Posted by Mary Liu and Dora Dye on May 12, 2022
President Mary Liu (Real Estate: Sales | JM Real Estate Group) began the Zoom-only meeting at 12:15 PM. Past President Scott Plakun (Management Consulting | The Plakun Group) managed the meeting on Zoom and welcomed everyone as they joined.
 
Special Guests
Today's special guest was Christina Koetteritz, president of the USF Rotaract Club sponsored by both our Club and the Rotary Club of San Francisco Chinatown. Also online was today's speaker, Dr. Diane Birnbaumer.
 
Quote of the Day
Anita Stangl (Medical Services | Alliance for Smiles) read the Quote of the Day:  "Surround yourself with only people who are going to lift you higher." by Oprah Winfrey.
 
Upcoming Events
Please check the Club Calendar for upcoming events and registration. There are many events left in May 2022, and the calendar for June 2022 is starting to fill up.
 
Weekly Recap
USF Rotaract President Christina Koetteritz spoke about how the Rotaract members participated in the fashion show hosted by USF's Tri Gamma (Women's Nursing Society) to raise money for breast cancer prevention partners. This same Rotaract Club also hosted a food drive to benefit Jewish Family and Children's Services in San Francisco. Christina also mentioned finals week at USF and the stress balls that the Rotaractors were distributing. David Dye (Management Consulting | Retired), serving as advisor to the USF Rotaract Club, spoke highly of our partnership with the USF Rotaractors this past Rotary year.
 
Share Your Good News ($20 for Twenty Seconds)
Dan Joraanstad (Financial Services: Advising | Retired) donated to talk about the wonderful vacation that he and Bob Hermann (Information Technology: Administration | Retired UCSF) had in Switzerland. After Switzerland, they joined the Rotary Cruise on the Rhône River in France. The Cruise raised about $76,500 for Polio Plus which included gifts from our own Rotary District 5150.
 
Looking to rent a house? Dan and Bob have a property in the Westwood Park neighborhood for rent. Contact Dan or Bob if interested.
 
President Mary shared that she is planning her bucket list trip to Bora Bora now that her Rotary year is ending.
 
John Mathers (Management Consulting | eVo Associates) recently returned from Italy. Upon return, he drove his Volkswagen ID.4 (an electric vehicle) to speak at a District Conference of 300 people and then to Eugene, OR. He is especially proud to not have used a lot of carbon on this road trip.
 
John Hoch (Financial Services: Advising | Retired) visited Palm Springs to celebrate the 90th birthday of his wife's uncle. While there, John spoke about our Club's recent Seder celebration to a neighbor who is Jewish. The neighbor's grandfather invited John to dinner, and it turned out that this grandfather and John had attended the same school together over 50 years ago. What a reunion!
 
Ann Daugherty (Financial Services: Private Trading | IBN Financial Services) recently returned safely back from a beautiful trip through Israel and the Holy Land. She was sponsored by the Jerusalem peace builders and paid a visit to the St. John’s eye hospital while there. Ann hopes that we can organize a Rotary group trip there in the near future.
 
Dr. Diane BirnbaumerGuest Speaker
Scott Plakun introduced today's speaker - Dr. Diane Birnbaumer. Dr. Birnbaumer spoke to our Club on March 23, 2021 about the vaccines at that time and received rave reviews. She returned today with an update on COVID vaccines, new medications, and thoughts about what might be coming next. This was a timely subject as COVID-19 cases are rising again. Here is a recording of her presentation as well as of the entire meeting on Tuesday, May 10, 2022.
 
President Mary thanked Dr. Birnbaumer and announced that 100 children would be inoculated against polio in her name.
 
The meeting was adjourned at 1:30 p.m. but many stayed online to ask questions of Dr. Birnbaumer.