MEETING OF JULY 25, 2002
By: Matt Cabot
Editor - Steve GruberFollowing the pledge, lead by troop 37 Color Guard, and a fitting round of "God Bless America," conducted by Seth Manning, I recited my favorite poem, "I Bargained with Life"
I am sorely tempted to reprint that poem here because I think it presents an interesting view on success. But I won't. If you want to read the text, just do a Google search on "I Bargained with Life for a Penny" and you will find 113 references to the poem, often quoted in "success" oriented websites, and poem collections.
It is often erroneously attributed to Jessie B. Rittenhouse. Rittenhouse compiled a number of "collections" of poems in the early nineteen hundreds from the late eighteen hundreds to the early nineteen hundreds. He did not write the poem. It was written by that prolific poet, "Anonymous" Sounds Greek to me, but there you go.
This points out one of the real problems with the Internet. It used to be that we were naturally skeptical of things in print. The most famous example I am aware of is the Dewey - Truman headlines. But there is very little "validation" of what we take as fact on the internet.
Fortunately there were 113 references to the poem. If you looked at them all, a more accurate picture of the author would appear. My new rule of thumb would be trust the print media before the internet. But don't trust either. At least the internet does give you the opportunity to check and recheck your references.
A FINE (FREE) DAY: Did anyone else notice that no fines were collected?
SHARING TIME: President Mary has set a goal that we should know more about our fellow members in the coming year. When you think about it, it is not only an admirable task, but a difficult one at that.
We have somewhere around 160 members in our club. Many of the members sit in the same seat every week with their friends, whom they have known for 30 years.
Using the 2001-2002 Rotary Handbook as a source, I come up with the following statistics: 1/3 of our members joined in the 50's, 60's 70's and 80's. Another third joined in the 90's, but heavily skewed towards the later 90's. And a final 1/3 joined in 2000, 2001, and 2002. Put another way, 2/3 of our club members have been members less that 7 years but the other third have been members for over 20 years.
Mary devoted about 15 minutes of our meeting time for informal discussion among the each of the tables to get to know one another better. We were encouraged to give a brief picture of ourselves to the table.
My table was particularly interesting in that because I was writing the Rotator, I picked a table up front (so I could hear) as opposed to a table of "friendly faces" that I knew. As a consequence, I was treated with some interesting facts about people I sort of knew, but really didn't. It definitely was more interesting that I thought it would be.
Years ago when I was in Toastmasters, one of the tricks that they pulled was pick someone out and tell him or her to introduce the person on your left. I think that was shortly before I left Toastmasters.
We have a lot of new members who were invited into our World Famous Club for a reason: Some member felt they could contribute to the continuing success of our club. I think we have resources there just begging to be tapped. What do you think?
ALPHA OMEGA SHELTER HELP Speaking of tapping resources, Seth Manning is looking for an individual to coordinate our involvement in the Alpha Omega Shelter. Seth assures me that "Coordinator" is not a euphemism for "worker." This job would be to coordinate the dinner meals once a quarter for 12 deserving homeless people. Even if your coordinating skills were extremely poor, doing a meal for 12 people once a quarter isn't all that much work. Give Seth a call at (work) 1-408-364-8130 or (home) 1-650-3663. See, I even looked up the number for you. Tap…Tap…Tap.
ALPHA OMEGA SHELTER - UPDATE Now that I have made you all feel guilty, let me say that I just heard from Seth Manning. Joan Roselle will coordinate the program for the next year. Thanks for stepping forward, Joan Everyone else can expect a call.
DUES UP, AND YARBROUGH ELEVATED: You may have noticed that our dues have increased. All the normal reasons. Democrats are in power. Oops. Forget I said that. The Board also appointed Senior Active, Steve Yarbrough to fill the vacant board position created by the resignation of ROTARIAN OF THE YEAR, Victoria Emmons.
SWEET NOTHINGS: As a 50-year club, dating to the foundings of modern Los Altos, Los Altos Rotary was asked to participate in the 50th year celebration of our city's incorporation. Our task is the manning (I guess that is peopling, now) of the Cotton Candy machine on the 25th of August. Talk to Mike Schneider. Tap…Tap…Tap.
Apparently Wyatt Alan was left off the kudos for the Art show. I guess it became apparent when someone asked who was holding the money. Thanks Wyatt. I know it is a tough job to count someone else's money.
HANDBOOK UPDATE: President Mary has asked everyone to check their listing in the handbook, or go another year with the same misinformation. Did you know that Seth Manning has no Rotary Service? Well, remember what I said about the printed word. Actually Seth Manning was a Director of community Services last year. Now if they could forget that, imagine what your listing is lacking. Check it out and either update it yourself on line if you remember your password, or tell Mary, and she will see it gets updated. No, don't tell Mary, I was just kidding. In the next week or so, a "proof" will be passed out at the meeting. Review it and correct as needed. Of course if you don't come to the meeting…well…
PROGRAM OF THE DAY Dick Henning introduced Dr. Jay Manley, director of the Drama program at Foothill College. Dr. Manley as been at Foothill since 1976.
Dr. Manley spoke about the origins of the American Musical Theatre, the Summer Musicals at Foothill, and specifically about the current offering " Leonard Bernstein's "On the Town. Playing July 19 thru August 11th. Call 1-650-948-4444 for dates, times and tickets.
Programs and Events
August
August 1 - John Hopkins, "The Rise and Fall of the Estate Tax"
August 8 - John Busterud: Author & Rotarian from Palo Alto University Club, "Below The Salt: How the 90th Division Struck Gold and Treasure in a Nazi Salt Mine in WWII"
August 15 - Michael Kirst, "School Funding"
August 22 - Carl Guardino: President & CEO of Silicon Valley Manufacturing Group, "Silicon Valley: State of the Valley and the Economy"
August 29 - Joyce Friedrichs: Education Director for Biz World, "Teaching Business & Entrepreneurship To Kids"
"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 2002 The Los Altos Rotary Club
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