THE PROGRAM

January 21, 2014

NEXT MEETING January 28th, Noon Meeting Soda Center
Andy and Wendy Scheck spoke about Backyard Beekeeping at our meeting today

Program: Club Assembly

We are meeting in our normal room, ORINDA ROOM Greeter & Invocation Frank May

Colin Barnard introduced our speakers today, Andy and Wendy Scheck. Both Andy and Wendy have presented to the club before as publishers of the Lamorinda Weekly newspaper. Wendy is a Cal graduate from Southern California. Andy emigrated from Stuttgart, Germany to the Bay Area in 2004. The Schecks first got into Backyard Beekeeping in 2012 to assist in the pollination of their fruits and vegetables, to hopefully harvest some honey and to help in the quest to save the bee population. Andy stated that he first learned about beekeeping in Germany. He actually would pollinate his backyard fruit trees by hand before he got help from the bees. Wendy went on to describe (and model) the beekeepers outfit that she wears when interacting with the hives. Andy described how the queen will mate with drones both from within the hive or from other hives thus cross breeding the communities. The drones die instantly after mating. A hive starts with perhaps 3.5 thousand bees and may grow to 50 to 70 thousand bees. A beekeepers job involves checking on the bees by looking at the frames within the hive to see if the colony is working properly. One of the main problems within the hive is mite infestation. The mites destroy bee larva before they hatch. A second problem for bees are pesticides that can kill bees as well as the truly unwanted pests. Too many bees in a hive can cause swarming. Andy noted that if a swarm is detected, a call to a beekeeper will allow them to trap the bees and introduce them to a new home. Bees are very calm during a swarm and can be easily collected. Andy and Wendy ended the talk by auctioning off a jar of honey from their first 65 pound harvest. President Nora won the jar with a winning bid of $21.

~COMING UP~
Feb 3 Nite at the Races Planning Meeting at the Dochterman residence at 5:30 PM Feb. 4 No Meeting at Soda Center (attend tomorrow at Rossmoor. Feb. 5 Annual 5 Club Meeting at Rossmoor. **Feb 11 Brother Dominic The Winemaking History of St. Marys College *Indicates a regular Tuesday noon luncheon meeting **Indicates our monthly evening meeting at 6pm

~GUESTS~ Ken Courville District 5160 Governor elect for 2015-2016 and member of Dixon Rotary Club Mary Ann Courville wife of Ken Bill Eames Lafayette Rotary and winner of our Most Frequent Guest Award Ron Wake Member of Lafayette Rotary Andy Scheck Our speaker for today and member of Lafayette Rotary Wendy Scheck Wife of Andy and our co-speaker for today

The Rest of the Meeting

Our meeting began with an invocation and pledge lead by Al Simonsen.

THE ROTARY RENO TRIP 2014 As was announced last week, the annual Rotary Reno Trip will be held on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, Feb. 28 to March 2. Special features include: John Ascuagas Nugget Hotel; Vistadome Sightseeing Car; meals served on car both ways; Rotary Clubs Dinner on Saturday night; coupon book for buffets and casinos. The total fee is $375 per person for double and $445 for a single room. This promises to be more fun and enjoyable than any previous trip in recent years! Signup deadline is January 27. Here is the link to more information and a reservation form. http://www.directoryonline.com/Rotary/Accounts/5160/Event/77221432/ 2014%20Flyer%20-%202%20Pages.pdf Moraga Valley Kiwanis Crabfeed Feb 1 The Annual Kiwanis Crabfeed will be held on Saturday, Feb. 1st at St Marys College in the Soda Center. At last count there are two tickets left to fill our table. If we sell more than the two tickets we will try to make sure that everyone that wants to attend gets a place. We plan on attending a Kiwanis meeting in a few weeks to promote our Nite at the Races event. Call Frank on 376-8195 to reserve your place at our table. Let us know ASAP.

**FUN STUFF!** Confessions Al Simonsen returned from a cruise to Hawaii. Smooth sailing for Al and Marilyn on this two week cruise. Marilyn Simonsen celebrated a birthday recently Happy birthday Marilyn. Kevin Reneau confessed to a possible retirement housing investment in Palm Springs. More news on this later. Cliff Dochterman returned from a week-long trip to San Diego where he helped train 540 District Governors for their upcoming leadership years throughout Rotary International. No Happy Bucks this week I guess that 49ers loss hit everyone hard!!

Other Goings On..

Shelter Box Donation Nora reported that the club has received a thank you letter for the three Shelter Boxes bought with our recent $3000 donation. This donation included $1000 from Don Jenkins. Annual 5 Club Meeting The Annual 5 Club Meeting will be held at Rossmoor on February 5th. John Blount will be talking about The Wit and Wisdom of Dan Quail. This served beef, chicken or vegetarian luncheon costs $25 per person. Make your check out to our club and get your tickets from Nora. Reservations will be tracked by President Nora. She needs to know if you are coming by Jan. 31st. Lets have a strong showing at this annual event. Nite at the Races Planning for our major fundraiser, Nite at the Races, continues. The next committee meeting is Monday evening, Feb. 3rd at the Dochterman residence at 5:30 PM. Our next milestone is to round out the donations for our cocktail and live auctions. We need to get $300 per member in either personal or solicited auction items to meet our fundraising goal this year. Let us know what you are able to contribute! There will be some new twists to this event this year. Come be a part of this Rotary Adventure!!

Future 5160 District Governor Ken Courville talking to our speaker for today, Andy Scheck.

**CALENDAR OF FUTURE EVENTS***

MORAGA ROTARY BOARD OF DIRECTORS 2013-2014

President...........Nora Avelar President-Elect....Debbie Roessler Past President ....Frank May Secretary....Kevin Reneau Treasurer......Lad Lynch Community Service Chair...Barbara Bruner New Generations Chair.........Rich Render International Service Chair..Tony Schoemehl Membership....Frank & Debbie Public Relations..Gary Irwin Director at Large.....Cliff Dochterman Director at Large.........John Erickson

Feb. 5 Annual 5 Club Meeting at Rossmoor April 26 E-Waste Fundraiser Mar 15 A Nite at the Races Fundraiser May 10 Moraga Community Faire

~ PLACES TO MAKE UP ROTARY ~

MONDAY Danville @ Noon.......Faz, Danville TUESDAY Diablo View @ 5:30pm...Lift Lounge, Walnut Creek WEDNESDAY Orinda @ Noon......Orinda Country Club Berkeley @ Noon..His Lordships Restaurant Rossmoor @ Noon.Hillside Clubhouse, Rossmoor THURSDAY Pleasant Hill @ Noon......St. Andrews Presbyterian Church Lafayette @ Noon....Oakwood Health Center Oakland @ Noon......California Ballroom FRIDAY Lamorinda Sunrise @ 7am....Celias Mexican Restaurant Concord @ Noon.....Concord Hilton

Editors Comment
In order to make Nite at the Races a success this year we need participation by all of our members. We are a relatively small club and this is our largest fundraising opportunity. Get creative in soliciting or putting together items to be included in the auction (Remember we need about $300 per member to make this a successful auction!)!! Sign up to help out at the event itself. Put together a table of your family and friends to make our event a sellout this year. It is really a lot of fun to participate in our planning meetings and everyone is welcome!! Come and help us make this Nite at the Races our most successful event ever!!

THE 2013-14 ROTARY INTERNATIONAL THEME

ENGAGE ROTARY, CHANGE LIVES

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This months editorFrank May February editor... Gary Irwin