President Mitchell read a letter from Maddie Wilson thanking the Club for providing financial assistance so she could go with classmates from Stanley School on the annual trip to the East Coast including Washington D.C. and Colonial Williamsburg.

Rich Shearer, Lamorinda Rotary, spoke at length about his Clubs fundraiser, “Motorama” day, to be held June 20th from 9am to 4pm at the Clock Tower and Bank of the West parking lots. Prized vehicles will be shown and there will be vendors. He asked Rotarians in our club to promote their business through sponsorships, etc. More information at info@motorama.us.

Rich Shearer also challenged our Club (he threw his suit coat on the floor as if it were a knights metal glove of the old days) to be involved in the Rotary Bocce Ball tournament on June 5th at the Martinez Water Front Park. He said there will be lots of wine! More information to follow.

Bob Aguilar told us that the Tudal Winery wine tasting event on April 24th was very successful with good food, wine, and fellowship amongst those attending.

Jay Lifson encouraged us to attend “The Sun Kings” show on Saturday, May 22 at 8:30 pm at Town Hall Theatre. It is a benefit with tickets available at the Chamber Office at: $50 General Admission and $75 Gold Circle.

Mike Heller mentioned that he had attended the family memorial for Dale Turner in Hayward and there were lots of good memories shared about her. He said there will be a local memorial for her in mid-May. Information to follow when known.

John Sherry announced that at a recent meeting with her doctor, his wife, Artie, was found to be completely free of cancer. John donated $100 to the Rotary Foundation because of this!
She had had cancer surgery 10 years ago.

Permanent Stage – John Sherry reported on the EBMUD meeting he and other Permanent Stage committee members attended on Tuesday, April 20th. He said the proposal to build a permanent stage has tentatively been approved, but that we should wait until a formal letter is received from EBMUD before we advertise that fact. Larry Blodgett, who did the final architecture and model, said that Dale Turner had also been involved on the project.

Membership Committee – Club Membership Committee chair, Geoff Zimmerman, said that the committee has been meeting since July and recently completed a membership recruiting pamphlet. The Committee is also planning a wine & cheese new members recruitment event at the Wine Thieves in Lafayette. More information to follow. He said that Steve Snyder is no longer a member and that Tracy Vicario will be leaving the Club soon as her husband is changing jobs and they are moving to Portland, Oregon.

Erin McCoin inducted - having completed all the processes for membership, he was issued a red badge and other membership materials. John Sherry was given a sponsors pin for bringing him into the Club.

Speaker:
Jay Lifson introduced Dave Simpson – Lafayette Bookstore owner.

Dave talked about the history of the Lafayette Bookstore and his occupations before he opened the store. He had been a youth adventure instructor and camp director; an elementary school teacher; a PR consultant in Yuba City; and a radio DJ and program director of a station in Sacramento. He is very involved with the Lafayette Chamber and as a coach of a high school lacrosse team.

He has been involved in bookselling for over 30 years from the times when if you needed a book, you had to go to a bookstore in town. Then with the advent of businesses such as B Dalton and Barnes and Noble, a lot of community book stores went out of business and those that remained struggled to stay open. Dave said he changed his business plan to stay competitive. Then along came Amazon and other on-line sources of books, including being able to download books or buy cassettes, and he had to modify his business plan again. Other mass marketers of books have impacted small book selling businesses such as Target, Costco, Best Buy and the like. He said that he has kept the store competitive by holding author events, supporting local schools, libraries and non-profits.

He told us he has been very involved in the Lafayette Chamber of Commerce “Shop Lafayette” campaign and came-up with the idea to go to a new phase “Try Lafayette First”, asking people to sign a pledge to try Lafayette businesses first when buying goods and services. Materials from that campaign were passed out to our Club members and the merchants discounts were described.

Raffle Winners:
Bud Moulthrop - $2
Bob Shusta – gold marble for $105