The meeting was called to order by the UCLA Rotaract President Catlin Morgan after she was introduced by Dwight Hikkila, WVRC Youth Services Chair. Community Service Chairperson Sarah Ordaz led the attendees in the Pledge of Allegiance and then called on Homer Newman to recite the Rotary 4 Way Test. Dr. Colby Smith gave the invocation/inspirational moment. Catlin got everyone standing up and practicing the famous UCLA cheer. Steve Day Paul Harris Foundation Chair urged Rotarians to send payments for their $100 book of tickets to benefit the Rotary Foundation’s Humanitarian and Educational Programs Please make your checks payable to Rotary District 5280  In addition Steve urged everyone to sign up for the House of Blue’s House of Rotary Mardi Gras event on Sunday November 7 from 2 to 6 PM, which will feature great jazz, food and drink as well as silent auction and live auction items. He also recognized Marie Rolfs for her contribution of a silent auction item and asked for others to also contribute them.

President Catlin then told us a little more about herself including the fact that she was a 3rd year Microbiology, Immunology and Molecular Genetics Major and an undergraduate researcher of brain activity of children with Autism and other neurological disorders. This is her 3rd year in Rotaract, which she joined as a Freshman and last year served as Vice President, and she was sponsored by the La Jolla Rotary to attend RILA  as a junior in High School which prompted her to join Rotaract when she came to UCLA. She was a swimmer in High School and does barrel racing in the rodeo.

Last year Rotaract started with 9 officers, and by the end of the year they had 50 members. This year they signed up 120 interested students at Freshman Orientation to receive their e-mails to learn more and hopefully join Rotaract. Some last year projects included  Project Chicken Soup for aids,  a lot with the Salvation Army, UCLA Cancer Fund and  8 members danced for 26 hours for pediatric aids treatment and raised $1500, they weren't allowed to sit down, did polio funraisers for $633, and sent 4 members to Equador and beach cleanups, reading to kids and a campus tour of Rotaractors from Brazil. The members also appreciate our members coming and talking to their club. They won 3 different awards including International Service and Club of the Year from district 5280. She also presented their budget on behalf of their Treasurer Kevin Khuu, originally of San Jose, a major in Economics, a member of Rotaract since he was a freshman and he plays tennis, runs 14 miles a week and tutors elementary school kids. He hopes to support all members with their Rotaract Activities. He broke the budget down into Activities, and operational costs for a total $3616.00   and  the money is generated by dues, TV taping Coin drives and WVRC sponsorship of $1500. Their dues this year will be $5 per member per quarter.

Next Jasdeep Gill their fundraising chair spoke next. He is a 3rd yr Environmental Science major and is originally from Salt Lake City UT. He was president of the Skyline HS. Key club their rival club on UCLA ‘s Campus, but when he went to their meeting there were over 200 members and they were not interested in individual members, so he tried Rotaract which at the time had only 11 members and liked the “family” feeling better. 5 major ways he will raise money is membership dues, polio drive collecting change on UCLA Campus, small coin collecting in Westwood Village and Santa Monica, Committee Approach to Fund raising and TV Tapings.

Next we heard from Community Service chair Sarah Ordaz 3rd yr Political Science major from Colton CA. She first became involved with Rotary when she attended RILA and after that she started an Interact Club at her High School. This her second year in Rotaract and she also is in 2 other Community Service Clubs at UCLA. She has 4 major goals for the community service committee. She wants to focus on Leadership Development among the committee members, so they can do community service in the future so their community service doesn’t end with Rotaract, collaborate with other community service orgs on campus, which they did with the Red Cross last year. Her 3rd goal is to do 3 community service projects per quarter, such as working with the Salvation Army, and 4th goal to collaborate with Rotary’s community Service Projects.

We want to thank the student members of Rotaract for agreeing to run our meeting on their first official day of classes at UCLA. They were truly inspirational.