Posted by Frank Yoke on Oct 15, 2024
President Bob Hermann, Jr. (Information Technology: Administration | Retired) opened today's meeting at 12:15 PM and asked members to be kind to each other.
 
Visiting Rotarian and Guest
Today's Visiting Rotarian was Volodymyr Goshylyk from the Rotary Club of Berkeley. Our speaker was Sasha Vasilyuk.
 
Thought of the Day
Today's Thought of the Day by C. JoyBell C. was “Where there is kindness, there is goodness. Where there is goodness, there is magic.”
 
Remembering Thelma-Jeanne (TJ) Taylor
President Bob announced the passing of former long-time member Thelma-Jean Taylor, better known as TJ. She was one of our Club's first female members. See story here. Today's audience took a moment of silence to remember TJ.
 
Waymo
President Bob Hermann shared a video of the first experience that he and Dan Joraanstad (Financial Services: Advising | Retired) had on Waymo. 
 
Welcome to the Club
President Bob thanked Kayla Trunecek (Staff Development | FTI Delta) for securing the free space at the Sports Basement in the Presidio for our Welcome to the Club event on October 2, 2024. See full story here. It was fortuitous that Michele Martinez Reese of Family House was in attendance; she offered a free tour of Family House prior to our Club's next Evening Meeting. Register here for the tour.
 
Help Those Affected by Hurricane Helene
At the October 1, 2024, Allan Herzog (Financial Services: Advising | Wells Fargo Advisors) offered to donate $2,500 to fund relief for victims of Hurricane Helene and challenged others to match this amount. His challenge was met and exceeded. Today, President Bob was pleased to announce that we have now raised a total of $5,050; this amount includes Allan Herzog's match.
 
Upcoming Events
Check the Club's calendar for upcoming meetings and events. 
Bill GregorySpecial Drawing
Anita Stangl (Medical Services | Alliance for Smiles) donated a gift package for today's drawing. The winner of the drawing was Bill Gregory (Philanthropy | San Francisco Playhouse).
 
Your Presence is Mandatory coverGuest Speaker
Speakers Committee Chair Larry Booth (Engineering: Mechanical | Frank M. Booth, Inc.) introduced today's speaker — Sasha Vasilyuk. Sasha spoke about her first novel, Your Presence is Mandatory and read a passage that was the basis of her presentation. This story is based on the true story of her grandfather and is centered on the 2014 conflict when Russia took over the Crimean Peninsula and annexed it. The story became intriguing when after her grandfather's death, Sasha's grandmother found a letter that her grandfather had written to the KGB as a confession. Sasha's grandfather was captured at one point and was a prisoner of war for a while. Sasha grew up between Ukraine and Russia before immigrating to San Francisco at the age of 13. She graduated from Lowell High School and received a BA from UC Berkeley and an MA in Journalism from New York University.
 
President Bob thanked Sasha Vasilyuk and announced that 100 children would be inoculated against polio in her name.
 
The meeting was adjourned at 1:30 PM.
 
Meeting Volunteers
President Bob thanked today's meeting volunteers: Cecile Chiquette (Accounting | Retired) for serving as volunteer coordinator; President-Elect Frank Yoke III (Development | Serra Residential Center, Inc.) for serving as scribe; Jim Patrick (Retail: Office Supplies | Patrick & Co.) for serving as photographer; Allan Herzog for managing the microphone; Kirt Burdick of the Academy of Art University for managing the audio-visual equipment during our in-person meeting; John Mount (Management Consulting | Win-Vector) for serving as Zoom Host; Tim Hornbecker (Nonprofit Management | Retired, The Arc CA) for serving as greeter; and Robin Azevedo (Retail: Mattresses | Retired, McRoskey Mattress Company) for doing check-in at the Hotel Nikko.