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WEATHER
REPORT… SUNNY & BRIGHT (In our hearts, at least!)
 It may have been all
“May Gray” outside (Weatherman John Coleman calls it
"Seasonal affective disorder"), but inside Rotarians were having
none of that. We had plenty of spirit and fun! For those who
missed our meeting it was one of the best of the year and President BILL DERN
was at his best as he rang the bell welcoming us to the Oceanside Rotary!
 A very moving
invocation was given by JOHN MCMAHAN. At the end he read the latest names of Camp Pendleton Marines lost recently in Iraq action and asked for extra prayers this week for
them and for their families ....Yes it has been 5 Years since "Mission Accomplished".....
Soon to be New member (Today) LINDA KUROKAWA,
Director.of Community Service at MiraCosta College, as a “final test
for membership”, was called upon to lead our pledge to our USA flag.
 Then Past President TOM BRAULT, songmeister
extraordinaire, led us in the old standby “Smile”, but with a
twist… Our new members-to-be were brought up front so we could all see
how many of the words they knew! (Talk about a pressure situation!)
Next Tom asked us to sing in a high Falsetto the song from Snow
White....."Whistle while you Work" in a tribute to our recent
Rotarians at Work day, but we only got through the first line and
whistle. We finished up our songfest with President BILL DERN’s
favorite song..... "God Bless America.”
THE “BLAH BLAH’S” WERE A LITTLE MORE
“BLAH”
(We miss you, DEAN!)
President-Elect DEAN
ANDERSEN is off on a Rotary road trip. This forced President BILL DERN
to give the..."BLAH, BLAH, BLAH, BLAH club announcements and updates!
- Friday May 23rd:
We will be DARK for Memorial Day Weekend
- Monday, May 19th
: Angels Depot food distribution. VICKIE PROSSER is always looking
for a few good men and women to join their well-oiled and efficient box
slinging team and she passed around the sign up list.
- Saturday, June
7th: District matching grants seminar
- Tuesday, June
10th: Board luncheon meeting. (A token of thanks
from Dr. BILL!)
- Sunday,
June 15th: June 18th International Convention in LA.
Info online at www.rotary.org
- Friday, June 20th:
6:00PM Demotion Dinner at El Camino CC. Menu information and
invites to follow, but President BILL noted that he was
"happy and not" about that date approaching.
- Monday,June 23rd:
Rotary Clubs of Oceanside Golf Tournament. More flyers handed out
because we could always use more players, more sponsors, and more
prizes. And be sure that your application lists “Oceanside Rotary” so we can get credit for our club’s efforts and get a bigger
piece of the take.
- Tuesday,June 24th:
District Council dinner at the La Jolla Marriott, which will be the
demotion of our outgoing DG JIM O’MEARA. Sign up online at www.rotary5340.org
INTRODUCTION OF VISITING ROTARIANS AND GUESTS
LARRY HATTER introduced
retired publisher of the North County Times,  DICK HIGH who now serves on the San Diego County Gang Committee along with KEN NOONAN. (Or was LARRY saying that DICK and  KEN were leading some sort of a gang???) Also
at his table were new full time MiraCosta Business professor RITA SOZA and  CHAD
MAISENBACHER, an MCC honor student.
 At the next table MICHAEL RUSSE introduced REX
MARTIN as a guest for the last time along with Rex’s wife JEANNIE
MARTIN.
 Visiting San Luis Rey
Club Red Badge member LINDA PATERA was introduced by ALEXA STEFFEN, and
LEE RUSSELL of the El
Camino Club had the honor of being seated next to Past DG RANDY MITCHELL.
Next was SUSAN ASATO introducing for the last time
her friends from MiraCosta College BOB EDELBROCK and LINDA KUROKAWA.
And lastly, it was not a visiting Rotarian or
Guest, but VICKIE PROSSER welcomed home from her around the world trip our
resident globetrotter THERESIA HEYDEN.
ARE WE TRUSTWORTHY?
I’m not exactly
sure how this is supposed to work, but for the month of May we were told that
we were on the “honor system” to ‘fess up about our
Birthdays and Anniversaries. However, next week our Secretary RENEE
RICHARDSON would  be double-checking and seeing who missed reporting
their  milestones.
Anyway…. Celebrating May Birthdays were ROCKY CHAVEZ, and LES
NEWQUIST. With no CLARE cookies to pass around, they were told,
“Let them eat cake!”
Our members coming up
on Wedding Anniversaries had vastly different levels of excitement about
them. JEANNIE & REX MARTIN will be celebrating 3 years, so REX
figured he was $30 happy.
But then CHUCK WARD
told us he had been married to BARBARA for 28 years and that was worth
$2.80. AND he said he was OK about having us print this incredibly
“generous” donation, because “BARBARA never reads the
newsletter!”
THE BACKGROUND CHECKS ARE FINALLY OVER!! HALLELUJAH!!!
 President BILL said
that it was always a pleasure and privilege to bring in New Members to our
club, and he handed the ceremonial duties over to our Membership Chair VICKIE
PROSSER. Brand new members REX MARTIN and LINDA KUROKAWA along with BOB
EDELBROCK who is returning to the Rotary fold after an extended absence, were
welcomed by VICKIE who told them that “Rotary is not just a club,  it is a way of
life.” Their sponsors SUSAN ASATO and MICHAEL RUSSE
said some words of approbation and introduction and then MICHAEL and SUSAN
received special pins from Rotary for helping the organization to grow with
such fine new members, who of course were fined the standard $20.
HEALTH UPDATES
TOM NUNAN reported that
TOM KNOX is in hospice care and is in need of our prayers. JIM SCHRODER
told us that LYNN GARDENER has had his ups and downs and was now choosing to
stop dialysis treatments again. CLAUD PHILLIPS is still going through
rehab and CLARE MCGINNIS is still home and is “about the same.”
HAPPY DOLLARS
 TOM NUNAN paid
$10 happy dollars....TOM just got back from Rome and the Vatican after having a special “semi-private audience with the Pope” …. (TOM and
100,000 other sinners, it turns out!)
 JANET LACY was happy to pay $55 to let the
voter know about prop "H" an Oceanside school bond and ask for a
big 55% Yes vote on prop H. She also had distributed flyers on the
tables about the annual Martin Luther King, Jr. scholarship reception at her
home on Friday June 6 from 5 to 7:30 pm.
 Senator OLLIE
SPERAW paid $10 and endorsed YES ON PROP H also. And he also confessed
to being a “closeted spouse abuse victim.” His “cover
story” is that he tripped and fell and that is what caused his huge
shiner under his glasses, but he swears that ANNE will never do it again!
 DAVID NYDEGGER
confessed to belonging to the Flat Earth Society and paid $10 in happy
dollars because THERESIA HEYDEN just went around the world and that proves
the earth isn't flat.... Welcome to the 21st Century, DAVE!
 TERRI HALL was
$10 happy because President Elect DEAN ANDERSEN is on vacation on his way to Bolivia to serve on a Rotary project.
JIM SCHRODER was proud to report that we just
got our $12.500 Matching Grant approved for a hematology unit for the
Children's hospital in Parana, Argentina.
 SUSAN ASATO was
happy again for the joy of seeing “Old friends and New
friends.” This time the old friend was LEE RUSSELL, formerly from
MiraCosta College, and the new friends were our new members BOB and LINDA FINALLY
getting to join us as full members of the club.
TOM BRAULT got
some groans when he had just $2 to admit that, contrary to his previous
pronouncement, he actually DOES know all of the words to “Whistle While
You Work.”
LUCK OF THE DRAW
 Since the young
WESELOH boy depleted our jackpot last week, this week only about $47 was up
for grabs. SCOTT CARMICHAEL had the honors and President BILL had
come up with a new way to give SCOTT his shot at the “big
bucks”. It was the old standby “Pick a number between one
and twenty.” After verifying that BILL didn’t have 20
different numbers written down to stack the deck, SCOTT made his choice and
settled for the $20 consolation prize which went straight back to the club.
GUEST SPEAKER
 Larry Hatter
introduced our Guest speaker RUBEN BARRALES. (If you missed this one
you missed one of the best programs of the year.) RUBEN is President
and CEO of the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce and the son of a
Mexican immigrant from Mexico City. RUBEN currently resides in San Diego with his wife KELLY and two children.
RUBEN was raised in Redwood City . After graduating with a BA from the University of California, Riverside, he
came home and started a political career. In 1992 he was first elected
to the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors at age 29 and became the first
elected Latino Supervisor in the county. RUBEN told us he was first a
Democrat and later changed his party affiliation to Republican. {Managing
Editor’s Note: The applause meter on those pronouncements pretty much
said a lot about the leaning of our club. Surprise, surprise!} He
also ran for California State Controller and lost, but even in defeat he
learned some valuable lessons and made some invaluable contacts. (Ask him the
story about the fundraiser with Bob Dole… You’ll get a rise out
of it!)
In 2001 after being
introduced to Karl Rove ("Bush's Brain") he was invited to
serve as Deputy Assistant of Intergovermental Affairs in the Bush White
House. His response was: “First off, yes! Absolutely,
yes! And second, What is Intergovernmental Affairs?” He
told some tales and answered some questions about his time serving in
government. RUBEN is a very engaging speaker and  delivers a great story of his
humble beginnings. He is listed among the 100 most influential
Hispanics/Latinos in the United States. He is one speaker this reporter
would like to have back!
PRESIDENT DERN’S
“THOUGHT FOR THE DAY”
Aristotle----"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence,
then, is not an act, but a habit!”
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WELCOME
TO OCEANSIDE ROTARY
