Spindrift January 7, 2021
President George Lesley says…
Hi All—Welcome to 2021! A lot of unpleasantness occurred in 2020, including the loss of three long-time and much-loved members Charlie Anderson, Ron Barnett, and Tom Naughton. May they be long remembered! On the happy side, we welcomed new members Roger Summers, Fran Murphy, and most recently Diane Daruty.
As you may know, the Exchange Club of Newport Harbor was founded in 1926, went dark during WWII, and was reformed in 1956. So, 2021 will be our 64th year since the restart. During 2020 we donated more funds to charities (both worthy and needy) than any year in our history. Hopefully, we can match or exceed that in 2021. We have an excellent Board that carefully considers all donation requests and member recommendations before a check is written.
I want to thank Richard Swinney and Steve Pool for making our many Zoom meetings possible during 2020. Hopefully, before too long we will return to combo outside patio dining and Zoom meetings. Speaking of Zoom, I urge you all to join us for our Zoom meeting on January 7th. We are honored to welcome our honorary member and longtime friend John Moorlach as our speaker. John served 5 years as a member of the California State Senate representing the 37th Senate District 9 (which includes us). He is a candidate for the Orange County Board of Supervisors … Vote in the March election!
See you all on January 7th!
President-Elect Mike Gertner says, “I’m looking forward to a good year this year when we are all meeting together for lunch.”
Past President Ken DuFour says, “ZOOM”!
We all thought that is what a car did…. until April 2020. Now in 2021, it is what we need to do to keep us together and aware of how our kids, grandkids, friends, and our Club are staying involved.
To ZOOM or ZOOMING: is the act of participating electronically with others in a replacement social gathering. It is also a technology that permits us to stay connected, to stay engaged to remain relevant. ECNH has resorted to ZOOM technology to reach out to our members, to keep you informed, and to bring a ‘normalcy’ to our Thursday Luncheon meetings. Yes, I agree, ZOOM lunches are not ‘normal’, they are not actual warm human contact with our ECNH friends. However, it is what we ’got’. So, let’s all try to become ZOOM competent and ‘participate’ in our Club’s activities.
Many of you have participated via ZOOM. Please continue to do so. A number of you have not ventured into this new experience even though you have the technology available. Well, I am inviting/encouraging/pleading with you to take the step and join us, via ZOOM, in trying to stay aware, active, and relevant. Steve P., Richard S., and Dr. Bob have provided the leadership into this technology. The Club has spent funds to improve our equipment to provide a better virtual experience.
Please! Please! to those of you, not ZOOMING get involved call any of these three to get started. It is not Rocket Science. It takes a few minutes to understand the steps to ZOOM. Steve, Richard, and Bob are available to you. Use them!
Join your ECNH friends as we attack 2021 to continue making our community better.
Treasurer and Spindrift Editor Bob Wood: Your invoices for Jan-Mar will be in the mail on Monday.
If you have never ZOOMED before, here are the steps: on your computer or your cell, go to www.zoom.com and select the option “Sign up, it’s free”. This should be all you need to do to be able to click on the link Richard will send. However, if you have no computer with a camera, or you have problems making it work, let me know what equipment you have, and you’ll get a call.
As your speaker on Zoom last week, my computer conspired to prevent me showing you the slides that I ultimately sent to all of you by email, proving that the Chicago Fire of 1871 was caused by a comet, as evidenced by thousands of death in upstate Michigan and Wisconsin, simultaneous with the 300 people killed in Chicago. Not Mrs. O’Leary’s cow.
Speaker this week is John Moorlach this week, a long-time friend from back in the days of Dick Freeman and before. John will be able to join us for a special Zoom meeting starting at noon on the 7th of January, and the link is Meeting ID: 901 913 6171
Passcode: 514054. John’s topic is “Reviewing last year in Sacramento and visualizing next year in Newport Beach.”
Zoom's start time is noon. If you have trouble getting on, Richard Swinney is the meeting host, but Steve Pool could probably help you get in. He’s at 949-641-0621. Let’s make a special effort to be ready for a Zoom meeting this week!