Past President Tom Boylan stood in for President Marc Elin and presided over the meeting.

Meeting began with the Flag Salute led by Allen Christenson.

Past President Tom Boylan reminded the Club that September 8 we will be dark in order to have a special nighttime meeting in which Supervisor James Gore will be the featured speaker.  Mark your calendar!

Tom Boylan provided the inspiration for the day by showing a recently video-taped message from Past President Michael “Rags” Ragsdale expressing his appreciation for the outpouring of good wishes as he deals with his battle against cancer.  Rags was especially thankful for the recent  help given to him by the family of Rotary at his new home.

Bill Arnone led the Club in a song made famous by Johnny Cash, “”Ring of Fire” with a few Rotary modifications.

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Visitors to the Club —

Visiting Rotarians introduced  by Bill Rash included Lee Matteus from Lake Tahoe and Maureen Merrill introducing Jack Strange from Santa Rosa East.

Visitors included Megan Hassur and past Youth Exchange Students: Erica Jimenez, Tessa Kelly, and Allie Bachelder

Vincent Larcin, our newly arrived Youth Exchange Student from Belguim, was formally introduced by host patent Allen Christenson .  Allen introduced him to American life by handing him a power saw and allowing him to cut down trees Saturday at the home of Rags.  Liability issues not withstanding, Allen has the opportunity to be a fine host parent.  Acting President Tom then exchanged Rotary Flags with our newest Exchange Student, Vincent

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Recognition of Club Members

Member Birthdays — Bill Bolster (Aug 8) was recognized for his birthday and made a donation to The Rotary Foundation.

Personal Anniversaries

Sue & John Nelson (Aug 6) celebrating 38 years spent their 36th anniversary at John Ash Restaurant and contributed to the Windsor Rotary Community Foundation.

Bill & Earleen Rash (Aug 7) celebrated 48 yrs of marriage and made a donation to The Rotary Foundation

Brian & Debbi Ling (Aug 10) 30 yrs contributed to both the Windsor Rotary Community Foundation and the Rotary Foundation

Anniversaries as a Club Member (we thank you!)

Tom Holmes (Aug 3)  11 years

Rich Mucci (Aug 7)  8 years

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Jack Hyde reported that the Rotary Bar made $1400 at the recent Town Green Concert hosting Charlie Musselwhite.  Revenue from the Rotary Bar funds International projects for the Club.

Jack is to be commended for all of his work in raising money to fund our International projects.

Rotarian of the Month — Tom Hassur was awarded a special Rotary pin for being selected this month.  Congratulations Tom for your many contributions.

The slingshot game connected to the weekly raffle sounds easy — lucky Superheroes with the lucky ticket get two-shots to try and knock down the cups that spell CANCER — but has proved to be more challenging than it appears as the pot was at $549 when  Bill Bolster’s lucky ticket was drawn and he  took aim this week.  Unfortunately, his age, strength and stamina prevented him from taking home the prize.  There is always checkers to fall back on Bill!  The pot continues to grow looking for that one superhero!

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Tom Boylan introduced our guest speaker Paul Gullixson, our speaker and Editorial Director for the Press Democrat newspaper.

Paul talked  about three myths currently plaguing Newspapers and journalism.

Myth #1 is the belief that newspapers are closing… in fact only about 100 big newspapers have closed their doors in the last ten years.

Myth #2 is that newspapers have big revenue problems…while circulation is down revenues are up in the past 5 years.

Myth 3 is that Americans have stopped reading newspapers..more news is being read on line and on Smart Phones.

Challenges for newspapers today include declining revenue for advertisement, newsroom employment, maintaining new revenue sources with balancing credibility in the news.  Paul believes that for big and medium size newspapers that the future is bright as long as they endorse automation.

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Closing Thought was provided by Rich Mucci —

“A bird does not sing because it has an answer, it sings because it has a song.”

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August 18, 2015 Featured Speaker

Join the Rotary Club of Windsor where Rotary Peace Fellow Aimal will share his candid, inspiring stories of life in war-torn Afghanistan, including progress being made by the Afghan people.