President Dudley Thompson
Procession of President Dudley Thompson and the Board Members of Rotary Club of Oakland and Oakland Rotary Endowment
The traditional procession that begins each new Rotary year was led by President Dudley Thompson. He was accompanied by members of the Rotary Club of Oakland Board and trustees of the Oakland Rotary Endowment. The procession started at the back of the Ballroom and proceeded to the front, as everyone in the room gave a standing ovation to the leadership group.
Past President Linda Boessenecker
Call to Order – Past President Linda Boessenecker
Past President Linda Boessenecker called the Civic Thursday meeting of the 3rd oldest Rotary Club in the world to order from the California Ballroom. We are celebrating the inauguration of our 113th President Dudley Thompson. In order to stay grounded, our vision statement was presented: “Together, we see a world where people unite and take action to create lasting change, across the globe, in our communities and in ourselves”.
Marie Saverimuthu
Pledge of Allegiance and Thought for the Day – Marie Saverimuthu
Marie Saverimuthu led us in the Pledge of Allegiance. She also presented two thoughts for the day. Nelson Mandela: “What counts in life is not the mere fact that we have lived, it is what difference we have made to the lives of others.” Mother Teresa: “Not all of us can do great things. But we can do small things with great love.”
President Dudley Thompson
Biography of President Dudley
Past President Linda gave us a biography of President Dudley Thompson. Dudley was born in Belmond, Iowa to Margaret and Richard Thompson. Margaret was a home economics teacher until she joined the family business. Dudley's father, Richard was interested in hybrid corn kernels and pioneered a company called Thompson Corn (later Tom Co.) one of the largest employers in Belmond. Dudley described Belmond and its 2,500 people as an idyllic small town. In 1966, the year Dudley was a freshman in high school, a destructive tornado hit the town including his home. The town relied on volunteers and service clubs like the Jaycees and Lions Club to provide vital services including the fire department.
Introduction of Board Members
President Dudley introduced members of the Rotary Club of Oakland Board and members of the Oakland Rotary Endowment Trustees. Club Board members are divided into three groups whose terms expire in different years: Steve Nicholls, Debo Sarkar and Jason Wizelman are the class of 2022; Allison Bliss, Steve Blair, Gary Flaxman and Joycie Mack are class of 2023 and Kim Cohn, Wil Hobbs, Mike Mowery and Renia Webb are class of 2024. The officers, in addition to President Dudley, are Mary Geong, President-Elect; Michael Bruck, Secretary; Lorna Padia Markus, Treasurer and Ces Butner, Immediate Past President.
Trustees of Oakland Rotary Endowment are class of 2022: Ahmad Anderson, Keith Giron, Harold Lowe and Linda Chew; class of 2023: Leeann Alameda, Kathleen Sims and Kristine Watson, class of 2024: C J Hirschfield, Ken Benson, Kym Johnson and Ruth Stroup. Officers are Leeann Alameda, President; Ahmad Anderson, Vice-President; Linda Chew, Secretary and Harold Lowe, Treasurer.
He also introduced our Executive Administrator, Jesse Bowdle, and encouraged members to introduce themselves since most have not met him in person. He encouraged us to consider Jesse our best friend in the Club.
He thanked Past-Presidents Peter Sherris and Ces Butner for their leadership and accomplishments for the past two very challenging years.
Dudley Thompson and Concha Delgado Gaitan
Introduction of Guests
President Dudley introduced his special guests. On Zoom were Doug and Fonda Thompsen from Belmond, Chris Boland, Randy Noble, and Ted Manley from Drake, and one of Concha's "3 Amigos" from Stanford University, Sandy Schecter. In-person was George Hopkins, a 27-year employee at Dudley's business, Becky Kump, Dudley's work assistant for 8 years, friend Judy Holiday, the second of Concha's "3 Amigos" Cindy Pease Alvarez, and Linda Young, a church moderator and spouse of RC Richmond PP Jim Young.
Just as he started to unveil the Theme for the Year, Past President Linda Boessenecker quietly reminded Dudley that he had forgotten to introduce a very important guest – his spouse, Concha Delgado Gaitan.
He quickly changed subjects and gave a wonderful introduction to Concha, his wife of nine years. They share many interests and obviously complement each other. Their household consists of four cats, which they left at home for the day!
Service to change lives
Theme for the Year
SERVE TO CHANGE LIVES will be the Club’s theme. It also is Rotary International’s theme.
Ana-Marie Jones
Speaker for the Day – Ana-Marie Jones
Our very own Ana-Marie Jones was the recent keynote speaker at a Rotary seminar on how to approach the reopening of clubs. She shared some key concepts and great encouragement. First of all, she told us to prepare to be our BEST selves. We can rise to any challenge.
Then she identified concepts to carry us forward:
- We have the power of community.
- We understand vaccines save lives.
- We understand the trauma first-hand of COVID, having lost our own friend, Gene Zahas.
- We embrace hybrid meetings.
- We have the four-way test and mission statement to guide us.
- Rotary (events) provide a safe space.
She observed that the community-at-large wants to be done with COVID, but COVID is not done with us. She encouraged us to speak up, ask questions and share our thoughts.
Finally, a few practical suggestions from Ana-Marie who is known to be the supreme cheerleader: carry a mask, hand sanitizer, a copy of our COVID vaccination card, and a whistle. Things could change very quickly, so be ready to adapt.
Our story should be that people are safe at every Rotary gathering.
President Dudley’s Goals
Pres. Dudley spoke of the influence that Victor Frankl (“Man’s Search for Meaning”) has had on his life and the three guiding principles of that text: 1) make a difference; 2) experience life and 3) adopt an attitude of living as if you were living again. We are all the authors of our own story, and we can rewrite and revise that story any time to better ourselves.
He spoke of the honor to serve as President and laid forth his three goals for this year.
1) Keep us all together and safe,
2) Continue to make Rotary the best service organization in the world, and
3) Encourage all of us to become more engaged by joining a committee and participating in all that Rotary has to offer and invite a friend to join.
Environment, the newest pillar of Rotary International, will be the focus of his speaker gifts. Finally, he pledges to serve seriously, but not somberly.
Bellringers
The following members rang the bell in honor of President Dudley:
Ana-Marie Jones, Shannon Hackley, Jason Wizelman, Marie Saverimuthu, Ken Benson, Karen Friedman, Joe Goralka, Mary Geong, Ces Butner, Wil Hobbs, Linda Boessenecker, Joycie Mack, Mike Mowery, Carla Betts, Iris-Brody-Lopez, Elida Scola, Ed Jellen, Bob Breecker, Keith Giron, and Keith Uriarte.
Adjournment
President Dudley adjourned the meeting at 1:30 pm as he rang the bell from the Ballroom podium.
Proposed For Membership
An application has been received from the following individual. If no object is received within five days, the application will be submitted to the Board of Directors for approval.
Sandeep Rajbhandari
COMMERCIAL FOOD - HEALTHY MEAL HOME DELIVERY
1552 Beach Street, Suite C
Oakland, CA 94608
Sponsor: Membership Committee
Birthday Greetings
Happy Birthday! Celebrating between July 13 to 20 are:
13 – Ed Jellen
14 – Allison Lindquist
15 – Alex Kaffka
15 – Debo Sarkar
17 – Margee Witt
18 – Michael Rice
– Sheng Thao
20 – Mike Mowery
Membership Anniversaries in July
Thank you for your years of service to the Rotary Club of Oakland and the community!
- Linda Chew – 25 years
- Ralph Sklar – 25 years
- Ed Jellen – 24 years
- C J Hirschfield – 18 years
- John Claassen – 17 years
- Lorie Alemania – 14 years
- Rod Hughes – 13 years
- Mike Mowery – 12 years
- Mark Lipsett – 8 years
- Kom Cohn – 7 years
- Barbara Leslie – 7 years
- Jim Boessenecker – 5 years
- Nancy O’Malley – 5 years
- Shonda Scott – 5 years
- Suzie Yokomizo – 3 years
- Mel Madunezim – 2 years
- Pam Claassen – 1 year
- Tommy Edwards – 1 year
- Lou Rigali – 1 year
Keith Uriarte
Next Meeting, Thursday, July 15 – Oakland Rotary Opportunities
Keith Uriarte announced next week’s meeting will focus on opportunities for participation. President Dudley Thompson has invited chairs of eight service committees to talk about their plans for the year and how we can get involved.
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