President JOHN MOSS tinkled the historic Los Altos Rotary Club bell at precisely 12:17 p.m. today.  SHIV SHASTRI, sliding into his seat just in time, was asked to lead us in the Pledge and he did so with great confidence and authority.  SETH MANNING then raised us all in a zippy version of “Zippity-Do-Dah”, a perfect song for the perfect Los Altos sunny day.
 
DENNIS YOUNG, remembering and honoring a high school friend who just passed away, told us his friend always said “It’s a great day – every day is a great day!” 
 
Dennis Googled this date in history and learned the following:
            – In 1620 the Pilgrims left England
            – In 1962 Ringo Starr joined the Beatles
            – It’s Rotarian George DAI’s birthday
            – It’s Al and Nancy Traficanti’s wedding anniversary (more later)
            – 30 years ago today, Elvis left the building
 
Our great greeters today were KAREN OWEN, ALLART LIGTENBERG, and JOE CORRAL. Welcome to Rotary!
 
President Elect SETH MANNING welcomed visiting Rotarians with our new club protocol for welcoming visitors from other clubs: in times past we greeted other Rotarians by name.  But due to bad acoustics (and lack of attention) many people did not get a very rousing “Hello”.  Seth has changed our protocol so that now we will welcome visiting Rotarians with a rousing round of applause (seated of course.)  Seth welcomed several visitors from Palo Alto and one from Saskatoon, Canada!  Many club members introduced guests today! 
 
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
KATIE NUTTER reminded everyone to sign up for the August 31st  garden party at Rotarian JEAN and BARBARA MORDO’S house. 
 
Seth said the changes to the new Rotary handbook are in progress.  Please make corrections or add info by calling SETH MANNING.
 
NANCY DUNAWAY reminded everyone of the Red Badge Fundraiser at Borel Bank at 5 p.m. on September 23, followed by a 7 p.m. show at Bus Barn Theater.  Tickets are $75.
 
CLYDE NOEL invited more future leaders to join the LEAD Program starting September 4.
 
Past District Governor Russ Hobbs introduced Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar Carmelo Fontana from Italy.  Carmelo is a law student at Stanford.
 
 
GETTING TO KNOW YOU!
Our 10-Minute Talk was presented by NANCY DUNAWAY.  Nancy’s family reaches far back in American history with relatives landing in 1633 in New York City, another sailed on the second voyage of the Mayflower and another of her relatives was a Lieutenant on the boat with George Washington crossing the Delaware River.
 
Nancy is a third generation Californian and was born and raised in Pasadena.  She came to the Bay Area in 1979 and beginning in 1986 served with Rotarian JANE REED on the Los Altos Village Association.  She also worked for the Peninsula Executives Association and wrote business and real estate columns for the Palo Alto Daily News.
 
She has two adult children.  Her son is attending USC studying philosophy, and her daughter is finishing a design degree in Los Angeles.
 
A devoted runner, Nancy has completed several marathons, most recently in April.  She loves to run in the mornings when the sun is coming up and enjoys the stress reduction running provides.
 
She now serves as the director of the Los Altos Village Association.  Thank you, Nancy, for letting us get to know you!
 
THREE NEW ROTARIANS!
Membership Chair JOHN HAMBLIN introduced three new Red Badger members of our club: CLARI NOLLET, with her sponsor SAM PESNER, GARY MAGGARD, sponsored by MEL KAHN, but introduced by BELLA BERLLY, and MARV PATTERSON, introduced by KATIE NUTTER.                                    
 
CLARI is a financial advisor with Opus Advisors, MARV is retired from HP and is and engineer, GARY is retired engineer from Lockheed.  We will be hearing more from them soon.  Rotarians welcomed our new members with the traditional standing ovation!
 
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HANDBOOK NEWS!
PRESIDENT JOHN advised that the new handbook should be printed by the end of the month.  The new version will be a mere shadow of its former self and is now called the mini-handbook.  Less legroom?
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RECOGNITION!
Chief recognizer and promoter of women in leadership roles, Past President MARY PROCHNOW, took charge of collecting fines today.  And a fine job she did!
AL TRAFICANTI: $49 for 49 years of marriage.
JAN MINER: $25 for her new job with Northern Trust.
MATT CABOT: $45 for 45th anniversary.
PRESIDENT JOHN: $20 cell phone infraction.
KENDRA GJERSETH: $20 for selling goods to Michelle Pfeifer (matched by Nancy Dunaway).
LEN MCBIRNEY: $61 for 61 years of marriage and $61 in honor of deceased Rotarian
BOB LUNDQUIST
BELLA BERLLY: $30 for 30th anniversary.
ROY JONES: fined for 15 year old granddaughter’s winning spot on Olympic soccer development squad.
SAM PESNER: $20 just because.
CLARI, MARV, and GARY: $10 each to welcome them to our club.
SANDY BOZICH: $29 for her birthday.
BRUCE CANN: $50 in honor of his 111th anniversary of his relative’s landing in Australia.
MARY even fined herself $20 in honor of our speaker Past District Governor Carolyn Schuetz!
 
ROTARY AND PEACE!
President Elect Seth introduced speaker Carolyn Schuetz.  Carolyn is a member of the Alameda Rotary Club and has served as an officer for several Rotary International projects.  Today she was speaking on the Rotary Centers for International Studies: otherwise known as the Rotary Peace Centers.
 
Comprised of six centers, located at UC Berkeley, Duke/North Carolina Universities, Tokyo, Japan, Brisbane, Australia, Buenos Aires, Argentina, and Bradford, England, the centers host graduate students whose focus is on developing world peace through study of conflict resolution.
 
Started ten years ago, the peace center program was designed at the Rotary International level and funded with contributions to the Rotary Foundation, of which the Los Altos Rotary Club has many sustaining members.
 
The program brings applicants from around the world to study for a two-year master’s degree in mediation and conflict resolution.  Most applicants are about 30 years of age and have established careers.  Each university creates its own curriculum, but has as a component, theory of conflict resolution and internship around the world.
 
Carolyn presented a short video which detailed the focus of the program, then answered questions from Rotarians.  It was a pleasure having Carolyn talk to us about the activities of Rotary International! Thank You!