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
President Steven convened the meeting at 7 am.
Guests: Patrick Bodell is still auditioning our club.
Announcements:
- Richard Cunningham explained how HRYF and the UH Foundation contributions were going to be handled this year. He is working on a jewelry box as an incentive for fundraising. Each $50 donation to either scholarship is worth one entry into the drawing for the jewelry box.
- President Steven announced the dates for the D 5000 conference. They are 5/30-6/1. It will be held at the Ala Maona Hotel in Honolulu.
- Virginia Juettner announced that Dr. Seuss Day at the Hilo Union Elementary School was a success. She thanked the readers and the donors of sweet treats for teacher recognition. Finally, there will a 5000 Rotary Foundation event on March 26th at the Women’s Center starting at 5:30 pm. This will be a fun event for the Rotary Foundation. The fee to cover pupus is $20.99, BYOB.
Guest Speaker: Our guest speaker was the one and only Steven Sylvester! Steven presented on fraud and scams. Besides being illegal and costing us $12.5B in 2023, these things evolve very quickly. Driven by technology and greed, we are subjected to fraud and scams almost every day! They come in many forms. They prey on our emotions and our own greed.
Steven presented several slides to illustrate what is out there. He also provided some basic rules to protect ourselves. They are:
- If it is too good to be true, walk away.
- Do not post personal information on social media.
- Review credit reports and financial reports regularly.
- Use credit cards for online purchases and not debit cards.
- Keep your logins and passwords safe.
In conclusion, anyone can be scammed or defrauded as they take advantage of our emotions and goodwill.
Meeting invocations and raffle responsibilities for March
Mar. 12, Dale Tokuuke
Mar. 19, Virginia Juettner
Mar. 26, Mary Begier