Always a pleasure to have our lovely President, Kelly Ricker, open our rotary meeting as she did today. Albeit, in person or virtual. Today it was virtual and we all look forward to it being in person again soon.
Many of our club Rotarians attended today and amazing how “virtually proficient” we’ve all become. Never too old to learn something new! We enjoyed attendance by one guest who was our speaker today. More to follow on him.
Our Moment in History presented by the dazzling Roger Ridley included historical events that occurred on this day from 1626 through 2001. Here are some interesting examples:
1626: Peter Minuit, a Dutchman, purchases Manhattan island
1837: John Deere invents the steel plow
1889: World’s Fair in Paris, France featuring the Eiffel Tower
1937: The Hindenburg disaster occurs
1940: John Steinbeck earns the Pulitzer Prize for The Grapes of Wrath
1941: Bob Hope performs the first USO show in Riverside, CA at March Field
2001: Pope John Paul II visits Syria and is the first pope to enter a mosque
Ed Harris, who is always enthusiastic about Rotary, presented our Rotary Minute. He attended virtually the Rotary Covid-19 Response Telethon this past Saturday sharing that is was most inspirational and uplifting. Ed said, it connected the world and we received comments from all over. If you didn’t have a chance to attend, Ed highly recommends you watch it on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Ts_awDr7kc
Next Ed spoke about an honorary Rotarian, Mother Teresa. She was the speaker at the 1981 Rotary Convention in Brazil. He shared many of her peaceful and meaningful comments made during her speech. Great Rotary stuff, Ed!
Our speaker today was Scott Phillips. Scott has been a member of the Goleta Noontime Rotary Club since 2013. He is also involved in our Rotary District 5240 with the current title of District Administrator. He is in line to take on the responsibilities of District Governor in 2022-23. Scott is also the CEO of Synergy Computing, Inc. which is an IT support and security company.
He presented on the topic of cyber security informing us of the high frequency of computer fraud taking place daily. It was kinda scary. At the same time, he provided numerous suggestions to protect oneself from becoming a victim of cybercrime. Some really useful tips on something seemingly as simple as passwords. Some of his useful tips, and other information on his company, can be found at his website: https://www.synergyinc.net/rotary-cybersecurity-resources/
Thank you Scott for your time and valuable information!