international scholar Venetia Baker.

Evie reports that Venetia is working in

Johannesburg, South Africa in her field

MORAGA ROTARY of maternal and infant care and plans to

pursue a doctorate. Go Venetia! We
are very proud of her.
NEWSLETTER Dianne Wilson had $2 HB’s to
celebrate the installation of the new
kitchen at the school in Sierra Leone
August 28, 2018 that the kids from our orphanage attend.
The children start school next week and
Next Celebration: September 4, there will be a grand opening of the new
2018 kitchen. In answer to a question Dianne
Noon, Holy Trinity Center on School said the kitchen was provided by
Street Honorary Moraga Rotarian, Clyde
Wilson and Dianne’s sister-in-law.
Program: Chef Linda, Cooking with Kids
Debbie Roessler had $2 HB’s because
Greeter/Invocator: Alka Mulakaluri Southwest Airlines found Debbie and
Lou’s passports which had been lost.
Sept 4 – Chef Linda - Cooking with Kids Debbie was very relieved because she
*Sept 11 – Steve Woreck – Travels in Japan
Sept 18 – Fransena Harmon – Shelter Inc. had been responsible for holding the
Sept 25 – Tony Eltringham – Battle of Atlantic passports and Lou was not likely to
Oct 2 - Sandra Scherer – Monument Crisis Center
Oct 9 - Troy Feddersen – Beer Making forget that.
Oct 16 - Open Debbie also owned up to a trip outside
Oct 23 - Rotary District Governor Visit
the state (to Las Vegas) and spun the
* Dinner Meeting @ 6:00 pm – Moraga Country Club Wheel of Misfortune. The Wheel had her
pay $35 to the club. Debbie says, “Jet
Suite is the only way to go if you are
President Ron Mucovich opened the flying to Las Vegas. You leave out of
meeting by ringing the bell. Al Buchannan Field in Concord, your
Simonsen did the invocation listing four luggage is traveling right with you,
things we should remember every day drinks are free, and the fare is not much
and followed with the Pledge of different from other commercial airlines.
Allegiance.
Kevin Reneau also had to spin the
We had one guest today, our speaker Wheel of Misfortune. He leased a new
Eric Noe from the U.C. Berkeley Athletic Hyundai, Tucson. (Note, Kevin would
Department. not let President Ron spin the wheel for
him because Ron had spun for Debbie’s
$35.) Kevin’s spin got him off the hook
~~ HAPPY BUCKS ~~
with a mere $10 fine.
Evie Michon had $2 HB’s for a visit to
the home of the parents of our
John Erickson provided a Happy Buck followed by Debbie Koo with a $55 bid.
to celebrate the installation of the bike Linda May came back and took the hat
racks at the new All Access Playground for $60. What a spirited group of
in the Commons. John added that there bidders!
is still no quote for the stone facing for
the concrete wall around the Ron Mucovich challenged the club to
playground. identify this week’s Mystery Rotarian.
This Rotarian was raised in East
~~ BIRTHDAYS ~~ Tamaqua, Pennsylvania. Debbie
Doug Damaschino celebrated a Roessler quickly called out, “Roger
birthday. He says the “kids and Gregory!” and won the contest.
grandkids are coming over tonight for (Ok, the Pennsylvania part was correct,
dinner.” Doug is the proud owner of the but Roger is really from West Nanticoke,
Fine-Free-Hat for August, so he eluded PA. And after years of kidding about that
a fine. town name (Roger was called, “That guy
from West Nanny Goat, PA.”) Roger
~~ANNOUNCEMENTS~~ changed his name to “The Rajah” and
moved to Rajasthan - in his mind).
Ron Mucovich made a very
important announcement. Next ~~PROGRAM~~
week’s Moraga Rotary meeting and President Ron introduced our speaker
lunch will be at the Holy Trinity Eric Noe from the Athletic Department of
Center on School Street. This U.C. Berkeley where he is responsible for
change is necessary because the Ticket Sales and Customer Service. Eric
Moraga Country Club will be closed comes from Columbus, Ohio and is fairly
next Tuesday. new to the Bay Area having just been
here three years. Initially he worked for
So, at Noon Tuesday, September the San Jose Sharks.
4th go to the Holy Trinity Center!

~~ PRESENTATION ~~
President Ron and John Erickson
asked Alka Mulakaluri to come forward
and she was presented with her first
Paul Harris Award. This is a very
special occasion and all the club
members were proud to congratulate
her on the award.

~~ CLUB BUSINESS ~~
The September Fine Free Hat was
auctioned with vigorous bidding. Debbie
Roessler started the bidding at $30.
Marv Ellenberg moved the bidding up
to $40. Linda May took the bid to $50
Eric gave us an overview of Cal Athletics. poster advertising this special game.
He told us about the new Director of
Athletics, Jim Knowlton who graduated
from West Point, served 28 years in the
Army and previously was Director of
Athletics at the Air Force Academy. Jim’s
goals for Cal are:
• Balancing the athletic department
budget by 2020.
• Moving from Prong III to Prong I on
Title IX.
• Filling the stands at Memorial
Stadium.

A task force has been established to

evaluate the athletic department budget
and recommend action. The university
has 30 teams – most in the Pac-12 and
34 club teams. There are no plans to cut
any sports programs.

Cal wants the athletes to focus on being Start time of the game and pre-event gatherings will
a student before athletics. As of this June be announced as the television schedule becomes
the average student/athlete GPA during clearer
the Spring semester was 3.084 and 22 of
30 teams possess a GPA of 3.0 or
greater.
Alka Mulakaluri won this week’s raffle -
she got the green marble and won $35.
There were several pictures of Cal
facilities and a number of factoids like -
the Cal/Stanford football teams have
faced each other 121 times. Cal has not
had the Axe for 9 years. There are
currently 37 Cal football alums on the
NFL active roster. And the hill behind the
stadium where fans gather with
binoculars to watch football games for
free is called “Tightwad Hill.”

This season’s opening game is this

Saturday against UNC. Start time 1 pm.
Alka Mulakaluri and Eric Noe

There will be a special Rotary Day at Cal

on Saturday, September 29th. Here is a
 I took the assignment to write that
Eric brought a packet of gifts from Cal. definition, which was adopted by the
Items included 2 tickets to this Rotary Board. To some extent a few words
Saturday’s opening game and a Jason
Kidd bobble head doll. These were have been modified, but essentially this
raffled off and the lucky winner was has been the accepted answer to that
Debbie Roessler. question – What Is Rotary?

“Rotary is an organization of business

and professional persons united
worldwide who provide humanitarian
service, encourage high ethical
standards in all vocations, and help
build goodwill and peace in the world.”

Those 31 words describe the world of

Rotary. This definition includes three key
features of Rotary:
• Serving in our communities.
• Standing for high standards in our
business and professions.
Debbie Roessler with Ron Mucovich and Eric Noe
• Promoting peace and better
understanding among people of the
world.
Cliff’s Corner
In retrospect, I have often thought that we
What Is Rotary? should have added 8 more words:
• “and have a lot of fun doing it!”
Occasionally people will ask, “What is
Rotary?” We usually respond by
mentioning our Club and the variety of our
programs and activities.

However, some years ago the Rotary

International Board of Directors was asked
to create an official statement on the
definition of Rotary.
Greeter/invocator schedule:
9/04/18 = Alka Mulakaluri
9/11/18 = Tony Schoemehl
9/18/18 = John Erickson
9/25/18 = Kevin Reneau

Calendar of Future Events:

• Sept 9: Orinda Rotary: Dancing with the
Cars
• October 13 @ 5pm: New
Orleans/Zydeco Festival provided by
Rossmoor Rotary.
• October 23: Official visit of DG Jon
Dwyer
• Nov 2: Tribute dinner for PRIP, Rick
King, with RIP, Barry Rassin and several
Past RI Presidents.
• May 17-19, 2019: District Assembly for
four districts at Peppermill Casino in
Reno.
• June 1-5, 2019: Rotary International
Convention in Hamburg, Germany

MORAGA ROTARY DIRECTORS 2018-2019

President Ron Mucovich
Co-Presidents-elect Debbie Koo &
Evie Michon
Past President Dianne Wilson
Co-Secretary Vickie Devlin &
Evie Michon
Treasurer Lad Lynch
Foundation Chair John Erickson
Youth Service Chair Rich Render
Public Relations Gary Irwin
Newsletter Editor Frank May
Community Service Chair Tony Schoemehl
Co-Chair, International Services Barbara Bruner
Co-Chair, International Services Linda May
Membership Chair Debbie Koo
Director at Large Mary Sue
Erickson
Director at Large Roger Gregory
Director at Large Debbie Roessler
Advisor to the Board Jim Campbell
Advisor to the Board Cliff Dochterman

District Governor 5160 Jon Dwyer

President, Rotary International Barry Rassin

Newsletter Editor – Roger Gregory