Hilo Bay Rotary Club Newsletter for the week of March 9, 2025
Steven Sylvester, President
From the meeting of March 5, 2025
Steven Sylvester presiding
Announcements
- James Tyrin announced that the Oktoberfest committee was meeting on Tuesday, Sept. 3rd at 5:30 pm at his office on Kilauea.
- It was announced that U of H Hilo was having a Rotary Night on Sept. 7th when the Volleyball team plays. Mr. Anonymous more details please.
- Tim Hansen acknowledged that the volunteer activities at Queen Liliuokalani Gardens were weathered out but a new date will be up coming.
Guest Speaker
Tim Hansen introduced Pomaika’i Bartolome from Mayor Roth’s office. She was quick to acknowledge a number of our Rotarians who were serving or had served on county boards and commissions. Ms. Bartolome is responsible for soliciting and vetting community members for the 36 county boards and commissions.
- All of the successful applicants are selected by the Mayor and some, depending upon the overriding law, are approved by the county council.
- The terms for the boards and commissions can be 2, 3,or 5 years or the unserved term of a vacant seat.
- Each board or commission is an open meeting and recorded. All boards and commission are staffed by members of the respective department that is overseen and by legal counsel.
- Meetings are conducted in person and hybrid.
- To improve the county, diversity, equity and inclusion is sought on all boards and commissions.
For a list of all of the boards and commissions, their vacancies and an application go to:
https://www.hawaiicounty.gov/our-county/boards-and-commissions-listing
September Responsibilities
Invocation & Door Prize
Mary Begier 9/4
Mike Carroll. 9/11
Michelle Flemming. 9/18
Janell Kuamoo. 9/25
Announcements from 8/14:
- District Conference early bird registration and discounted attendance fee, is in effect until Aug. 31. See the D 5000 website for details.
- Oktoberfest is fast approaching, and the committee is requesting that every Rotarian donate $100 in gift cards for the silent auction.
- Sharon Scheele wanted to thank everyone who purchased tickets for the Junior Achievement in the banquet. She was able to fill two tables for the event.
- Tim Hansen was looking for volunteers to work with the Queen Liliuokalani committee to restore the park on Saturday.
- Virginia Juettner announced that the DG reinstituted month report on the Maui Recovery Fund.
Speaker—Mike Miyakira
We have all experienced going to a store that we have visited for years and seeing a sign that says out of business, closed or just an empty store. Why did a family-owned business that was a staple of the main street just disappear? According to Mike Miyakira only a very small percentage of family owner businesses survive into the fourth generation. Mike gave several reasons for this:
- No succession planning
- Poor management and leadership
- Transitional issues coupled with poor policies or conflicts
- Lack of policies and agreements
- Lack of alignment on baseline questions
The Shidler Family Business Center at Manoa provides services to approximately 80 family owned businesses throughout the State of Hawaii. They offer individual business counseling along with an annual conference for all participants and materials. Services are focused on the successor generation—those who will take over the business in the future. Mike gave a great example of parents who gave their son the opportunity to manage the business and the son’s inability to do so because he did not realize that his parents were giving him the opportunity to exhibit his abilities.
As in life and business, nothing is free. There is an annual, all inclusive, fee of $1,500 per business enrolled in the program.
Chester Cabral won the weekly raffle! Is this the beginning of another streak for Chester?
Meeting of August 28: Richard Cunningham will provide the inspiration for the meeting along with the raffle donation. The speaker will announced at the meeting.
President Steven introduced his father, Anthony Sylvester who was the second generation of Sylvester's working on Mauna Kea. Since Anthony was well know to some of the members, we heard a number of comments about his sons face painting and about Anthony's parents commitment to 4H on the Big Island. President Steven also got a zinger in about his brother who is now the third generation working on Mauna Kea and his need to produce a four generation of Sylvesters working on the mountain.
After all of this banter was over, Anthony started to explain what radion astronomy is, how it uses band width to measure everything from continental drift, sea level rise, the location of satellites, to examining black holes, the expansion of the universe, and so much more. Three radio telescope arrays located here, in New Mexico and West Virginia form one immense instrument through exacting syncronization.
If you want more inforation, please refer to the Very Long Baseline Array handout. Just remember, if you get lost in the subject, it is just FM!
President Steven convened the meeting right at 7 am. After the Pledge of Allegiance, Alan Okinaka delivered the inspiration. He announced that the planning for Oktober Fest was progressing smoothly and restatede the request for Rotarians to donate $100 in prizes and or gifts for the silent auction. Sharon Scheele announced that there were only three tickets for Junior Achievement Hall of Fame banquent at $120 each. Please contact Sharon to reserve the remaing seats and to arrange for payment. Tim Hansen announced that there would be a work day at the Queen Liliuokalani Gardens on Saturday, August 24th starting at 8 am and ending at noon to rebuild some of the stone walls thin bamboo and other activities. Tim pointed out that the Gardens received a grant from Hilo Bay Rotary a few months ago. He then circulated a sign up sheet.
Next weeks inspiration and door prize will be from Alan Okinaka.
The guest speaker will be Anthony Sylvester on Radio Astronomy.
As I missed this meeting I have nothing to report. However, this is providing me with an opportunity to recruit a few Rotarians to assist with the Bulletin by recording the meetings. When I last did a club bulletin, we had three volunteers that agreed to record what happened at the last meeting. Each one did this for a month and passed it on to another Rotarian for a month and so on. It provided great continuity and provided some variety. I was fortunate to have a retired publisher of a book company, a retired dean of a medical school and a retired engineer to do the recording. They would hand me what they wrote or email it to me and I put in the bulletin.
If you are interesed, please let me know. Oh, I do have something to report--74% of the members opened their newsletter!
This week's speaker is District Govenor Ted Faigle who will be introduced by AG Beverly Heikes. This is a great opportuity for Rotarians to meet and greet the leader of District 5000 for this Rotary year.
Inspiration will be provided by Virginia Juettner.
The meeting was lightly attended with only 18 members present along with AG Henkes and speaker Wendy Bethelo-Cortez. President Steve called the meeting to order and reviewed the announcements for the Volcano Run, July 27th, and asked Sharon Sheele to talk about the Junior Achievement Banquet on August 22nd. Art Taniguchi reported that there would be a peace service and activities the Hilo Hongwanji on August 4th at 9 am. Steve Useda, a Rotarian from Alaska, will be the featured speaker. After the service, there will activities to promote peace at Sanga Hall.
Wendy Bothelo-Cortez, CEO of the Hilo YMCA got right to business explaining the Y's major program. To summarize, Wendy provided information on the gym, youth camps, the Family Visitation Program and two essential income producing activites, TSA Precheck and Field Check.
The gym program is utilizied by 40% of its 5,000 members and opens at 4 am with an average of 40 people waiting to get in. It is drawing all age groups and has grown, in part, as a result of having shower facilities and a large number of gym classes each week. Get up, get sweaty, shower and go to work! A little like Hilo Bay Rotary Club but healthier.
The YMCA runs camps for youngsters throughout the year. If school is not in session, there is a camp providing a number of activities for children. What was really interesting was that the YMCA promotes youth leadership through Junior Leaders who do everything from cleaning to running classes. One of the challenges of the camp program is the percentage of DOH mandated children. They present a lot of challenges to the staff but also opportunities. Wendy related the story of a young female who got caught vapping. The YMCA turned this incident into a positive by securing a two year grant to dissuade the use of vaps.
The YMCA also runs the Family Visitation Center seven days a week to reunite parents and children who have suffered abuse. Wendy found that when utilizing kapuna instead of young workers, the program produced better results and lowers recidivism rates.
Finally, she mentioned the TSA and Field Check programs. Field Check is finger priint driven background check for people working in fields requiring background checks. My assumption is that the YMCA receives a fee or commission from TSA and Field Check eventhough it was not mentioned in her presentation.
Service Above Self
Hilo, HI 96720
United States of America