MEETING OF FEBRUARY 22, 2001

By Mary Prochnow

With great hope we began by singing YOU ARE MY SUNSHINE with a little help from SETH MANNING.

DWIGHT MATTHEWS was willing to share two thoughts. One of those thoughts "It is nice to be important, but more important to be nice" was illustrated by a real life experience, which delivered some valuable insight along with the thought.

ELLEN YAMANE FLANAGAN gave her "five minute talk." (Nervous about the talk, Ellen had asked her brother for advice. He suggested that she imagine that the members of the audience were sitting in their underwear. This technique must have worked as Ellen did a masterful job!) ELLEN is a third generation Japanese-American with an Irish last name, raised in Los Altos. Her great-grandfather came to America to work on the railroad. ELLEN attended Santa Rita, Egan, Los Altos High and UC Davis. ELLEN is a busy gemologist at YAMANE JEWELERS on the El Camino. She and husband Kevin share many interesting hobbies and ELLEN brought along an exquisite traditional Japanese doll, which is one of those that she creates. Each doll takes 2-4 YEARS to complete and the result is magnificent. WELCOME ELLEN! It is wonderful to have you with us.

PRESIDENT GINNY, with some input from BOO BUE, reported that BILLY RUSSELL is doing very well and may drive on in to next week's meeting. We look forward to seeing you, BILLY. VICTORIA EMMONS "confessed" that a BMW has arrived in her life as an early Valentine from her husband. MARK SMALLHOUSE tendered his resignation from our club as he joined RENO SOUTH. (See below for a picture of MARK'S twins.)

MARTY SPANGLER and CINDY DAY were wished a HAPPY BIRTHDAY. Next week marks the 52nd anniversary of our club charter. President GINNY invited Mountain View Rotary Club to join us in appreciation of their having been our original sponsors.

The ROTARY AIDS PROJECT (RAP) will meet Tuesday evening, February 27th at 7pm at Hillview Community Center Room A. Geoff Ball will facilitate our conversation. Anyone is welcome, but we are particularly hoping to see each of you who signed up last December. The worldwide AIDS problem can appear to be overwhelming, but the severity of the situation has rather to inspire each of us to do something. Please join us with your thoughts and ideas and let's see what we can do! Synergy can bring miraculous results!!

PRESIDENT ELECT FIROOZ GHAFFARI introduced our own KAREN FOX. KAREN is Associate Professor of Marketing at Santa Clara University where she specializes in marketing for non-profits. KAREN took her first trip to Russia in 1995. She has given seminars in marketing there and in 1998 she spent six months in Russia as a FULBRIGHT lecturer. (As a young girl Karen had a geography book which depicted a typical street in Leningrad…It might be a lesson in dream fulfillment that Karen occupied one of the houses in that photo during her six month stay)

"RUSSIA TODAY"

In answer to the question, "What will Russia do?" which was posed to him one month after the invasion of Poland in October of 1939, WINSTON CHURCHILL described Russia as "a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma". Russia has 165 million people and 11 time zones. KAREN chose to define it by describing four groups of Russians.

The first group she described was the "lovers of arts &culture" who enjoy European music and art, the latest US films dubbed in Russian, and the six million treasures of the HERMITAGE.

The second group consists of Russian Rotarians. There are three clubs in St. Petersburg. One club meets once a month in the famous WINTER PALACE of Romanoff fame while the members can barely afford to pay RI fees and they dine in the ornate red brocade dining room overlooking the river. (These people were the recipients of the warm winter clothes which some of you sent along with Karen. She will have room in her baggage for more clothes this April. Bring them to the meetings if you have some to donate.)

RUSSIANS WITH HIV compose the third group. In St Petersburg there were 440 new cases of HIV reported in 1999 and 5400 in 2000. In all of Russia there are 1000 new cases of HIV reported each week, while the TRUE number is believed to be 10,000 per week (one more reason to be at Hillview on Tuesday evening) Russia is suffering from the resistance of educators and politicians much as we did in the 80's and early 90's.

The RUSSIAN MIDDLE CLASS is emerging now. 20% of the residents of Moscow are considered middle class. The average middle class person is 32.8 years old, married with 1.2 children. 6% of the total Russian population is considered to be middle class and it is generally accepted that when a nation reaches 30% middle class it has the ability to maintain political and economic stability.66 2/3% of the middle class people work with their brains. They are patriotic and independent with high levels of spendable income.

Karen's speech highlighted once again the rich culture and breadth of knowledge residing here in the LOS ALTOS ROTARY CLUB.

E-mail from Mark Smallhouse: I have attached a picture of our twins that was taken several weeks ago when they were both in the neonatal ICU. In the picture of them together, Megan is on the left, and Matthew is on the right. Both of them are home now and they are healthy and vigorous. At birth, Matt was 3 lbs. 12 ozs., and Meg was 4 lbs. 15 ozs. Currently, they both weigh 7 lbs.

President's Message

Next week we will celebrate the 52nd anniversary of the Los Altos Rotary Club receiving its charter. And, to make the occasion even more festive, last Tuesday, I visited our sponsoring club, the Mountain View Rotary Club, inviting them to join us for this anniversary celebration They agreed in a big way, canceling their next meeting to do one big make-up in Los Altos. We look forward to an extra special day. Bring your favorite club memories, old or new, and together we will celebrate our fellowship and service, since March 5, 1949.

See you Thursday,
Ginny

Programs

February
Feb. 27 - RAP Strategic Planning Session, Hillview, Room A, 7-9 p.m.
March
March 1- Susanne Pari, author - Religion and Politics: How Do They Mix?
March 8 - Marlene Cowan, The Donner Party
March 15 - Elkus Youth Ranch
March 22 - John Giovanola, Hansen Cement Mfg.
March 29 – Dave Mooring, President, Rambus, Inc.
March 30 - Rotary Cioppino Night Dinner at Garden House
April
April 5 - Ted Lempert - EdVoice
April 6-8 - District Conference, Oakland
April 12 - Congresswoman Anna Eshoo
April 19 – Iwao Peter Sano – "1000 Days in Siberia"
April 26 – Partners For New Generations Day
April 27 - Rotary Social Golf Day and BBQ/Poker Night
May
May 3 - Ron Blatman - Cities That Live, Cities That Die
May 10 - George Estill - Travel
May 17 – Chuck Bull, RI Faces the Population Dilemma
May 19-20 -26th Annual Rotary Fine Art in the Park
May 31 – LARC Scholarship Awards Day
June
June 7 – Art Show Appreciation Day
June 14 – LAREF Annual Meeting
June 21 – Bob Hoffman, Cleaned up Mt. Everest
June 28 – Ginny's Kick-out, part 1
June 29 - LARC Kick-out, Dinner/Dance, Fremont Hills Country Club
"Information in this newsletter is intended for the exclusive use of the members of the Rotary Club of Los Altos to facilitate the work of the club and to promote club fellowship. It is not to be used for any commercial or outside, unrelated, non-profit purposes. No publication of material in this newsletter should occur without the express permission of the club President or the Editor of the Rotator."
Copyright 2001 The Los Altos Rotary Club

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