President JOHN brought the meeting to order and was quickly reminded by PP SAM PESNER, that President John is on his way out or at least as he put it, “Downhill”.  PP SAM also mentioned the Kick-Out Roast and Dinner on June 26th and 27th.  Sam can probably use some help thinking up some jokes to tell, so give him a call and join his Kick-out Committee.  It should be fun.  You will be able to hear all the out-takes. 

We had one visiting Rotarian from Calevares (Gold Country) and three guests. 

ANNOUNCEMENTS (in case you missed them).  While all the announcements were important, one that stands out for those of you who missed the Holiday Party, is, that a committee of Past Presidents has selected TRACIE MURRAY to be our President for the 2009-2010 Rotary Year.  Way to go, TRACIE. Or should I say “way to go”, PE Nominee, TRACIE.  And all this while she is in law school.  What did we all do in our miss-spent youth?  PP MARGE BRUNO announced that BUD OLIVER’S wife, Ann, was in a serious bike vs. car accident near her home in South Los Altos.  As of the meeting, she was still in the hospital and cannot accept visitors, but a kind thought, prayer or phone call to Bud is certainly appropriate.  NANCY SIMON who headed up the Christmas toy drive for CSA, again thanked everyone and mentioned that if they contributed by check, they would be receiving letter of receipt and thanks from CSA.  Art Show Chairs, KATIE NUTTER and COETA CHAMBERS are inviting everyone to celebrate the 2008 kick-off of the Los Altos Rotary Club’s “Fine Art in the Park” , with a party at Coeta Chamber’s house on Friday, January 25th from 5:30 PM to 9:00 PM.  Go to our website and click on Events, scroll down to the event and click it.  You will get a page to offer you an opportunity to sign up.  The theme of this party is “FUN”.

Coeta Chambers also noted that someone, by accident, may have picked up a signed copy of Mildred Kailish’s book inscribed “to George”.  It says “to George”, but it belongs to Coeta, so please return it, and she will give you the unsigned book she has.   

PRESIDENT JOHN then mentioned that there were three “Positive Rotary Things” that were happening.  First, tie-less, (and probably tireless too) WYATT ALLEN, recognized both PP MARY PROCHNOW and JOHN BOGART for their contributions to the Rotary Foundation; MARY, for her fifth Paul Harris, and John, for his first.

Next, DENNIS YOUNG had us recognize LOUIE BOREL for his Guy Shoup Award.  Way to go, Louie.   Finally, Membership Director LARRY CHU introduced us to STEVE POMOROY as a new Red Badge member of Los Altos Rotary Club.  PP STEVE ANDERSON as sponsor of STEVE also received a special pin designating him as a sponsor. 

SPECIAL HEALTH COMMITTEE PRESENTATION  The Health Committee is healthy and active.  Today presentation was an eye-full.  OD’s PP Steve Anderson, PP Sam Pesner and Sandy Bozich talked about glaucoma.  They spoke about open angle, and closed angle as aptly demonstrated by PP Sam in lieu of slides.  Do you find it ironic that the ‘sight-group’ of the health committee failed in presenting their slides?  I suppose the only thing more ironic would be the Technical Committee not getting the slide projector to work.

Anyway, as I have said before, you had to be there to appreciate all the information about glaucoma and its symptoms (none usually, depending upon the angle).  It was definitely worthwhile and something that should be repeated.  They did leave us with this final comment; {sic} “There is no cure.  Prevention is the best medicine.”  So see your eye doctor.  This disease is not just for old folks.  People as young as 16 have gone blind because of it.  There.  Did that sufficiently scare you?  Sorry, but it is the truth.  Well, it might have been 26, I don’t remember.  But still, pretty dog-gone young. 

RECOGNITION  PP MARY PROCHNOW wielded a very big stick today.  It seemed she had a lot of extraction time to work with.  I didn’t get them all, but KIM COPHER, PAT MILLAR (welcome back PAT!) LEN MC BIRNEY, KURT HUEG, SHELLY POTVIN, TOM LISTON, JACK KELLY, and the list goes on and on, all got wacked today. 

PROGRAM FOR THE DAY  PE SETH MANNING introduced Kay Grace.  Ms. Grace’s talk was entitled,”Public Media in America; What you May or May Not Know, and Should Know”.  To read her resume’ would take the whole Rotator, so suffice it say, she is highly qualified to speak about her topic today.  Further information about Kay, and her San Francisco-based consulting company, go to http://www.kaygrace.org.  She talked about public media, NPR PBS and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB).  Kay showed the relationship of CPB to NPR, PBS and KQED KQED.  She talked about the differences between NPR (National Public Radio) and PBS (Public Broadcasting Services).  Kay made a case for “independent” public media, saying that these voices attempt to be commercial and politically neutral.  I think that over the years this commercial and politically neutral mantra has slipped a bit.  But that is definitely not a topic for THIS Rotator.   

She explained the difference between Ford ‘sponsoring’ a program, and Ford advertising on a program.  Unfortunately, at least for me, the differences eluded me (just my opinion).  If a sponsor or advertiser threatens to withdraw its support because a particular program casts a bad light on the company, it seems to make little difference if the company is a sponsor or an advertiser.  But, again, that is just me. 

Check our new website for some pictures of the impromptu meetings at Chef Chu's over the holidays.