Los Altos Rotary Club Home of the Annual Rotary Fine Art Show June 19th, 2008

What’s that?  There, just over the hill, over there?  See it?  No?  Look there, next to that big green tree.  See it now?  Yes?  Yes, that’s it: The FINISH LINE.  Almost there, just a few more steps.  Well we actually may finished the race.  Most of us were not as happy that the meeting was over today as we were a year ago.  It is amazing.  Only one year ago (and a couple of weeks) we were watching our President Elect JOHN MOSS becoming presidential in his first meeting.  Remember the mood?  Remember the words?  Have you noticed the (for a better word) awkwardness rapidly melt away as JOHN joined a long and illustriously private club of PRESIDENTS and now soon to be in that more select group (because there is always one less) of PAST PRESIDENTS.

So the year of the SETH is about on us.  SETH is so dedicated to becoming the President of our club he skipped the Convention (or part of it) to be sure that President JOHN gives up the gavel at the appointed time.  John looked so happy to have this as his last official meeting that I am sure he will have no trouble shedding that armor.

We had two greeters there when I went through, glad-handing the troops as they filed through to give WYATT ALLEN their money.  They were JOANNE KAVALARIS and BO KERNS.

PE SETH MANNING lead us in the pledge and SHIV SHASTRI lead us in a poor rendition of something, I forgot to write it down.  It wasn’t the choir directors fault but the assembled choir.  Maybe we should stick to Row-Row .  . .  , well you know.

CLYDE NOEL gave us his rendition of a poem he modified for us:

A SPECIAL POEM FOR OLD ROTARIANS
The row of bottles on my shelf
caused me to think about myself.

The yellow pill I have to pop
goes to my heart so it won’t stop.

The little white one that I take
goes to my hands so they don’t shake.

The blue ones that I use a lot
say I am happy, when I am not.

The purple pill goes to my brain
and tells me that I have no pain.

The capsules tell me not to wheeze,
or cough, or choke or even sneeze.

The red ones smallest of them all
goes to my blood so I won’t fall.

The orange ones, very big and bright
prevent my leg craps in the night.

Such an array of brilliant pills
help to cure all kinds of ills.

But what I’d really like to know,
is what tells each pill where to go.

So my thought for the day is what I am thankful for. 
We take no pills for wrinkles, cause they don’t hurt any more.

 
We had several guests, and one visiting Rotarian that I saw: prior LARC Member JIM CONWAY who is up from Palm Springs to catch some cool weather.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:  There was an announcement about something happening on Saturday, but since you will probably get this ROTATOR several day after the event, I didn’t write it down.

The same with JEAN (John) Mordo’s announcement about an ART SHOW wrap-up meeting after the meeting today.  If you were suppose to be there, to late.  It was after the meeting today.

PE SETH announced that he would send out a clarification to his clarification about announcements.

PP SAM PESNER announced three things: 1.  KICK OUT lunch is next week.  Expect to hear a lot of jokes, and generally have a great time at the expense of President JOHN.  2  SAM tried to announce that if you are not getting the Rotator, or the myriad of emails emanating from our website service, (Club Runner) it may be the fault of your browser’s tenacious efforts to keep spam out of your in-basket.  Yes, Matilda, we did have “IN BASKETS” way back when.  Now I suppose the correct vernacular is In Box.  Email me and I will show you how to add Club Runner as a good guy unless of course you have a MAC, then I can’t be of much help.  3.  In order for the club to close its books by the end of the fiscal year (July 1 to June 30), you must get all bills to SANDIE WHIPPLE and pay all bills (like the Kickout bill) before June 30th.  4th (of 3) was the KICKOUT DINNER THIS FRIDAY JUNE 27th is at 6:30 (not 6:00 as some thought).

By the time you read this, the Relay for Life relay will be history.  Perhaps we will have pictures of the spectacular.  The same for the car wash that was held in support of the Relay.  And we do:

JACK KELLY announced that we need volunteers for the Chef Chu’ Food Booth on July 12 and 13th.  When I saw the sign up there were lots of space available.  Red Badgers, this is a fine way to ‘get into the mix.’  You can also go onto the web, and sign up directly (which to my way of thinking, is a much more civilized way to sign up.) 

Go to:  http://www.clubrunner.ca/CPrg/Home/eventitem.asp?cid=4000&iid=46189&rtp=/CPrg/Home/homeD.asp
Then click on Volunteering and you will automatically be ‘volunteered’ at the time and date of your choice.

LARRY MADSEN shared some bragging about his granddaughter setting records in 50 yard and 100 yard freestyle swimming at the CCS finals.  She is ceded as 16th in the nation in the 50 yard freestyle and is now off to the Olympic trials

STEVE SHEPHARD also reminded us about an event that will already have happened.  There’s a BACK TO THE FUTURE joke here someplace, but I can’t quite get it.  I do know, that I sucked at golf even though the actual event is tomorrow to me as I write this, but last Friday to you as you read it.  Got it?  Good.  Here is the result of the Golf and Poker Tournament.  Eventually, I will have a photo album on our new website. 

From an email from MARY MARLEY: 

Since so many of our Rotary members know Hugh Riddell, can you put this web site in the Rotator for folks who are interested in following him and staying in touch with him as he goes through his Cancer treatments?

http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/hughriddell

I suggest everyone visit his website, sign in and give him a shout-out.

TEN MINUTE TALK JERRY TOMANEK shared a delightful slide show with us today depicting him and his family and his dogs over the years.  His central theme was how lucky he was with events (mostly) that he had no influence:  his family.  He talked about his parents his wife of 39 years, Susan and his children.  He finished it by saying three things we probably don’t know about him:
1.    He played 1st Chair Violin in high school
2.    He have never received a moving violation
3.    He is a good cook.  He says his epitaph should read:  “He made good soup”

FROM HIGH POINT TO LOW POINT: DENNIS YOUNG took the honors to be the LAST fine master for the year.  Most had paid the requisite $100 so there were slim pickings among the mostly “President’s Club” members.  But that didn’t stop good old DENNIS.  At least one person joined the President’s Club a second time, demanding a 2nd badge.  JERRY TOMANEK was fined for being lucky; PP CINDY LUEDTKE was fined because she was “on the run-way” for a good cause; PP SAM PESNER because, well, I couldn’t tell.  Maybe you could.  The same for PP AL TRAFICANTI, JACK HIGGINS, SAM HARDING, SANDIE BOZICH AND PP MARY PROCHNOW. 

As if flaunting his meeting-running prowess, President JOHN declared 10 minutes of free time, to get the program on at 1:00PM. 

PROGRAM:  Last week during my 10 minute talk I said that the luncheon was not the purpose of Rotary but participation in the committees and all the work that is done outside of the meetings was.  Today’s program proved that beyond a doubt.  PEN TRACIE MURRAY as president of the Los Altos Rotary Endowment Foundation (LAREF) spoke about the beneficiaries of that foundation.  Her annual report detailed the directors, source of funds and recipients of the distributions.  I will try to get her PowerPoint onto the website so you can see the details if you did not get a copy of her slides. 

But in summary, Net income into the foundation was $88,550; distribution (including $2,423 and $16,382 from RI matching funds) totaled $123,292.  We have a net in our corpus of $426, 952.

There were 31 beneficiaries, between $500 and $5,000 each.  The list is extensive, and I will get it up on our website as soon as I can because it is VERY impressive.  HERB MARSHALL and his Contributions Committee should be recognized for their fine work.  So should KATHY BERRY and her Scholarship Committee, and RICK GLAZE and his LAREF Investment Committee.  Finely, we should give a special thanks to PEN TRACIE MURRAY for her LAREF leadership. 

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