The newsletter of the Los Altos Rotary Club

President Al opened the meeting a few minutes early and asked Harriet Heebink to lead Rotarians in the pledge of allegiance.

Seth Manning initiated some “depression therapy” leading the group in “When you’re smiling, the whole world smiles with you.”

Baidra Murphy provided the thoughtful insight from the Dali Lama paraphrased as “We can’t be useful to ourselves unless we are useful to others.”

President Elect Cindy Luedtke introduced visiting Rotarians and guests.

President Al announced that nomination would be accepted from the floor for three director’s positions. Hearing none, he closed the nominations and announced that all Rotarians would get email ballots before Feb. 5 and that the election is Feb. 12.

President Al enthused about Clubmate, the Rotary program that tells you everything you need to know that is accessible through our website.. He said you may soon be able to sign up for events online and keep track of who will doing what, when, where and why. He advised that all Rotarians should get acquainted with this helpful tool and praised John Cardoza and Sandi Whipple for their efforts to get it working for our club.

President Al reported that following the club assembly 23 reposes were received as feedback from members. About half were in response to attendance. He indicated that the board is developing a 5-point policy based on the feedback received from members and that it will not be punitive, but encourage greater attendance.

A copy of a good way to remember the 4-Way Test was conveniently placed on each table.

Announcements:

No.1 From Dude:

Congratulations, and many thanks!! Eighty-nine (89) LARC members have joined the Rotarian Fellowship for Fighting AIDS -- a number that will not be matched by any other

club, I'm sure. Such a commitment should provide RAP with significant leverage in Osaka in advancing priorities of importance to our Project. Please view the RFFA website (www.rffa.org) to find out more about the Fellowship, or to help us in reaching our goal of 100% by submitting an application online. A Minor SNAFU: LARC members signing up on 1/22 or 1/29 will receive RFFA membership material directly from the RFFA office in Atlanta, District 6900. The pins distributed Thursday were for those who joined on 1/15 -- in a few cases, some were mistakenly given to those who joined the second week. If you received a pin in error, upon receipt of your pin from Atlanta, would you please return the second one to either Meg Solera or Baidra Murphy.

Many thanks

Dushan (Dude) Angius
Rotary AIDS Project

Jerry Tomanek passed out a survey about lunches and payment, with the following results already tabulated:

1. I would like to be able to pay for Rotary lunches, social events and dues with a credit or debit card.

2. I would like to be able to pay my dues by authorizing a transfer directly from by bank account to Rotary’s bank account.

3. I would like Los Altos Rotary Club to change so that we pay for lunches each quarter in advance, with a credit for makeups but otherwise no credit for missed meetings.

There were a number of interesting comments and suggestions which Jerry says he will write up separately.

Dick Duhring plugged the Great Decision Study Group which meets 8 successive Mondays and could use some additional participants.

Matt Cabot advised that Roy Dunnett is at Los Altos Sub Acute and passed a card around for all to sign. Drop in and visit Roy.

Marion Tavenner, chair of the Red Badge Committee, advised that the Red Badge class of ‘03-‘04 is hosting the Red Badge auction in March. Plans are underway to raise funds, please donate auction items.

President Al honored Matt Cabot, Sam Pesner, Lee Lynch and Firooz Ghaffari for 100 percent attendance. Congratulations! He reminded everyone that they should report participation in Rotary functions, Rotacare board meetings, Rotary committee meetings where minutes are taken, visits to other clubs to club secretary John Cardoza for credits.

Jo LoConte presented new Rotarian Don Witt with his pin and Red Badge. Don was welcomed according to protocol with a standing ovation. His classification is computer hardware and software wholesale. Welcome Don!

Marlis McAllister presented her 5-minute talk. Marlis was born in Zurich, but raised in Evergreen, Colorado. She recounted life in Colorado as long fun-filled winters of skiing and sledding with her three siblings and summers of biking and hiking. Marlis went to college at Occidental in Los Angeles, and attended law school at Golden Gate University where she graduated third in her class. She worked for various law firms before starting her own practice in Los Altos where she focuses on real estate, construction and business law. Her first contact with Rotary was in high school when she participated in an exchange in Mexico. Her son, Garret was born in 1991. She moved to Los Altos in 1999.

Finemaster Larry Chu said he was happy that it was the start of a new year and wanted to get things off on the right foot by helping Rotarians make contributions to our club’s operations. He very deftly pried money out of Meg Solara, Dick Duhring, January Reed, Pat Farrell, Cres McFall, and Hugh Riddel.

Cindy Ludtke introduced the speaker for the day, Maxine Goodman from the Palo Alto Philharmonic Orchestra. The orchestra is an all-volunteer group who performs and presents concerts from visiting musicians at the Cubberly Theater inn Palo Alto.

Ms. Goodman shared a brief history of music from the early ages through Bach.

She advised that what separates the PAP from other symphonies is their ability to identify and present the rising stars of classical music.

Following her talk, she introduced Geri Actor, who performed a short piece written for the cello and transcribed for the viola. Ms. Actor received a great ovation for her wonderful performance.

An e-mail was sent to all Rotary members (with e-mail) regarding an inadvertent change in your password. Some members did not receive it. If you did not and are having trouble accessing Clubmate, please call John Cardoza for your new password. It can be changed back to your old password once you have accessed it.

Harrigan, Mike	7/9/2003	John Hamblin	10/2/2003
Joe LoConte	8/21/2003	Hardy Jones	10/9/2003
Malina Alles	8/28/2003	Kathryn Berry	11/20/2003
Louis Borel	9/4/2003	Liston, Tom	1/8/2004
Rhonda Wentzel	9/4/2003	Zimmerman, Shoshana	1/8/2003
Hinda Weber	9/11/2003	Don Witt	1/29/2004
Marlis McAllister	9/25/2003

MEETING OF JANUARY 29, 2004

OTHER ROTARY CLUB MEETING PLACES

Copyright 2004 The Los Altos Rotary Club

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