This Week's Program: 
No Meeting this week, or next Week. 

Merry Christmas,
Happy Chanukah
Happy Holidays,
and Happy New Years!
 

Upcoming Events:
January 4th:  President Sam
•   Club Assembly

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In this, the last meeting of the year 2006 for Los Altos Rotary Club, SAM HARDING, in his fining session asked his finees to declare whether they had been naughty or nice during the past year.  Think about how you would have answered that question.  Keep in mind that naughty equals $50 and nice equals $25.  Also you had to explain to the entire club why you were either naughty or nice. 

The meeting began with our speaker, IRA RUSKIN leading us in the Pledge of Allegiance.  BRUCE CANN serenaded us with holiday music on the piano.  Great job, BRUCE. 

VAL CARPENTER led us in a rousing rendition of “Deck the Halls”. 

Clyde Noel (definitely falls in the naughty category) read a poem of his own design that was clever, cute, and zapped pretty much everyone in the club.  A lot of “ooh’s” and “ah’s” were heard from our group.  It was entitled “The Rotarians Before Christmas”.  How CLYDE rhymed ANDERSON and MOSS is still a mystery.

Speaking of MOSS, JOHN then introduced one visitor from Scotts Valley Rotary Club and several guests including Shoshanna Zimmerman, formerly of our club and now residing in India.  Many guests were introduced. 

Our Grand Poobah explained why he was wearing a bow tie today:  he’s scheduled to read stories to children at the History House.  These are train stories and he is to be a conductor.  I wonder if he read in his famous Italian accent. 

Announcements:  You can find out all you want to know about yourself by going onto our club website and choosing the Club Mate icon.  There was another direction there that this writer didn’t pick up because STEVE SHEPHERD was telling me an off-color story at the time. 

STEVE GRUBER reminded us for the last time of the Rotary Christmas Party to be held at the Jesuit Retreat House on Tuesday, December 19^th.  The time is 6:00 or 6:30 (STEVE again).  He reminded us to car pool if possible as parking is limited.

JANE REED spoke of a trip to Mexico for anyone interested to do a “hands-on” building project and help Habit for Humanity.  Please see JANE for details.

PE JOHN MOSS and PP MARLENE COWAN handed out the handbook (for 2006-2007).  Just in time for Christmas. 

TRACIE MURRAY and CINDY WEMYSS thanked all that had donated toys, food and money to the CSA.  They can always still use more money.

MATT CABOT reminded those of us who hadn’t made a donation to our servers to please give ‘til it hurts.

Rotary Interantaional Presidential Dinner Details:

What: A gala presidential dinner to honor RI President William B. Boyd
When: Wednesday, January 3, 2007
Where: Santa Clara Marriott Hotel, 2700 Mission College Blvd, Santa Clara (Off 101 just north of the San Jose Airport)
Time: 6:00 p.m. - No Host Reception, 7:00 p.m. – Dinner
Price:Fifty Dollars ($50) per attendee
Dress: Business Attire
Parking: On site parking is $2.00/hr – max. $9.00; Valet parking is $15.00 day.

QUESTIONS?  JOHN MOSS

ROY LAVE has never liked the idea of going “dark” at this time of the year. And, as in years past, has organized a meeting to be held at CHEF CHU’S on Thursday, Dec. 28 at the usual time.  There are only a few places available, so first come, first served.  Call ROY.

STEVE SHEPARD sent in this announcement (hopefully for the Rotator):
We have a date for our Annual Golf Tournament and BBQ.  The date is Friday, June 8, 2007.  Please circle your calendars for this date to play.  We will have a block of tee times beginning at 10:00 am continuing through 12:00 noon, so everyone will be off the course by 5 pm.

Mel and Mady Kahn have graciously offered their home for our BBQ dinner.  You should all say thanks to Mel and Mady when you see them as this is a big commitment to have over 60 people to their home for our event.  Just ask Mona Armistead, Lois Adams, Cathy Anderson, and Bev Shepherd

As tradition goes, this committee will meet only twice.  Once in Jan/Feb to plan assignments and discuss the budget and the second meeting to walk and tour the golf course to make sure it meets our high Rotary standards.  That meeting traditionally is in March or April.  We will discuss dates of both meetings soon after the Holidays.

Thanks for everyone's quick replies for your preference on dates for this tournament.  We again look forward to putting on the Best Rotary Golf Tournament in the Bay Area!

ROLAND PAYNE announced a Vietnam tour in conjunction with a wheelchair delivery from March 17^th to the 30^th if interested.  The price for the original trip is $2999/person. It is being handled by Past District Governor, BRAD HOWARD.  If interested, please call Brad at 510-834-2260 or e-mail Travel@HowardTours.net.

The Rotarian of the month is JOHN HAMBLIN for all his work on the Rotary Tree in the Plaza. 

JULIE ROSE and PAUL NYBERG have been put in charge of a committee to bring back business discussions for our club.  So, today, we had two-minute discussions from MIKE SPENCE, DENNIS YOUNG, SANDIE WHIPPLE and PAUL CONARD.  All these folks are in the Accounting/CPA business.  All gave us good reasons to see them for all our tax and accounting needs.  This, in my opinion, is a very good new wrinkle in our programs. 

Now, back to SAM HARDING.    His fines today were fine, indeed.  JEANNE MAC VICAR,  Recipient of the TOWN CRIER’S “Los Altan of the Year”, was fined to the Poohbah level for being a bad girl at age 15 at church camp. CLYDE NOEL was obviously naughty and paid $50 for his poem.   COETA CHAMBERS was fined as was PHIL ROSE, who became a member of the Poohbah Club.  JOHN CARDOZA also was naughty.   JOANNA MEDIN used the moment to brag about her son, Alex, whose football team placed first in their division in a national Pop Warner playoff in Florida.

ELLEN FLANAGAN e-mailed PRES. SAM to announce her resignation from the club.  She’s spending a lot of time in the state of Washington now and finds it hard to make meetings.  She can still be reached at her e-mail address in the Rotary Handbook.  Speaking of which, we received our 2006 Handbooks today.  Congratulations to all who had a hand in our handbook.

JOHN MOSS made a very brief introduction for our speaker, Assemblyman IRA RUSKIN.  IRA felt it might have been too brief.  He wanted us to know his accomplishments as he was losing his voice from a bad cold.  He went ahead with his talk and did very well until his voice did give out.  IRA complimented us on our volunteer spirit which makes our country different from most in the world.  He also mentioned what he thought was the high point of his year and that was his Bill, the California Green Act, Bill #32, to combat global warming.  He also called this the Global Warming Solutions Act.  He complimented the community colleges in the state and said our Governor is a product of a community college education.

BAIDRA MURPHY was the winner of our raffle and received a Hearst Castle book and two tickets to visit the castle, from our own Poohbah. 

The “cute little story” PRESIDENT SAM ended with had to do with an old nun lying on her death bed:

The 98 year old Mother Superior was dying. The nuns gathered around her bed trying to make her last journey comfortable. They gave her some warm milk to drink but she refused. Then one of the nuns took the glass back to the kitchen. Remembering a bottle of Irish whiskey received as a gift the previous Christmas, she opened and poured a generous amount into the warm milk.

Back at Mother Superior's bed, she held the glass to her lips. Mother drank a little, then a little more, and before they knew it, she had drunk the whole glass down to the last drop.

"Mother," the nuns asked with earnest, "Please, give us some wisdom before you die."