Writer and Photographer: 
Cindy Luedtke
Editor:  Matt Cabot

Next Week's Program: 

(EOC) Elizabeth Barkley - International music

Upcoming Events:

2/23:  Jean Newton Fraguglia - Retirement Living

2/28:  WCS:  Northern Trust, Third St. 8:00 - 9:30 AM

See our Calendar for all of the important dates.

To see Neighboring Club meetings go to Clubs

To our Website

To District 5170

LET THE SUN SHINE
Plenty of people were spreading the sunshine today, including greeters, Shelly Potvin, Baidra Murphy with her special guest, Pat Millar, and Joanne Kavalaris.

John “Sun-Worshipper” Sylvester,  led us in his favorite tune of “You are my Sunshine”.

Even Mary Prochnow’s   Thought for the Day reminded us that Spring is in the air, with “Just- Spring” by E.E. Cummins, when the “world is mud-luscious and the little lame balloon man whistles far and wee”.

SOME OF OUR GUESTS TODAY:

Steve Fink and Roy Lave.             Louis Fazo of Los Altos Residence Inn
Lem Summey and John Zeman.   Guest Speaker Dante and guest,Josh and PE Sam
Victor and his guest, Julie Cates. The other two are not guests, but don't let these two sit together again.

TABLE TALK
Table Talk at Table 3 was mostly about UOP (University of the Pacific for those of us who come from other parts). Mike Cabot, John Sylvester, and Guest, Steve Fick are all graduates of UOP.  Something tells me they graduated in different years, however.    I think the best story involved a cow in the parking lot.  It was a miracle that Mel Kahn, a UOP Graduate, at the table next door didn’t overhear the conversation, or we never would have broken it up to restart our meeting. 

NEWS AND ANNOUNCEMENTS
Cindy Luedtke, Chair of the Nominations and Grants Committee, asked the membership to help her committee by suggesting candidates for the Service Award for Professional Excellence.  To be eligible, candidates must;

            Be established members of their profession
            Demonstrate high ethical standards
            Have achieved professional distinction
            Have experience training and/or mentoring others in their profession
            Have a record of community service

Nominees may not be Rotarians.  When you send in your nomination, please address the above areas as to why your nominee qualifies and send it directly to Cindy at luedtkefam@aol.com.  Nominations will be accepted by the committee through February 28^th.
DON’T FORGET TO VOTE  Vote next week, February 16^th , to fill three of the incoming seats for Board of Directors of LARC.  Each member will receive a ballot via email or “snail-mail” for those who do not accept email.  Either bring the completed ballot to next week’s meeting, or fax it to Sam Pesner by 11:00 AM on meeting day (fax # 650-941-9980). Candidates for the three open Board seats are John Hamblin, Marlis McAllister, John McDonnell, Jean Mordo, Karen Owen, and Cindy Wemyss.  Good luck to you all.

WE LOVE IT WHEN YOU SHOW UP  Attendance is up from a dismal 64% in December to 73% in January.  Congratulations to the club for the great improvement.   As part of the” We Care” program, if you miss two weeks in a row with us not hearing from you about a makeup, don’t be surprised if you get a call.  Read more in the President’s message in this Rotator.  If you have a make up, call or email our Secretary, John Cardoza so he can record it.  Check your Rotary Handbook for the many different ways in which you can make up for a meeting (page 120 and 121).

“KICK IT UP” A NOTCH AND VOLUNTEER
A soccer coach is needed at Alta Vista High School for the month of April.     Twelve eager Alta Vista players with uniforms and equipment are waiting for you to be there and help out.   They practice three times a week and once on the weekend.  Consider sharing this responsibility with a friend or fellow Rotarian.  Please call Herb Marshall for more details.    

Firooz Ghaffari is in the throws of receiving daily radiation treatments.  Kailas Chidambaram is arranging a schedule for Rotarians who are able to assist in getting him to his daily 2:30 PM appointment.  This is a two-hour time commitment.  Please contact Kailas to get on the schedule and help out.

CERT training is available beginning March 8 offered by LAPD.  Several Rotarians are already trained, but more trained people are needed.  Contact the Los Altos Police Department directly. 

DISTRICT NEWS The District’s recent Public Relations Seminar was very worthwhile.  The editor of the San Jose Mercury and five other owners/editors of local newspapers and radio stations were present. 

Plan to attend the District Assembly on March 30 and April 1.  This is critical for members who will be servicing as Board members and committee chairs for next Rotary year to prepare themselves.

Please mark the dates of April 28^th through the 30^th for the annual District Conference in San Jose.  More information about the Conference will be available at future meetings and in the Rotator.

MEET NEW MEMBER, NANCY SIMON 

With her classification of Mortgage Broker-Banker, Nancy joins us with the support and guidance of Cindy Wemyss, her sponsor.   Nancy and her husband of eighteen years, Ted, live in Los Altos with their two daughters, Kelly (age14), and Kendall, age 10.  Kelly is a star basketball player for Egan School and Kendall, aka “Firecap”, is destined to be a litigation attorney, according to her proud mother.

Nancy enjoys playing tennis.  She is on the Foothill Tennis Team. Nancy was born in Connecticut, but the family moved and settled in Santa Clara in 1962.  She remembers when Lawrence Expressway was a gravel road and has fond memories of when she and her brothers would play in the orchards when they were kids.  Nancy’s father is a friend of Billy Russell’s at Bridgepoint, where they both now reside.  Nancy attended Cupertino High School, then, went on to Arizona State for her college years.   She moved back to the Bay Area to work for Sun Microsystems in Marketing and Finance for a time before getting into the mortgage business.  Nancy takes her job as a role model for her kids quite seriously, which has led her to join us at the Los Altos Rotary Club.  Welcome, Nancy. 

THE FOUR-WAY TEST - STILL RELEVANT TODAY?
Once every year, our club celebrates and focuses on the Four-Way Test.  This year’s message was prepared and given by Barbara Duncan. 

Please take a few moments to read Barbara’s presentation in its entirety at the end of this newsletter.   Well done, Barbara.

Fine, Finer, Finest?
Not only were we out of time to complete Barbara’s presentation, there was no time left for fining.  Dick Henning,  the finemaster, insisted on extracting at least one fine.  But, Mel Kahn decided it was time to fine the finer instead.  Mel had a point since, finemaster, Dick Henning appeared in the LosAltos Town Crier this week, not once, not twice, but three times.   

After paying his dues, Dick was able to get out his one fine.  He went through all that energy to pick on poor newbie, Nancy Simon.     Who was Cindy Wemyss’ sponsor?   Come on!  How many of you would have ever guessed Gary Ross?   So for $30.00, Nancy is now fully initiated into the fold.  And that’s not all.  Dick gets to continue his reign of terror next week.

ANYONE FOR A GAME OF WATER POLO?

Dante Dettamante,  long-time water polo coach for Stanford, was our guest speaker of the day.  Dante immediately dispelled the notion that he has ever been a coach on the Olympic Team.  However, out of Dante’s 25 years with Stanford, his water polo team has been in the NCAA Championships for 14 out of those 25 years. 

For the benefit of some of the audience who may not be so familiar with the sport of water polo, Dante related some of the signature behaviors of the sport, including methods of celebrating a score.  Tackles in the end zone are a little rough underwater, so high fives is the favored reaction for goals.  At the end of “big win” game, everyone jumps in the pool.  Sounds reasonable, except for the fact the coach is in full dress.   Rather than a thorough dousing of Gatorade like in football, its much more efficient, convenient, and less sticky, to just throw the guy in.  Dante recalled his first championship game, when he almost drowned with every body on top of him, not to mention ruining his wallet and cell phone with no change of clothes available.  He vowed never to be caught unprepared again.   With all of his “big win” games over the years, Dante mastered the proper timing when it came to removing clothing and accessories. 

Dante recalled a few of his most memorable games, many of them when Stanford faced their nemesis, the Cal Bears.  One of the best and most memorable games for him, was a game they lost, but his team recovered from a 6-0 disadvantage in triple overtime only to come within a hair of winning the Championship.  Dante likened coaching through the highs and lows of seasons and games to that of a roller coaster.

Dante retired from his coaching career in 2001 on a high after winning yet another NCAA title.  Presently, he lives just south of here and grows 2 1/2 acres of Pinot and Chardonnay grapes on his property.  Dante drew several parallels between growing grapes and coaching a team.  Bringing in the right fit for the system, intense training and nurturing are required, as well as having the patience and the ability to make the right combination of the grapes to obtain just the right balance and chemistry.  Finally, both require a lot of work.

PRESIDENT’S CORNER
Dear Fellow Rotarians,

You have spoken-you wanted more opportunities for fellowship, and so we began opening our meetings earlier to provide you 10 minutes of unabashed fellowship time. Judging from the laughter and amount of visiting between tables, it sounds like you're really enjoying your fellow Club members. Now I ask you to think about the members who were not with us last Thursday. Were they ill? Do they have developing business constraints? Do they perhaps need some support and encouragement?

"We care" is a Rotary motto that encourages us to take action in the arena where it matters most-our own Rotary family. I urge you to individually contact a friend who missed our last meeting to let him/her know you're thinking about them. I can think of two members in particular with serious health concerns. Your voice may be one that helps them through their dark period; I know the support expressed by Rotary friends was very helpful to me when I lost my husband.

In the near future we'll begin a Club campaign to phone members who miss two consecutive meeting without a make-up-just to say "We care!" You can take action to show this today.

THE FOUR-WAY TEST
By Barbara Duncan

Good afternoon!  My name is Barbara Duncan, classification Human Resources, though, most famously known as Sandie Whipple’s sister.  At a meeting a few weeks ago, someone approached me and said, Oh, hello, are you a new member? No, I replied, I’ve been a member for a number of years now. Unfortunately, my job was too far away to commute to the lunch meetings, however, since I am unemployed, AGAIN, I am now able to attend. It’s kind of a catch 22 don’t you know.

Anyway, when Jean Hollands  asked me to give a short talk on the 4 way test, I said sure - why not? So, I set out to find out everything I could about it. Do you know I got back 2,150,000 hits when I searched for the Rotary 4 way test on the Internet!!! In every country, in every language, one thread ran through; the 4 way test -  promoting high ethical standards. Created in 1932 by Herbert Taylor when he was faced with turning around a company about to go into bankruptcy, the 4 way test was subsequently adopted by the Rotary in the 1940’s. Members quickly and enthusiastically embraced it and spread the word.

Four short questions - just 24 words that encourage creative, effective solutions in problem solving situations. 

Rotarians – What are they???

Is it the TRUTH?
Is it FAIR to all concerned?
Will it build GOODWILL and BETTER FRIENDSHIPS?
Will it be BENEFICIAL to all concerned? 

The 4 way test is a guide to those of us who dare to use it for worthy objectives such as: 

• choosing, winning, and keeping friends;
• getting along well with others;
• ensuring a happy home life;
• developing high ethical and moral standards;
• becoming successful in a chosen business or profession;
• becoming a better citizen and better example for the next generation

This test is not a code, not a creed, not a religion. Rather it is an assessment device, a basis for inquiry, a structured analysis, or, more simply stated ­a “checklist” to help one find the right thing to say OR the right thing to do.

In a paper by Rotarian Officials William Hodges and William Gant, an interesting question was explored -  Is the 4 way test still valid today?  I’d like to paraphrase and share some of their thoughts.

Perhaps the answer to that question in these times of free-wheeling, “anything goes” interpersonal relationships lies in the lasting value of the “absolutes” that the test embodies.

Is “TRUTH” any less important in a permissive society, than it was when family discipline dominated the way children were reared?

Is old-fashioned “FAIRNESS” an obsolete concept today? Or is there an even greater need for it in a world where a shortfall of fairness may lead to justice rendered only after weighty deliberations in a courtroom, two years or more after the fact?

What about “GOODWILL and FRIENDSHIP”? As we sit at our keyboards, trying to relate to an ever-changing video signal we call “interactive,” do we really want to throw away anything that urges us to consider the consequences of building better friendships? 

These are the “moral ideals” that are embodied in the 4 way test.

But perhaps the test’s relevance today derives more from the last question, which addresses a materialistic philosophy more than the others. If the consequences of a decision we make, or of something we think, say or do, will be “BENEFICIAL to all concerned,” then surely that is the desirable objective we all strive for.

Perhaps the most important feature of the 4 way test is the ease with which it can be memorized and called instantly and silently to mind so that its tenets can be brought to bear on anything worthy of serious consideration.

The 4 way test has inspired safe driving courses, fire prevention programs and crime reduction campaigns. It has been written into labor contracts and collective agreements. It has been chiseled in granite, graced the walls of judges’ chambers and been the subject of thousands of essays.

Like the citizens of every age before ours, we believe we live in a society that defies regulation; yet, amid all the complexities of the world, these four simple questions still hold their ground. They remain universal screens through which to filter all our thoughts, words and deeds. They are still valid today!

The 4 way test will guide those of us who dare to use it for the worthy objective of developing high ethical and moral standards. It is eloquent in its simplicity, stunning in its power, and undeniable in its results.

Now that’s a legacy we most definitely want to leave behind!