President Oliver Ruiz welcomed everyone to the meeting. He was happy to share that our Club President-Elect-Elect Dave Skinner successfully graduated from the Rotary Leadership Institute!
Marcia Brod made sure everyone at today’s meeting participated in the O Miami Poetry Festival. The Festival’s goal is to expose everyone in Miami-Dade County to a poem sometime in the month of April. Marcia’s invocation was in the form of an inspirational poem. Juan Torres led everyone in the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag.
Guests and Visitors were introduced by Bunny Uriarte:
Cristina Beamud is Executive Director of the Civilian Investigative Panel of the City of Miami;
William Aiken, President-Elect of the Rotary Club of New Kingston Jamaica is a urologist, and is visiting at the University of Miami School of Medicine;
Klaus and Ursula Dohler are visiting Rotarians from Germany. He is an endocrinologist and Ursula is a nutritionist.
Happy $$$$$$$$$$$$ were collected by Renel Noel:
Diane Landsberg was happy to put together club award submissions to the District. She is so proud of all the work the club has done;
Randy Lichtman thought RLI was fantastic. It was his first year as a discussion leader. The topics he led were vocational service, ethics and strategic planning. He also congratulated Dave Skinner for his successful graduation from the program;
Linda Singer was just happy to be at the meeting with so many wonderful people;
William Aiken was happy to spend time in Miami and be with his daughter, who recently earned her Master’s Degree from the University of Miami;
Renel Noel appreciated the message in today’s invocation. He truly does appreciate every day we are given. Even though a relative had passed away, the funeral was a positive opportunity to remember that individual and connect with family that had been apart for many years. He also recommended the octopus appetizer at the Rusty Pelican, if anyone ventures back there for dinner;
Dave Anderson was still enjoying the joy of the Rotary Gala.
Announcements:
Thursday, April 13 – Lunch meeting with club member Jay Almeida sharing photos and video from the gala;
Thursday, April 20 – Board meeting at the Yacht Club, followed by lunch meeting featuring Dr. Richard Hansen, world-renowned archaeologist;
Saturday, April 22 – District Assembly;
Sunday, April 23 – Members depart on the Fathom cruise;
Thursday, April 27 – NO LUNCH MEETING;
Saturday, April 29 – Rotary District Night at the Miami Marlins baseball game.
Today’s Speaker was introduced by Rick Hernandez:
Rodney W. Jacobs is the Assistant Director of the City of Miami’s Civilian Investigative Panel. He shared that he is familiar with Rotary because a club in Tampa helped him with a scholarship to attend college;
Mr. Jacobs is also a military intelligence lieutenant in the United States Army Reserve, where he works as the officer in charge at the 436 civil affairs battalion in Sanford, Florida. Within this capacity Mr. Jacobs obtained a top-secret security clearance, which allows him to gather intelligence to assist in fighting terrorism from enemies foreign and domestic;
The Civilian Investigative Panel is a civilian oversight committee tasked with investigating abusive police practices within the City of Miami. The Panel’s vision is to be a model civilian oversight agency, focused on enhancing the culture of policing in the community through professionalism and police-community partnerships built on openness, equity, trust and accountability;
The mission of the Civilian Investigative Panel is to provide the community with independent and impartial oversight of the Miami Police Department through monitoring and analysis of police practices, policies and procedures, investigation into allegations of misconduct and extensive community outreach;
The Panel was formed in November 2001 by an overwhelming vote from the citizens of Miami that called for an unbiased forum for the community to file complaints alleging police misconduct;
The CIP is an open and public organization independent of the Miami Police Department and City Administration. The 13-member volunteer panel listens to the evidence, determines the facts and makes recommendations based upon their findings to the City Manager and Chief of Police.
The Civilian Investigative Panel is there for residents so they have a resource to file a complaint of wrongdoing against the City of Miami Police Department and trust that it will receive a fair investigation and hearing.
Dave Anderson led everyone in the 4-Way Test of the Things We Think, Say or Do.
