This Week's Program: 
Dr. Jim Hinsdale - Our County Trauma Center Crisis
 

Upcoming Events:

DISTRICT CONFERENCE April 28 thru 30th.  Go to District website below for more information. 

April 25th  WCS:  Northern Trust, Third St. 8:00 - 9:30 AM

April 27th - Chamber Business Expo - (See their calendar)

See our Calendar for all of the important dates.

To see Neighboring Club meetings go to Clubs

To our Website

To District 5170

DAN HOLDEN thought for the day concerned Morrie Schwartz. Take a look at: http://www.albom.com/morrie.htm .  Quite an interesting guy. 

We had no visiting Rotarians, but did have nine guests, three of which were visiting Kiwanians in recognition of our guest speaker, and our program today.  See below.

VAL CARPENTER posted the shifts for our art show on the wall.  Naturally if you weren’t there, you didn’t see it.  BUT, take a look at our website under Art Show (colorized for the duration of the Art Show), then Art Show Main page, and then go to Volunteers.  Or just go here:  http://www.losaltosrotary.org/ArtShow2006/signup.html

Val pointed out that you should check your name, and know your assignment.  Let her know now if there is a problem. 

P.E.N. (That is, President Elect – Nominee)  JOHN MOSS had a bunch of announcements:

• John has the posters for the Art Show.  If you want one, he’ll have them again next week.  Pick one up and display it. 
• Chamber Business Expo this Thurs 4 –7 pm (April 27). LARC will have a booth. John Moss has booth-sitting & set-up schedule.
• District Conference and the end of this week:  April 28 – 30^th.  You should have registered by now.  But (author’s speculation) I think you can still do so.  But if you go you must register to get into any of the Hospitality Suites, or programs.
  (end of author’s speculation).

MARY MARLEY mentioned (later in an email to this writer) that she has an extra ticket to Saturday’s conference.  Her price in $25, but as registration is closed as of Sunday (yesterday), this presents an opportunity for the procrastinators of the club.

Past President CINDY LUEDTKE mentioned that she is forming a committee to Roast and Kick out President MARLENE at the end of June.  Budding, witty, and erudite writers have their chance to answer the call of creativity and irreverence to roast, bake and Bar-B-Q our leader.  Email Cindy with your offer of help.  Your participation will make the last meeting and Kick –out dinner memorable, or at least what you would like to see, while the rest of the ‘non-responding’ membership sit in discomfort.

Julie Walz, President of LAHS Interact (40-50 active members) spoke about their volunteerism through Interact.  Here’s the short list:

• Pump Aid project
• Painting Bus Barn 3-4 kids/shift,
• Literacy for New Mothers,
• 6 RYLA applications
• Selling Chef Chu salads at Fine Art Show
• Relay for Life team w/ Kiwanis

It is probably no surprise that MEG SOLERA is their sponsor.

A Service Above Self Award was presented to Mr. Quiet Giant, ROLAND PAYNE, for all the work he does with volunteering with PNG, (big time) and of course with the Robotics Club at LAHS.

Both KIM COPHER and GIGI CARTER also received Service Above Self Awards for their tireless work (successful, I might add) on the Red Badge Auction.  To date, over $16,000 was raised by the Redbadgers for the library in Belle Chasse, Louisiana.

PRESIDENT’S ANNOUNCEMENTS Welcome to our guests from Los Altos Kiwanis Club: Bonnie Nunke, President, Jan Fong, and Peter Bergsman. I enjoyed visiting their meeting last week when Ken Kaye presented a Seder meal as an educational program.

Japanese Group Study Exchange team reception at Dick Blanding’s house on Easter Sunday.  44 attendees representing seven clubs in District 5170 including DG Arlene and husband Steve Greenberg.  The Japanese team is here for one month, but tightly scheduled so they are not attending a LARC regular meeting.  They gave pins and candies.  We gave “Los Altos Story” CD’s and “America Responds to AIDS” booklets plus tee shirt, “Los Altos CA”. We sang beautifully in Japanese (“Sakura” learned in all Japanese kindergartens). The beautiful reception hosted by Dick & Linda Blanding, managed to come in well under budget!  Next year we will exchange GSE teams with Argentina.

GSE Reception at the Blandings

Result of Ballots on establishment of a standing committee on Population Concerns at RI. Only 20 ballots submitted (17 for and 3 against).  There appears to have been very low interest District-wide: Mt. View and Los Gatos Morning clubs also submitted support for the proposal, so we are one of the more alert clubs. Marlene & Secretary, JOHN CARDOZA, will sign and submit our vote to International.

News regarding the request for LARC to be and Honorary co-sponsor of the Gay Straight Alliance parade to be held on  June 4:  The LARC Board voted to reconsider their vote of last Wednesday on this topic.  Eight of the nine voting LARC Board members discussed this in a special meeting held this past Wednesday (with 4 other Club members also present) and recognized that Article XII, Section 1 of our Bylaws prohibits the Club from expressing an opinion “on any pending controversial public measure.”  

So, by a vote of 7-1 the Board voted to table the issue. Therefore, no vote will be taken by the Club membership next week as originally announced.

On May 9, the City Council is scheduled to make a decision on the Gay Straight Alliance’s parade permit request.  After this is no longer a pending issue, the business portion of our May 11 LARC lunch meeting will be dedicated to educational presentations of the pros and cons of how LARC should respond to the request to co-sponsor this parade.  The Board will again discuss the issue following the May 11 presentations to club membership.

Board members need to know the attitude of our Club members. We encourage you to let each board member know your opinion. As a reminder, the 9 voting Board members are

      ·         Marlene Cowan
·         Sam Pesner
·         Cindy Luedtke
·         John Moss
·         Joan Rosselle
·         Roland Payne
·         Larry Chu
·         Matt Cabot
·         Baidra Prochnow Murphy
as listed in your Club Handbook.

LARC tables at District Conference April 28-30:

Please note:

a.  The Saturday breakfast speaker is Olympic Gold Medalist in inverted aerial skiing, Nikki Stone.

·     Bruce Barton, Editor of The Town Crier, will be honored at this breakfast for his great support of LARC, by offering monthly column space to PNG,  and publishing 12 articles within the last 6 months and many other articles on LARC throughout the years.

Hope you will sign up to sit at the LARC table with Bruce Barton. His family cannot attend because his wife and child will be at Junior Olympics.

b.   Marlene has been asked to be master of ceremonies for the Saturday night dinner honoring Club Presidents, featuring comedy entertainment by the Reduced Shakespeare Company. I’m hoping many of you will sign up to join Marlene for dinner that evening and cheer her on.

c.  There is a clipboard for all three meals at the conference:  Please sign up so we know how many tables to reserve  for LARC. Please remember you must sign up and pay individually with the District.   ATTENTION: on-line registration will be cut off this Sunday and the price goes up by $5 if not pre-registered, so make your reservation ASAP.

Paint the Bus Barn Clipboard. May 6 & 7, we need better balance in number of people per shift as requested by City’s Public Works Superintendent. If you signed up for Sat. morning which is the longest list, would a few of you please change your name to other shifts so we’ll have more equal number of volunteers at each shift. Some LAHS Interact members have volunteered to paint with us, which should be fun. At 12:30 Chef Chu’s Chinese Chicken Salad lunch will be served to both am & pm shifts.

Champions for Youth for 2005-2006, Honorees: BOB ADAMS and Oscar Garcia, Thursday, May 11, 7 AM @ Michael’s restaurant, $50 per person. Last chance to pay is today; (was) without payment today you must hand in your own reservation.

Other News: we are all invited to Charter Night for new RC of Gilroy South County Sunrise (club #60 in D5170.) Save the date: Sat, July 8, Eagle Ridge Country Club, Gilroy. Our club is asked to contribute $100 toward the establishment of a new club, as is customary in the District.

Career Day at Alta Vista High - planning by RHONDA WENTZEL for Friday, May 12. I had spoken with principals at all 3 high schools last summer and Alta Vista High School was the one most interested in a Career Day. They requested information on careers not requiring four-year degrees, so if you would like to make a short presentation on your career please let Rhonda or Marlene, know.

CRES MCFALL was our FineMaster today.  No Explorers were created today, but a number of people were sufficiently dinged.  Our coffers got bigger, but there are still a bunch of you out there that need to be Explorers.  What will President MARLENE do with all those jotter pads if you don’t become one?

WHAT’S IN A NAME?  Just in case you did (or didn’t notice) last week’s Rotator mentioned that our club grew by four new members.  Here’s how it was stated, and I quote:

Jim Griffith, sponsored by Mary Prochnow
Steve Borel, sponsored by Julie Rose
Shane Cornwell sponsored by Marlene Cowan
Jan Minor sponsored by Sandy Bozich

So, what’s wrong with that picture, or in this case the spelling of the names?

Here is how it was corrected:

Jim Griffith, sponsored by Mary Prochnow
Steve FICK, sponsored by Julie Rose
Shayne Cornwell sponsored by Marlene Cowan
Jan MinErs sponsored by Sandy Bozich

Can you see the difference?  Well, let me tell you.  There were about 10 emails that went around, from the initial email to the club about the prospective member’s names by LARRY CHU, the Board agenda by Pres MARLENE, the Rotator writer by STEVE YARBROUGH, the Edited Rotator by PP CINDY, the Published Rotator by MATT CABOT.  Every one of them had one or more of the names wrong. 

I personally find this problematic.  In the future, I will pay $10 to the club for any member’s name that goes out in the Rotator spelled wrong.  (And I will ask the Rotator Writer, and the Editor to equally contribute).

On a lighter note, I have at least gotten familiar with the new member’s names by this error.  Welcome, new members.  And please accept our sincere apology for this error. 

Speaking of Red Badgers, AMELIA HO  gave her five minute introduction speech today.  While she claimed stage fright, it certainly was not apparent in her presentation that talked about her family, and her 26-year travel agency practice.  WELCOME Amelia. 

TODAY’S PROGRAM PEN (I explained that earlier.  Pay attention) JOHN MOSS introduced speaker Julie Weiss of the Regional Water Plant.  Her title was “Environmental Toxic Waste “.   But, the old (or actually, relatively new saying) “What goes on in Vegas stays in Vegas” is not true here in Los Altos, and the surrounding five regions.  “What Goes On in Los Altos, Flows to the Bay” is probably a good title for Julie Weiss’ presentation today.  Besides, who wants to hear about Environmental toxic waste at lunch anyway. 

In spite of that, I did find the topic extremely interesting, and raised our awareness of what actually happens to the stuff we flush, rinse, and wash.  IT ALL GOES TO THE BAY.

They (the Regional Water District, which processes waste from six communities) clean about 90% of all the waste water that flows to the bay, about 26 million gallons of water.  So most of the talk, and the discussion that followed, concerned itself with the last 10%.  That is still a huge number. 

Julie spoke about the need to limit the types of things we flush.  For example, it used to be common wisdom to flush old pills down the toilet.  Now, they suggest that returning them to the pharmacy is better.  Of course we now have much stronger rules about disposal of batteries, fluorescent tubes and computer components.  Not something that was ever flushed, but their disposal still makes their way into the ground water through leaching and eventually into the bay, and then into the food chain.  Incidentally we are at the top end of the food chain, so EVERYTHING below us affects us.  Just remember that.

So, what can we do?  Wash our cars on the lawn.  Let the soil filter the water before it hits the bay; watch what we put down the toilets and drains; recycle fats, oils and grease, return old medications to the pharmacy.  In short, remember What Goes on in Los Altos, Goes to the Bay.