Prez Gary opened the meeting with the Pledge of Allegiance.

 

Today’s Guest was introduced: Maya Niemeyer.

 

Thought for the Day: Prepare for some bad weather, because it’s coming!

 

Today’s Program:

Jim Gay opened with a story —

 

Fear stands for false evidence appearing real. Fear is not real, though it holds us back; faith is more powerful than fear. Jim shared a video on the topic.

 

Jim shared a theory that we’re not as confident in making our own decisions today as in past generations, in part due to information overload from places like Facebook. He also shared a story of a furniture designer who doesn’t need to go to trade shows anymore, because she hired a guy to do her Facebook page, and she can barely keep up with the business coming in through the site. Facebook, and other venues on the internet, have changed the way we do business.

 

Jim started in the furniture business many years ago (though he retired about 8 years ago) after a start in selling hand crafted jewelry. He doubts that a business could start today like he did it in the past… things are very different.

 

Transparency is very important, and social media helps with that. Facebook, Twitter, YouTube… Jim shared a video he made of his vacation rental house in Todos Santos called Baja Promises.

 

Jim’s guest Maya is an expert on Facebook and owns a media company, California Poppy Productions, where she is also making a feature film. For the past 2 years Maya has been working with clients to showcase their concepts and share them around the world. A big part of this is to identify a target audience, key words and hashtags.

 

Maya shared that statistically, you have 5 seconds to interest viewers in a video. There are 1.7 Billion users on Facebook now, each spending an average of 55 minutes/day on the platform.

 

Maya spends time with clients refining their concepts and shaping them into clear, quick, visually compelling messaging, and she also manages clients’ social media sites.

 

Maya went to Los Angeles film school, and is completing a bachelor’s degree in film making…

 

Announcements

Casino Night is Feb. 25 — bring prizes to Gary, Jimmy or Pete. Let’s not wait until the last minute!

 

Matt noted that Rotary is sometimes a thankless job, and to keep people from burning out, everyone needs to pull their weight and show appreciation to each other.

 

Dean is bringing a speaker next week who is an expert in dog behavior and training. Two dogs will be here and the demonstration will be very fun!! They’ll talk about how to make training fun for both you and your dog.

 

Week after next John P will hold a Community Service committee meeting just after the regular Rotary meeting.

 

Charter Night will be Friday, Jan 27 here at the Hill House — it’s our 50th Anniversary, so it’s a big deal, be here! Charter Night is a public event. Matt suggested that we use this as an event to recruit new members, and we put a banner up until they tell us to take it down! Donna would like us to have 50-75 people attend so we can have a band. Cost will be $40/person.

 

Our next Board meeting will be Monday, Jan. 9, at noon at the Mendocino Hotel. Among other items, we’ll talk about getting permission from our Mendocino Rotary Foundation to use their banking info to put a Donate button (a la PayPal account) on our Rotary website.

 

Happy Dollars:

  • Donna is happy to report that she and her husband went to Mexico, north of Puerto Vallarta. They had a great time!! Lots of sun and salt water….
  • Gary is happy because so far no trees have fallen to block his driveway.
  • Matt is happy that Rotary Park got mowed yesterday! Also is happy for Donna’s effort in putting a wonderful 50th anniversary article in the Real Estate Magazine.
  • Joe shared happy dollars as well.
  • Dean is happy about his recent Christmas trip up to Redding with family.

 

Other announcements:

  • Kira has taken a leave of absence

 

Sunshine Report

John P. Is feeling better and is here!

 

Today’s Raffle Winner: Jim Gay, who did not draw the lucky nut…