This Week's Program: 
• Dorothy Drummond - Understanding the Middle East Conflict

Upcoming Events:
Oct 11th LARC Board of Directors meeting 7:30am First Republic Bank

October 21st, Progressive Dinner (see STEVE GRUBER)

Website search:

See our Calendar for all of the important dates.

To see Neighboring Club meetings go to Clubs

To our Website

To District 5170

The arrival of Autumn was heralded today by VAL CARPENTER 'S reading of a lovely poem about cool, gray skies, solemn purple hills, slowly falling leaves, and woods in rich decay.  Luckily for us, there's still a little more Indian Summer left for Los Altos: the seven day forecast shows only sunshine, days in the 70's, nights in the 50's. 

Even more joyful news was announced by LARRY CHU, as he revealed to the club that our very own LARC softball team won their last game either 26 to 9, or 33 to 9, to become the new Champions of Silicon Valley!  (Everyone would have jumped to their feet 'midst the great exultation, but for the policy forbidding such an outburst except on the occasion of welcoming a new member.)

The San Jose East Rotary gave two free tickets to ride the train up Niles Canyon and enjoy some wine tasting and refreshments in the process.  I think there were several tickets to a Sharks event proffered, as well. 

JERRY MOISON reminded us of the Nov. 8th deadline for donating items for the A Sante’ wine tasting and auction. 

JULIE ROSE said the new Chamber Directory and Community Guide is now available. 

JANE REED gave details of the Progressive Dinner coming up on Oct. 21st, at $40 each.   There is more room for signups, but you have  to act fast.  Please call Steve Gruber at 650-965-7300 before Thursday,  Oct. 12.   For members who have signed up but not paid yet, please bring a check to Thursday's meeting, or mail it to Steve Gruber 5050 El Camino Real, Suite 111, Los Altos, CA 94022 before Oct. 12.

Jane also brought attention to the colorful cards depicting the subject of the next History Museum, featuring Toy Trains!   It opens Nov. 2nd, and runs through the end of the year.  

Our favorite runner, KENDRA GJERSETH, reported that the famous Rotary Ramblers not only met our goal this year of raising $10,000, but even exceeded it by $32!  We placed 14th out of 69 teams, still leaving a little room for improvement next year.  Altogether, our fair city raised over $600,000 for the American Cancer Society.  Well done to Kendra and all who participated!

DICK HASENPFLUG is looking for volunteers to share in the auditing of the club's and LAREF's books.

PRESIDENT SAM said we can now pay our dues and event costs by credit card, through the LARC web site.  He also told of the incipient falling of the axe upon our Rotary Tree downtown.  I think Walt Scholey should be imported to strike the first blow, in recognition of his past contributions.

Several options are being discussed to replace the tree, including a fountain, a bronze statue of President Sam, or a waterslide.  See PHIL ROSE to offer your suggestions.  With the help of JOHN HAMBLIN, Phil will bring several more ideas to us to consider for our preference.

DR. HENNING scored several major fines upon innocent members for not guessing what a diverse group of standing Rotarians had in common.  Answer: they all had outstanding IOU's from previous finemasters.

IRENE PRESTON paid for the privilege of announcing that her Candy and Ice Cream store is celebrating sixty years of candy making, with tours, free samples, a clown named Twinkie, and a city proclamation.  It's on Oct. 20th and 21st, 10 A.M. till 4 P.M., at 1170 Broadway in Burlingame.

Her ad was followed by one from JERRY TOMANEK, who announced a one man show of photographs at the Akane Japanese restaurant at 250 Third Street, across from Comerica Bank in Los Altos.  He wants the club to know that he will donate 10% of any photo sales to the Los Altos Community Foundation. (Doesn’t apply to food and beverage sales.)

Our speaker for the day was State Senator, Joe Simitian, former County Supervisor and former Mayor of Palo Alto.  Well know in this community, he grew up in Palo Alto, he received a B.A. from Colorado College, and Masters degrees from both Stanford and Cal Berkeley.  He holds a Juris Doctor law degree from Cal Berkeley as well.

Joe said this has been an extraordinary year for California, with Governor Schwarzenegger leading the way in setting a tone of bipartisan cooperation among legislators.  This new tone set in motion one of the most productive of recent years for California government. 

His particular focus is on elder abuse issues and coastal protection these days.  He believes in a "light touch" with education, but with some oversight.  He introduced a bill about privacy of telephone records, which was passed and signed into law, prohibiting buying or selling of records of people's phone calls.  Apparently, there is currently a flourishing market in this data.  His law will go into effect next January 1st. 

He also expressed concerns about possible abuses of a technology called RFID, (Radio Frequency IDentification) whereby government departments could force citizens to carry a card (like a driver's license) which would broadcast personal data about them.  This can then be monitored, to track a person's movement from place to place.  He said his request for ideas for new laws has yielded many good proposals. 

His take on the problem of redistricting is that it belongs in the hands of an impartial commission, not decided upon by the legislators. 

He said he understood the Governor's rollback of the $4 billion car tax, which had been recently tripled by the former governor.  He is pleased with the passage and signing of a law prohibiting use of handheld cell phones while driving, in that the CHP says they are the #1 cause of accidents by distracted drivers, and they are 15 times more likely to distract than hands-free cell phones.

Additional Announcements from Neighboring Rotary Clubs:

The Cupertino Rotary Job Search Support Group meets every Tuesday evening from 5:30 to 7:30pm at the Conference Center at St. Cyprian Elementary School at 1133 W. Washington Ave., Sunnyvale.  This free non-sectarian group is open to everyone.  This program is for employed, unemployed, under-employed and career changers and has received Certificates of Recognition from the Governor of California and the California State Legislature.  The program runs from now through June 12, 2007.  You may join the program at any time by just showing up for a meeting.  There is no cost.  Please contact Jim Gibson at (408) 735-0663 or JimGib007@aol.com if you have any questions.  

Bob Bowlsby, the new Athletic Director at Stanford University, will be the guest speaker at Cupertino Rotary on Wednesday, November 8th.  Bob was one of the most respected and admired athletic administrators in the nation during his nearly 15 years at the helm of the University of Iowa's athletic program.  Sports Business Journal selected him as the National Athletic Director of the Year.  The lunch meeting will be held from 12 to 1:30 at the Quinlan Community Center, 10185 North Stelling Road, Cupertino. Due to the popularity of this guest speaker, reservations are recommended.  For guest reservations, please contact George Luchessi: 408-255-8283, lukcg@aol.com.

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