Bulletins - 2008 - 04/30/2008
This
Week's Bulletin Was Written
By Susan Bleicher
Mel Gallegos presided over the meeting in Mike’s absence and rang the bell promptly at 7:30 a.m. The invocation was given by Rick Logan and the pledge led by Scott Carr. Linda Jalving led us in singing “:Zippity Do Da.”
Raffle winners were Chris McCain and Lucy Killea. We had an unusually large amount of brags and bitches. Mary Dawe told us about attending an all male Rotary meeting in Japan (she also teased Pat Cowett about not attending the meeting and opting for a spa treatment or shopping); Jeff Christie announced he will be on Channel 6 Fox News with the financial report each Wednesday at 7:20 a.m. and has to drop out of the club for this great opportunity; Gary Green paid $5 to report Pat Cowett had been soliciting support for a unnamed Presidential candidate in a wealthy area in Pennsylvania; Susan Bleicher announced the Annual Lawyers’ Club Dinner on May 29 where Pat Cowett will be receiving an award; Paul Marsh was happy to report pictures of son, Zackery, on U-Tube; Tom Sayer proudly bragged about his unbelievably intellectual son being on TV; Dave Ferguson beamed about his son performing on April 30 at 9:00 p.m. at the Belly Up Tavern and also asked for donations to a memorial for Ron Erbetta on Mount Soledad; Chris Carstens was overjoyed to announce he held his premature Granddaughter who continues to put on weight and get stronger; Maureen Eberle spoke about her trip to Bolivia (departing on May 8); Mike Lewis sold tickets for “Gashole” at Pearson Fuels on May 9; and Leah Swearingen announced the Foundation for Women dinner on May 9. I’m sorry if I missed anyone.
We had numerous guests this week. James Holland from the Downtown Rotaract Club, Jessee Scabbela, Claire Madam, Bob Coats from the Mission Valley Club introduced Bob Kersh, Josh Hamilton from USD, Carleton Woodring (last time to be introduced as a guest), and Nellie (guest of Pat Cowett) from the organization, “Framed with Hope.”
Karen Green announced the four venues for Vocational Services Day on Wednesday, May 7:
Old Town Trolley
Chapman Collection
Downtown YMCA
Coronado Police Station
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Spring Fundraiser – May 10 at The New Children’s Museum. Silent Auction – Melissa Blackburn gave a preview of some of the exciting items and thanked all the members for their contributions. Bobbi needs a headcount. We don’t want to pay the caterer for people who won’t be attending.
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Daniel, Ambassadorial Scholar from Brazil, spoke about his experiences at the RYLA weekend.
Jeff Christie and Joe Marshall came up for the induction of Carleton Woodring. What a microphone voice Carleton has! He is a local haberdasher with Tom James Company in Kearny Mesa. Carleton goes by the nickname Terry and has been in San Diego for five years. He is married to Jennifer Woodring and has a son and a daughter. His family in Pennsylvania is involved in Rotary. Carleton donated a $500 gift certificate for the Spring Fundraiser. Thank you Carleton and we look forward to getting to know you.
Maureen introduced Karami Zaki, Vice President of Hiltons Worldwide, to tell us about the San Diego Bayfront Hilton opening in the Fall of 2008. It is a beautiful hotel next to the Convention Center to attract citywide conventions. The outside is done and the inside is being worked on. San Diego National Bank is the lender and it is a $350M effort. The architect is out of Atlanta and the hotel is a clean and modern looking futuristic structure. There are 1,190 guestrooms (70% have two queen size beds, the rest are one king size bed), 100,000 square feet of open space, 165,000 in total, 65,000 square feet of park space, 24,000 and 34,000 square feet ballrooms. The rooms have all the amenities including high speed wireless internet service and 37” flat panel TVs. Fox Sports Grill has leased space from the hotel. The lobby bar and three-meal restaurant have amazing views. A pedestrian bridge will be from the front door to Petco Park and the Gaslamp area. Karami provided statistics on meeting space, Spa, Pool, Starbucks, Food and Beverage outlets, the Lobby is on the Second Floor. There is a sheer mesh netting on the rooftop of the hotel with five colors. It is GPS driven and will be on from dusk to dawn to illuminate the building. The hotel features a porte cochere entrance. It is estimated this property will infuse 1,000 jobs into the San Diego economy. Grant money has been set aside to reach out to community groups, one being “At Risk Youth” and veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan.
The property will definitely be open in December of 2008, maybe sooner. The project is ahead of schedule and under budget. There is a record amount of business already on the books -- $130M through 2013. Price range for the hotel rooms will be $149/night to $750/night. The Revenue Management System is very sophisticated. A question was asked about docking facilities. This will not be part of the Hilton. Hilton leases the land from the port and the revenue share structure is very complicated.
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