirk and Tracy Adams to handle the traveling microphones duties for introductions of visiting Rotarians and Member guests. John McLeod followed with his usual news of the day and humor. Was it just me or was John’s position in the batting order tweaked a little today. It seemed to work out pretty well as everyone was very attentive to John which is how it should be. President Mike then brought out the “Ringing of the Bell” to allow our members to self-impose fines on themselves by recognizing someone or something special in their lives. This is a new twist President Mike introduced during his first meeting. By my count five of our members stepped up to the plate and took one for the team. I think this is a good and fun idea with substantial fund raising potential.
Next President Mike talked about membership. Specifically, we started this fiscal year with 444 members but we have already lost a net 5 members which means we now have 439 members. He reminded us that one of his goals as President is to recruit 50 new members. He then responded to some feedback he received on his 50 recruits goal by clarifying that he means 50 quality recruits whom he believes are in abundance in our community.
President Mike then invited Past President Rod Diridon and our newest member David Bird to the podium. Rod has sponsored more new members into our Club than anyone else and second place isn’t even close. Rod introduced David (another change from last year) by saying that he has been Dean and Rector at Trinity Cathedral in downtown San Jose for nine years. Before that he was Rector of a church in Georgetown, Washington DC for fourteen years. David has a Ph.D. in theology and has been a school and camp Chaplain. He has contributed to the Catholic Historical Review, the Journal of Ecumenical Studies, books on theology and end of life issues. He also played Rugby for Manhattan and Pittsburg. David also founded the premier food and wine festival of Washington DC. David has had several other notable accomplishments that are too numerous to mention here but you get the idea. His Wife Diane works for the Department of Energy at the Lawrence Livermore Lab and they have a 13 year old Son and a 9 year old adopted Daughter from Moscow. Welcome David!
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Beach Pace was up next to talk about the Student Exchange Committee. For those of you unfamiliar with the Rotary Student Exchange Program it involves sending local High School students to foreign countries to live with 2 to 3 families for one year. Conversely foreign students come to our community to experience our culture for one year. Beach said the Committee is looking for host families here to house foreign students and members to serve on the Committee.
President Mike then announced that our Rotary Office is looking for 2 to 3 Rotarians to volunteer at the Gordon House on Tuesdays from 9 to Noon. These volunteers will assist with various Board or Committee requested administrative duties. If you are interested please contact John Kennett.
President Mike next reminded us that District Governor Joe Hamilton and his wife Kathi will be visiting our Club on August 15th. Also, instead of the usual exchange of gifts from one District Club to another during the District Governor’s visit Kathi Hamilton is collecting infant receiving blankets from all of the District Clubs for later donation to needy recipients. So please bring an infant receiving blanket to the August 15th meeting should you wish to contribute to this worthy cause.
President Mike concluded his remarks by saying that next week’s speaker is Rick Lombardo who will be talking about “The Special Relationship Between a Regional Theatre and its Community”.
Larry Donatoni followed President Mike to the podium to introduce today’s speaker- Maitreya Badami (that drove my spell check crazy). She is a supervising attorney for the Northern California Innocence Project (NCIP). The NCIP recently celebrated its 11th anniversary as a Santa Clara University School of Law project. As a program NCIP is designed to educate law students in the Jesuit tradition of competence, conscience, and compassion. The NCIP’s mission is to defend the rights of those who may have been wrongfully convicted. Over the years the NCIP has successfully represented 13 individuals who gained their freedom after spending a cumulative nearly 200 years behind bars for crimes they did not commit. Maitreya has spent over 16 years in criminal defense both as a Public Defender and in private practice. In her spare time she is the Mother of a 9 and 5 year old and a baking enthusiast with a blog entitled Law and Cake “Thoughts on Law and Cake”.
Maitreya began her talk by talking about the 13 men the NCIP proved to be innocent of crimes for which they were convicted and about the real perpetrators who were identified and convicted as result of the NCIP’s activities. The NCIP also works with law enforcement and the courts to prevent future wrongful convictions. She noted that the leading cause of wrongful convictions by far is eyewitness misidentification. Accordingly, the California Commission for Fair Administration of Justice (CCFAJ) has recommended 8 best practices to address the issue of eyewitness misidentification. Of these recommendations the most important deal with line ups and photo identifications. State and local agencies have been slow to adopt all of the CCFAJ’s recommendations and California lags behind 11 other states in adopting the 8 recommendations. Maitreya left plenty of time for questions and by my count she responded to 9 questions or comments from the audience. Obviously, Maitreya generated a lot of interest regarding the NCIP.
Respectfully submitted by: Jerry Silva, Rotary Summary Committee
Photos by: Bryan Kramer, Photography Committee
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