Posted by Emily Borland on Aug 11, 2021
President Mary Liu (Real Estate: Sales | JM Real Estate Group) called the meeting to order at 12:15 PM.
 
Visiting Rotarians and Special Guests
In today's audience were the following visiting Rotarians: Sandhya Jaiprakash from the Rotary Club of Bangalore attending in person; Salvador Farfan from the Rotary Club of Long Beach and Randall Scott from the Rotary Club of San Francisco Fisherman's Wharf, both attending online. Additional guests attending in person included: Caryn Crump, Greg Grundstrom, Robert Hunter, Marc Johnson, Dianne Madsen, Molly Schmautz, Diane Stark, and today's speaker — Joe D'Alessandro. Additional guests attending online were Steve Collins and Eoin Garcia.
 
Climate Change: Global Warming
John Mathers (Management Consulting | eVo Associates) shared his Rotary RCAT business card showing the rise in the global average surface temperature since 1881. He invited the audience to the next RCAT meeting.
 
Scholarship Presentation
Past District Governor Sue Rokaw (Law: Insurance | Deans & Homer) presented a $2,500 scholarship to Eoin Garcia, who graduated from Lowell High School this past spring. The scholarship presentation was held on June 1, 2021, but Eoin was unable to attend then.
 
Bob Hermann, Maureen O'Shea, Dan Joraanstad, and Diane StarkSan Francisco-Marin Food Bank
San Francisco Rotary Foundation President Dan Joraanstad (Financial Services: Advising | Retired) presented a check in the amount of $10,000 to Diane Stark of the San Francisco-Marin Food Bank. Joining Dan and Diane on the podium were Bob Hermann (Information Technology: Administration | Retired UCSF), our Club's Vice President of Community Service, and Maureen O'Shea (Governmental Relations | Retired), who leads our Club's participation at the Food Bank. Diane thanked our Club and our Foundation for the generous donation, the volunteers, and for providing 60,000 meals last year. 
 
Bob Hermann and Dan JoraanstadBob Hermann and Vanita Louie of the Rotary Club of San Francisco ChinatownUpcoming Events
President Mary invited everyone to participate in the upcoming events shown on the Club calendar and the District calendar to have "fun" and to collaborate with Rotarians from other clubs. Bob Hermann urged everyone to help out with the food delivery for The Arc San Francisco. Speaking of collaboration, Bob, Dan Joraanstad, and Bill Gregory (Educational Services | Santa Clara County Office of Education-Retired) helped at the Nihonmachi Street Fair along with members of the Rotary Club of San Francisco Chinatown this past weekend. 
 
Joe D'AlessandroGuest Speaker
President-elect Christopher Wiseman (Event Planning | Glaucoma Research Foundation) introduced today's speaker — Joe D'Alessandro. Joe is President and CEO of the San Francisco Travel Association. He talked about our beloved City of San Francisco and how tourism was especially hard hit during the Pandemic, declining almost 80% over 2019. The decline in tourism was felt all around; Joe predicts that we will see conventions, meetings, and international visitors returning to the City by the Bay in the next five years. President Mary thanked Joe and announced that 100 children would be inoculated against polio in his name. 
 
The meeting concluded with a raffle prize of coffee from Guatemala provided by Kat Ebanks (Nonprofit Management | TracyEbanks.com); 6-year-old Molly Schmautz was the winner!
 
 
Editor's Note: Thank you to Emily Borland (Engineering, Architecture, and Construction | Emily Borland Specifications) for serving as scribe at this meeting, to President Mary for taking and providing photos, to Jeff Lerner (Retail: Home Improvement | Floorcraft) for managing the microphone, to Rosemary Welde (Healthcare: Nursing Services | Stanford Medical Center) for collecting lunch tickets, to Cecile Chiquette (Accounting | Fiduciary Administration) and Maureen O'Shea who served as greeters, to Greg Grundstrom for managing the audio visual equipment during our in-person meetings, to Christopher Wiseman for managing those who were attending via Zoom today, to Bob Hermann for serving as cashier, and to Dora Dye (Education: Community College and Elementary) for doing check-in today at the Hotel Nikko.