Our Friday morning meetings give you a running start into the weekend. “It’s good to tell the jokes,” says perennial club guest Father Guido Sarducci. “As long as you donta be irreverent.”  Members who stage our entertainment often indulge their senses of humor, even those who don't have one.  Luckily Point West has a vocal Peanut Gallery full of nuts ready to crack.

Mixing business with pleasure produced two of the premiere fund-raising events in the region:   Festa di Vino, a wine-and-food gala and auction in early spring, and the California Brewers Festival, a microbrewery beer extravaganza in late summer.

Volunteering to work on either or both of these charity events is the ticket for any member wanting to build new friendships, tackle new challenges and give back to the community.

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For the last two years, District 5180 has recognized Point West’s series of speakers as the best among its 35 Rotary clubs. Get the insider’s view from authorities in politics, sports, the arts, business, education, medicine, law and more.

Annual activities include rehabbing homes of needy families, mentoring Encina High School students in business, sponsoring and judging a student speech contest, bellringing and distributing food for the Salvation Army, and delivering gifts as Santa Clauses for Christmas Promise. We encourage members to propose public service projects, and often support those projects with manpower and money.

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We’re focused on assisting our twin club, Hilton and Howick, to address the scourges of poverty and disease in Sweetwaters, South Africa.  We’ve sold quilts made by the Sweetwaters Quilting Guild, and are working on a web site to market quilts online. We’re also fact finding to identify fund-raising goals to provide this Zulu community infrastructure and equipment.

Point West annually hosts a high school foreign exchange student. We nominate candidates for Rotary’s Ambassadorial Program, which provides undergraduate and graduate scholarships for study abroad.  We also propose candidates for Rotary’s Group Study Exchange, which allows professionals 25-40 to travel and study as a team abroad. We also help host Rotary GSE teams visiting the United States.

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Our softball team battles weekly during the summer against other Rotary teams, then celebrates or commiserates over pizza and beer. Our annual golf tournament is a popular social and fund-raising event in which members and guests enjoy a top golf course, lunch and, via cart service, snacks and beer.  And at our annual Bowling Bash, you’ll find members, wives, girlfriends, boyfriends, friends, kids, food and beer. By the way, if Point West athletics appeals to you, so too will our annual Brewfest.

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Our premiere club events are the annual Cocktail Party, which is usually held in the fall, and the Demotion Party, which is held shortly following the end of the president’s term in June. The Cocktail Party’s format has varied, but traditionally it involves members and significant others meeting at a member’s home for cocktails, then dividing up into randomly chosen groups that dine at different restaurants.  The Demotion Party is a cocktail and/or dinner bash to celebrate the outgoing president that has been held at about every kind of venue imaginable.

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Point West annually bestows awards to outstanding  local teachers, firefighters and police. Our Teacher of the Year Awards meeting features principals of Encina High School and Jonas Salk Middle School conferring awards on a teacher from each school’s faculty. Fire chiefs of the City of Sacramento Fire Department and Sacramento Metropolitan Fire District each name a Firefighter of the Year, and the Sacramento County Sheriff and Sacramento Police Chief respectively name the Sheriff Deputy of the Year and Police Officer of the Year.

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The Point West Rotary Foundation is a separate IRC 501(c)3 entity whose permanent fund is approaching $400,000.  The Foundation’s board is entrusted with growing this principal as well as generating residue for charities of the club. Many of the recipients for club grants are selected by the Benevolent Giving Committee, which dispensed more than $30,000 during the 2006-07 term.