President JOHN MOSS opened the meeting with a flag salute in which veterans and service personnel are now allowed to salute military style rather than hand-over-heart, as announced by TOM LISTON.  

VAL CARPENTER led a spirited rendition of “Yankee Doodle Dandy” and closed with an admonition for us all to get out there and vote next Tuesday.  

BOO BUE’s Thought for the Day was a poem (something about water receding in a bucket after being displaced by a dunked fist) whose message was that no man or woman is indispensable.
 
The dedicated volunteers who helped to make our meeting run smoothly included LARRY MADSEN, photographer, and the Sergeant-at-Arms team of DAVID BERGMAN, REZA KHAMNEIPUR (or REZA K. for those of you who, like me, are not great spellers),
 
GUESTS: Today’s guests included Louis Wellmeier of IdyMac Bank (introduced by CINDY LUEDTKE), Wells Marvin of Marvin Capitol (introduced by Mary Prochnow), Mike Abrams, Los Altan of the Year (introduced by PAUL NYBERG), and Joanne Zimmerman, health care consultant (introduced by BELLA BERLLY).
 
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
-flu shots will be available at LARC next Thursday @ $25 each
-Boy Scout Troop 37, sponsored by our Club, seeks former members and leaders to help celebrate their upcoming 90th anniversary. Contact DICK BLANDING.
-GARY MAGGARD and FRANK VERLOT will be maintaining the Online Club Calendar, so committee heads should provide meeting date information to them.
-Los Altos Chamber of Commerce invites Rotarians to “A Sparkling Mixer” at Gleim Jewelers, 350 Main St. on Nov. 7 from 5:30 – 7:00 pm.($5 for members).
-DON WITT reminds us to save Sunday, Nov. 25 for the Festival of Lights Parade, meeting at the Main Street Café at 5:30 for light dinner with the kids and grandkids.  Santa will be making an appearance.
 
TEN MINUTES WITH MARY: MARY PROCHNOW received a long and hearty applause after her 10 minute talk, one of the most enthusiastic responses this writer has heard. One of the highlights of the talk was revealing her nickname “Runt”, since at 6 feet tall she was preceded by two elder siblings measuring 6’2” and 6’3” tall. Both her parents were immigrants, and her mother from an Irish family of 9 children, became a real estate agent, dragging young Mary along to land auction sales for early training! Later in Los Altos, MARY was delighted to find a childhood friend she has known since kindergarten at St. Matthews Elementary School—our own RICH CASEY. She and RICH reigned together at every spelling bee, until he finally beat her in 8th grade.  Following her education at Notre Dame in Belmont, MARY lived at the novitiate from 1964-65 where she learned the power of meditation. The following summer, however, was “the summer of love” in San Francisco where she experienced great music and freedom of thought. Her 15 year marriage to Bill Prochnow produced BAIDRA PROCHNOW MURPHY who has joined her real estate office, along with husband Sean Murphy (and perhaps even little 19 month old Aidan Murphy one fine day). Mary joined the Merit-McBride Real Estate Corporation, eventually moving to Los Altos where she managed 500 agents in 22 offices. In 1990 she opened Mary Prochnow Realtors, Inc. and has now welcomed her dear friend JEAN NEWTON into the corporation.
 
MARY was initially attracted to Rotary for its world-wide Polio Plus campaign. Sponsored by DENNIS YOUNG, she joined LARC in 1987 and shared the title of Second Female LARC member with Marge Gratiot. MARY’s most indelible memory was the meeting when DUDE ANGIUS announced that his son had AIDS and that he enlisted the help of club members to help change attitudes and support AIDS victims. She and DICK HASENPFLUG co-chaired RAP (Rotary AIDS Project) and “our lives have never been the same since.” In “the purest form of synergy” the team of 10 LARC members “made magic.” The resulting video, “The Los Altos Story” was distributed world-wide by Rotarians, received the Peabody Award which was presented by Ted Koppel, and was shown on Fox TV without commercial interruption. That video has definitely changed attitudes around the world. Continuing the theme of her 2002-03 LARC Presidential year, MARY still encourages us to ‘Imagine a World of Peace’.
 
Don’t hold your breath but we have a NEW BLUE BADGER: Membership Director LARRY CHU, JR. announced that a Red Badger would turn blue today. Sure enough, BONNIE (Rock Star) BURDETT has set a speed record for completing requirements for elevation to “blue status”. BONNIE was sponsored by CINDY LUEDTKE and owns Prime Fiduciary Services.  She is already involved in District 5170’s Project Share a Life and LARC’s Strategic Planning Committee.
 
RECOGNITION: JOHN SYLVESTER, self-announced as the “club curmudgeon” (this writer’s dictionary cites that as a crusty, ill-tempered, old man) accepted confessions from many on this All Saints/All Hallows Day. He launched the high stakes recognition by paying his own $5 IOU.  KAILAS CHIDAMBARAM joined the President’s Club to celebrate his birthday.  JEAN NEWTON announced that she recently joined Mary Prochnow Realtors, Inc.  PAT FARRELL recounted the old-time memories revived when he flew pilot BOO BUE to Harris Ranch and saw the exact type of plane Boo flew so many years ago.
 
The focus of the fining was then directed to the kids for further recognition.

President-Elect SETH announced the second birthday of his grandchild whose favorite word is “no”, followed by Past President MARLENE’s grandson whose only word is “no”. DAN HOLDEN announced that his daughter’s new employment in the Department of Art and Architecture at UCLA. LEN MCBIRNEY described the difficulty his grandson had making it to his own wedding at Villa Montalvo, as he was scheduled to accompany Governor Arnold that day.
 
STRS LEADERSHIP: MARLENE COWAN, STRS Registrar, recognized KENDRA GJERSETH, DAVID SMITH, and PAT GRAY who will represent our club by attending the STRS (pronounced “stars”) leadership seminar this Saturday at Bay 101 Club (for leadership training, not card playing!) 
 
PROGRAM: The Rotary Foundation (TRF) was the topic of our program speaker, Past District Governor RON SEKKEL, an enrolled agent from the Rotary Club of Scotts Valley.  RON discussed TRF’s work to promote peace around the world, focusing on delivery of water purification units to Sri Lanka after the Dec. 26, 2004 tsunami which claimed 40,000 victims in that country.  He quoted Past RI President Luis Giai: “The process of peace is like baking bread. You have to start fresh every day.” He lauded several who took action to save lives in Sri Lanka, like the train conductor who helped passengers escape through ceiling exits after the wave hit and Brian Lorenz who persevered despite the terrible roads and dangerous civil war to deliver eight water purification units. After the wave ravaged the coastline, existing ground water supplies were contaminated by brackish salt water, a deadly cocktail.  RON’s DVD showed 240 young Columbo area orphans, victims of civil war and the tsunami, who had benefited from Rotary’s clean water program.
 
Bob Plagett of Assist International, visited Sri Lanka and reported to RON who was Governor of District 5170 at the time that potable water was the most crucial need. In response, three hundred organizations and individuals donated funds, including COG grants provided through The Rotary Foundation, to District 5170’s clean water project. Twenty small water purification units were then distributed in early February. In August, RON broke his 29 year “no fly rule” and flew to Sri Lanka to deliver four large units capable of purifying 6,000 gallons of water/day by reverse osmosis.
 
RON summarized that this is how Rotary, the largest service club in the world, responded on its 100th anniversary, to the largest disaster in history.
 
Questions were asked by Club members about sustainability of TRF water projects. RON explained that the Asiana Education Development force maintains the water units in Sri Lanka and a Thai representative of General Electric Water visits regularly to check them. Another question was asked about the causes of the 26-year civil war in Sri Lanka, and RON briefly mentioned disputes between the Tamil separatists and the Sinhalese majority. This writer further directs your attention to the article “Rotary Peace Program Helps Bridge Sri Lankan Divide” on page 55 of the Rotarian magazine’s November 2007 edition. The Rotary World Peace Symposium is another great example of how our donations to The Rotary Foundation help build peace in the world.