Rotary International Theme 2025-2026	THE ROWEL Rotary Club of Durham		Rotary International President: Francesco Arezzo Rotary District 5160 Governor: Joy Alaidarous Durham Rotary President: Tom Knowles _____________ Editor: Phil Price Publisher:  Jen Liu
	July 8, 2025	Harvest Festival  2025 will be held on September 21, 2025

The Meeting Opening We met at the Butte Creek Country Club. President Tom Knowles called his first meeting as President to order. Tom asked Eric Hoiland to led the pledge, which he did. Larry Bradley was absent so we had no song. He then asked past president Peggi to recite the Four-Way Test, which she did from memory. In place of an invocation President Tom quoted from Rosa Parks: “To bring about change you must not be afraid to take the first step.” Then he added that we needed to bring about change in our Club by bringing in new members.

Introduction of Visitors

We had two visitors:  Danny Rudd and Stewart Hoeger (our program for the night)

Recognitions

President Tom recognized Imogene for her 22^nd anniversary.  However she had already contributed $22 at the June 10^th meeting for her anniversary.

Other Matters

All of our belongings are now consolidated in storage unit #43.   Many thanks for Larry, Glenn and Diana's time and effort on Saturday morning, June 28^th, to make it happen.

The Program

The program was Stuart Hoetger talking about rice marketing and his experience in many parts of the world marketing rice, which got him involved with representing the State Depart in many meeting with heads of state in many parts of the world.

Stuart grew up in Southern California and after graduating from UC Davis in 2008 began working in Corporate Finance. He then transitioned quickly into the rice markets as an agricultural economist and market advisor.

Stuart consults for various trade and government organizations throughout the Western Hemisphere and routinely speaks on rice market conditions in both domestic and international rice events.   

Stuart is fluent in Spanish and spends much of his time abroad in Central and South America. He regularly speaks at rice events in Ecuador, Paraguay, Argentina, Mexico, throughout Central America, Singapore, and of course, the United States.

He talked about meeting with some far east leaders.  He talked about selling rice to Japan and the very high tariffs Japan imposes on California rice.  He noted that the difficulty in selling California rice in other parts of the world relate to production.  We grow rice in large acreages of land with mechanized equipment.  In Japan most rice is grown by hand on small home plots of lands.  They cannot compete with lower cost of producing California rice, hence the very high tariffs on imported California rice.  This is to protect the many small individual growers, who are voters in Japan. 

It was rather fascinating. 

Next Meeting

Our next meeting, on July 22^nd, will be at the Butte Creek Country Club.  No information on the program.

Membership

Bring guests who you think you can interest in becoming a member.  Your dinner and your guest’s dinner will be paid for by the Club.  Also, bring a guest to one of our occasional social gatherings.

President Tom is asking the members to bring in new members this year.

District 5160 Governor, Dan Geraldi is asking each club member to bring at least one guest to a meeting this year.

Go to the following Rotary International web site for information on membership development:  https://my.rotary.org/en/learning-reference/learn-topic/membership .  From this website there is access to membership development and other related information.

The Rotary Foundation Donations

You can make a difference in this world by helping people in need. Your gift can do some great things, from supplying filters that clean people’s drinking water to empowering local entrepreneurs to grow through business development training.

The Rotary Foundation will use your gift to fund the life-changing work of Rotary members who provide sustainable solutions to their communities’ most pressing needs. But we need help from people like you who will take action and give the gift of Rotary to make these projects possible.

When every Rotarian gives every year, no challenge is too great for us to make a difference. The minimum gift to The Rotary Foundation is $25.00.   An annual $100.00 gift is a sustaining member.  Once your donations accumulate to $1,000 you become a Paul Harris Fellow.

If you have any questions, ask Steve Heithecker.

It is possible to learn more about The Rotary Foundation on the Rotary web site. 

Your gift can be made online or by sending Jessica Thorpe a check made out to The Rotary Foundation to Durham Rotary, P.O. Box 383, Durham, California 95958.

Must Be Present to Win Drawing:

From Rotary International’s News and Features Website

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{Note that the following is not be the complete article.  See the complete article on Rotary International’s web page.}i

n RI’s new president talks about his top Rotary moments, his goals as president, and his love of olive oil and opera

By Etelka Lehoczky

Francesco Arezzo was sitting with a friend at his district conference when he received a call, asking him to leave the room and join a Zoom meeting with the Rotary International Board of directors. A few minutes later, Arezzo learned that he’d been chosen as RI president for 2025-26, the third Italian and the first from southern Italy to lead the global membership organization. Since the news hadn’t been officially announced, he couldn’t tell anyone. But soon, he noticed phones coming out all over the room.

RI President Francesco Arezzo is a member of the Rotary Club of Ragusa in Sicily.

“When the news arrived on social media at about 11 p.m., we were in the middle of the gala dinner,” he says. “You can imagine more than 400 Rotarians all finding out on their phones. It was quite an unforgettable moment. All of a sudden, they all lined up to kiss me and offer their congratulations. I was deeply touched.”

A week after the Board of Directors held a special session in June to select Arezzo to lead Rotary, he flew to Calgary, Canada, for the 2025 Rotary International Convention. There, he was warmly embraced by members from around the world. Thousands of attendees interrupted during his speech with ebullient applause at the closing session as he was officially introduced.

A member of the Rotary Club of Ragusa in Sicily, Arezzo has been part of Rotary for more than three decades. He has served as vice chair of the Joint Strategic Planning Committee, RI director, and chair of the 2023 International Convention Committee for Melbourne, among other leadership roles. Throughout his Rotary journey, Arezzo has supported initiatives that strengthen RI’s impact and expand opportunities for engagement across generations. He has served as president of Fondazione Rotary Italia, a national initiative that makes it easier for Italian citizens to support Rotary’s humanitarian projects around the world.

The following interview was conducted during multiple conversations with Arezzo in Calgary — in the hallway during breaks, inside a minibus en route to a Rotary event, and at a makeshift office inside the convention hall, where Rotary members frequently stopped by to greet and hug him. Despite his packed schedule, he set aside time to talk with Rotary magazine about his life, his Rotary journey, his plans for the organization, and two of his other passions: opera and olive oil.

RI President Francesco Arezzo and his wife, Anna Maria, attend the 2025 Rotary Convention in Calgary, Canada, in June.

Q: You’ve worked as an orthodontist for many years. Are there things about your job that make you an effective Rotarian?

A: I’ve been a practicing orthodontist for 46 years now. I work mainly with young people, and it’s very important to try to understand them before beginning treatment. You have to win their cooperation. Forging those relationships is one of the best aspects of my job.

Q: And you now have grandchildren of your own, right?

A: I have two wonderful grandchildren. The elder one, who’s three years old, has my name: Francesco. The younger is one year old, and she has my wife’s name. So we have another Anna Maria and another Francesco.

Q: You’ve been a Rotarian for more than three decades. Do you remember why you first wanted to join?

A: At the beginning, Rotary was just a place to meet new friends with different points of view. It wasn’t until I became club president that I began to really understand Rotary. Now, when I speak to Rotarians, I tell them to change the verbs they use. You don’t “go to” Rotary like you go to the cinema, where you sit and watch other people doing something. Rotary is something you do. You have to participate. And then you begin to grow.

Q: How have you grown in Rotary?

A: When my club first proposed that I become president, I didn’t want to accept. I had a stutter, so I was terrified of being obliged to address my club. But it wasn’t so bad. Then they invited me to be a district governor, and again, I didn’t want to accept. But once more, they convinced me. Now, when I think about the fact that I’m going to be the Rotary International president and speak onstage in another language, I understand how much Rotary has changed me in a positive and lasting way.

Q: How can Rotary convey a sense of this impact to members and potential members?

A: We have to improve our communications with club presidents, because they’re on the front lines of dealing with members. While we do a wonderful job of instructing district governors in the importance of membership and new clubs, the district governor often speaks with a club president only two or three times a year. There are too many club presidents who don’t have any idea why our membership goals are so important.

Q: What challenges do you anticipate you’ll face during your term as president?

A: I’m very conscious that I’m beginning very late. Even if I begin studying problems and setting goals now, I can’t do very much. Rotary isn’t a scooter that can change direction quickly. It’s like a big cruise ship: If you want to make a turn, you have to begin many kilometers in advance. I hope to work very closely with President-elect SangKoo Yun. I think SangKoo and I can create a two-year plan that will be really effective.

Q: What has been one of your most memorable moments in all your years in Rotary?

A: One moment that was very, very moving for me was when, as district governor, I organized a Rotary Youth Leadership Awards event for districts bordering the Mediterranean Sea: Italy, France, Spain, North Africa, Greece, Turkey. The problem was putting together Turkish and Italian young people, because they looked at one another as very different. The first day was tense; it was clear that they didn’t like each other. But after a few days, they began to discover that they had the same tastes and the same dreams.

When the last day came, they sang John Lennon’s “Imagine” together and performed a skit they’d written about the cultural differences between their countries. It was one of the most beautiful things I can remember.

Q: In your professional life, you’ve led trade organizations for dentists and for olive oil producers. What group is most difficult to unite in a consensus: Dentists, olive oil producers, or perhaps Rotary members?

A: From my experience, it’s the olive oil producers. Each producer of olive oil is strongly convinced that his olive oil is the best in the world. So they usually don’t want to cooperate sincerely with others.

Q: How long have you been producing olive oil?

A: My family has produced olive oil for more than a century now. I am the last, I fear, because my daughters are not interested in this field.

Q: I understand you love opera also. What’s your favorite opera or composer?

A: A composer I like a lot is Vincenzo Bellini. He was born in Sicily, and he died very, very young. He did only a few operas, but they are all of a very high quality. And of course, there are many other great composers — Puccini, Verdi, Mozart. It’s hard to pick one.

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