March 14, 2001

 

This week's Bulletin was written by Tom Sayer.

 

THIS WEEK'S MEETING

Colette opened the meeting with yours truly leading the pledge followed by a Tana Cleaves recitation of Paul Harvey’s, “For My Grandchildren I’d like Better.”  Linda Jalving led us in something that even we can sing - “God Bless America.”  Gary Green introduced guests and visiting Rotarians and then auctioned off tickets to the first round of March Madness for over $200!  He then pre-empted our Sgt.. with impromptu bragging bucks for his 71 stroke round of golf which included his 10th lifetime hole-in-one!  Gee, Gary, isn’t that more than your fair share!?!

Announcements

Melissa Blackburn was burning with excitement from the PETS conference this past weekend.  The highlights are:

Ø      In-coming Rotary International President Rick King has chosen “Mankind Is Our Business” as the theme for his presidency.

Ø      Rotary personalized license plates are available with all proceeds benefiting Rotary.  They cost an additional $50 above the normal registration fee.

Ø      One of the goals for the up-coming year will be to add one new member per month to our Club.

Ø      Please complete the member survey that was handed out at the meeting to better help our leadership serve its members.

Chair of the Day – Jennifer Cusick

Jennifer wants us all to know that she wasn’t actually born in Blythe.  But she was forced to live there when her parents moved!  She now is an attorney with Gaglione, Coleman and Greene specializing in real estate law, business transactions and civil litigation.  She received her undergraduate degree from UCSD in Urban Planning and her law degree from California Western School of Law in San Diego.  She has a sister and a brother, each with two kids and Jennifer loves to be the Auntie.  Her father is well known to us all as PDG Wayne Cusick.  Interestingly, Jennifer was a participant in a RYLA camp during high school and has gone on a Rotary Group Study Exchange (which involved very little studying!)  As our youngest member, she reminded us to update our stats as she will be turning 30 in two weeks and we will no longer be able to claim members in their 20’s!

Vocational Services Day

Vocational Services Day will feature VIP tours at the following professional locations hosted by fellow Rotarians:

Ø      San Diego Police Department (Western Division)

Ø      Morgan Stanley Dean Witter (Investment Office Downtown)

Ø      Marine Corps. Recruit Depot

Ø      San Diego Zoo

Ø      Federal Aviation Administration (pending confirmation)

The date is Wednesday, April 11, and will replace that week’s meeting.  Please RSVP your choice with John Bruhn now by e-mailing (jcbruhn@aol.com) or by phoning (619-224-4082).  All sites are limited … available on a first-come, first-serve basis.  One of them has to close out in two weeks.

Sergeant at Arms

Jim Mulvaney received a Murphy Fashion Citation for his tie.  Margaret Oppliger paid bragging bucks for her ski trips.  Alan Talbott paid tribute to David Archambault for getting him tickets to the Stanford March Madness basketball game in San Diego.  And I couldn’t help thanking Leah Swearingen for introducing me at last week’s meeting to San Diego’s newest hotel owner who is now a new client.

THIS WEEK’s Speaker

Ron Carroll is the Executive Director of Boy Scouts of America.  Colette and he served together on a previous board and she knew he had to speak to our club at some point in time.  Ron reminded us that the youth of our county is its greatest resource.  Every child is a miracle containing the seeds of heroism – we, as adults, must nurture the seeds.  The purpose of BSA is to make kids grow up to be people like us in Rotary.  Character education is the goal.  There are 1223 scouting units in America with 57,000 youth members.  BSA does not “own” or “operate” any of these units.  Rather, they are operated by churches, service clubs (Rotary is second only to Lions) and other similar organizations.  BSA provides the leadership training, camping facilities and basic structure.  Among the programs offered are the following:

Ø      Tiger Cubs – 1st Grade Boys

Ø      Cub Scouts – 2nd-5th Grade Boys

Ø      Boy Scouts – 6th-12th Grade Boys

Ø      Explorer Scouts – Co-Ed Teenagers

Ø      Venturing – Co-Ed High Adventure

Ø      Learning For Life – All children with no restrictions focused on kids who would not qualify for other programs

As far as how a Club like ours can help, Ron suggested we could sponsor a troop, sponsor a learning for life group, send a kid to camp who might not otherwise be able to afford to go, or charter an explorer post (or encourage someone else to do so).

As far as the recent controversy, Ron summarized the issues as the three “G’s” – God, girls and gays.  BSA believes that kids should believe in God – it leaves the precise definition up to the individual.  BSA is frequently sued by parents who would like their daughter to participate in a boys-only program.  BSA believes there is a place for gender segregated youth programs (incidentally, the Girls Scouts have never been sued by a boy wanting to join and the Girl Scouts have strongly rebuffed the mere thought of merging the two organizations).  And since 72% of the adult parents of kids participating in BSA programs support the position that openly gay adults should not be allowed to be scout leaders, BSA feels this policy should be followed.

We should all be relieved that our children will not have to catch a run-away horse in order to become a tenderfoot!  Some things do change.  But the basic principles of scouting will always remain.  Ron illustrated this point with a parable of the kid and the map of the world.  When his son asked him to play catch, the dad said, when you can fix the problems of the world, I will have time to play.”  He then tore up the map of the world in the newspaper and told his son to put the world back together again.  There happened to be a picture of a child on the reverse side of the page and the son used this picture to assemble the page.  The moral of the story is, “Put the child together correctly and the world will take care of itself.”

To learn more about scouting, try their website at http://www.bsa.scouting.org/.

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