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Club Information
Welcome to the website of the Rotary Club of Ventura East!!
Ventura East
Service Above Self
We meet Thursdays at 12:00 PM
Poinsettia Pavilion
3451 Foothill Road
Ventura, CA  93003
United States
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District Site
 
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Venue Map
Bulletin Editor
Jeff Hata
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Meeting Responsibilities
Opportunity Drawing Donor
Cekov, Michelle
 
Greeter
Cekov, Michelle
 
Attendance
Eller, Jordan
 
Inspiration
Hishmeh, Husam
 
Joke of the Week
Polito, Ron
 
Flag Salute
Juvonen, Todd
 
Speakers
Feb 04, 2016
 
Feb 11, 2016
 
Feb 18, 2016
 
Feb 25, 2016
 
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Upcoming Events
RYLA Student consent forms due
Feb 15, 2016
 
RYLA Camp volunteer registration deadline
Feb 15, 2016
 
RYLA volunteer background check consent form due
Mar 10, 2016
 
Master PRLS2
Mar 26, 2016
 
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Ventura East Facebook Page
Ventura Rotaract Website
GOCARE
Rotary District 5240 Website
Operation Splash Slideshow
ClubRunner Tutorials
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Rotary International
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Joining Rotary
Rotary History
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President's Message
Bruce McGee
member photo

Greetings


This week I am doing a program on the Brazil International convention and a state of the club report .
I look forward to seeing the tables full again and  to your feedback on my state of the club message.

VENTURA EAST ROTARY 2015-16 BOARD GOALS

We will strive to hit these goals, please review and commit to them
1.    GROW MEMBERSHIP FROM  44 TO 64
2.    DEVELOP AN ON-BOARDING AND MENTOR PROGRAM FOR NEW MEMBERS
3.    HAVE FUN
4.    DEVELOP A CULTURE OF LEADERSHIP TO GROW INVOLVEMENT AND SHARE THE LOAD
5.    INCREASE COMMUNITY SERVICE FREQUENCY TO    HAVE FUN AND GROW MEMBERS
6.    FUNDING-DOUBLE POINSETTIA SALES, REVAMP BBQ TEAM THIS YEAR

Serving with the best,
Bruce McGee

 
 
 
 
Stories
Meeting January 28, 2016
Tim Blackwell led us in the Flag Salute.
 
President Bruce thanked Bill Spellman for taking attendance and PEN Husam Hishmeh for greeting.
 
John Borneman gave our inspirational message.
 
Midge Stork announced that our raffle prize was a gift card to Marie Callendar's donated by Bob Noville.
 
Midge Stork had Sue Hayes with her today as her guest.
 
Tim Hughes gave our joke of the week.
 
President Bruce showed us a picture that Juan Mendoza took at the Fair Parade. Juan printed the picture in black & white and then mounted it on a board. Juan also announced that he now has a job working security at Lynda.com!
 
President Bruce also told us that Vocational Minutes will be making a return. Our first presenter will be Gregg Frye in a couple of weeks.
 
Jason Ribibo spoke about what's happening with the Stock Markets. Jason said the short answer is "a lot!" The Stock Market has been growing without any major pull back so what is happening now is natural and healthy for the market. The economy is growing, but not quickly. Job growth is happening, but the types of jobs will not help grow the middle class. The long and short, things will get tougher before they get better, but hang in there and we should recover. Stick with value and if you have cash, keep it.
 
Announcements:
Joe Strohman said that our next employee of the quarter will be coming soon. John Masterson has nominated an employee from CMH. We are also looking for two directors for the club Foundation for the term 2016-2018.
 
Kathy McGee said that we have 10 people going to see Bill Spellman in his play on Saturday. Kathy also reported that the ball is rolling for the Rotary Ventura Botanical Garden's project. A 501(c)3 has been formed so that money can be collected and have tax benefits for the donors. Kathy also said that Richard Spurlock will be designing our spot and that this sight will be the biggest location in the gardens.
 
President Bruce reminded us that the next board meeting will be Wednesday February 3rd at the McGee's. Meeting and dinner ... what can be better.
 
Programs are being rotated by month. Tom Hashbarger will be doing February, Joe Strohman for March, Daryl Cruzer for April then Tom Swan for May.
 
President Bruce again told us we need a PEN. Nobody in the club is stepping up and being a part of Rotary means we need to step up when asked and support the club!
 
Tim Blackwell spoke about membership. Tim is reading the book "The One Thing". If we followed Tim's formula, we would double the size of the club by the end of Bruce's term. As we all have heard, we don't have a membership problem, we have an inviting problem.
 
Midge Stork conducted the raffle and our lucky winner was Husam Hishmeh!
 
John Masterson announced that he is organizing the tours of the new CMH hospital and he has 6 opening for the February 17th tour. The tours start at 3:30 and last about an hour.
 
Juan Mendoza told us that his birthday was last week and that he brother's, Cesar, birthday was today!!!
How will we double the size of Ventura-East???
46 = the number of active members
22 = the number of meetings left in Bruce's term
2 = If everyone invited just two guests/week
2,024 = the number of people who would be invited for the remainder of this Rotary Year.
506 = the number of visitors if 25% show up
50 = the number of new members is 10% join us.
 
Get busy and start inviting!
My memories about the Rotary Club of Ventura-East
Since I am now one of "the most experienced" members of my Rotary Club, I would like to share some of my Club-related memories1 for the members of our Club who were not here several decades ago. I am submitting these memories to The Breeze, in short narratives. These memories are not thoroughly documented or complete. I hope my contemporaries in our Club will feel free to offer their own memories, to supplement or correct mine. (If Jeff Hata agrees.)
 
The Totonaca Project
This project was directed by Eric Nicolet, and lasted quite a few years. It was funded by a grant from Rotary International, and it was sponsored by our club, by a club in Mexico City, and by a dub in the Totonaca region.
 
When the Spanish invaders arrived, the Totonacas were a powerful empire that was a rival of the Aztec Empire. They occupied a vast region to the east of the Aztecs. The Totonacas sided with the Spaniards. The Totonaca territory is now spread over several Mexican states.
 
Although the ancient Totonacas had left behind some impressive ruins of huge building, (which we were not aware of during our grant), in the twentieth century, the people were in great need of a variety of essential services, especially related to health and education. Our program was created to provide some of such services, and to teach the Totonacas how to help themselves, at least to some extent. High priority was given to promoting the building of latrines. The goal was to diminish gastro-intestinal infectious diseases, which were a major cause of illness and death among children.
 
The territory was vast and remote from cities. Our Club bought its own truck and had its own driver. On one occasion, I went there with Eric, for a couple of days. There were no electrical lights to be seen. I distinctly remember that, at night, it was so dark in my bedroom that I literally could not see my hand in front of my eyes.
 
 
THE TOTONAC PROJECT
(Rotary Club of Ventura-East History,
by Rafael Canton-For "The Breeze'', June 2005)
 
I think "The Breeze" plays a key role in maintaining our Club's history alive. In this spirit, I’d like to share some of my memories of the "Totonac Project." (John Carroll and/or Eric Nicolet would have done it much better.) I invite any corrections that may be more accurate or complete than my recollections.
 
This project received one of the earliest grants from the "Health, Hunger, and Humanity" Program offered by Rotary International. It was originally written by our Club but it was sponsored jointly with a Club in Mexico City and a Club close to the Totonac region. The original grant was extended a number of times, over almost ten years. I believe it added up to close to a million dollars.
 
Eric Nicolet was in charge of supervising the Project. He visited it many times. I was always impressed by the sacrifice and devotion that implied. Eric was extremely vulnerable to ''tropical diarrhea." Because of that and, I believe, because of his diabetes, the only thing he could eat in Mexico was bananas. He had to carry his own water, at a time when that was not as convenient as now. At one point, the personnel at the Mexico City airport became somewhat suspicious of this "Gringo" who was traveling, so frequently, with all that liquid... He would fly to Mexico City, be met there by a person from the Project and ride for several hours, to the Totonac Region. He usually stayed there for several days at a time. At one point, a local Catholic priest expressed the suspicion that Eric was really a spy and a member of the CIA That idea seemed reasonable to some people in that region-apparently, there was a rumor that the CIA had, in met, infiltrated at least one Christian mission, in Central America. There had been resentment, on the part of the Catholic clergy, of the Protestants missionary who had "invaded their territory." The fact that Rotary is non-religious might have been helpful.
 
The Totonacs are an American Indian nation which, at that time, consisted of many villages - about 60? - spread out over a large area Centuries ago, they bad built impressive stone buildings and cities. Like other civilizations, they were taken over by the Aztecs. When Hernan Cortez arrived, the Totonacs decided to help the Spaniards against the Aztec Empire. It didn’t do them any good. When we found them, their standard of living was extremely low. I think John Carroll, described it as "at Fourth World level."
News from Rotary International
 
 
 
 
 
Published by the Rotary Club of Ventura-East (c)2015