|
Past President Bill Powell introduced our expert panelist: Antonio Morales, who covers USC Football for the New York Times, Vince Evans, a former professional American football quarterback who was selected by the Chicago Bears in the sixth round of the 1977 NFL Draft. He also quarterbacked for the Los Angeles Raiders.
Evans played college football at the University of Southern California and was the MVP of the
1977 Rose Bowl after the Trojans 14–6 victory over Michigan. Bob Klein was moderator for
our panel and our final panelist was Josh Rebhotz, Senior Associate Athletic Director for External Relations at UCLA.
Several points of interest discussed included:
UCLA revenue for the football program as it stands is 35 million dollars, but with a switch to the Big 10 revenue would increase to between 75 and 85 million dollars.
USC would increase its revenue by playing games in the Eastern Time Zone. Playing in the Eastern Time Zone gives both teams greater exposure.
Antonio says, like it or not, the transfer portal has changed college football. Whether players want a new opportunity because of a coaching change, or a chance to play sooner, the portal is a major part of roster building in the modern age. And with that freedom comes a lot of interest in elite players looking to capitalize on their eligibility before turning pro. Josh says the transfer portal is good for the young players who don’t want to deal with the issues of transfer. There are 25 transfers on the USC
Squad Portal now and UCLA has 23.
Vince pointed out the difference in what players received in his college experience and the door that’s opening for the level of compensation for college athletes now.
The impact of compensating college players at age 17 sums of money as large as eight million dollars could create larger problems.
The question-and-answer portion of our meeting gave everyone an opportunity to ask specific questions which commanded the audience participation even more. When asked about the impact of the COVID Pandemic on college athletes we were told that this introduced more online education. Now that the Universities are open to more travel the student athletes have more choices to enroll in online classes and that is good for travel students.
Immediate Past President Bill Powell, thanks for introducing our visiting Rotarians and Guests of Rotarians. It was nice to have Tom Johnstone, our District 5280 Assistant Governor at the meeting among other visitors. Bill, special thanks for introducing our Panelist on the program. Bob Klein, thanks for being the president’s pick and Moderator of our program. Rev. Captain James Fleming, thanks forthat creative invocation. Past President Tom Larmore and President Elect Ken Waltzer thanks for the patriotic song, the pledge, and the Fight Songs with the music. Greeters’ thanks for your gracious service. Cheer Squad – David Rosenfeld, Pam Brady and Rose Mary Regalbuto, you engaged everyone, thanks! Stan Fox, Carol Powell, V.P. Pam Brady, and Rose Mary Regalbuto you all had the back table humming, thanks. Donna Byrd thanks for providing the USC/UCLA decorations and the tailgate treats. Kathy Shepard thanks for connecting us with David for the tailgate grub.
BIG FINE
Felix Crown admitted his nephew, Isiah Collier, is a high school basketball player in Georgia, who happens to be the No. 1 prospect in the country. Flex was the young Collier’s consultant when he visited Los Angeles. Several major Universities (UCLA, Michigan, and Cincinnati) were saddened to hear that Isiah made his decision to join USC on Wednesday and that immediately propelled USC into the
top ten in basketball recruiting for the 2023 Class. While Felix was FINED $250.00 by President Joe, a couple of Past Presidents, Bill Powell and Tom Loo, along with other USC Alumni Greg Hargrave, Carol Powell, Donna Byrd, Bob Klein,Paul Leoni and Dick Lawrence quickly stood up to pay his fine.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Our rivalry tailgate party produced Big Winners (not just in the game) but at The Soul of Rotary Concert, the Foundation District raffle on Sunday evening: Michael Cates, won First Prize of $7500.00, George Collins, won Second Prize $5,000.00 and Tom Johnstone, our Assistant District Governor, who attended our Rivalry Tailgate lunch won the Third Prize, $2,500.00.Congratulations to the Big Winners!
Thanks, and Congratulations Lan Nguyen. Her donation, through our club, to the live auction at The Soul of Rotary was a trip to Vietnam. The InterContinental Danang Sun Peninsula Resort on the Son Tra` Peninsula of Da Nang, which is also known as Monkey Mountain. This vacation sold for $3250.00 while it had a value of $8,000.00.
ROTARY ELECTIONS
Our Club Leadership Elections are coming up! This year’s elections will be held at our LIVE AT
HILTON meeting on December 16th . We are making a change this year in how some of the positions are filled. Many Rotary clubs don’t have “contested” elections. Instead, there is a slate of candidates and the members vote to approve or disapprove the entire slate.
In the past we had two candidates for each open position. This year we are trying a hybrid approach. Some positions will have two candidates, some will only have one candidate. For example, we have five director positions to fill, and your vote will be to approve the entire slate of five directors or not to approve the slate. Since two of these directors will be two-year positions, you will then vote for two of the five directors you want to have filling the two-year positions.
This hybrid approach is a test for this year, and we will evaluate how it goes. There will be absentee ballots available one week before the election if you can’t attend. These must be received by 5pm on December 5th. IF YOU NEED AN ABSENTEE BALLOT, REQUEST ONE FROM BILL POWELL at [email protected].
The ballot was announced at our November 18 th meeting and here are the candidates:
Vice-President: Mike Kallhoff, Kera Snell, Daniel Bennett, Kathy Shepard
Secretary: Felix Crown, Kathryn Markolf
Treasurer: George Pickell
Directors: Bill Rayman, Karin Wallerstein, Kinan Aljamal, Richard Lombari, Brian Linnenkens
Our President-Elect who will take charge July 1, 2023, is of course Ken Waltzer. And our new
President-Elect??? – MONIKA WHITE!!! Congratulations to Monika and let’s all give her, Ken,
and the incoming board all our support. |
