• John B - Amy Carlin’s membership
  • Amy's membership was brought forth to the board and unanimously approved. An email was sent, and if there are no objections, Amy will be inducted at a future meeting with Maureen as her sponsor.
• John B - Water to Lindale Park
  • Thank you to Spence, Liz M, Geoff, Rebecca, and John Z to help delivering water to Lindale Park that was impacted by the floods 
• John B- Social at American Flatbread on August 23rd from 5-7 p.m.
• Geoff - HOPE Project (August 17th) 
  • Geoff is still looking for 2-3 volunteers to help with the next HOPE distribution from 12-4 p.m.
• John Metcalf - San Jose Monteverde Ambulance Project Update 
  • John has worked with a local Rotary Club in Mexico to partner on this project, and he is just looking for a few volunteers here to help move this forward and figure out details. This ambulance project would help serve 4 different villages. There is also a possibility of working with the Red Cross that has also provided Ambulances in other areas. There was a discussion of maybe partnering with another local Rotary Club to help. This group would help make a plan for obtaining the ambulance, training, support for 24/7 Volunteer EMS services in Mexico and then applying to an RI Grant. Please contact John at metcalfe@myfairpoint.net
• John B on behalf of Liz Marino - Student Exchange Program
  • It looks like Sem will have his VISA and will be arriving in August - stay tuned! 

John B thanked Alex Wolff for stepping in last minute to talk about sports as Karl was out with Covid. Alex started off by acknowledging baseball is not his domain, but he can talk about College Sports. Alex talked about the realignment and hunger for TV dollars. This is absorbing teams from Pac 12 → Big 10, Big 12, etc 

This is causing potential unintended consequences where students will have to travel across the country during the weeknights and try to keep up with academics. Football teams will have 1 game a week on the weekends and soccer sometimes have 2-3 during the week, and that is hard on students! Yet, student athletes are not allowed to be paid, but because of a new court case - student athletes are able to sell their rights and make money. In some cases, videos clips of the plays/highlights are immediately sent to player’s phones after a game to be used on social media so they can get paid. 

Everyone is trying to get money from these college sports - C-Suite Executives | Players | Transfer Portal. Students can transfer as they please and coaches really need to manage their rosters. This is all dependent on which campus can offer the best NIL deal. 

Another topic Alex touched upon was the NCAA. During the past 10-12 years, the NCAA has stepped into a new ERA and have hired a Chief Medical Officer. Coaches are more aware of physical issues, but also mental health. It is no longer the era of coaching “my way or the highway” as student athletes are no longer responding to that method. Research is also showing that “abusive coaching” negatively impacts the peripheral vision and can be harmful. 

Alex mentioned the US Women’s Soccer Team and how they have played well throughout the past weeks, but lost and are out of the World Cup. Alex indicated that this could have been predicted as the US set the bar high, and during the previous games they either tied or lost. The US helped shape soccer across the world and now there are so many great programs in other countries. This may be a pivotal moment for the US to step up their game. 

Thank you, Alex for stepping in! If you want to talk sports - talk to Alex!