Home Page | Rotary Club of Greater Van Nuys

89 years of "Service Above Self"

We meet Thursdays at 12:00 PM

LULU'S RESTAURANT

16900 Roscoe Blvd, Van Nuys, CA 91406

District Governor's Visit

Rotary District 5280 Governor, Bette Hall will be visiting GVN Rotary Club on Thursday September 17th 2020. The District Governor and her entourage will be attending a joint meeting (Via Zoom) with us at 12:00PM. All members, Family, Guest of Rotarians and Rotarians are invited to join our meeting that day.

District Governor's Bio

A member of Calabasas Rotary Club since 2007, Bette Hall has held various positions, both within her Club and District 5280. Positions held include Club Avenues of Service and Events Chair, Board member, Club President, Assistant Governor, District Trainer for several years, and three years as the Senior Assistant Governor, Youth Services for District 5280. She has also chaired both the 2019 District Club Assembly and District Conference.

Bette has been very involved in developing and providing training for the Youth Protection Program and if asked to select an area she is most passionate about in Rotary, the answer has to be our Youth Programs. In 2017 Bette was one of two members who received the Rotarian of the Year award for District 5280, the other being none other than our District Governor Melody St. John. She is so very honored to be the District 5280 Governor, 2020-21.

Originally from London, England, Bette is a long-time resident of the West San Fernando Valley, and retired a few years ago from a long and varied career in Human Resources after holding positions such as Director and Vice President of Human Resources for large, multi-state/International companies, prior to running her own HR consulting company.

What Bette enjoys most about retirement is having more time to volunteer with Rotary and an extra bonus – spending more time with her family, and especially the grandchildren. She feels very fortunate to have them all living within easy driving distance, and being able to go to their activities, including baseball games, to cheer them on, and yes she has been known to be very loud, especially when they hit a home run!

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Greetings

Greetings Fellow Rotarians and Guests. Welcome to our New Rotary Year. Thanks for stopping by our Club Website.

Rotary International President, Holger Knaack's theme 2020-2021," Rotary Opens Opportunities", asks Rotarians "to create opportunities that strengthen their leadership, help put service ideas into action, and improve the lives of those in need". GVN Rotary is set to do just that. This year, we have some great and exciting projects we will be undertaking both locally and internationally. Please continue to visit us for more exciting news and keep tract of what we are doing.

Catherine Ibrahim

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COVID-19

Zoraida Suarez-Grossman, M.D. (President- Elect) Greater Van Nuys Rotary will be our Guest Speaker at our Zoom Meeting on April 23, 2020. Come and learn all you need to know about the COVID-19 Virus.

Kidney Quest Foundation Conference

Kidney Quest Foundation held a one day conference recently in Los Angeles, in partnership with Greater Van Nuys Rotary. The conference was to raise awareness of the disease to our community. ABC News Anchor, Philip Palmer, himself a kidney donor, was one of the keynote speakers at the conference.

Philip Palmer, Rotarian and President Kidney Quest Foundation Carolyn and volunteers at the event

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Greater Van Nuys Rotary Partnership With CCSAE

Greater Van Nuys Rotary partnered with CCSAE to supply educational materials, school uniforms, hygiene materials for girls, scandals, as well as toys to students of the school in Uganda. Rotarian Grace Agaba giving out supplies to students. Greater Van Nuys Rotary plans to continue to support this organization as there is dire need to do more.

Harvest/Halloween Festival

Our Harvest festal this year had over 400 kids/families in attendance. Kids had a great time. Lots of games, costume contests, and great prizes were given out to kids. The highlight of the evening was free thyroid screening exam for anyone who wanted to be screened. People took advantage of the free screening.

Costume Contest Parade

Free Thyroid Screening Exam

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DISTRICT 5280 ANNUAL FOUNDATION CELEBRATION

Posted by Catherine Ibrahim on Oct 30, 2019

District 5280 Annual Foundation Celebration was held on Sunday October 27, 2019. The event was held at the beautiful Taglyan Complex in Hollywood. It was indeed a night of good food, music, fun & fellowship and most importantly, silent and live auction. All proceeds will go towards various District projects. Below are pictures from the event.

L-R President Catherine Ibrahim, PDG Les Grossman & Past President Dr. Zoraida Grossman

Past President Marie Valencia and Hubby Jess

Rotarians having fun and enjoying fellowship with one another

Past President Dave Friedman and Mrs Judy Friedman

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INDUCTION OF NEW MEMBER

Posted by Catherine Ibrahim on Sep 18, 2019

We inducted our newest member last Thursday. Bob Blisten, a former Rotarian, was officially inducted into the GVN Rotary Club. Congratulations Bob. We are very happy to have you join us.

(L-R) Richard Miller, Bob Blisten, PDG Les Grossman and Catherine Ibrahim during the induction ceremony

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Carolyn Urquidez Joins GVN Rotary

Posted by Catherine Ibrahim on Oct 06, 2019

GVN Rotary is happy to welcome Carolyn Urquidez as a member of the club. She was inducted at a ceremony on Thursday October 3, 2019. On behalf of the BOD and members of GVN Rotary, Congratulations!!!!!!!!!!!!

L-R Club President Catherine Ibrahim, PDG Les Grossman, Carolyn Urquidez, and Membership Chair Richard Miller

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Greater Van Nuys Rotary Donates Rotary Bell

Posted by Zoraida Suarez - Grossman, M.D. on Sep 18, 2019

The Bell being Donated to Valera Rotary Club

We met a group of Venezuelan Rotarians who were soliciting a donation to buy a new Rotary Bell for the Valera Rotary Club, located in the State of Trujillo, in the western part of the country. One of the members have kept in contact with me all along and coordinated all the details. Due to the difficult political situation and the humanitarian crisis that the country is going through, she works in Colombia and travels to Venezuela every two weeks to attend the Rotary meetings. Their Bell had been stolen probably to resell as cooper. Rotary Bells are copyrighted and can not be reproduced without the consent of Rotary International. My husband, Les reminded me we had a Bell at home from our former NSFV/Panorama City Club RC merged with the Van Nuys Rotary Club.

PDG Les Grossman, Dr Zoraida Grossman and members of the Valera Rotary Club

I wanted to polish the Bell before sending it, but the Rotarians felt that it was a relic and felt tremendously honored to inherit it, as it was. The Venezuelan Rotarians are very active and have been extremely grateful and excited about their new Bell and have made us feel very proud to experience the human connection and the true spirit of Rotary.

Dr Zoraida, holding the Bell and members of the GVN Rotary

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GOVERNOR'S VISIT

Posted by Catherine Ibrahim on Aug 11, 2019

District Governor Melody St John visited Greater Van Nuys Rotary Club on Thursday, August 8, 2019. It was a wonderful time with her as our guest got the opportunity to hear directly from the leadership, what rotary is all about and the great and fantastic work rotary is doing around the world. During her visit, she inducted our newest member, Grace Agaba into our club.

DG Addressing the audience

Grace Agaba during the induction ceremony by the Governor

Catherine Ibrahim, District Governor, (New Member)Grace Agaba and Richard Miller after the induction

GVN ROTARY WELCOMES OUR DISTRICT GOVERNOR

Posted by Catherine Ibrahim on Aug 04, 2019

Melody St. John has been involved with Rotary throughout her entire life, from her days as the daughter of a Rotarian in South Dakota when women were not accepted as members. Today she utilizes her passion for youth programs and has been involved with Rotary Youth Exchange for over 25 years. She and her husband Paul have hosted over 22 students in their home from around the world.

A member and Past President of the Rotary Club of Hollywood, St. John is involved in a number of Rotary District 5280 initiatives.

WELCOME GOVERNOR, TO GREATER VAN NUYS ROTARY CLUB

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ROTARY

Posted by Catherine Ibrahim on Jun 02, 2019

Cryptocurrency

Posted by Catherine Ibrahim on Jun 02, 2019

Lisa Miller, was the guest speaker at our regular meeting recently. Her topic of discussion was on Cryptocurrency. She has given us permission to post her article/paper on our website.

Lisa Miller and Raul Castillo after the presentation of her article at our meeting

A Ripple in Time: Early Cryptocurrency Adopters Earn Advantages

Up to $6 billion by 2020, and up to $20 billion by 2030, are the widely expected revenues for blockchain technology companies.[1] The expected expansion of blockchain technology, and the cryptocurrencies that rely on it (for example, Ripple, Bitcoin, Ethereum), could transform how lawyers accomplish basic tasks. The long-term influence could be similar to the Internet.

Cryptocurrencies, as widely vetted digital stores of value, are considered almost-invulnerable. And they offer attractive efficiencies and economic advantages. Together, these makes digital currency competitive with recognized fiat currencies[1] (“fiat” money is currency that lacks intrinsic value, but which is declared “legal tender” by a government; the US dollar is fiat currency) as a medium of exchange.

Despite the fact that it offers protocols that allow anonymous, direct peer-to-peer transactions via the Internet, blockchain technology minimizes the need for relationships of trust among parties to transactions.[1] No third party (bank, escrow company) is necessarily in the mix when individuals engage via blockchain’s system. Cryptocurrency can eliminate notaries, brokers, and other layers of administration that are designed to enhance trust. This saves money on common law firm expenses.

When parties digitally transfer value among accounts on the blockchain, they place their trust in the underlying technology, but not in any individuals or businesses, to enable the transfer, ensure sender authenticity, and ensure currency validity. This direct, peer-to-peer interaction, without transactional friction resulting from third-party participation, nurtures the revolution around cryptocurrency. Cryptocurrency is a high-tech fiscal work-around.

[1] 2030 Projection of Blockchain Technology Market, published online at Autonomous Next on February 24, 2017; found online at: https://next.autonomous.com/insights/2030-projection-of-blockchain-technology-market

[1] “Fiat money” is currency that lacks intrinsic value, but which is declared legal tender by a government. It is considered valid currency solely by government declaration: fiat money is not backed by any commodity (for example, gold or silver). Fiat currency is paper money and coins backed only by the faith of the holder of the currency. The US dollar is fiat money (found on-line at Investing Answers at: https://investinganswers.com/financial-dictionary/economics/fiat-money-1790).

[1] According to blockchain engineer Preethi Kasireddy, describing blockchain as “trustless” is inaccurate. Rather, blockchains minimize the amount of trust required from users by distributing responsibility among numerous participants (published Feb 3, 2018 on Medium.com, found online at: https://medium.com/@preethikasireddy/eli5-what-do-we-mean-by-blockchains-are-trustless-aa420635d5f6).

As blockchain technology gains more stability, new business methods for smaller law firms will evolve. These new approaches will incorporate cryptocurrency as a way to offer greater value to clients and harden competitive advantage in a crowded market. But blockchain is a raw technology; existing infrastructure is struggling to support it.

Mrs. Rosemary Ritch was on hand to volunteer at the event as always

from L to R Peter, Les, Javier, Dave, Catherine and Barbara

Rotaract Panel Presentation - Moderator: Olayinka Hakeem Babalola, RI Director-elect

2 weeks ago

2018 International Convention in Toronto - General session 2.

Rebecca Fry, Rotaract Club of Sydney City, NSW, Australia
Raquel D'Garay-Juncal, Rotary E-club of Silicon Valley, USA
Muhammad Talha Mushtaq, Rotaract Club of Jhang Saddar, Pakistan

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Toronto Convention

Posted by Catherine Ibrahim on Jul 08, 2018