MEETING OF MAY 2, 2002
By Cynthia M. Luedtke
Editor: Dick Blanding
Webmaster - Steve GruberMary Prochnow invited interested Rotarians to attend the upcoming District Assembly in Santa Clara at the Marriott beginning with a dinner event on Thursday, May 16th and ending on Saturday morning, May 18th . The theme of the assembly is "Revelry". So wake up and be counted. [Editor's note: does "revelry" have a second meaning, pertaining to that old bugle call at the crack of dawn? Party on!!!]
The Los Altos Sunset Rotary Club is sponsoring a raffle. Prizes include a refurbished mobile home, $15,000 cash and a trip to Maui. One of our long-standing members, Bob Cathcart will be the guest speaker at the Los Altos Sunset meeting this coming Tuesday evening.
To raise funds for The Performing Arts Theaters for the High Schools, there will be two separate Grand Opening Galas to be held at Los Altos High School on Friday, May 17th and Mountain View High School on Saturday, May 18th. The schools' Performing Art Students will provide entertainment. The cost of attending is $50.00 per person. If you plan to attend, RSVP by May 8, 2002 by calling (650) 949-5679.
President Firooz invited Susan Wells to address the Rotary Club. Susan is from the Los Altos Parent Preschool. Susan spoke about the impressive gathering of over 900 interested parents that attended a local parenting skills meeting that the school recently sponsored. She has lived in Los Altos for a few years now and is impressed with the area's highly educated, involved and caring residents. The one thing Susan noted was missing in Los Altos is an "Amber Alert". Named after Amber Schwartz, this public siren or alert system would direct the public's attention to any incident of a child abduction within moments of the occurrence, allowing for a higher chance that the child will be located unharmed.
GEORGE PERHAM and ROY LAVE presented a check to Chris Bishop for the Eastside Preparatory School. The money is likely to be used for a Summer Enrichment Program that gives selected students the opportunity to study and stay on a college campus. This experience helps them to feel more confident and comfortable about going to college in the Fall. Chris mentioned two different success stories involving students that have been with the summer program and their continued success in attending Stanford and Columbia Universities.
Mr. Personality, I mean, Personnel, SAM PESNER, along with co-chair MARY MARLEY, announced that the art show assignments are now officially posted. If you have not yet been assigned
to a position, its time to check out the remaining unfilled jobs that still need placements. You might as well get the most desirable of the undesirable jobs.
Membership Chair, ALEX NG presented new member, DAN ARRA who was sponsored by FRANCIS LA POLL. Welcome to Los Altos Rotary, Dan. KURT HUEG, sponsored by DICK HENNING, received his blue badge. Congratulations Kurt.
Michael Noche, the son-in-law of Marilyn and SETH MANNING, delivered an informative presentation about the Philippines. Michael's parents moved to the Bay Area from the Philippines in the 1960's.
The Philippines is made up of 7,107 islands. It was discovered by Magellan in 1521 and named after King Philip of Spain over 300 years ago. The population is around 77 million and over 100 different dialects are spoken. The best time of year to visit is from March to May. Bring your swimsuit, snorkel gear and golf clubs and you will be in good shape.
VICTORIA EMMONS introduced the guest speaker, DAN STOBER. Dan is an editor and reporter at the San Jose Mercury News. Over the past 17 years, he has written about nuclear weapons, and espionage. Recently, Dan co-authored a book about suspected spy Wen Ho Lee called "A
Convenient Spy - Wen Ho Lee and the Politics of Nuclear Espionage".
A graduate of Texas A & M in Mechanical Engineering, Wen Ho Lee was described as a low-ranking "pack rat" at Los Alamos, who collected manuals and computer codes. After the FBI arrested him on suspicion of being a spy to the Chinese Government by supplying them with highly classified computer codes, he was incarcerated in solitary confinement for 274 days before being turned loose. The missing tapes were never found.
Dan spent some time going over some of the history of how Lawrence Livermore Labs and Los Alamos became almost too adversarial and competitive with each other for the country's good. He described some of the politics involved with the espionage story to help us understand the background behind the most recent events surrounding the naming of Lawrence Livermore's new director.
Programs and Events
May
May 9 - Rotacare
May 16 - Dr. Avis Begoun: "Identifying and Resolving Patterns of Conflict in Couple Relationships"
May 23 - Rotary Scholarships
May 30 - Rotary Aids Project
June
June 6 - LAREF
"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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