MEETING OF OCTOBER 31, 2002

By Wyatt Allen
Editor Dick Blanding
Webmaster Steve Gruber

BEGINNINGS
The tables were decked out with decorations thanks to the TRAFICANTIS (orange golf balls altered for Halloween) and delicious treats thanks to IRENE PRESTON of Preston's Candies and Ice Cream.

Being Halloween, it seemed only fitting that Snow White (a.k.a. TRACIE MURRAY) offered the Pledge (due to her occupation, I'm glad she didn't choose a costume of the grim reaper or Dracula!).
CRES MCFALL (without costume or dressed as a realtor) changed the words to "Clementine" to provide a fitting song for the day.

MEL KAHN offered several short thoughts for the day that definitely kept us thinking. They included, "It's best to end the game by winning," "It's best to go slowly in case you're going in the wrong direction," "All I want is a little more than I will ever get," "Most of my faults are not my fault."

AL TRAFICANTI introduced visiting Rotarians, including the exchange of club flags with RICK NELSON (not "the Rick Nelson!) visiting from North Carolina. We were blessed with a number of guests today as well.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS
MEL KAHN introduced CHARLES ALPERS as a new member. CHARLES is the general manager of the Los Altos Country Club and lives near the golf course with his spouse, ALLISON and three children. Welcome CHARLES!

FIROOZ GHAFFARI introduced BEN SIAVOSHY as a new member as well. BEN is the new owner and president of Print Innovations and lives in San Jose with his spouse, MARYAM and child NAVA. Welcome BEN!

DAN O'DONNELL presented JACK HIGGINS with his blue badge. Despite DAN stating that Jack took his time in earning his blue badge, I believe JACK fell far short of our club's record for that achievement. Congratulations, JACK!

ANNOUNCEMENTS
BOB ADAMS made a plea for additional mentors for the high schools. Alta Vista, Los Altos and Mountain View all need additional mentors. If you can commit to one to four times each month, please contact MARY MARLEY or LOIS ADAMS.

BOB also reminded us that MATT CABOT will continue to pick up warm clothing for the Afghan clothing drive for the next few weeks. Looks as though arrangements will work out to ship the collected clothes, blankets, shoes, etc. in November.

MARY PROCHNOW asked each member to provide feedback regarding which "Centennial Project" our club should undertake to celebrate Rotary's first 100 years. The ideas under consideration include (a) a room at the new Community School of Music & Art, (b) a wading pool at the proposed swim center (the Rosita site), (c) purchase the "Horse" sculpture what sits on loan at Lincoln Park (where we hold our annual "Fine Art In The Park"), (d) something for Rotacare (perhaps in conjunction with Mountain View Rotary) perhaps for some start on a permanent facility, or (e) any additional idea you may have. Please communicate your opinions and ideas to MARY or any other member of our Board of Directors.

ALERTS
Please note: bring your voting receipt to the November 7th meeting or be prepared to pay a fine for not exercising your right to vote.

Please turn your cell phone off, or at least change it from ring to vibrate, when you attend our Rotary club meeting (or any other meeting for that matter). We had not one, but two phone ring during this week's meeting. So many of us carry a cell phone and forget we have it set to ring for incoming calls. Please respect others, namely whoever is at our podium, to cancel the ring feature while you share our Rotary experience. Thank you for your consideration and respect of others!

RECOGNITION
JOHN SINES began the recognition segment by welcoming CHARLES ALPERS and BEN SIAVOSHY into our club with customary fines. JOHN continued to offer opportunities for select members to discuss their prior jury experiences along with options for recognition payment. They included FIROOZ GHAFFARI, JACK HIGGINS, SHELLY POTVIN SUTTON, ALAN LAMBERT, NELS BURKETT, MARTY SPANGLER, MARION TAVENER and BRIAN WARD.

ALAN LAMBERT provided his five-minute talk (obviously could have used more time). He was born in Paris, France, but he and his mother were sent away during WWII. He arrived in Hollywood via Italy and was sent to a military school along with the offspring of many famous people (troublemakers, as ALAN referred to most of them). His first career seemed to be that as student at Stanford, but the faculty finally created a new degree to graduate him. After several stints with technology firms in the bay area, he began building houses. ALAN is the president of The Gerard Group located on First Street in Los Altos. Despite early and recent experiences that would scare most of us, ALAN continues to develop land and build houses. Although land is no longer available or affordable (or both) in Los Altos Hills, he has built and is building many homes around northern California. ALAN has been extremely dedicated to our Los Altos Rotary AIDS Project since joining in 1991.

AL TRAFICANI introduced our speaker, ROSALIND BIVINGS, president of Four Women Golfers (website is womengolfers.com) and also a candidate for Mountain View City Council. She couldn't completely ignore the upcoming election, but for a politician, she showed excellent restraint in promoting her candidacy. ROSALIND is the author of several books and used some of the material from her writings to enlighten us.

Only three 20th century presidents never played golf (for trivia buffs, the answer is Carter, Hoover and Truman) and the rest of them provided a lot of material for the topic of scary golfers. Eisenhower insisted on so much heavy firepower around him to discourage assassins that even birds flying overhead were not safe. Ford was reckless and nobody ever knew where is next shot would end up….he hit more people than any other president. Clinton was the "happy" golfer….probably because he always cheated at golf to look better than he really was (maybe that trait was not limited to golf!).

Being Halloween, ROSALIND provided some samples of "scary" golfers and situations from her experiences around the game and participation of various prestigious golf courses. She related playing on the new King & Bear course where alligators roam freely. She always went well armed with clubs when venturing into the rough or off course. She has experienced a number of male golfers who can't stand that she can out play them.

ROSALIND also related how the game is approached and considered differently between men and women. It is not only where women hit the ball from: (they tee off closer to the pin than men do.) It's also when younger kids begin to play the game. Boys are encourage to start the game much younger in their development (age 7) than girls (age 13) which may explain why some 200 ladies' full-ride golf scholarships go unfilled each year. Those of us with young daughters who want help paying for college might take note of that last fact.

OTHER NOTES:

The annual Salvation Army bell ringing will be held from Dec. 9 to 13 at Second and Main streets. Shifts will be two hours each, starting at 10 a.m. each day. A signup list will be at the meeting this week.

E-mail from Kailas Chidabaram: Our new R.I. pres Bhichai Rattakul is from Bangkok, Thailand, NOT India as mentioned in the Rotator. I used to see him in the flesh when he was our District Gov. in the days when I was in RC Singapore West. He is an extremely charming man and I do recommend attending the reception for him in Monterey Jan 03.
Regards, Kailas C.

And the latest from Jack Heidmiller: Janice and I will be going to Chile to spend Christmas with our new grandchild. Leaving DEC 10. We are bring some extra things for the school kids and if any one have a Laptop Computer they would like to donate to a high school student we will bring along. Laptops are best for packing and any OS is OK. PC or Mac. They will load with the Spanish software.

Would like to know by DEC 6 so we can check and package. If they call me at home, I'll pick up.

Thanks, Jack


Programs and Events

November
November 7: Valerie Faillace: "Working With Indigenous Indians of Peru & Bolivia"
November 14: Sandy Ellenberg: Plastic Surgeon , Rotarian & RotoPlast "Assisting Third World Countries With Surgery, Cleft Palate"
November 21: Don Allen: District Governor Elect 2003 / 2004 "Polio Plus Program"
November 28: Happy Thanksgiving: No Meeting

NEARBY ROTARY CLUB MEETING PLACES
TUESDAY
Los Altos Sunset: The Echo Restaurant, Los Altos, 7:15 p.m.
Mountain View: Adobe House, Moffett & Central, Mountain View, 12:15 p.m.
WEDNESDAY
Menlo Park: Menlo Park Recreation Center, Menlo Park, noon.
Woodside/Portola: Woodside Village Church, Woodside, 7:30 a.m.
THURSDAY
Palo Alto Sunrise: Scott's, Town & Country, Palo Alto, 7:15 a.m.
FRIDAY
Palo Alto University: Sheraton, El Camino, Palo Alto, 7:30 a.m.

"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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