Aloha kākou,

Apologies to all who attended our most recent meeting for the technical difficulties, the sound issues and the fact that we were not able to get to everyone’s questions.  As Club leadership, we do our best, but sometimes we miss the mark, and then we resolve to do better next time.  I know that a number of folks had questions about AI, Data Privacy, Security and related topics that we did not have a chance to answer fully.  So, I am considering hosting a Paul Harris event in which we can engage in a conversation about Artificial Intelligence and related topics in a more relaxed and interactive way.  Feel free to reach out to me directly if you would be interested in attending such an event.

As always, I was pleased to see so many folks come out to join us for what was the final time at Oahu Country Club during my year as President.  For the rest of the Rotary year, we will be at The Pacific Club for all of our regular meetings.  Among others, Linda Coble led us in a joyful rendition of “Tiny Bubbles” and Bob Sigall inspired us with his knowledge of raising Monarch butterflies and how to tell the difference between the male and female of the species.  Others that I hadn’t seen (or at least mentioned in my Tradewind message) in a while included Mitch Weld, Paul Saito, Sam Haas, Eric Soderholm, Nancy White, Troy Person, Michael Marsh, Michelle Dolan and Richard Hunter.

I mentioned at a recent meeting that May is Rotary Youth Service Month.  Our Club is most engaged in Youth Service through our yearly financial support and member participation in the Rotary Youth Leadership Awards (RYLA) program on Oahu.  Starting this Rotary Year, we have expanded our Youth Services to include a novel program – the Don Anderson Service above Self Youth Fellows – through which we are hoping to encourage the development of young leaders in our community through engagement with the Rotary Club of Honolulu as members and participation in our service projects.  Make sure that you have signed up for our Club Assembly on June 2 to learn more about how this program is developing.

This coming Monday is the national Memorial Day holiday, and on Tuesday we will be back at The Pacific Club to hear Suzanne Vares-Lum, Major General (Ret.) U.S. Army and Director of the Asia Pacific Center For Security Studies, speak to us about the U.S. Military in the Pacific.  Currently, we have a relatively small group signed up for lunch, so if you are not off-island for the holiday, please do consider signing up to join us.  As always I look forward to seeing many of you there.

Mahalo nui loa,

Brian Dunkel

President

The Rotary Club of Honolulu