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Rotary Club of Oakland Civic Luncheon Meeting, April 14, 2021

Ces Butner, President of Rotary Club of Oakland

Call to Order – Ces Butner

President Ces Butner welcomed all to the 5,336th Civic Thursday meeting of our club and invited us to recite our vision statement. Pres. Ces explained that our meeting format was a bit different today in order to accommodate our speaker. He asked us to join him in reciting our Vision Statement.

Jesse Schmidt

Thought for the Day – Jesse Schmidt

Jesse Schmidt set the tone for the day’s speaker when he shared a diplomatic quote by Viktor Frankl advising us to invoke a pause-for-five-second-rule before reacting negatively to something done or said to us. Wise advice indeed.

Visiting Rotarians and Guests

Past President & Past District Governor Ed Jellen introduced David Stein’s guest, John Fenoglio of the Walnut Creek Rotary Club. Other visitors were Jack McAboy’s guest, Harlan Hirschfield, Keith Uriarte’s guest Cathy Gent and Isaac Kos Read’s guest Sergio Lopez.

Oakland Rotary Endowment Campaign

ORE President Mike Mowery appealed to us to contribute to the ORE Campaign this month. We need to meet our goal of raising $50,000 this year in order to qualify for President Ces’s generous challenge gift offer to personally match the $50,000 when we succeed. Mike asked us to imagine how much we can accomplish next year with $100,000 added to our Endowment, which is used annually to fund our program committee budgets!

Help us meet this challenge.  No contribution is too small. You can make your pledge at https://www.oakland-rotary.org/donations.

Donald Frazier, BOSS

Grant Recipient Story – Donald Frazier, BOSS

Mike introduced us to one community grant recipient to share the impact that Oakland Rotary has had on his nonprofit’s mission. Donald Frazier, Executive Director of BOSS (Building Opportunities for Self Sufficiency), told us that an earlier grant to help purchase a van has been life-changing for the nonprofit and its clients. Our Community Service Committee's most recent grant to BOSS is going to be used to launch a new entrepreneur project for clients looking to start their own business as a career choice.

Annual Gala – Save The Date

The ORE Campaign will conclude at our Annual Gala and Virtual Casino Night April 22. President-elect Dudley Thompson gave further details about the event, and asked us to consider becoming sponsors in one of three categories of event sponsorship, each offering fine benefits. Kathleen Sims and Kristine Watson are reaching out to past and prospective sponsors and are also seeking donations of goods or services for our auction. contact Kathleen at 510-470-0932 if you have items. Event tickets can be purchased on the Club website. 

SF Giants cap and shirt

Cocktails with the President-Elect – April 22

Jim Boessenecker announced our virtual April 22 Cocktails with the President-elect event beginning at 5:30 p.m. will have a baseball theme. Come decked out in your favorite team’s colors or fan merchandise, as was demonstrated by Jim wearing a SF Giants cap and shirt while Linda Boessenecker stood beside him in her Oakland A’s regalia.  Ballpark drinks, hot dogs and peanuts are encouraged. No word on which team President-Elect Dudley will be supporting. 

General H. R. McMaster

Speaker for the Day – H. R. McMaster

Past President David Stein introduced our speaker General H. R. McMaster and thanked him and all our Rotarian military veterans for their service. General McMaster served President Trump as National Security Advisor from 2017 to 2018. He held a distinguished 34-year military career in the Army as a commissioned officer who saw multiple tours of duty to battlegrounds overseas, including the Gulf War, the Iraq War and the War in Afghanistan. General McMaster retired in 2018 with 22 military awards to his name including three Army Distinguished Service Awards, a Silver Star, a Defense Meritorious Service, Bronze Star and a Purple Heart. He has been called the “Iconoclast General.” General McMaster now serves as a fellow at the Hoover Institute, holds an academic appointment at Stanford University and is the author of three books. 

His latest book, “Battlegrounds,” was published just before the 2020 Presidential Election and focuses on multiple post-Cold War presidential administrations and foreign policy decisions. He described them as having a common theme of “complacency, arrogance and hubris” that has led to America’s “strategic narcissism” in its foreign policy approach, much to its detriment.  McMaster believes we would have been better served if America’s foreign policy strived for “strategic empathy” where we viewed complex problems from the viewpoint of others and not our own. Examples he gave included our not taking al-Qaeda seriously before 9/11, our withdrawal from Iraq too soon leading to the rise of ISIS, and even our response to COVID-19 when it was first viewed as some other nation’s problem. During the extensive Q & A session McMaster was asked about President Biden’s decision to withdraw troops from Afghanistan after 20 years. He promptly termed the move “disastrous” for the Afghan people who are likely to see a fate similar to those in Iraq and Syria. He is a firm believer in the need for America to deal with challenges like 9/11, COVID-19, terrorists and cyberterrorism before they reach our shores. He believes the military has an important role to play.  When asked about the threat the Bay Area faces by a North Korea Missile, McMasters admitted it was a threat and we were prepared to intercept, but that we also had our work cut out for us in convincing Kim Jong-un that he is safer without nuclear weapons than with them.

After many questions were answered and yet more were incoming, McMaster agreed to stay overtime. President Ces thanked him for being the most knowledgeable speaker in his area of expertise and America’s foreign policy threats.

Click here to watch General H. R. McMaster video segment.

Adjournment

President Ces closed the meeting by ringing the bell with his closing adage “and that’s the way it went” plus the reminder that Rotary Opens Opportunity for Service Above Self.

Birthday Greetings

Happy Birthday! Celebrating between April 24 and May 1 are:

25 – Winter Williams

27 – Kathy Dwyer

28 – Brad Gill

     – Cap Lyons

29 – Yong Bai

      – Mary Rudser

      – Wendy Willrich

01 – Stephanie Casenza

Membership Anniversaries in April

Thank you for your years of service to the Rotary Club of Oakland and the community!

  • Jack McAboy – 46 years
  • Kers Clausen  -- 38 years
  • Alex Poulsen – 32 years
  • David Stein – 32 years
  • Garrett Riegg – 27 years
  • Susan Smith –  24 years
  • David Rabb –  22 years
  • Dhruv Patel – 9 years
  • Ken Benson – 6 years
  • David Kittner – 5 years
  • Linda Bradford – 4 years
  • Leeann Alameda – 3 years
  • Tori Howard – 3 years
  • Justin Stewart – 3 years
  • Deborah Morgan – 2 years
  • Mia Bonta – 1 year
  • David Kersten – 1 year

Oakland Rotary Endowment Annual Meeting Notice

By Resolution, the Board of Trustees of the Oakland Rotary Endowment (ORE) has called for the annual meeting of the members of the ORE to take place on Thursday, April 29, between 12:30 – 1:30 pm during the Civic Thursday meeting of the Rotary Club or Oakland (RCO).  During this annual meeting, all members of the RCO in attendance will serve at members of the ORE.

The sole business scheduled for this annual meeting is the election of four nominees to serve as Trustees of ORE for the three-year term commencing July 1, 2021.  The ORE Board is hereby presenting this slate of nominees for election as ORE Trustees:

  • Ruth Stroup
  • Ken Benson
  • Kym Johnson
  • CJ Hirschfield
Rotary International President-elect Shekhar Mehta

Next Meeting, Thursday, April 22 at 9 a.m. – Shekhar Menta, Incoming Rotary International President

President-Elect Dudley Thompson announced our meeting on Thursday, April 22, will be at 9 a.m. This will be a joint meeting of The First Five Clubs - Chicago, San Francisco, Oakland, Seattle and Los Angeles. Attendees must register in advance for this meeting. Joining the five clubs as guest speaker will be Rotary International President-elect Shekhar Mehta of India’s Rotary Club of Calcutta-Mahanagar. The meeting will feature Rotary International’s New Area of Focus: Protecting the Environment. We will hear also about a proposed new First Five Collaborative Project.

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