SEPTEMBER 21, 2020 PROGRAM: Former General Motors Chair and CEO George Richard Waggoner till be our speaker. He resigned from GM in 2009 and is currently a director of Chargepoint, a company, whose focus is an electric vehicle infrastructure.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Coleman Services “Stay at Home” fundraiser: Kathy Myers reminded us that Coleman Services is staging its annual fundraiser, normally called “Right at Home” virtually so people during the pandemic can stay at home and participate. The auction opens Thursday, September 17, with items people can bid on. For $50, one can buy a raffle ticket for a Ben Bassham landscape. For $25 or 5 tickets for $100 one can buy a raffle ticket for a wall of fine wine. The bidding opens at 8 a.m. The event concludes Thursday evening, September 24, at 7 p.m. with a one-hour recognition of supporters and participants.
United Way of Portage Count Kick-off: Bill Childersreminded Rotarians that the United Way kicks off its 2020-2021 campaign with a party at Midway Drive-In September 24 at 7 pm at the Midway Drive-In where for $10 per car, one gets free snacks prepared by the New Center at NEOMED, sees a video about the United Way in Portage County, views an impressive fireworks show and can watch either “Major League” or “Goonies” on one of two big screens. Social distancing will be in force with cars parked one space apart. Bill encouraged Rotarians to participate in the fun.
Invocations: Roberta O’Keefe appealed to Rotarians to volunteer to offer an invocation at our weekly meetings. Contact Roberta who needs our help. Tel: 330-235-3958.
Board Meeting: President Randy said a board meeting was scheduled for Thursday, September 16 via Zoom.
PROGRAM: TV EXEC FRANK: FLORIDA, PENNSYLVANIA WINS MUST FOR TRUMP
Introduced by David Myers, who arranged the program, Martin Frank, retired executive vice president of CBS said that victories in both Florida and Pennsylvania are essential for Donald Trump to win re-election to the presidency. The Electoral College numbers show that, he said adding he worries that a close count in Florida could bring a repeat of the 2000 vote count that saw George W. Bush edge out then Vice President Al Gore for the presidency. Gore won the popular vote and in Florida his victory of slightly more than 500 required a recount that the U.S. Supreme Court stopped as it progressed. The same thing could happen in Trump versus Biden, Frank warned. A graduate of Western Reserve Academy in Hudson, Frank, who in addition to a successful career at CBS, was prominent in Democratic politics for years after graduating from Princeton, said that his hometown of Long Beach, Indiana is also where Chief Justice John Roberts grew up. Roberts, he said, would preside over the Supreme Court that would ferret out any challenges following the election of which many are feared. After Princeton, Frank helped run the campaign in 1974 in which Patrick Leahy became Vermont’s first Democratic senator. He helped run the presidential campaign of Jimmy Carter and said that Carter was a better ex-president than president, but that he was thrilled in 2002 when he learned Carter had won the Nobel Peace Prize. Frank worked for a period for Tony Coelho, who as House majority whip, played a major role in gaining congressional approval of the Americans for Disabilities Act, signed into law by George H.W. Bush in 1990. Hired by the Tisch brothers after they purchased CBS in 1986, Frank worked his way up to an executive vice president position. Representing CBS he helped lobby Congress to reverse a law pushed by Nixon out to punish the networks for Watergate reporting that denied the networks ownership of the programs they originated. The rights to those programs are worth billions he said. He mentioned the difficulty in the production of the Super Bowl half-tie show with Janet Jackson. He said the advent of streaming, Fox, and the Internet have shortened the news cycle to minutes and that the result is too much information is overtaking the American people. He said a major problem for whoever leads the American government after the election, will be to bring people together. Tom Myers provided the response.
GUESTS: David and Margaret Hunter, guests of Tom Myers, Brit and Skip Flanagan, guests of Dave Myers. The Hunters are Western Reserve alumni. The Flanagans were the head master and director of admissions for Western Reserve Academy when Dave Myers was a student there.
HISTORY MOMENT: Jim Myers told how in a meeting in 1928 of our club, it was so difficult for Rotarians to say the first names of club members that President Dick Richards suggested members be known by their first names.
