MEETING OF AUGUST 31 , 2000 Writer: Mary Prochnow
PRESIDENT-ELECT FIROOZ GHAFFARI led today's meeting in the absence of PRESIDENT GINNY. PAT FARRELL led the crowd in the Pledge of Allegiance. JEAN HOLLANDS shared the day's thought about men and women -loosely translated it was "never the twain shall meet" PAST PRESIDENT ROY LAVE introduced visiting ROTARIANS and guests.
JIM CONWAY was with us for the first time since his back surgery. He commented on the fact that he had belonged to many groups in his life but never one which engendered so much friendship and enjoyment among the members. He and his wife are off soon to Palm Desert. We wish him continued successful recovery and a happy new adventure.
ROLAND PAYNE, sponsored by STEVE SHEPHERD, and WES OLSON, sponsored by DICK HENNING, became our newest members, receiving their Blue Badges.
PAT FARRELL joined the PRESIDENT'S CLUB.
Proud new grandmother MARGE GRATIOT regaled us with news of Jason William Gratiot, a REDHEAD, born August 24th , weighing 7lb 12oz (Now ,with our test scores at the top of the state chart, Jason had better be getting ready to perform as we speak, don't you think?) MARGE also shared the joyous news that daughter Kate married Eric Whittington recently. They will be living in Minneapolis. Congratulations around!
The ROTARY AIDS PROJECT is in the process of evolution and would like you to participate if you are interested. As you remember, the RED BADGE CLUB did a superior job of raising funds to be used toward a project in SANDOWN, SOUTH AFRICA. That fact combined with a few others has breathed new life into the RAP committee. There will be more information coming to you as ideas coalesce, but if you have interest please contact ALAN LAMBERT, DICK HASENPFLUG, DUDE ANGIUS, MARLENE COWAN, ROY LAVE, JEAN NEWTON, SAM PESNER OR MARY PROCHNOW. The committee is beginning to see an opportunity to make a significant contribution based on the recognition given to the project within and outside of Rotary. New ideas, contributed by new committee members,in a new era, offer unlimited possibilities. Contact any member if you are interested.
PRESIDENT ELECT FIROOZ GHAFFARI did an artful job of introducing our speaker, CARL GUARDINO, as CARL was being interviewed in the foyer by Channel 5 NEWS. CARL GUARDINO heads the SILICON VALLEY MANUFACTURER'S GROUP originally founded by DAVID PACKARD to solve some of the growing valley's problems. CARL lives in Mountain View and belongs to the downtown SAN JOSE ROTARY CLUB. He is known as a consensus builder.
All were invited to attend SILICON VALLEY PROJECTIONS 2000 at STANFORD UNIVERSITY on September 20,2000 (info at www.projections.org) a day designed to take input regarding the issues that the Manufacturing Group addresses: TRANSPORTATION, EDUCATION, HOUSING, THE ENVIRONMENT and ENERGY (a new topic this year). A two-day conference will then be held to develop a three-year business plan based on the opinions given by the community at PROJECTIONS 2000. ABAG has projected that their will be 180,000 new jobs in Silicon Valley and 250,000 more people in the next ten years. Not surprisingly, when 80 tops CEO's were asked what the key issues were in making their companies successful in the next ten years their number one response was HOUSING SOLUTIONS, second came TRANSPORTATION OPTIONS followed by QUALITY EDUCATION.
THE MANUFACTURING GROUP is sponsoring initiatives on these subjects. They are involved in the HOUSING TRUST, trying to help first time homebuyers, renters and those in shelters. They are forging partnerships to get rail around the bay to counter the current 21-miles per hour average commute hour speed in the Bay Area. They are partnering with 44 school districts to offer solutions to some of their problems. For many school districts, the number one challenge is keeping good teachers. Fifty percent of new teachers quit within four years and the number one reason stated for leaving upon exit interview is the prohibitive cost of housing. The needs are obvious to each of us. It is good to know that SILICON VALLEY MANUFACTURING GROUP and its many partners are working together to find solutions.
Here's hoping that the warm sunshine has returned as you read this. Have a Happy Labor Day!
President's Message My thanks to Pres. Elect Firooz for filling in for me on Thursday. I have bronchitis, and it seems to like where it's residing. At this point, I can only hope to join you this week, when we will have a topical program by one of our members, Roy Lave, whose professional expertise and long experience, will bring us more thoughts on the issue of mass transportation in the bay area.
Also, as the fall season approached, it was time for me, as your club President, to let the neighborhood of Orange Avenue, near Shoup Park, know that our club would no longer be providing special activities on Halloween night. For the past few years, volunteers from our club have organized the closure of Orange Avenue to through traffic, in order to provide a Halloween Safe Street event. This idea was originally brought to the club by Francis La Poll. It was fun, and enjoyed by the many children who normally trick-or-treat in this neighborhood. However, though we had never advertised the event, it grew very large by word of mouth, and was becoming a burden on one small neighborhood.
Through board discussions over several months, earlier this year, it was decided to discontinue this activity. Last week I hand-addressed and mailed letters to every resident on Orange Avenue, thanking them for their cooperation, and stating that the week before Halloween, we will put a notice in the Bullis Elementary School newsletter, and the Town Crier, if possible, asking parents not to drive their children to this area on Halloween night, as no special events will occur.
As you well know, one of the major purposes of Rotary is Community Service and we are always open to new ideas on how to be of such service. Sometimes those ideas work beyond our wildest expectations, such as our award winning "The Los Altos Story" and even Partners for New Generations. Sometimes they have unanticipated outcomes, and the attraction of the Safe Halloween program was not anticipated.
Our sincere thanks go to Francis and his wife, Myla, for their efforts over these years to organize this event, and to those who also lent their support. We appreciate it very much.
I hope to see you this Thursday. Ginny
Letter to the Editor:
About Last Week's RotatorSpeaking as one of the strong-numbers people, but as one who owned but never wore a slide rule holster, neither owned nor wore a plastic pocket protector, we viewed the ability to walk and chew gum simultaneously as highly overrated. Grasping the subtleties of Maxwell's unified electromagnetic field theory equations or the second law of thermodynamics on the other hand ...
Jerry Tomanek
COMING EVENTS September
Sept. 7 - Roy Lave, Ph.D. - BRT - BART's Really Terrible
Sept. 14 - Walter Hayes, World Community Service
Sept. 21 - Peter Magowan
Sept. 28 - Dr. Robert Caret, Pres., SJSUOctober
Oct. 5 - To be announced
Oct. 12 - Richard L Henning
Oct. 19 - Supervisor Joe Simitian and Deborah Wilder
Oct. 26 - Rose Johnson, RotaCare
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