President-Elect Christopher Wiseman (Event Planning | Glaucoma Research Foundation) called the meeting to order at 12:18 PM and welcomed everyone attending either online or in person inside the Anzu Restaurant.
Special Guests
Attending in person were Mary Fermi, today's speaker - Janet Kessler, and her husband, Albert Kessler.
Quote of the Day
President-Elect Christopher read the Quote of the Day: "Your task is not to foresee the future, but to enable it." by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry.
Upcoming Events
Please check the Club Calendar for upcoming events and registration. Almost all events for June 2022 have now been posted.
Weekly Recap
The 2022 District 5150 Conference was held on Saturday, May 14, 2022. This year's theme was "An Event Fit for the Stars". President-Elect Christopher thanked Rhonda Poppen (Grant Writing | GRANTdog) for serving as co-chair of this Conference and shared some photos from that evening.
New Member Inducted
President-Elect Christopher and our Vice President of Membership Nancy Graydon (Development | Glaucoma Research Foundation) inducted Angelina Preza (Sales: Travel | BayEcotarium EcoXpeditions) as the newest member of the Rotary Club of San Francisco. Angelina is the Director of EcoXpeditions at the Aquarium of the Bay with extensive experience in sales and marketing. In addition to her global work experience, she has traveled to over 40 countries around the world and is deeply committed to climate change. As a member of Rotary, she is eager to use her network to connect and support the mission of the Rotary Club of San Francisco. In addition to making friends, she hopes to volunteer in various international missions of the Club and get involved with RCAT.
President-Elect Christopher and our Vice President of Membership Nancy Graydon (Development | Glaucoma Research Foundation) inducted Angelina Preza (Sales: Travel | BayEcotarium EcoXpeditions) as the newest member of the Rotary Club of San Francisco. Angelina is the Director of EcoXpeditions at the Aquarium of the Bay with extensive experience in sales and marketing. In addition to her global work experience, she has traveled to over 40 countries around the world and is deeply committed to climate change. As a member of Rotary, she is eager to use her network to connect and support the mission of the Rotary Club of San Francisco. In addition to making friends, she hopes to volunteer in various international missions of the Club and get involved with RCAT.
Angelina has two grown daughters and one young grandson. She is originally from Hawaii and was born and raised on Lanai. Angelina’s sponsor is Dan Davies (Information Technology: Consulting | North American Lighting), and her mentor is Jane Mermelstein (Real Estate: Sales | Corcoran Global Living). Welcome, Angelina!
Share Your Good News ($20 for Twenty Seconds)
John Mathers (Management Consulting | eVo Associates) issued a challenge to support carbon offsets while traveling to Houston for the 2022 Rotary International Convention. The total for transportation comes to $50. If we all pay that $50 to the RCAT account, RCAT can collect funds and invest in projects that make a difference in the developing world. Advanced economies create the majority of the pollution while less advanced economies represent the majority of the planet. There are innumerable service projects that can benefit while supporting RCSF members in hands-on activities and eco-tourism. Andrés Vera is available to tell you more about this plan and help you with your payment.
Dr. Jianying (James) Chen (Healthcare: Acupuncture | American Institute of Zhizhen Therapy and New Qigong) shared two news items: (1) he is building a new home in Florida and (2) his sisters are staying with him as China is locked down due to the pandemic, and the country is experiencing many hardships including unemployment and lack of food.
Andrés Vera (Entertainment | Self-employed) highlighted that the organization he works for, Wiki Education Foundation, in celebration of Pride Month, is seeking participants for a Wiki Scholars course focused on expanding Wikipedia’s coverage of notable LGBTQ+ people. Through this project, Wiki Education aims to train a diverse group of academics, scholars, and university students how to contribute content to Wikipedia while better representing historical figures to the public. The goal is to increase Wikipedia’s representation of the LGBTQ+ community.
Guest SpeakerPresident-Elect Christopher introduced today's guest speaker, Janet Kessler, from the Citizen Coyotes of San Francisco, known locally as “the Coyote Lady”. Janet noted that she is a self-taught naturalist who has been studying and documenting urban coyote behavior and family life for 15 years. Coyotes were first spotted in San Francisco in 2002 after a long period of absence from the area. Through facial recognition, she knows and tracks the animals and shared her observations of their social and family life.
A coyote pack is a family unit, and there appears to be only one coyote family pack in any given territory. Their ability to communicate with each other plays a big role in their social behavior as they communicate their emotions and signal important information such as danger and fear. Their active part of the day often begins with a rendezvous together as a family. For the most part, they sleep during the day to avoid humans.
To keep our coyotes wild, safe, and trouble free for everyone, Janet stressed the importance of keeping dogs on a leash when outdoors, not letting your cats outside, walking away if you encounter a coyote, and never feeding them, as this can be very detrimental to their survival. To learn more and to view a similar presentation on coyotes in San Francisco, visit www.coyotecoexistence.com.
President-Elect Christopher thanked Janet and announced that 100 children would be inoculated against polio in her name.
Meeting Recorded
If you missed any of today's meeting, here is a recording of the entire meeting on May 17, 2022.
The meeting was adjourned at 1:30 p.m.
Editor's Note: Thank you to Nancy Graydon for serving as scribe at this meeting; to Nat Crawford (Education: Tutoring | Improve Your English Tutoring) for serving as photographer; to Peter Logan (Law: Insurance | Peter Logan Law Offices) for managing the microphone; to Kurt Burdick of the Academy of Art University for managing the audio-visual equipment during our in-person meeting; to Maureen O’Shea (Governmental Relations | Retired) and Margaret Miley (Hospitality: Hotels | Retired) for serving as greeters; to Scott Plakun (Management Consulting | The Plakun Group) for managing those who were attending via Zoom; to Bob Hermann (Information Technology: Administration | Retired UCSF) for helping with technical difficulties; and to Gary Dales (Accounting | Fly Leasing) and Immediate Past President JT Forbus (Accounting | Bogdan & Frasco) for doing check-in at the Hotel Nikko.