News Categories: Civic Thursday Video Recordings

Rotary Club of Oakland Civic Luncheon Meeting, November 19, 2020

We had another exciting weekly lunch meeting today - on Zoom! Our President Ces Butner conducted a 5318th club meeting, last before Thanksgiving!

Amani Soliman shared a thought for the day, "I wish this celebration was the international one, not just an American one. I think every country, every person in the world has a lot to be thankful for and I would like to wish you all on this occasion a very good and happy thanksgiving. Please stick to the rules and keep it limited I hope that everyone will come out of this situation safely and sound and we meet again for the next thanksgiving."

Rotarian Steve Nicholls introduced our special guest for today, a well-known magician for his spell-binding performances locally and internationally Mr. Dennis Kyriakos. Dennis showed his magic tricks through the zoom meeting. Everyone who joined had a fun time cheering for all of Dennis's performances.

Missed our meeting but interested in checking out the next one?

Click here to learn more: https://www.oakland-rotary.org/calendar

#serviceaboveself #rotaryinternational #rotaryclubofoakland #rotaryopensopportunities

Rotary Club of Oakland Civic Luncheon Meeting, November 12, 2020

We had another exciting weekly lunch meeting today - on Zoom! Our President Ces Butner conducted a 5317th club meeting.

Rotarian Abel Guillen shared a quote from John F. Kennedy: “As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words but to live by them.”

Past President David Stein introduced our speaker Danny Wan, Executive Director of the Port of Oakland, noting that he received his BA in Rhetoric from UC Berkeley and his law degree from UCLA. Go Bears and Bruins! Mr. Danny Wan talked about how the Port is fairing and headed in the future.

Missed our meeting but interested in checking out the next one?

Click here to learn more: https://www.oakland-rotary.org/calendar #serviceaboveself #rotaryinternational #rotaryclubofoakland #rotaryopensopportunities

Rotary Club of Oakland Civic Luncheon Meeting, November 5, 2020

We had another exciting weekly virtual Oakland Rotary Civic Thursday lunch meeting today - on Zoom! Our President Ces Butner called the meeting to order at 12:28 pm, a 5316th club meeting in our 111-year old history.

Rotarian Stephanie Casenza shared the thought for the day with us. In order to remain focused, we recited our vision statement: Together, we see a world where people unite and take action to create lasting change, across the globe, in our communities, and in ourselves.

The use of virtual applications like Zoom and other social media has become inevitable during this pandemic situation. To make sure every Rotarian knows how to use these applications to stay connected with each other, the communication committee prepared a detailed presentation.

Isaac Kos-Read and the communication committee members Sandeepa Nayak and Jack Iles divided the participants into separate breakout rooms to educate them on how to use the Zoom application.

Joseph Goralka highlighted the good work all the Rotarians are doing by being part of the Rotary Foundation. He further urged to donate for all the causes managed by the Rotary Club.

Rotarian Michael Bakal spoke about a project the Rotary Club of Oakland is doing in Guatemala focused on food production, growing an economy, local youth, and improving the environment.

Missed our meeting but interested in checking out the next one? Click here to learn more: https://www.oakland-rotary.org/calendar

#serviceaboveself #rotaryinternational #rotaryclubofoakland #rotaryopensopportunities

Rotary Club of Oakland Civic Luncheon Meeting, October 29, 2020

We had another exciting weekly lunch meeting today - on Zoom! Our President Ces Butner conducted a 5315th club meeting.

As announced by past president Robert Kidd, Rotarians joined the Weekly Civic Thursday meeting in their Halloween themed masks.

Rotarian Jack McAboy shared with us thought for the day in a Halloween spirit. Rotarian C.J. Hirschfield introduced the civic Thursday meeting’s speaker Mr. Jim LeBrecht. Jim is an Oakland-based filmmaker, Sound designer, and disability rights activist. Mr. Lebrecht and Nicole Newnham are Co-producers/ Directors of ‘Crip Camp’ an award-winning documentary co-produced by Barack and Michelle Obama. The film tells the story of Camp Jened, a summer camp for teens with disabilities, and its impact on the disability rights movement. This year the film won the audience award at the Sundance film festival. Crip Camp also led the critic’s choice association’s documentary nomination list with 5 nominations.

The secret judge reviewed the meeting and declared 'Celeste Gordon' as the winner of the Halloween mask contest.

Missed our meeting but interested in checking out the next one? Click here to learn more: https://www.oakland-rotary.org/calendar

#serviceaboveself #rotaryinternational #rotaryclubofoakland #rotaryopensopportunities

Rotary Club of Oakland Civic Luncheon Meeting, October 22, 2020

We had another exciting weekly lunch meeting today - on Zoom! Our President Ces Butner conducted the  5314th club meeting. Rotarian Sam Miller shared with us thought for the day from a new US citizen originally from Uganda: “Democracy is something to be cherished and true democracy is actually where people are taken seriously and where people’s voices do matter. ”

Rotarian Gary Flaxman introduced today’s guest speaker Mr. Lee Gelernt, Deputy Director of the ACLU. Lee is one of the countries leading public interest lawyers. Lee spoke at length about the ongoing clash between US Immigration Policy and Constitutional Rights. He highlighted the unprecedented government action of separating children from parents seeking to immigrate to the United states and the ACLU's efforts to reunite the children with their parents.

Missed our meeting but interested in checking out the next one?

Click here to learn more https://www.oakland-rotary.org/calendar

#serviceaboveself #rotaryinternational #rotaryclubofoakland #rotaryopensopportunities

Rotary Club of Oakland Civic Luncheon Meeting, October 15, 2020

We had another exciting weekly lunch meeting today - on Zoom! Our President Ces Butner conducted a 5313th club meeting.

Our fellow Rotarian and committee chairperson David Stein introduced today's guest speaker Larry Diamond. He is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution and Stanford’s Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies. He is also a professor by courtesy of political science and sociology at Stanford University and a past director of its Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law. In 2004, Diamond served in Baghdad as a senior adviser on governance to the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq. He is the author of numerous books, including The Spirit of Democracy: The Struggle to Build Free Societies Throughout the World, the editor of fifty books, and a founding co-editor of the Journal of Democracy. His book "Ill Winds, Saving Democracy from Russian Rage, Chinese Ambition, and American Complacency" looks at the recent decline in democracy here in the US and around the world.

Missed our meeting but interested in checking out the next one?

Click here to learn more https://www.oakland-rotary.org/calendar

#serviceaboveself #rotaryinternational #rotaryclubofoakland #rotaryopensopportunities

Joint Club Meeting Of The First Five Rotary Clubs, October 7, 2020

We had a very special  meeting today on Zoom with the world’s 5 oldest Rotary clubs - Chicago, San Francisco, Oakland, Seattle, and Los Angeles (known as the First Five Clubs). Our President Ces Butner, along with the other four Club Presidents,  conducted the 5312th club meeting with more than 200 participants!

The five Club presidents talked about the serious issue of homelessness and announced a collaborative project to help unhoused residents in their cities.

President Ces introduced our guest speaker Jennifer Jones, who was recently selected to serve as 2022-2023 Rotary International President. She will be the first female President in Rotary International's 115-year history.

#serviceaboveself #rotaryinternational #rotaryclubofoakland #rotaryopensopportunities #rotaryoakland #rotaryclubofchicago #rotaryclubofsanfrancisco #rotaryclubofseattle #rotarycluboflosangeles #thefirstfiveclubs

Missed our meeting but interested in checking out a future one?

Click here to learn more: https://www.oakland-rotary.org/calendar

Rotary Club of Oakland Meeting, October 1, 2020

We had another exciting weekly lunch meeting today - on Zoom! Our President Ces Butner conducted the 5311th club meeting with more than 100 participants!

Today Rotary Oakland featured Michelle Starratt, Housing Director for Alameda County Housing and Human Development, who spoke about the discrepancy between people's incomes and housing costs, how it came about, and what we can do about it. We also advanced Emily and Bryan Morgan to permanent blue badges, inducted new member Stephen Murphy and heard about Kinderprep Committee's work to support Transitional Kindergarten students' online learning in this time of COVID 19.

#serviceaboveself #rotaryinternational #rotaryclubofoakland #rotaryopensopportunities

Missed our meeting but interested in checking out a future one? 

Click here to learn more: https://www.oakland-rotary.org/calendar

Rotary Club of Oakland meeting September 24, 2020

On September 24th, Rotary Oakland of Oakland heard from Karen Monroe, Alameda County Superintendent of Schools and the first African-American county superintendent of schools in California. We also celebrated some of our latest Paul Harris Fellows, members whose cumulative donations to Rotary Foundation are from $1000 to $9000.

Missed our meeting but interested in checking out the next one?

Click here to learn more: https://www.oakland-rotary.org/calendar

Rotary Club of Oakland Meeting September 17, 2020

Our today’s guest speaker was Arabella Martinez, Founder and First CEO of The Unity Council. Arabella shared stories of her role in the Unity Council and in developing the first Transit-Oriented Development in the BART system - the Fruitvale Transit Village.

Missed our meeting but interested in checking out the next one?

Click here to learn more: https://www.oakland-rotary.org/calendar