MEETING OF APRIL 17, 2003 By Matt Cabot
Dick Blanding, EditorBoy Scout Troop 37’s Color Guard signaled the beginning of another glorious club meeting. Somehow ‘club’ doesn’t fully describe our ‘club’ When I think of ‘club’ I think of Spanky and Our Gang, their clubhouse and the antics of little boys.
Group, assembly, tribe, enclave, don’t come any closer. How about ‘society’? That probably comes closer than club, but “Los Altos Rotary Society” seems a bit uppity. Walking down to the meeting today, I was thinking about this, and how our luncheon meetings are really a small part of who we are and what we do. Each week we get together to socialize, and bring one and another up on what we have been doing (in the name of Rotary during the prior week, or what will be coming up, again in the name of Rotary during the next few weeks. What we are, and who we are is really contained in these little, seemingly innocuous announcements. Here are a few examples from today’s meeting:
There was a big butcher-paper sign taped across the front wall, claiming a big thank you to the approximate 31 members who helped move RotaCare from their old digs to the new location at El Camino Hospital. What isn’t seen in that grand but simple thanks the work of about a quarter of our club who came out and lent their backs to the move. I looked around and there was at least 1 person at every table who stood to be recognized. That’s a pretty good cross section of members, and a good example of the work (in this case, physical) that takes place weekly by our members.
Jerry Tomanek mentioned an opportunity for Rotarians to work at the Chef Chu’s Chicken Salad Booth during the Los Altos Art and Wine festival in July. See him or sign up on the signup sheet that will be coming around for the next few weeks. He is also looking for a leader.
During the week there are RAP meetings (Rotary AIDS Project), WCS (World Community Service) meetings, Art and Wine Festival committee meetings etc. Our luncheon meetings, as great as they are, with their social intercourse, informative speakers and great food, are quite literally the tip of the Rotary iceberg. A visitor to our luncheons would be mistaken to think this was “Rotary.” They would be amazed at the sheer size of the work that goes on outside of these luncheons.
Because of the weather, further singing of “April Showers” has been canceled until further notice. (Sometime in August, is my guess.)
Instead we sang “Take Me out to the Ball Game” at the request of BOB ADAMS, who is in Scandinavia learning how to use the internet to check up on his favorite team.
Today we had two visiting Rotarians, one from Wooster England Rotary club that has 40 members, and no women. We also had 4 guests.
SCOUTING FACTOIDS Dick Blanding introduced the Scoutmaster of Troop 37, Gordon Abraham, and presented him with a check for $500 from the Los Altos Rotary Endowment Foundation to help defray expenses of the troop. They talked about the troop that we help sponsor. The Troop is 85 years old, older than our Rotary club by 30 years. It was founded with the help of Guy Shoup, who was also our first Club President. The troop has over 130 scouts, 2 new Eagle scouts this year , and 3 more almost there. Recently they completed 1500 hrs of local community service, plus another 1,000 hours last year in Costa Rica. The Scoutmaster also mentioned that the Boy Scouts and the U.S. Military are the only two organizations sanctioned to perform proper destruction of old, worn out flags.
GETTING TO KNOW YOU Valorie Carpenter gave her 5 minute speech to introduce herself to us. She weaved a tapestry of herself containing 7 threads: Music, Travel, Career, Family, Giving Back, Real Estate and Civic. Briefly, she comes from a musical family, loves to travel, has a marketing consulting company in Los Altos. She is from Chicago, is married and has two daughters. She is on the board of directors of four non profits, and a life time member of the Girl Scouts. She enjoys building homes, and is a member of the Los Altos Historical society. There, I was listening! But naturally there is a lot more about Valorie that you missed if you did not make today’s meeting and did not hear her easy remarks.
DISTRICT CONFERENCE coming up on April 25, 26 and 27. Take a look at this link: http://www.rotary5170.org/district/default.asp for more information.
Also Los Altos Chamber of Commerce Business Expo 2002 is being held a year late, this Thursday from 4 to 7 PM. Hey, I can’t help it, that what the coupon says. “Los Altos Chamber of Commerce Business EXPO 2002”.
MOUNTAIN VIEW ROTARY CLUB is having a Reverse Lottery on May 28th. Better odds than our state lottery. 1 to 10 you get your money back. Last ticket to be drawn receives $5,000. Come on now, all of you who complain about always being last, this is your opportunity to hit it big. Call Bud Kobza at 650-961-6103 or Jim Spangler at 650-948-6619 for tickets.
LOS ALTOS ROTARY POLIO ERADICATION FUND is coming close to meeting its goal. Currently we are at $34,285, and that is before the Live Auction to be held on May 1st.
FORE! Anyone? Our annual Golf, dinner and poker night will be held on May 9th at 10 am. See STEVE SHEPHERD for further information. Still a couple of places for golf, and lots of places for dinner and poker.
TODAY'S PROGRAM: JOHN CARDOZA introduced today’s speaker, James Sibley, from the Santa Clara District Attorney’s office who spoke on Silicon Valley’s response to High Tech crimes. He spoke of some of the ‘low tech’ crimes like hijacking trucks
containing computer chips that are worth more than their weight in gold, disgruntled employees, to counterfeiting, trade secret theft, to high tech identify theft.
He spoke about the success of the county’s R.E.A.C.T. group which is an amalgam of agencies like local law enforcement, DA’s office, FBI, Customs etc. There are 2.5 million references to “R.E.A.C.T.” so I can’t give you more specific information about them, but suffice it to say that they’re a very effective cross-jurisdictional team.
He said that identity theft is probably the biggest concern on the horizon. We should all go out and buy shredders. How many times do we read about someone stealing outgoing mail from our mail boxes. My suggestion is to get rid of the red flag. Have the postman look for outgoing mail. Why bring it to the attention of potential thieves.
Mr. Sibley did mention the Nigerian scam, or called the 419 scam in response to one of the Rotarian’s questions. More information about that little ditty can be found at: http://home.rica.net/alphae/419coal/ and I would suggest that everyone do their own search on “Nigerian scam.” There were 58 THOUSAND references to it on the Web.
See you next week!
Programs and Events
April
April 24: Judge Len Edwards, Judge of the Superior Court of Santa Clara County. Topic: Working with Abused and Neglected Children.
May
May 1: Rotary Salmon Picnic, Garden House Picnic Grove, Grill. Program topic: Fish Stories and Live Auction.
May 8: Partners for a New Generations, Appreciation Luncheon
May 9: Golf Tournament, 10:00 AM at Shoreline Golf Links, Mountain View
May 15: Cheryl Houts, Community Librarian, Los Altos Library - Topic: "The Los Altos Library in 2003 and Beyond"
May 17 and 18: Rotary Fine Art Show
May 22: George Koo, Director of Chinese Services Group, Deloitte & Touche - Topic: " Economic Integration of Greater China and Implications for California".
May 29: Scholarship Awards ProgramOTHER ROTARY CLUB MEETING PLACES
MONDAY
Palo Alto: Rickey's Hyatt House, 12:15 p.m.
TUESDAY
Los Altos Sunset: The Echo Restaurant, Los Altos, 7:15 p.m.
Sunnyvale: Ramada Inn, 12:15 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.
Sunnyvale Sunrise: Wild Woodys Grill, Sunken Gardens Golf Course, 7 a.m.
Cupertino: Quinlan Community Center, 12:15 p.m.
East Palo Alto Bayshore: Starbucks, Home Depot EXPO Shopping Center, East Palo Alto, 12:15 p.m.
THURSDAY
Yosemite: The Ahwahnee Hotel, Noon
FRIDAY
Palo Alto University: Sheraton, El Camino, Palo Alto, 7:30 a.m.
Lake Tahoe: Harvey's Hotel, 12:15 p.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 2003 The Los Altos Rotary Club
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