Next Week's Program: 
MVHS Madrigals Holiday Program
 

Upcoming Events:

12/22 - No meeting:  Christmas

12/29 - No Meeting:  New Years

1/5/06 - President Marlene - club Assembly

See our Calendar for all of the important dates.

To see Neighboring Club meetings go to Clubs

To our Website

To District 5170

The views expressed by this writer are his views alone.  They do not necessarily coincide with the views of the Los Altos Rotary Club Poo-bahs.

The pledge was begun by KAILAS CHIDAMBARAM, that’s Kailas Chi-da-bar-am. 

SETH MANNING led us in Randolph the Brown Nose Reindeer or some such thing. It was a resounding rendition.

PAUL NYBERG  reported on a summer day in upper Michigan for his thought for the day.  He was employed by HERBERT J. TAYLOR, none other than the person who coined the 4 way test for the betterment of his business.  At the end of this Herbert’s talk he told all the young people gathered there to try to use this test for the rest of their lives in business and relationships.  It’s fun to see that test used other than at the back of the speaker’s platform. 

Today’s greeters were newly elected VAL CARPENTER and her friends, MEG SOLERA, DENNIS POTTER  and DAN HOLDEN.

Pres-elect SAM PESNER    had a terrible time introducing visiting Rotarians.  In fact it cost him about $40 by the time he was finished.  You had to have been there.

Visiting Rotarians were from everywhere:  Sonoma, Los Gatos, Scottsdale, Connecticut, and Minnesota.  The Connecticut gentleman was the father of our own HEINZ BLENNEMANN.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:  None was more important than past president, CINDY introducing our newest president elect-elect, JOHN MOSS and his wife JACKIE.  A thunderous standing ovation ensued and was the longest and loudest this writer has ever heard.  He will be a great president.  CINDY also discussed the method we use to select our president.,  it requires all the past presidents to meet very early in the morning.  The ballots are cast in a very secretive manner and the president is named.  Shortly thereafter a white plume of smoke is seen coming out of the Northern Trust chimney. 

SANDY WHIPPLE was next and announced that Partners for New Generations is looking for additional committee members to join the team.  If interested, please come to their monthly board meeting held at 8 AM at the Heritage Bank on the first Wednesday of each month.  They currently have more requests for tutors than they have tutors.

Next, KENDRA GJERSETH announced that our annual holiday party will be held on Dec. 19^th between 6-10 PM at the Jesuit Retreat House. 

We have 121 paid guests, and about 20 more who have not paid.  Please remind everyone that we need their money by Monday, and after that date there are no more signups.

Also: 
1.  Carpooling is a good idea.
2.  Show up at 6 p.m. and you will get good parking.
3.  Bring a flashlight because the parking area is dark.
4.  The liquid refreshments have been upgraded by bringing in a
professional bartender (Kendra), adding a signature drink for the
Holidays, and, of course, fine wines.
5.  Dress code is country club casual with the addition of red and green
items.
6.  Ties that flash or play songs are prohibited.

KENDRA  also announced she would be serving her special  martinis and SANDY BOZICH  will be wearing her special outfit while bartending.  I didn’t know what that meant, but it sounds like we should all show up to see for ourselves. PAYMENT MUST BE MADE BY MONDAY, DEC. 12.  There will be no money accepted at the door.  (yea, sure).

Next, DENNIS DRIBBLER POTTER, announced a 3 on 3 basketball group being formed.  A sign up sheet was sent around for all you Rotarians under 40. DICK HENNING mentioned to me that he and LARRY MADSEN will sign up so that the teams can have a blocking sled.  I think he’s mixing up his sports. 

DUDE ANGUS (via email) reminds us about FRIENDS OF RAP. Your tax-deductible check should be made out to the Rotary AIDS Project, with "FOR" written in the 'Memo' space.

FELLOWSHIP—we did not get a topic today.  I was very disappointed.  But at our table, JACKIE MOSS told us that pres. elect-elect JOHN’s father is a Rotarian in Ohio. JACKIE  was very aware of Rotary in View Nam while growing up.  It  was begun by the French and abolished as the war with the U.S. began. She said it went underground at that time. 

Mark Walker   of the Scottsdale Rotary Club announced that Rotary International has been named a Health Hero by a very prestigious group for our work in polio plus and aids.  We should all be very proud.

President MARLENE gave special kudos to BILLY RUSSELL    and BARBARA MORDO for their special recognition and awards in receiving the Los Altos Volunteer Service Awards last Friday. Our own JOHN MOSS  was the outstanding MC.

SAVE THE DATE:  Wed. Jan 18 LARC and LA Chamber will be co-hosting a Los Altos Chamber after hour’s mixer at Rambus.  Food to be donated by our own Frank of Four Seasons Catering.  Time:  after work sometime, I’m sure.  The wine will be selected by LOUIS BOREL.  Should be French and should be outstanding.

Foundation:  The drive still goes on.  Our sister club, The Los Altos Sunset club donated $536/member and had 100% double sustainers.  Give till it hurts.  District 5170 is 4^th in the world in contributions to the foundation. 

SHIV SHASTRI is taking applications for the Ambassadorial Scholarships for RI.  Please see him if you have a candidate. RI has committed $95 million to International Peace Scholarships for  2005-2015.

Please bring toys for kids age 3-8 and appropriate gifts for elementary and teenagers to next week’s meeting.  These are for Rotacare and the Community Services Agency to give away.    Remember, it’s Holiday Times. 

Finally, Pres-elect, SAM PESNER, our fine master got to take advantage of us.  First, STEVE SHEPHERD    lorded over poor STEVE ANDERSON for betting on the wrong team last weekend.  However, he got several other PAC-10 enthusiasts to contribute for poor old UCLA or TEXAS but not much for USC. Sam then cleverly extracted many dollars from unsuspecting Rotarians by playing NAME THAT TUNE.  Of course none of us knew any of the tunes except the theme from DESPARATE HOUSEWIVES.  As Sam was struggling with his tape deck, some clever Rotarian shouted “SILENT NIGHT’ in the quiet of the room.  We cracked up.  He succeeded in taking in about $200 including his own  $40 for goofs in introducing Rotarians. SAM works very hard for his fines.

The Richard Neutra House was discussed at a joint meeting of the LARC and LAREF this week.  A large contribution from our club has been requested.  Some mention has been made about dipping into our LAREF’s corpus for this contribution.  Nay, I say.

KAILAS CHIDAMBARAM  (CHID-AM-BAR-AM) introduced our program for the day. 

Sheila Barry,  a Cupertino Rotary Club member gave us a beautiful tour of Chile via slides and a movie.  She and several other members of district 5170 went to Chile to look into the COANIQUM Burn Center there.  Several past district governors also made the trek, including Brad Howard, Carolyn Schuetz and current governor, Arlene Greenberg.  The talk was very interesting.  There have been 65,000 children treated there for free.  It is staffed by 150 professionals of all types.  Their contribution is their work and presence there.  $600 per year would sponsor one child for one year.  The film we saw was directed by our speaker, Sheila Barry.  It is truly a fine program.  KAILAS and BRUCE CANN are very involved and would be happy to talk to anyone interested in contributing or joining the cause.   

[WEBMASTER'S NOTE:]  You will be getting an email from me Sometime Monday.  It will include a reminder that the money for the Christmas party is due to STEVE GRUBER on MONDAY.  It will also note an ommission in the Handbook about DENNIS YOUNG.