MEETING OF SEPTEMBER 16th, 2004
ROTATOR WRITER: Matt Cabot
Editor: Dick Blanding
September 16, 2004
There was a nearly packed house today for our meeting. President Cindy called the meeting together at exactly 12:30 and TRACIE MURRAY led us in the Pledge. Song master for the day was JOHN SYLVESTER, and he brought his warm enthusiasm to the task of leading this faux barbershop gaggle in Take Me Out to the Ol' Ball Game. This of course was in anticipation of Barry Bonds' 700th homerun, which he would hit about 24 hours later. Last week’s quartet has no fear of being replaced by any four of us, believe me.
Our Thought For The Day (which should be called Thought For The Week) was given by JEAN NEWTON. Unfortunately when she said it was from her 90 year old grandfather I immediately lost the ability to listen and write at the same time, so here is part of it: I do remember he was giving advice on how he says so young. Part of it (I said I missed most of it) was “Keep Mentally alert.” See, that was the part I failed. But he also said to keep your weight down. Again I was thinking about my failure in that area as well. And, oh, “keep your legs strong.”
We had two visiting Rotarians, and four guests.
ANNOUNCEMENTS BRUCE CANN spoke about the wonderful treatment burn victims receive through the COANIQUEM Burn Centers. He passed out a brochure for Coaniquem’s 25th Anniversary Celebration, titled “Fiesta of the Americas, which will be held Friday October 15, 8 PM to Midnight at the Green Room, Veterans Building on Van Ness in San Francisco. Reservations need to be made by October 1st. Call Bruce or email him at brucecann@aol.com for further information.
Bruce also mentioned that there will be a drawing for a week in Hawaii for two. He left drawing tickets on the table, and after the meeting he told me that he received about $300 worth of checks and pledges. Way to go gang. Speaking of "pledges", Bruce will not be at Thursday’s meeting, so KAILAS CHIDAMBARAM will be picking up the checks from those of you who promised. Incidentally, if you still want to get in on this worthwhile donation campaign, bring your check to this Thursday’s meeting and give it to Kailas.
JULIE ROSE brought to our attention the Fall Festival. Not the one in Into-The-Woods, but the one here in Los Altos. The 13th Annual Los Altos Chamber of Commerce event will be held on Saturday and Sunday October 2-3 from 10:00 am to 5:00 PM.
There will be 160 art and crafts booths, Classic car show, premium wine tasting, Children’s alley, great food by local restaurants, and live entertainment. Pick up a poster from Julie and display it at your workplace. Support Los Altos.
MARGE BRUNO is looking for leaders, or future leaders in and for Los Altos. Under the sponsorship of the Los Altos Community Foundation, Marge is accepting applications for their popular Leadership Education Advancement series (LEAD). Click on the hyperlink above to find out more about the Foundation, or click on LEAD hyperlink to find out more information about the LEAD course. From there you can download an application. Or, you could talk to Joanne Byrne at the foundation directly.
BOB ADAMS mentioned that a new Mentoring Class begins 9/27 at the Los Altos School District Office Boardroom at 1229 Bryant, next to Mountain View High School at 12 Noon. Lunch will be served. This is an informative meeting, and not a commitment. Come to learn about the Mentoring program, and what the rewards are.
If you know who John Wooden, and Pete Newell are, read on. Otherwise, you can probably skip this paragraph. Adams mention there will be an “Evening with the Legends” Saturday October 9th at the University Center at Cal State University – Monterey Bay. Go to their website here for further information.
TRACIE MURRAY reminded us about the upcoming joint Los Altos, Sunnyvale, Palo Alto, Mountain View, and Cupertino Rotary Club’s fundraiser for the RotaCare clinic in Mountain View.
The event will be held on Wednesday, October 6th from 5:30 to 8:30 PM at the historic Del Monte Building on Murphy at Evelyn in Sunnyvale. It is a wine tasting, along with fabulous gourmet food and good Rotary fellowship. It is going to be a wonderful event.
Tickets are $50. JOAN ROSSELLE and Tracy will be selling them before, during and after the meeting Thursday. Sunnyvale as sold over 100 tickets, and by our last count before the meeting today, we had sold 15. Not to pour salt on the wound, (and you should be wounded) Sunnyvale’s club is only half our size. Not that it should matter, but this is a tax deductible event.
[Webmaster’s note: If you have an announcement that should go to the whole club, the most efficient way is to email (or hand it to) the Rotator Writer for that week. Individual mass emails to the club are highly discouraged, and besides, most fall out as spam anyway. Also, it would be quite helpful to the Rotator writer if those who have announcements and want them to get into the Rotator, hand the Rotator writer a copy of your announcements, or again email them to him or her. The schedule of writers is on the website.]
LUCY RASMUSSEN again announced a tour of the Cantor Center for Visual Arts to be held at Stanford University on Sept. 30th starting at 6:00 p.m. A docent will lead the tour which is expected to last approx. an hour. There is a dinner in which you can participate if interested. Talk to Lucy for more information.
FIVE MINUTE TALK (give or take a few) was given today by DAVE SMITH. Easterner by birth, Dave is one of 4 children of a New Jersey family, where his father was a tool and die maker, and his mother also worked. Pretty unusual in 1949. His big claim to fame was that his high school room mate at New York Military Academy was "The Donald."
Dave went to Boston College, NYU for a semester, OCS, a tour in Viet Nam, then back and NYU to finish up. At NYU he met his wife at a Management of Crisis class. He has spent many years at Ford defining their Marketing Strategies.
WYATT ALLEN gave us another Rotary Moment, talking about long time member, Ralph George, (president 1984-85), and Outstanding Rotarian, (1985-86). Ralph, along with Past President (77-78) DICK DUHRING spent a long time trying to bring some culture to our club. Somebody needs to take that project on again.
POKER NIGHT: There was an announcement about the Friday night Poker social. In as much as it will be over by the time you read this, I will not mention the “upcoming” event. But since this is a time delayed Thursday Rotator, I will tell you the results: In case you forgot, the donation was a $50 buy-in. That got you $50 worth of chips. You played until you lost all of your money. Then you were out.
First Place (drum roll please) went to JOE CORRAL who ended up with $449. Second Place went to Bob Kameda (guest of IRENE PRESTON) $286 and MATT CABOT with $224 came in Third. Honorable mentions went to DICK HENNING, JOHN MCALISTER, ROY LAVE, JACK KELLY and Robin Liston, all of which ended up with more than they started with. DISCLAIMER: Of course, IRS, this was only for bragging rights, no one took home any money. But the event did raise about $1,500 for LAREF.
Two more things: STEVE SHEPHARD has the distinction of losing all his money first. This may or may not speak well of a banker. But to balance that out, our President, Cindy was the winner in the Consolation Bracket. Apparently she is not a good gambler, but she appears to learn fast. Thanks to IRENE PRESTON and TRACIE MURRAY, who were each Hostess with the mostess.
RECOGNITION Past President, (74-75) DAN DUTTON brought his own flavor of humor and creativity in extracting a few bucks from us. He even fined a visiting Rotarian 25 cents, I believe. That tells you how long ago he was President. GEORGE ESTILL brought back the old stall tactic made famous by LEN MCBIRNEY. It worked, too.
SPEAKER OF THE DAY Mary Alice Rathbun presented a very hopeful view of the fine work that Rotoplast does around the world. Her slides of two separate visits to China gave us a peek into the effort that is needed in a medical mission of this scope. These were the first into China) The mission statement of RotaPlast is: Provide free reconstructive surgery worldwide, Provide advice, education and training in plastic surgery, Research the causes and cures for those afflictions that require their services. Worldwide, there are 235,000 new cases of cleft pallet syndrome, and 75 a year are in the US. Asia has a high incidence of cleft pallet.
The speaker said that each medical team consists of about 30 members, including 4 plastic surgeons, 4 anesthesiologists, a couple of nurses, 2 or 3 pediatricians, a dentist, orthodontist, nutritionist , speech therapist, and support personnel. The trip takes about 2 weeks. During that time, they perform about 120 operations. Their work is supported by the donated time of the team members, medical supply donations, and support from Rotary International and individual donations. See RotaPlast for further information.
Programs and Events
Note: Meetings of the board of directors are held at the Bank of Los Altos Community Room, 369 S. San Antonio Road.
Meetings of the LAREF board are held at the Masonic Lodge, 146 Main Street.
September
Sept. 22 - PNG Mentor Training, MVLA Board Room, Noon
Sept. 23 - Larry Rinsky, Operation Rainbow
Sept. 30 - Cantor Museum Tour
Sept. 30 - David Sloss, West Bay Opera in our Community
October
Oct. 6 - A Sante (Benefit for Mountain View Rotacare)
Oct. 6 - PNG meeting, Heritage Bank Community Room, 8:15 a.m.
Oct. 7 - LAREF board, 5:15 p.m.
Oct. 7 - Lauren McFall - My Olympic Experience
Oct. 13 - Board of Directors, 7:30 a.m.Oct. 14 - Candidate Forum
Oct. 21 - Nick Phillips, Foundation Drive: Partners in Service from South Africa
Oct. 28 - Propositions review by Gloria Hom
Oct. 29 - Friday Night Fellowship
November
Nov. 3 - PNG meeting, Heritage Bank Community Room, 8:15 a.m.
Nov. 4 - LAREF board, 5:15 p.m.
Nov. 10 - Board of Directors, 7:30 a.m.
Nov. 11 - Salute to World War II veterans
Nov. 18 - Lynne Satterwhite, new LAHS Principal and Rich Fischer, Superintendent of the MVLA High School District
Nov. 19 - National Philanthropy Day Awards Luncheon, 11:30 am, San Jose Fairmont, $70 per person. Los Altos Rotary to be honored.
Nov. 26 - Thanksgiving holiday
Nov. 28 - Festival of Lights Parade and Party
December
Dec. 1 - PNG meeting, Heritage Bank Community Room, 8:15 a.m.
Dec. 2 - LAREF board, 5:15 p.m.
Dec. 2 - Dude Angius and Mary Prochnow - World AIDS Day
Dec. 8 - Board of Directors, 7:30 a.m.
Dec. 15 - Holiday Party
Dec. 16 - Main Street Singers Holiday Program
January
Jan. 5 - PNG meeting, Heritage Bank Community Room, 8:15 a.m.
Jan. 6 - LAREF board, 5:15 p.m.
Jan. 12 - Board of Directors, 7:30 a.m.
Jan. 12 - PNG Mentor Training, MVLA Board Room, Noon
Jan. 14 - Friday Night Fellowship
February
Feb. 2 - PNG meeting, Heritage Bank Community Room, 8:15 a.m.
Feb. 3 - LAREF board, 5:15 p.m.
Feb. 9 - Board of Directors, 7:30 a.m.
Feb. 17 - Four Way Test Presentation (speech contest meeting)
Feb. 23 - Centennial anniversary of the founding of Rotary
March
Mar. 2 - PNG meeting, Heritage Bank Community Room, 8:15 a.m.
Mar. 3 - LAREF board, 5:15 p.m.
Mar. 4 - Cioppino Feed
Mar. 9 - Board of Directors, 7:30 a.m.
Mar. 18 - Friday Night Fellowship
Mar. 23 - PNG Mentor Training, MVLA Board Room, Noon
April
Apr. 6 - PNG meeting, Heritage Bank Community Room, 8:15 a.m.
Apr. 7 - LAREF board, 5:15 p.m.
Apr. 13 - Board of Directors, 7:30 a.m.
Apr. 13 - Dinner at Chef Chu's
Apr. 29 - Golf Tourney
May
May 4 - PNG meeting, Heritage Bank Community Room, 8:15 a.m.
May 5 - LAREF board, 5:15 p.m.
May 11 - Board of Directors, 7:30 a.m.
May 14 and 15: Rotary Fine Art Show, Lincoln Park
May 19 - District Golf Tourney
May 20-22 - District Conference
June
June 2 - LAREF board, 5:15 p.m.
June 2 - PNG Volunteer Luncheon, Garden House, Noon
June 8 - Board of Directors, 7:30 a.m.
June 8 - PNG meeting, Heritage Bank Community Room, 8:15 a.m.
June 18 - 22 - Rotary International Convention in Chicago
July
July 1 - Kick-Out 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: China Shuttle, 22382 Homestead Road, Cupertino, 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