international scholar Venetia Baker.
Evie reports that Venetia is working in
MORAGA ROTARY
NEWSLETTER
August 28, 2018
Next Celebration: September 4,
2018
Noon, Holy Trinity Center on School
Street
Program: Chef Linda, Cooking with Kids
Greeter/Invocator: Alka Mulakaluri
Sept 4 – Chef Linda - Cooking with Kids
*Sept 11 – Steve Woreck – Travels in Japan
Sept 18 – Fransena Harmon – Shelter Inc.
Sept 25 – Tony Eltringham – Battle of Atlantic
Oct 2 - Sandra Scherer – Monument Crisis Center
Oct 9 - Troy Feddersen – Beer Making
Oct 16 - Open
Oct 23 - Rotary District Governor Visit
* Dinner Meeting @ 6:00 pm – Moraga Country Club
President Ron Mucovich opened the
meeting by ringing the bell. Al
Simonsen did the invocation listing four
things we should remember every day
and followed with the Pledge of
Allegiance.
We had one guest today, our speaker
Eric Noe from the U.C. Berkeley Athletic
Department.
~~ HAPPY BUCKS ~~
Evie Michon had $2 HB’s for a visit to
the home of the parents of our
Johannesburg, South Africa in her field
of maternal and infant care and plans to
pursue a doctorate. Go Venetia! We
are very proud of her.
Dianne Wilson had $2 HB’s to
celebrate the installation of the new
kitchen at the school in Sierra Leone
that the kids from our orphanage attend.
The children start school next week and
there will be a grand opening of the new
kitchen. In answer to a question Dianne
said the kitchen was provided by
Honorary Moraga Rotarian, Clyde
Wilson and Dianne’s sister-in-law.
Debbie Roessler had $2 HB’s because
Southwest Airlines found Debbie and
Lou’s passports which had been lost.
Debbie was very relieved because she
had been responsible for holding the
passports and Lou was not likely to
forget that.
Debbie also owned up to a trip outside
the state (to Las Vegas) and spun the
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
flying to Las Vegas. You leave out of
Buchannan Field in Concord, your
luggage is traveling right with you,
drinks are free, and the fare is not much
different from other commercial airlines.
Kevin Reneau also had to spin the
Wheel of Misfortune. He leased a new
Hyundai, Tucson. (Note, Kevin would
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
with a mere $10 fine.
John Erickson provided a Happy Buck
to celebrate the installation of the bike
racks at the new All Access Playground
in the Commons. John added that there
is still no quote for the stone facing for
the concrete wall around the
playground.
~~ BIRTHDAYS ~~
Doug Damaschino celebrated a
birthday. He says the “kids and
grandkids are coming over tonight for
dinner.” Doug is the proud owner of the
Fine-Free-Hat for August, so he eluded
a fine.
~~ANNOUNCEMENTS~~
Ron Mucovich made a very
important announcement. Next
week’s Moraga Rotary meeting and
lunch will be at the Holy Trinity
Center on School Street. This
change is necessary because the
Moraga Country Club will be closed
next Tuesday.
So, at Noon Tuesday, September
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
followed by Debbie Koo with a $55 bid.
Linda May came back and took the hat
for $60. What a spirited group of
bidders!
Ron Mucovich challenged the club to
identify this week’s Mystery Rotarian.
This Rotarian was raised in East
Tamaqua, Pennsylvania. Debbie
Roessler quickly called out, “Roger
Gregory!” and won the contest.
(Ok, the Pennsylvania part was correct,
but Roger is really from West Nanticoke,
PA. And after years of kidding about that
town name (Roger was called, “That guy
from West Nanny Goat, PA.”) Roger
changed his name to “The Rajah” and
moved to Rajasthan - in his mind).
~~PROGRAM~~
President Ron introduced our speaker
Eric Noe from the Athletic Department of
U.C. Berkeley where he is responsible for
Ticket Sales and Customer Service. Eric
comes from Columbus, Ohio and is fairly
new to the Bay Area having just been
here three years. Initially he worked for
the San Jose Sharks.
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

Eric brought a packet of gifts from Cal.
Items included 2 tickets to this
Saturday’s opening game and a Jason
Kidd bobble head doll. These were
raffled off and the lucky winner was
Debbie Roessler.
Debbie Roessler with Ron Mucovich and Eric Noe
Cliff’s Corner
What Is Rotary?
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.
I took the assignment to write that
definition, which was adopted by the
Rotary Board. To some extent a few words
have been modified, but essentially this
has been the accepted answer to that
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.
• Promoting peace and better
understanding among people of the
world.
In retrospect, I have often thought that we
should have added 8 more words:
• “and have a lot of fun doing it!”
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