This Week's Program: 
July 27th:  District Governor
•  Russ Hobbs
 

Upcoming Events:
Aug 3rd, Possible DA race discussion. 

August 10th:
Three 10 Minute Talks

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We were met by our greeters, JERRY TOMANEK, BARBARA DUNCAN, and JOHN CARDOZA.  This writer got to the meeting on time.  So we have a pledge, song, and a thought, along with the rest of the meeting.  The only issue was that President Sam is rushing his year.  He said it was July 21^st, but that’s not important.  Unless, of course, you were born on the 20^th and then you wouldn’t be here.

PP MARTY (more on him later) SPANGLER took the task of leading us in the pledge, and then RICK GLAZE lead 3 or 4 in “Ba Ba Black Sheep.”  He was the only one with words, so most of us listened, and sort of sang. SHIV SHASTRI gave us the Thought For The Day by TS Elliot. Lots of ‘time for this’, and ‘time for that’, and ended up with ‘my end is my beginning’.  He also said: “Anxiety is the hand maiden of creativity.” I relate to this quite well.  In fact when you Google ‘TS Eliot’ it seems there are hundreds of famous quotes attributed to him.  Our table thought it was a great thought.  Take a look at this for more on TS Eliot:  http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/t/t_s_eliot.html.

 I just couldn’t write it down fast enough. (Anyone else want this job?)

PE JOHN MOSS continued his new procedure of having visiting Rotarians stand to be recognized.  One advantage of this procedure is that their name is always pronounced correctly.  Today, two visiting Rotarians were recognized: 

1.  Past member (2002-2003)  and now current Charter member of South Placer, Brenda Niedert Forstall,

2.  Judy Hanneman from our neighbor club, Mountain View and of Los Altos Community Foundation, Rotocare,  Community School of Music and Arts fame.   

Good to see you both. 

There were an additional four guests.  Not the least of who was CRES MCFALL’s new son, Brandon. 

Announcements:
JERRY TOMANEK again offered to take PROFESSIONAL photographs of any member who wanted to update their picture, so Red Badgers could put a face to the picture in the Handbook.  I don’t have a current handbook, but you know who you are.  Quit trying to hold onto the past.  Besides, for a small fee (which goes to LAREF) Jerry can do some miracles - in most cases.

LARRY CHU reminded us that our softball season is about to begin.  So those of you with big bats, or think you have the ‘right stuff’ (no steroids, please) get a hold of Larry and help us beat Kiwanis next Monday.  Also it should be a fun game to watch. 

Place: Crittenden Middle School, 8:00.

Member, LOU BECKER, resigned.  This reminds me that the membership of our club, really any club, is in constant flux.  During recent training, President SAM learned that there is about a 10% turnover per year.  That means that about 16 members will have to be added to our club each year just to remain even.  Even more than 16 are needed if we expect to grow.  Remember, the more hands we have to do the work, the easier it will be to accomplish the goals we set.  As TS Eliot said:  “What do we live for; if it is not to make life less difficult for each
other?”.

Visiting guest, Gordon Jack, is the Principal of Freestyle High School, and he announced that the school will have an Open House on Monday, August 21^st  from 5 to 7 PM at the new campus located behind the District office at 1299 Bryant Ave, MTV.  All are welcome to come and see a new approach to teaching the arts.

KELLY HUDSON is interested in seeing how many people would be interested in a group attendance to Barber of Seville in November.  The show runs from November 18^th through December 3rd.  Check out: http://www.operasj.org/home0607.html.  I saw about 10 – 15 hands go up, so it seems like something we would like to do.

Pres. SAM held his first fund-raising auction.  He auctioned two tickets to the Foothill College presentation of Annie Get your Gun, reception, silent auction, live auction and dinner for two went to PP MARTY (of pledge fame) SPANGLER for $200.  Ata'way Marty..  Marty would again be hit by the Extortion Master later in the show. 

Speaking of Extortion Master (euphemistically called Fine Master) PP MEL KAHN had a ‘theme for the day.”  It was “Get the Old Guys.”  Almost everyone is older than Mel, certainly most Past Presidents.  Mel wrote a script, taking his information from PP ROY LAVE, which was a mistake in itself.  Anyway, the game of the day was for each Past President to try to remember where we met when they were president.  Everyone got it right, except Mel.  Mel missed them all.  So much for relying on the written history in the 50^th Anniversary book for the club.  I think he got about $200 total from 7 people, and most of that was from PP BILLY RUSSELL.  Billy paid $100 to be a Giant Panda.  I don’t know what that is, but if Billy is willing to pay $100, I will call him anything.  Mel gave much of the money away to get PP DAN DUTTON to sit down.  Several other people became part Poobah.  Maybe we should have 4 levels:

$25 – Teddy bear
$50 – Panda bear
$75 – Poobah
$100 – Grand Poobah
Under $25, you are half a Poobah, or a “Poo”.

TODAY’S PROGRAM was introduced by PE JOHN MOSS.  John introduced Dr. Bertrand Patenaude • Hoover Institute.  Or is it “Institution”?  Well it was, and then it wasn’t, and is.  Right now it is the Hoover Institute.  If you Google Hoover Institute or Hoover Institution, you get the same (roughly) set of hits.  So, who knows? 

Dr Patenaude gave a delightful talk about THE Institute, (or Institution) and I for one was struck with the notion that all these fiction books I read are probably a waste of time.  More History, more history, please. 

Dr Patenaude is a Research Fellow at the Institute, and presented a quick glimpse of his book, “Wealth of Ideas” (see below) which gives a peek into the rich collections at the Institute.  Hoover Institution was founded by Herbert Hoover in 1919. Today it is regarded as a conservative think tank.  But also I think we were amazed at the wealth of historical artifacts relating to War, Revolution and Peace. 

This is taken from the Hoover Institute website: 

A Wealth of Ideas: Revelations from the Hoover Institution Archives

Developed from Hoover fellow Bertrand M. Patenaude's soon-to-be-released book of the same name, this exhibition draws upon the Hoover Institution Library and Archives' vast trove of rare historical documents and artifacts to examine the great wars, revolutions, political and intellectual movements, and outstanding individuals of the 20th century. Along the way, it tells the story of the origins and evolution of the Hoover Institution and the amassing of its world-renowned archives.
The subject matter is epic in scale, covering the great wars, revolutions, political and intellectual movements, and personalities of the twentieth century. The impressive cast of characters includes many of the most influential figures of the age, among them are Woodrow Wilson and Leon Trotsky, Friedrich von Hayek and Henry Ford, Karl Popper and Joseph Goebbels, Chiang Kai-shek and Boris Pasternak, and Bertrand Russell and Milton Friedman.

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