Dear Rotarians and Friends,   

Welcome to our latest Rotario newsletter. Once again it is a pleasure keeping you informed of our club activities in the coming weeks.

This Week - Stephanie Lewis with the Robotics Team Report

Stephanie, with her husband Michael and Mike Oitzman, mentors the ACME Robotics team. Stephanie and members of the team will share their creation and experiences competing in the Western Super Regionals this spring. Stephanie has been a software engineer at Telestream, Inc. for two years. She previously worked at Miranda (now Grass Valley), after graduating Summa Cum Laude with a degree in Computer Science from Biola University. Stephanie is passionate about inspiring the next generation, particularly young ladies, to get involved in technology as well as finding ways to use technology to improve the world around her.  She has mentored our Girls Who Code Club this year. 

The Robotics Club started four years ago, when one of the founding members, Ryan Brott, was a freshman. He was frustrated at the lack of STEM opportunities for high schoolers in the community, particularly in robotics. He got together a couple of his friends and, with a lot of help from his parents, started ACME to compete in the First FTC league. That year, the team finished 4th at the NorCal championships and were awarded a Judges' Award for being an outstanding rookie team. The team also qualified for the NorCal tournament last season and this season, and moved on to the next level (Western Super Regionals) for the first time this year. The goal for next season is to advance to the World Championship.   Stephanie is pictured here with Dave Bunje at the Girls Who Code end of year party.

Last Week - Don Pierce and his "Backyard Beekeeping"

Don, our local master beekeeper provided our club with a very comprehensive education beekeeping and the habits of honeybees. This includes the pollination of most of our fruits and vegetables as well as our flowering plants which would not occur without the help of bees. Don explained the structures within the hives as well as the residents, which include a queen bee, the worker bees which are all females, and drones, which are all males that have no stingers and never leave the hive. We also learned that queens lay up to 2000 a day for up to seven months of the year. We were surprised to learn that most bees live  only two to three weeks, but the queen may live up to five years AND leaves the hive only once. Don went on to describe the four great threats to the hives, including pesticides, malnutrition, expanding agriculture, and worst of all comes from mites which carry viruses. Most of us came away from the meeting with a much greater appreciation of the importance of honeybees and what they do for us.

Booth Water Damage - update

Great News here !  Both the interior and exterior roof repairs are complete ! We need to have a "drywall painting party" on Wed. June 21 at the booth and will be followed-up with General Booth Cleanup on the weekend of July 29-30.  Stay tuned for more details.

In Other News

Club Retreat -  Monday June 5  – PE Cathy  has sent out flyers inviting all of us AND our significant others to this week-night event.  Gather for socializing at 5pm; meeting starts at 5:30pm and includes dinner.  And you should have received an Emailed invitation. The event takes place at the Nevada County History Center - 161 Nevada City Highway at the intersection of Zion/Ridge/Gold Flat and Nevada City Highway This is sure to be a fun AND informative event for the Club's future plans !

Save the Date:  June 28 for Walt's Demotion Party  – Judy Soldavini and hubby George Roberts are once again hosting this year's Demotion Party at their beautiful Bridge House on Wednesday June 28.  Celebration begins at 5:30pm with dinner et al at 6:30pm.  The cost will be $35/person. Please note, we will also need a setup crew for tables and chairs late morning. More details to follow.

Fundraising Effort- Yard Sale/Flea Market  Saturday, June 17

Nevada City Rotary Board Activities

Stay informed about actions your Nevada City Rotary Board of Directors is taking.  Minutes of Board Meetings and Club Leadership Retreats for the past year along with survey results, Club Bylaws, Nevada City Rotary Foundation 501 (c) 3 status and other documents are available in our "Members Only" section of our NCRotary.org website at  http://ncrotary.org/club/board-actions.  If you need assistance remembering your user ID and password, contact Robin or reply to this newsletter.

Area 4 Doing Business with Rotarians Directory

Interested in doing business with fellow Rotarians?  Check out the newly updated our Area 4  Rotarians Doing Business with Rotarians Directory. Is your business missing from the directory?  Click to Submit your business or professional service.  You may also use this link to remove your entry if appropriate.

Upcoming Events:

June 1 :  4:30pm, Before the Mixer - Yard Sale Planning Meeting

June 1 : Mixer - Stephanie Lewis, Robotics Team Report

June 5 : Club Retreat - Monday Evening mtg  (5:00- 8:30,includes dinner)

June 8 :  Debbie McDonald - Hospitality House

June 15 : Mixer - Sonja Conklin - AirMedCare  (tentative)

June 16 :  Yard Sale Prep Meeting

June 17 :  Club Yard Sale - Fund Raiser @ Dave Robinson's Garage (Zion and Argall)

June 19 : Rotary Board Meeting = Monday 5:30pm

June 21 :  9 AM - Fair Booth Painting "party"

June 22 :  Erin Noel - Community Legal

June 27 : Concessionaires Mtg. - 6pm at Fairgrounds

June 28 : Demotion Party  - At Judy Soldavini's "The Bridge House"; Celebration begins at 5:30pm with dinner et al at 6:30pm.

June 29 :  Moved to June 28 Demotion

July 6 :  Mixer

July 29-30 : Fair Booth Cleanup - may only need one session

August 3 : Pre Fair Picnic - at the Fairgrounds

August 9-13 : Nevada County Fair

Thank you Nancy Kemp and Christine Newsom for coordinating our programs!

WORDS OF WISDOM: " When watching after yourself, you watch after others. When watching after others, you watch after yourself." - Buddha

-- from President Walt

Special Dates