The club picnic at the Morettis' is next Tuesday, and it is the meeting of record
Tuesday, September 22, 2026
There is no noon meeting on Tuesday. The club picnic at the Morettis' takes its place and counts as the meeting of record, which means an absence for anyone who skips it.
Open Bar: Beer, Wine, Seltzer, Signature drink, sparkling water, water
Parking: Park in the orchard. Val's parking video is getting a second run this year — drive to the end of the first row, park on the right, and stop a foot short of the rope line. Watch for parking attendants who will help direct traffic.
UPCOMING FIXTURES
Tue, Sept 29 - Tim O'Connell, Rescue 42
Tue, Oct 6 - Llano Seco Ranch presentation
Tue, Oct 13 - Dr. Cynthia Daley, Center for Regenerative Agriculture & Resilient Systems
Tue, Oct 20 - Karin Lightfoot, World Polio Day
Tue, Oct 27 - Chico Housing Action Team presentation
Kevin Ahlswede, business services and payroll, gave the Black Eagles' report.
The team joined the Wallabies for burger night at the Elks. Kevin said the Black Eagles have been light on socials this year, though they have logged several scrums.
Ahead: the blood drive, Polio Plus, and the Wildcat Pantry food collection. Dan Andreasen is heading up the Veterans Memorial and has the project moving, with the goal of finishing it this year. Kevin said the team has two or three more projects going that he would rather keep under his hat for now. "We're keeping busy."
Emergency Fly-Half Charlie Kyle opened by asking whether anybody had figured out how to play rugby yet. Charlie explained President Beau was home with what Charlie diagnosed as some sort of Beau bug, “and it's just gonna happen the way it happens.”
Beau's rugby history minute. He tracked down a photograph from the 1900 Summer Olympics, where the German side beat France for the silver medal. He also noted those Summer Olympics were played in October and November. The United States took the gold, he said, in 1900 and again in 1904.
VISITING SIDES
Jessica Eagles, Rotary Club of Redding, returning
IN THE GRANDSTAND
Aaron Rodgers, CEO of Trinity Hospital (called the “OG” Aaron Rodgers), guest of Curtis Avrit
Misty Wright, guest of Scott Schumann
Michael Dominick, guest of Kevin Ahlswede
Undersheriff Matt Calkins, guest of the Club
FROM THE SIDELINE
Beau's Backyard BBQ - Next Week! Sept 22 at the Moretti's
No noon meeting next week; the Barbecue is the meeting of record.
Open Bar: Beer, Wine, Seltzer, Signature drink, sparkling water, water
$30 for Adults, $15 for Teens FREE for children under 10. Childcare will be provided for >2 year olds.
We have a Square reader - bring your credit card or checkbook on Tuesday!
Charlotte reported hearing from a lot of folks who say they are coming and have not reserved - so please sign up or email her! Also, we need more bodies to help set up on Saturday morning, Sept 19 at 9:00 a.m. - so if you're free, please help for an hour or two Sunday morning - email Charlotte for details.
Team-points surveys were due last Friday. Strength Coach Phil Aviles reminded captains and members: teams have been reporting a lot of activity from the podium, but the points do not exist until somebody fills out the survey.
September's head-to-head matchups were announced.
What counts as a scrum. The surveys have been full of questions about it, so Phil clarified: any five or more Rotarians getting together for any purpose — coffee, a cocktail after work, a bike ride — earns points, and the scrum question will be on every survey all year because it is not tied to a team. Someone asked what a scrum is in rugby, and got the shoulder-to-shoulder version. Asked whether a social also counts as a scrum. It does not.
Charlie's summary: "I never thought in my life I would hear the word scrum 12,000 times in about 5 minutes."
Elena Flynn wants your old letterman jacket!
The Chico History Museum is mounting an October exhibit on Chico High and Pleasant Valley, timed to the Almond Bowl, and is looking for uniforms, yearbooks, photos, anything from the attic.
Contact Elena or info@chicohistorymuseum.org, or bring it to next week's meeting and she will take it from there — "a wonderful chance to embarrass your children and grandchildren."
The museum also has a program on the history of California Park on Sept 19, with special guest speaker Georgie Bellin, who learned of her booking from the podium.
Dino Corbin is looking for two or three more helpers.
The Chico Concourse is Saturday, Sept 26, at the Silver Dollar Fairgrounds — the 47th. Setup starts at oh-dark-thirty, about 5:30 a.m.; cars line up around 6:30 and come in at 7. Front of show is run by your one and only president, Beau McSwain.
Two-ish hours and you are done, you get to see every car come in, and there are points in it.
Judging seminars are available for anyone who wants to learn. The Concourse supports Butte College Auto, rugby, and Chico Noon Rotary. Veterans of the front gate should email Dino to say they are in.
Chico Community Scholarship Association happy hour, Thursday, Oct 8, Canyon Oaks.
Tom Hughes and Kelly Crane will be in the back next week selling tickets. CCSA is the group that runs selection night and the interviews for the club's Rotary Scholarships, a long-term relationship, as Tom put it.
If you are looking to form a scrum, Tom suggested, this is a good place.
SAX Oktoberfest, Thursday, Oct 15, Roney Winery. Lisa Reynolds announced it for Ray Block. Evites are coming, and anyone who needs a ride should tell a committee member or reach out to Alberta Simic or Tovey Giezentanner.
Also on the slides, with a quick mention:
Butte Humane Society gala Sept 19 at the Big Room
Durham's Harvest Festival Sept 20
The Boys and Girls Club pasta dinner
David Kim's Target Shopping Spree Oct 7.
Glen Eaton came back from Phoenix with bling. Six days at the Zone 26 and 27 training week for governors-nominee and governors-elect, followed by the Zone Institute.
He brought back handmade pins for the secretary and the president, made by Shirley Grace, a Rotarian in Pismo Beach, with all the proceeds, Glen said, going to a foundation for her son, who was born with severe disabilities and died at 18. The foundation funds international and local projects, and the pins sell out quickly.
World Polio Day, Saturday, Oct 24, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., Rotary Centennial Park.
Leanne Chrisman quizzed Emergency Fly-Half Charlie on Rotary's biggest initiative (polio; no bell for getting it right) and gave the count: 19 wild polio cases this year, 16 in Afghanistan and 3 in Pakistan.
The main goal is awareness, with some fundraising planned. How? "We're gonna have fun. Because that's what this club does." She wants teams and individuals to sponsor a purple activity station — a purple-frosted cookie walk, purple water balloon toss, purple pinky finger painting, cornhole with purple bean bags — with a fact sheet at each one.
The needs list: staffing, a sound system for a park with no electricity, and a sponsor for two porta-potties, which Charlie's table was already calling "Dump Polio." Donation boxes will be out.
Leanne also floated a purple-pinky wheat beer like the one Evanston, Illinois brews for the day; Charlie said Sierra Nevada cannot turn one around by Oct 24, and Leanne set a reminder for November so there is time to brew next year's, to which Charlie replied with a smile, “remind me against next September.” Charlie's own contribution: if everybody uses purple bags at cornhole, nobody knows who is winning.
RUGBY KIT BAG
Beau was out, and so was the prize. Charlie announced the winner would get the bell, then downgraded it to the gavel.
Ticket 433-7686 went unclaimed — "the bell lives another day" — and so did 433-7694.
Phil Aviles missed it by two numbers. Nobody went home with anything.
CLUBHOUSE NOTICEBOARD
MATCH OF THE DAY
Butte County Undersheriff Matt Calkins came to report on what Measure H has done for the Sheriff's Office. Dino Corbin introduced him.
Calkins started at the Sheriff's Office as a deputy in 2007, worked patrol, felony investigations, and SWAT, made sergeant and lieutenant, and was promoted to undersheriff in 2021. His own job description: the vice principal.
Measure H passed with about 67% of the vote. Before it, the Sheriff's Office was losing people faster than it could hire, pulling patrol deputies into the jail, and running mandatory overtime. The area deputy unit, the gang unit, and the school resource officers were gone. A new jail wing, in the works since 2011, had no staff to open it.
The 1% sales tax brought in about $44 million in its first year, and $12.2 million of that went to the Sheriff's Office. The budget went from $68.9 million to $90.3 million, funded positions from 287 to 333, and since January 2025 the office has hired 52 correctional deputies and 19 deputy sheriffs. The new jail is fully open, and the area deputy unit returns by the end of the year.
The District Attorney, down to 17 deputy DAs carrying 300 to 350 cases each, had stopped filing on car burglaries and shoplifting. Those cases are being filed again. In Magalia, citations and arrests went from about 160 to more than 300 last year. Staffing lifts morale, Calkins said, and a burned-out deputy is not "going out looking for a lot of traffic stops in Magalia at 2 o'clock in the morning."
coffee, a cocktail after work, a bike ride — earns points, and the scrum question will be on every survey all year because it is not tied to a team. Someone asked what a scrum is in rugby, and got the shoulder-to-shoulder version. Asked whether a social also counts as a scrum. It does not. 
Two-ish hours and you are done, you get to see every car come in, and there are points in it. 
