MEETING
OF JUNE 12, 2003
Rotator Writer:
Cindy
Luedtke
Editor:
Dick Blanding
Webmaster:
Jack
Heidmiller for Steve Gruber
There
was good reason to sing “When Irish Eyes are Smiling” since Mary’s
probably looking forward to finishing off a great year.
In his Dr. Suess inspiration, Clyde Noel did an excellent job of
explaining why we’re “Haggle Waggled” and sometimes it even straggled.
We’re getting older. Thanks,
Clyde. I was wondering about that.
President-Elect
Al Traficanti introduced visiting guests including Ben McGann’s brother who
is a member of the Santa Clara Rotary. Al
then gave us a very short description of his trip to the International Rotary
Conference in Brisbane. He found
the outgoing International President, Bhichai Rattakul to be an impressive
speaker of utmost sincerity and inspiration.
Announcements;
Lucy
Rasmussen would love some assistance in packing books.
If you can spare some time after the meeting next Thursday, please
help.
Firooz
announced there is a signup sheet to make your reservations for the annual
Kick-out Party to be held at the Los Altos Country Club on the evening of
Friday, June 27th. There is also
an envelope attached where you can put your money (whether you come or not).
If you can’t find the sign up sheet, call Firooz and send him a check
for $48.00 per person. Attire is country club casual.
John Sines, Finemaster for the day, thought he would make a “Midwest
Sweep” using Chicago as his theme. Chuck
Hess took the easy way out and paid his money to the Presidential Club rather
than take any guff from John. He
thought he escaped telling everyone about his having a 60th
birthday in Monte Carlo, but Mary got him later.
Luckily
there were plenty of people that had something interesting to say about
Chicago. Al Traficanti lived
there until he was a teenager. John
“Fish Story” Sylvester spoke about baseball legend Hack Wilson of the
Chicago Cubs and his fight against worms. Les Olson got his say about
Chicago’s great museums since he was $82.00 short.
There was a short lapse of Chicago knowledge when we got to Jerry
Moison and Bob Cathcart. But
Jerry is seeing the play “Chicago” in London and that should count for
something. Of course Roy Lave, an
Illinois native, spoke of the great transit system in Chicago.
Rich Fischer knew something about the basketball in town and
contributed his $100 since he was about one foot short of playing for the
Bulls at one time.
The
International Conference will be held in Chicago, the birthplace of Rotary, in
Spring of 2005 to celebrate Rotary’s big Centennial year. I will be going to
Osaka for next year’s conference, but I plan to join whoever the next
president is, in Chicago in 2005. By
the way, this Midwesterner was surprised that no one mentioned the lively
night life and great shopping, so I will.
In fact, lets all go!
Jean
Mordo gave his five minute talk.
He was born in Cairo, Egypt. Jean
attended French School there. At
the age of 11 he moved with his family to Paris where later he obtained his
engineering degree. In 1969 he came to New York to work for Shell Oil.
He attended business school at Stanford in 1970 to 1972.
He was then back to New York to do consulting work.
Jean met his wife-to-be Barbara, a kindergarten teacher in Connecticut
in 1984 and married her in 1985. They
then moved to Ohio where he worked for the Scotts Company.
He has been CFO for Otis, Kraft Whitney, and most recently,
Knight-Ridder. At Knight-Ridder
he discovered he and his boss did not get along so well. Since the boss had
his name on the building, Jean decided to retire in 2001. Jean has three grown children, two living in the Bay Area.
Los
Altos Rotary Endowment Fund
Sam
Pesner, President of the Los Altos Rotary Endowment Fund (LAREF) opened the
program with an introduction of the current LAREF Board.
Investment
Committee
Chuck
Hess presented to the Club, a summary report from the Investment Committee.
The group is comprised of Steve Anderson, Chuck Hess, Bruce Cann and
Rick Glaze. Though it’s been a
rough time to make investment decisions, the group is proud of the performance
of the investments chosen, particularly in the equity funds that have
outperformed their peers.
Contributions
Committee
Jane
Reed, as Chair of the Contributions Committee reported on the changes in
procedure that have helped to streamline the process of approving grants.
There is now a standardized form that is required to be completed by
parties interested in receiving LAREF funds.
Additional budget and other financial information may be required
depending on the size of the request. The
guidelines for giving are now online on the Rotary Club’s website.
Though there were fewer funds available to give than in prior years,
LAREF was able to fund many worthwhile projects.
A summary of LAREF’s grants that passed through the Contributions
Committee was handed out to those present.
This year, LAREF substantially increased the amount of money given in
scholarships from prior years.
Scholarships
Marlene
Cowan took a couple of minutes to summarize the scholarship program this past
year. The committee interviewed
18 applicants and awarded 10 scholarships which ranged in amounts of $500 to
$2,500. She described some of the
scholarship recipients and congratulated LAREF in its decision to fund $15,000
this year (from $10,000 in past recent years) due to the higher cost of
education and the increased need for assistance in this difficult economic
time for many of the families.
Centennial
Project Presentation
Next,
President Mary presented a $20,000 check to Joan Rosselle representing the El
Camino Hospital Foundation. This
represents the first installment of the Club’s $50,000 pledge to pay for the
capital improvements and move of the Rotacare Clinic.
Los
Altos Rotary Legacy
Concluding
the LAREF presentation, Chuck Hess encouraged Rotarians present to consider
putting LAREF as a beneficiary of their trusts or wills.
Doing so will entitle them as a designated LARL member, and more
importantly, assist the Club in meeting future funding needs by building a
corpus large enough to earn enough interest and dividend income so there would
not need to be full reliance on Art Show proceeds each year.
A letter will be sent out to Rotary members in the next two weeks
reminding us to remember LARL. Please
carefully consider LAREF next time you review your estate plan.
The
program ended in congratulations to the newly elected LAREF board members, Bella
Berly, Mary Marley, and Firooz Ghaffari.
Mary
P. ended the meeting by reminding us to think of Kelly Hudson who is right now
bicycling 585 miles to Los Angeles in an effort to raise money for cancer
research. We’re rooting for
you, Kelly.
Programs and Events
June
June 26: Kickout Luncheon
June 27: Kickout Dinner, 6:15 p.m., Los Altos Golf and Country Club
July
July 3: No meeting
July 10: Club assembly
July 12 and 13: Rotary booth # F5 at the Los Altos Village Art and Wine
Festival will be selling Chef Chu's Chinese Chicken Salad. Food area is
in parking lot behind Town Crier & State
OTHER ROTARY CLUB MEETING
PLACES
On-line Meeting:
www.rotaryeclubone.org
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: Boys & Girls Club of the Peninsula, 2031 Pulgas Avenue, East Palo Alto,
12:15
p.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 2003 The Los Altos
Rotary Club
