Friday’s meeting was a dream come true for your president: a seating problem! Yes, attendance has increased (we had over 40 today) and we didn’t have enough places set for lunch. A problem we can happily deal with!

Now that more of our members are showing up, it’s unfortunate that we are dark next Friday for Labor Day. We don’t want you to get out of the habit of coming. Mark your calendar now for September 8.

Big news: the chairman of our nominating committee announced the nomination of our president-elect: Rosie Mares. Very excited to have Rosie waiting in the wings. She has experience as our president, has some great ideas, and lots of energy. Her actual election by our members will be at our September 8 meeting, another good reason to be there.

Your president sadly informed the club by email of John Murphy’s passing. John was a very active 28-year member of our club and led us as president in 2004-05. Several members responded to that mailing, all with heart-felt recollections of John and his service. As a tribute to John, our president read a few of the responses.

Two of our newer members moved from red-badge to blue-badge status: Leilani Panyawai and Patricia Hall. Both have been very active members. Leilani is a hard-working member of our program committee and Patricia headed up the sponsorship solicitation for Field of Honor, the club’s major fundraiser for our charities.

Ray Bushnell and Jim Pontello were recognized for their arriving early for each meeting and setting up the room and audio-visual equipment. Unsung heroes, as no one is here to see their efforts. Thanks, guys, for your hard work.

There were several members that needed recognition by your president. He started with Jay Harvill, back with us after an extended absence. He was welcomed by your president asking him about USC Arcadia Hospital making the prestigious Becker’s “Great Community Hospitals” list. Expecting Jay to claim most of the credit for this listing, your president was prepared to fine him $50. It turned out that Jay didn’t even know they had made the list. His ignorance of the honor cost him not $50, but $100!

Brian Hall was next on the hot seat for falling in with bad company a couple of weeks ago. It was soon ferreted out that he had spent the weekend with Mike Real and Matt Weaver at Matt’s Bishop retreat. Further, it was learned that Mahlon Chinn joined in the revelry. Some hiking was done, adult beverages were consumed, there was paddleboarding off of Mahlon’s dock on Gull Lake, and who knows what other skullduggery. Each of the four had his wallet lightened by $40.

Mike Hoey was questioned about his retirement plans. It turns out that he plans to work only two days a week for a while (his staff reports that this might actually be an increase in his hours). Your president was prepared to charge him the standard $100 for retiring. However, since he is only partially retiring, he could only be charged 2/5 of that amount. Fortunately for the club, the addition of tax, tip, and license brought it up to $75.

Yvonne Flint was asked what had been going on in her life. Acknowledging that the president knows everything, she immediately owned up to her vacation trip on the central coast. Her relaxing vacation came with a little add-on cost of $40.

Sho Tay was quizzed about his activities the prior Friday. After some hemming and hawing he said he had attended the Installation event for the Arcadia Chinese Association. Some adroit questioning by your president brought out that not only had Sho attended the event, he was installed as co-president. Since he would be sharing duties with Susan Guo, he was fined only half the customary amount and saved himself $50.

A bit of Arcadia Rotary history. In 1943/44 the Arcadia Rotary Club’s record of perfect-attendance meetings became a matter of some note. In April the Club received a nice compliment from District Governor Kenneth M. Payne for having an average attendance through the preceding twelve months of 99.216%! This was quite a remarkable record for a club of nearly 50 members. Thirty-eight perfect-attendance meetings were recorded for the club year!

Your president doesn’t hope to match such an attendance record this year. But, our record is pretty dismal compared to 43/44! If you are one of the members who are keeping us from recording perfect attendance, how about marking your calendar right now for noon on each Friday? Your president, directors, board and hard-working members are putting in a great deal of effort to make our meetings fun, informative, and worthwhile. Your part is to simply show up and enjoy the meetings and your Rotary friends.

Enjoy your Labor Day weekend. See you on September 8.

Bob Harbicht

President