This Week's Program: 
Thursday, February 15th:
John Day -- The Plan for Los Altos Community Swimming Pool

  President SAM PESNER brought the meeting to order at 12:15 p.m. sharp and asked President-elect JOHN MOSS to lead the pledge of allegiance.  SHIV SHASTRI chose “Oklahoma” as the song for the day, and it was sung with a fair degree of panache. 

CINDY LUEDTKE offered the quote for the day – actually, the quotes for the day – sharing some precious insights on love, in honor of the Valentine’s Day that lies ahead.  Greeters for the day were KATIE NUTTER and JEAN MORDO, who chatted together in French while TRACIE MURRAY, who wasn’t assigned as a greeter, nonetheless welcomed her fellow Rotarians.

President-elect JOHN MOSS led the introductions of visiting Rotarians and guests.  Our visiting Rotarian was BOB DENEBEIM, president of the East Palo Alto/Bayshore Rotary Club.  Rotarians with guests included MARY MARLEY, CINDY LUEDTKE, and VAL CARPENTER.

Announcements:  President SAM announced that the April 20-22 district conference has the theme “You otter be there,” showing us a cute little otter (not real) on the podium.  There will be tennis and golf at the event, which will be held in Monterey April 20-22 at the Portola Plaza Hotel. See PRES SAM for more info.

POOBAH SAM also informed the club the Santa Clara County Board of Supes has proclaimed February “Rotary Awareness Month” and February 23 as “Rotary International World Understanding and Peace Day.”

KAREN OWEN invited her fellow Rotarians to attend the March 9 poker evening, co-hosted by the Rotary Clubs of Los Altos and Mountain View.  It will be held from 7 – 11 p.m. at the Historic Adobe Building, 157 Moffett Blvd. in Mountain View.  The cost is $35, which goes to pay for food and beverage.  The grand prize is a trophy and the right to strut a little.  Sign-ups will continue at Rotary Club lunches through March 1.  Or you may call Karen at 408-245-6664.

LAREF Pres DENNIS YOUNG announced that February is LAREF month, and that the goal is to raise the corpus of the fund to the half-million dollar mark.  Expect to be called by one of your club colleagues. 

PP MARY PROCHNOW announced that the February 8 RAP meeting would be cancelled, because DUDE ANGUIS is recovering from his knee surgery more slowly than he’d hoped.  A get-well card was circulated for signature.

PP GINNY LEAR announced that the February 22 meeting will be dedicated to training Rotarians who interact with children, as per Rotary requirements. Everyone falls within the definition of who needs to be trained, due to interactions such as the art show, when we work side-by-side with Interactors and Scouts. This is an excellent opportunity to get this training done. Those Rotarians who require further training, i.e. the additional 2.5 hour training for more extensive one-on-one interaction with youth should contact GINNY for more information.

Website review Matt Cabot, Rotary webmaster extraordinaire, gave club members a quick overview of the losaltosrotary.org website.  Members are encouraged to go their to find their colleagues’ phone numbers, (under Members / Webmate),  check on future programs, (Calendar),  review what’s happening with the art show, (Art Show) etc.  Don’t be afraid – just click away.

A Ten-Minute Talk KEN GRAHAM may be new to the Rotary Club of Los Altos, but he sure isn’t new to the world of Rotary.  During his ten-minute talk, Ken described a Rotary association that has spanned more than thirty years.  Here are some nuggets of insights into Ken.  First, how he got into medical administration is a bit of a mystery, because both of his parents were artists.  His dad drew some of the earliest Walt Disney images and headed that company’s in-house art school.  Second, he was an early founder of RotaCare, starting one of the first clinics in the state.  He even wrote a book about how to do it.  Third, he has used location as a guiding principle in his career choices.   Thus the decision to head up El Camino Hospital – he wanted to live on the Peninsula.  Fourth and finally, Ken invited Rotarians to view the new hospital when it’s done.  Invitation accepted, Ken. Thanks!

Recognition  JERRY MOISON was finemaster for the day, and he focused his attention on the club directory.  More to the point, he wanted to address the fact that his picture was in the directory twice, and that his identical-twin brother BILL MOISON was struggling in his brother’s shadow.  (Jerry even admits to kicking Bill out of their mother’s womb.)  To bring his brother back, Jerry contributed $10 to the “duckbucket,” and asked everyone else to contribute a fiver.  Not bad, Jerry!

Election of new LARC board members

A strong slate of six candidates ran for two-year terms as directors of the club.  At the end of the meeting, the results of the election were announced.  COETA CHAMBERS, KENDRA GJERSETH, and JACK KELLY won seats on the board.  Their election was met with applause from their fellow Rotarians. Thanks also to JOHN McDONNELL, HUGH RIDDELL and DAVID SMITH for standing for election. This was a strong slate and a very difficult task to choose among these outstanding Rotarians.

Art Show Update Your art show director has been giving you the wrong number of days until the show, so she’ll stop doing it.  JOHN MOSS told her that she had miscounted, which should give you great confidence in her skills as project manager.

But hey, she’s great at marketing.  So here’s today’s scoop. Ever want to know who our customers are?  KATIE NUTTER did.  So, being the crazy woman she is, she went through all of last year’s artists’ receipts and entered the names, addresses and amounts spent by 2006 customers into a handy-dandy Excel spreadsheet.  Here’s what she learned.

Top Ten Towns, by Spending:  Los Altos (41%), San Jose (9%), Palo Alto (7%), Mountain View (7%) and Redwood City (6% -- surprisingly, surpassing Menlo Park/Atherton/Woodside).

How Much Customer Spend:  More than $1,000 = 10%.  Between $500 and $999 = 7%.  Between $499 and $100 = 43%.  Between $99 and $50 = 21%.  Less than $50 = 19%.

This data will be used to refine our marketing plans.  For example, the top ten percent will get personal letters this year, inviting them to attend our wine-tasting booth for free.  There, they’ll be personally welcomed by Rotarians, in the hopes of encouraging continued support for Rotary and its initiatives.  Of course, they may choose to spend money again .

Joanna Medin Talks About Identity Theft  JOANNA MEDIN has recently taken a position as an associate at Pre-Paid Legal Services, Inc.  It is a company that specializes in identity theft.  Joanna's website and contact info:
Pre-Paid Legal Services, Inc.  

Joanna gave club members a sobering insight into this fast-growing crime; probably the most common crime in Los Altos. It is certainly "America's fastest growing crime." (From Los Altos Police Department's Identify Theft Information bulletin.)  Unfortunately, if you look at the Los Altos town website, and specifically the Police Department section, there is nothing on the site to suggest that this is a big problem.  However in contacting the police department, they said that they are in the process of adding that information to their site.

In the mean time, you might want to note these important numbers in the very likelihood that you will become a victim of Identity Theft:

Remember,

• Shred everything with your name, account number or pin on it.  That includes those very annoying pre-filled in credit card applications with blank checks with your name and account number attached.  THAT ought to be against the law!!

• Be careful of passwords, pins and social security numbers

• Never carry your social security number.  (cut out portions of the number and complete them as needed)

• Get a PO Box for important financial mail

• NEVER use your mailbox as an out-box.  Take it to the Post Office

• Memorize your social security number, and disclose it only if absolutely necessary, and not until you give them a fight

• REPORT to the Police any possible identify theft incident