MEETING OF JANUARY 30, 2003
By Dick Blanding
With a Hail, Hail, the Gang’s All Here from Alan Lambert and an old-timer Thought delivered by David Dye, our last meeting of the first month of 2003 got underway. Dick Blanding introduced “the most beautiful girl in the world”, his mom Goldia, who came all the way from Ely, Nevada in 1913, via the University of Michigan, Wash. D.C., Santa Monica, and Scottsdale to join us for lunch today, and to celebrate her turning the big Nine-oh.Jack Heidmiller invited everyone to attend the next Rotary International Conference in Brisbane, Australia, and he also told about our local Sister Cities organization, with its Australian affiliations.
Grand Poobah Jerry Moison reminded us that May 17th and 18th are the dates of our 2003 Art Show. First meeting of the various chairpersons will be at Tracie Murray’s on February 12th. Please call Jerry asap if you would like to take over the fun job of coordinating the entertainers for the show, assisted by last year’s chair, Phil Rose.
Cindy, our Pres. Elect Elect, told about the good food and fun coming up soon at our annual Cioppino Feed, on March 7th. Invites are in the mail; get your reservation in soon.
John Sylvester, that shyest of young Rotarians, gave his five minute talk to the club today. He was born on April 15th, causing the IRS to move the deadline for paying your taxes to that date in his honor. He grew up in King City in the Central Valley, known as the “Pink Bean Capitol of the World”, where he was well known for his mediocrity in several sports. John played both baseball and football, but his reputation in athletics was cemented when he missed two free throws in a row for his basketball team, to insure a one point victory for the opposition.
From there he was thrown to the Hungry Tigers of U.O.P, eventually emerging as a stalwart young Naval Officer who actually led Malaysian troops in the Congo. You’ll have to ask him about the details of how that all fits together. At long last, however, he was able to realize his lifelong ambition of becoming an Insurance Guy, which he uses to fill the time in his days when he’s not playing as a most accomplished jazz musician.
Dr. Steven Lahain of Avanti Foundation told us about the organization’s policy of “a hand up, not a handout.” He described a program called BIDS which teaches underprivileged kids about the stock market, citing the fact that up to 2/3 of their kids begin not even being able to write in their own native language, be it Spanish, Cambodian, or whatever. The kids are encouraged to learn to speak English in order to succeed in America. One tool the program uses is to ask which a child would prefer, $1000 now, or 1 penny today, double that tomorrow, double that the next day, and keep doubling daily for a whole month. To save you the time of doing what I just did, he’s correct when he says the latter choice produces a sum of around 5 million dollars by the end of the month. Arnold Schwarzenegger supports this program in a big way, with his personal donation of $300 for each $100 that is raised by the Avanti Foundation.
Finemaster Mike Schneider, another good Irish lad, warmed the cockles of everyone’s heart by starting off his fining with a $40 dent in his own wallet. Helen Presti joined the President’s Club for not knowing the number of lawyers in California. It’s more than the population of some cities, being 190,000 lawyers in our state alone, and even exceeding the number of nail salons in Los Altos! Mike was then roundly sassed by Brenda Neidert, in the process of trying to levy a fine upon her for being sassy to last week’s finemaster.
Former Mayor and all around good fellow Lou Becker was presented with his Blue Badge by President Mary, culminating in a standing ovation for Lou.
Our speaker today was Stephen Wu, the CEO of InfoSec Law Group (ILG), and of the consulting firm Infoliance, Inc., here in Los Altos. He is a graduate of Harvard Law School, and managed security policies and legal maters with VeriSign for five years. His topic today was the challenge of security for a small or medium sized business. Topics included computer viruses and worms, paper records and electronic records, physical security of buildings, trustworthiness of personnel, and risk management for man-made and natural disasters.
He said in our rapidly changing world, we all have a security problem. We are changing from doing business by paper to doing business electronically. Information is money; one’s creativity, and one’s money are held in electronic forms. He wonders if the next Pearl Harbor might be a cyber attack. As a small business owner, you are charged by law with the responsibility to protect the private information you maintain on your clients. If you are careless or fail to take steps generally regarded as reasonable and prudent, you may be held liable if your security is breached.
Suggestions to avoid security problems were: find out your legal requirements; do a security assessment; take a risk management approach to protection; implement cost effective fixes; then DOCUMENT what steps you have taken; plan for contingencies and disasters; get relevant training and education, and develop a “culture of security”.
The answer to an often-asked question was “yes, you can get a virus on your computer from an email as well as from something you’ve downloaded.”
From Bob Adams: The Los Altos Rotary Club rallied to bring many warn clothes for the "Winter Afghanistan Clothing Drive". These clothes are on their way to Kabul as we speak. Our club collected 1,500 pounds of clothing, which fit into 30 large boxes. Thanks to all of you for you contributions. Extra special thanks goes to Dick Hasenpflug, Carew McFall, Walt Scholey, Allart Ligtenberg, Joe Corrall and Matt Cabot (Chief Haberdasher) for taking inventory and boxing these items for shipping. Even the Alta Vista HS Interact Club sent four students to assist with the project.
Programs and Events
February
February 6: Paul Roy Ph.D. "What's Going on in Psychology Today"
February 13: Robert Fish "Dealing with Stress- The camel has its nose under the tent."
February 20: Walter Hays "Polio Plus Project"
February 27: Silvia Hines "About the YWCA" and David Dye "About the Boy Scouts"OTHER 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.
THURSDAY
Palo Alto Sunrise: Scott's, Town & Country, Palo Alto, 7:15 a.m.
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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