MEETING OF MAY 20, 2004
Rotator Writer: Matt Cabot
Editor: Dick Blanding
START YOUR ENGINES: SANDY WHIPPLE lead us in the pledge, and JOHN (not Sylvester) MCDONNELL lead us in song. AL LIGHTENBERG piggy-backed on Past President MARY PROCHNOW’S “Imagine a World …” with a truly delightful “Imagine a World … with essentially all the things that we at Rotary are so diligently working for: peace, feeding the hungry, lighting the dark, warming the cold sheltering the needy, educating the poor, and giving opportunity where opportunity will bloom."
MOVING RIGHT ALONG: We had three visiting Rotarians, and twelve guests. Was it the guest speaker or our reputation? Humm.
SKIDDING NEARLY OUT OF CONTROL: President AL paid for his procrastination, or a busy schedule if it sounds better. He had to cough up $25 because there were no comers for LUCY RASMUSSEN’S donation of a single ticket to Friday night’s West Bay Opera of Don Giovanni. At least he was an Italian. Thanks Lucy, and Al.
PRELIMINARY ART SHOW REPORT: While the official figures are not in, it appears that the Art in the Park show grossed half a million in sales. Weather was great, and of course the Art was fantastic, and the crew did a bang up job behind the scenes. I am sure there are horror stories, but I haven’t heard them.
CHECK THE RULES: President Al said that the website has a link to the change to the bylaws. You need to look at them. There will be a motion to approve them as written on June 17th, so you need to look at them. Click here: Bylaws
If for some reason (like you don’t have a computer) you can’t get to them to review the changes, email JOHN CARDOZA at John431@earthlink.net and he will get you a copy. Just kidding. I was trying to frustrate you. If you don’t have a computer, or would like a printed copy, call John at 948-8172, and he will mail you a copy. If you don’t have a phone…ah what the heck. You know it really isn’t a whole lot different, phone, computer. Well maybe it is, but someday…
MECHANICS UNITE: ROLAND PAYNE has been an advisor to a number of “Robotics Clubs” around the area. The Los Altos High School Robotics Club demonstrated their robot today at the meeting. Our club is one of several sponsors of the school club. Their club has an annual budget of $25k, so it takes a number of organizations and individuals to support their work in robotics. They entered a number of competitions during the past year, at the tune of $4,000 each, so you can see it takes a lot of community support. But the rewards are great.
Participants in the demonstration: Team Captain 2004: Dave Evitt; Team Captain 2005: James Fry; Head Animator: Max Andrews, and Faculty Advisor: Lev Florendo
NOMINATIONS FROM THE FLOOR ARE OPEN FOR LAREF (Los Altos Rotary Endowment Foundation) BOARD next week. If you make a nomination, be sure to clear it with your nominee. There is nothing more embarrassing, than a “I decline” following a heartfelt nomination. Currently, MARION TAVENNER, SHEV SHASTRI and LEE LYNCH have been nominated. Election of one member will be done the following week, on June 3rd.
DOWN THE STRAIGHTAWAY: STEVE SHEPHERD reported on a very successful Rotary Golf Tournament 2004: In large part the success was the product of hard work of the following individuals: BOB ADAMS, LARRY CHU JR, ROY LAVE, LARRY MADSEN, STEVE ANDERSON, MEL KAHN, RICK GLAZE,CINDY LUEDTKE, BILL MOISON and BAIDRA MURPHY (THE committee), NANCY TRAFICANTI, (Special Assistant); LEN MCBIRNEY (Registration). And of course the organizer and Tournament guru: STEVE SHEPHERD
Steve announced the winners of the various competitions:
Closest to the pin: MONA ARMISTEAD and BOB RAYL
Longest Drive: MONA ARMISTEAD and KURT HUEG
Yellow Ball Team JERRY and BILL MOISON, STEVE SHEPHERD
Cha-Cha-Cha team STEVE ANDERSON, MEL KAHN, LARRY MADSEN and RICK GLAZE
Low Net Champions); Ingrid Jackson and Dave Luedtke
Low Gross Champions MONA ARMISTEAD and BILL MOISON
Steve would also like to thank Lawrence and Ruth Chu for the use of their home for the post tournament BBQ and poker social.
PUT IT IN REVERSE: Jim Spangler (Mountain View Rotary) , good looking son of our MARTY SPANGLER, announced the 2nd Annual Reverse Lottery, to be held in our meeting space (Los Altos Garden House 400 University Avenue) on May 25th. The Benefit of the lottery is the new RotaCare Free Health Clinic of Mountain View.
Here’s how it works. Buy a ticket for $200. A maximum of 100 tickets will be sold. Then, they draw all 200 tickets. Every 10th ticket drawn gets $200. (I am not sure if that is a win, but for the sake of say it is.) Then the 3rd to last ticket drawn gets $500, 2nd to last ticket gets $1,000 and the last ticket to be drawn gets $5,000. Now, if you have been playing the lottery for years, and never won something, this is your chance to be drawn LAST. There is a 1 in 10 chance you get your money back. Sounds better than the NASD.
Call Bud Kobza at 650 961-6103 or Jim Spangler at 650-948-6619 if you are interested.
CLUB WINS AGAIN: President Elect Elect MARLENE COWAN announced two awards: one for President Al for our club’s “exemplary community service, presented by RI, and DICK HENNING for his “Distinguished Service at the District level.
ANCHORS AWEIGH-WHAT THE HEY? I got the following email request from President Al to include in this week’s Rotator:
DGE Ron and Cindy Sekkel have been sailing aboard the CMV Pusan Senator container ship for seven days as the ship heads from Oakland to Tokyo. They will then travel by Bullet Train to the International Rotary Convention in Osaka.
We would appreciate it if you would inform your clubs about this trip and mention that they can follow along by going to the District 5170 home page: http://www.rotary5170.org and clicking on the "Ron Sekkel Trip Log" button on the upper right portion of the home page.
Ron is writing daily about life on a freighter and his thoughts on several Rotary related subjects. Cindy is also writing about life aboard a container ship. Both Ron & Cindy are interesting writers so count on very interesting updates. Ron will update us on International Rotary Convention as well.
My first reaction was not only who was DGE Ron Sekkel, but why is it relevant to us, and what the heck is DGE? So, dutifully, I followed the URL, and spent about an hour reading their Journal. I figured out that DGE is (probably) District Governor Elect. Ron Sekkel. Ron and his wife have written a journal on their trip to Osaka Japan to the International Rotary Conference, where our own PE (President Elect) CINDY LUEDTKE is, as you read this. Ron and his wife chose to take a working freighter to Japan, instead of an airplane.
You have to follow the URL, read the daily journal as I did to get a sense of our next District Governor, and his message. He equates the trip to one (actually one of several) that Founder, Paul Harris took in his quest to better understand the needs of the world and makes some pretty compelling tie-ins with the goals of Rotary.
That URL, by the way will also get you to the District Webpage, which is chock full of district level information about Rotary.
NEED SOME HELP HERE: Several weeks ago it was announced at the meeting that FRANZ ANDERSON had some serious health problems. I delivered the card signed by most of the club. He is in good spirits, but could use some help. He is in the process of radiation and chemotherapy treatments. His wife’s eyesight is failing, and he needs some driving help to get to these appointments.
I offered to take him as needed. Here’s where you might come in. I could use some occasional help in transporting Franz to and from his various appointments. Currently I am scheduled to take and pick up Franz this Friday for a hearing aid appointment, and again on June 1st for a medical appointment.
If anyone would like to help for this or future appointments, I will act as coordinator, and scheduler. My time is pretty open, but I am sure that there will be a time that I will be busy, and unable to help. I would like a list of 4 or 5 people who can help out. From what I can tell, these are all scheduled trips, so there would be plenty of warning. Please email me at matt.cabot@allincal.com or call me at 650-948-7437 if you would like to help. So far the trips are all to Sunnyvale and back.
FOUL: Fine Master, John Sines took a page from Rodney Dangerfield’s playbook. “He got no respect.” The first 12 people he called to fine were absent. Maybe that is why they are behind in their ‘donations.’ Or maybe that is why they are not coming: they can’t afford it.
But John did create at least two new President’s Club members: HERB MARSHAL and BUD OLIVER. Way to go John, Herb and Bud. (Sounds like a 60’s song about some guy sitting on a toilet, drinking a Bud, while smoking some rosemary. )
TODAY’S PROGRAM: DICK HASENPFLUG introduced today’s speaker Steve Poizner, who spent a year as a Whitehouse Fellow, where he was assigned to the Counter Terrorism Department in the office of the National Security Advisor.
Steve’s background includes a BS in Electrical Engineering University of Texas, and an MBA from Stanford University in 1980.
Steve gave us some highlights of his stint as a Whitehouse fellow, beginning with the selection process. 1000 applicants, 100 finalists, 33 long list, and 12 short list, lots of interviews, and some surprisingly unusual questions.
His boss during this year was Richard Clark (Special Advisor to the President for Cyberspace Security). He spoke of his wife’s reluctance to live in Washington, and with the 9/11 crisis, anthrax occurrences, and the sniper incidents, she was probably right. But they did stick it out, and got back to California in one piece.
With his electrical engineering background, and his involvements in a number of electronics companies, Steve worked on cyber security, helping keep (or make) the internet safe(r). He looked at Cyber warfare, both as a threat to the US and as a weapon of war.
He said with his high school teaching of US Government, he was particularly gratified that the structure of “checks and balances” really works.
He mentioned that the concept of electronic voting has some challenges. That there needs to be confidence in the reliability and accuracy. He felt that there should be no internet connection of the voting activity; the managing code should be open-sourced, and that there should be a paper backup record of all voting transactions.
(Ed. Note: Some found Steve Poizner's creation of a high tech company an interesting highlight of his background as well, especially since he then sold it for a billion dollars.)
Programs and Events
May
May 27th - Rotary Scholarships
June
June 3rd - Partners for New Generations Recognition Luncheon
June 3: LAREF board meeting, 5:15 p.m., Masonic Hall
June 9: Board of Directors, 7:30 a.m., Bank of Los Altos, 369 San Antonio Road
June 10th - LAREF Annual Meeting/ Art Show Recognition
June 17th - Rotary Aids Project- Update
June 24th - End of Rotary Year Celebration
June 25: Kickout Dinner
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 2004 The Los Altos Rotary Club