My apologies, fellow members; the scribe missed the beginning of our meeting.  President JOHN called the meeting to order and asked an as yet unidentified fellow Rotarian to lead the Pledge, followed by a rare performance of songmeister, SAM HARDING. 
I did arrive in time to hear DICK DUHRING provide the thought for the day, but my notes are sketchy since I was going through the food line receiving my (I think) roast beef on rice for our mid-day meal.  DICK was proudly explaining that Rotary to him is a source of both opportunities for service to others as well as the inner happiness that comes knowing that you’ve made a difference.  He specifically mentioned examples of fellow Rotarians’ efforts for benefit of others including BOO BUE working through Partners For  New Generations; DUDE ANGIUS and the entire RAP Committee with its efforts to educate how the spread of AIDS can be prevented; IRENE PRESTON who coordinates the delivery of meals each week to the RotaCare Clinic in Mountain View and to the doctors and medical staff that assist those unable to afford health insurance.  Imagine the happiness in each due to opportunities to help others through Rotary!
 
Pres. JOHN thanked our greeters, MARGE BRUNO, John Cardoza, JOANN ZIMMERMAN and MIKE ABRAMS as well as STEVE YARBROUGH, who Pres. JOHN referred to as our “intrepid” photographer. 

Another mentioned by JOHN was our recent raffle-prize-winning cashier, LEE LYNCH.  LEE’s name was drawn yesterday at the District 5170 meeting as the Rotary Foundation Campaign winner of a trip to San Jose, Costa Rica for the Uniendo America Project Fair January 24-26, 2008.  Congratulations to LEE for winning the trip and a great big thank you for your generosity to the Rotary Foundation. 
 
We were almost void of visiting Rotarians and guests with JERRY MOISON being the only member to introduce a guest today.  Let’s remember to share Rotary with others so they may consider the opportunity to serve others through Rotary and experience the happiness DICK DUHRING talked about earlier.
 
ANNOUNCEMENTS

RE: Upcoming Meetings -
Pres. JOHN reminded those assembled that the club will be dark (I think that means they won’t be turning the lights on for lunch) on December 27th and January 3rd during the holiday season.  He mentioned that ROY LAVE will lead the tradition for those that want to gather those days to meet at noon at Chef Chu’s (do LARRY and LAWRENCE know of our plans?). 

Note:  Go to our new website and try out the ONLINE SIGNUP for this event.  Note that there is limited room.  The first 20 will be accommodated.  If you miss out on this event, there will be another luncheon the following Thursday on Jan 3rd.  Same ONLINE SIGNUP procedure to be added to our website after the 27th.

To sign up for the December 27th event, go to our website and click on Chef Chu under the Upcoming Events section (middle of the page).  That will bring you to the event detail.  At the bottom, there is a place to click to "REGISTER ONLINE".  Click that, and follow the instructions.  That is it.  You will get a confirming email and you are all set. 

RE: Contributions to the Rotary AIDS Project
JERRY TOMANEK repeated last week’s announcement that RICH CASEY will match the first $5,000 (wow! no that’s not a misprint thanks to RICH!!!) in contributions to a new RAP project to reduce the spread of AIDS from mothers to their children in Liberia.
 

RE: New photos for members on our club new website presentation
JERRY TOMANEK also offered to take up-dated pictures for members who would like to be recognized when their photo appears on our membership list on our new website.  For some of us, it’s time to up-date what appears to be high school picture in our club handbook!  An aside form Pres. JOHN; each of us should have received an e-mail from DICK HASENPFLUG regarding access to our new club website through www.clubrunner.ca/losaltos.  If you haven’t received this message please e-mail DICK at dick@hasenpflug.com.

To give you an idea of the expertise that Jerry brings to the camera, back in November, the 8th, to be exact, Julie Rose announced that a picture from JERRY TOMANEK was used for the 2008 Chamber of Commerce Guide and Business Directory.  That picture is here:

RE: More up-dated information on AIDS
DUDE ANGIUS corrected statistics that were expressed a week or so ago that according to the Center of Disease Control there may be as many as 55-60 Million people affected with AIDS, much higher than previously estimated.  He also provided an attempt of an apology to BOB ADAMS for Stanford’s win over UC Berkeley (was I the only one who thought he didn’t sound too sincere?!).
 

RE: 'Tis the season for giving
NANCY SIMON reminded us that the toy drive for the Community Services Agency will continue through our meeting of December 20th.  Options are to bring an unwrapped gift, a gift certificate (Wal-Mart, Target, Mervyns, etc) or of course cash or check to one of the next two meetings.  Remember, the age group we are targeting is 13-18 (so you might ask your kids or grandkids what might make an appropriate gift!).

 
MINI-PROGRAM
AL LIGTENBERG, our world trotting ambassador of Rotary service and good will, brought us up to date on his trips to Bali and Jakarta.  In Bali, he and his wife INEKE were part of efforts for water purification and conservation.  We saw how ducks were used by the farmers not only to keep weeds down in the agricultural fields, but also were raised as a source of fertilizer.  I like that, multi-tasking ducks!
In Jakarta, after he and his wife celebrated their wedding anniversary (that’s a long way to go to celebrate an anniversary, ALLART), he traveled by four wheel drive vehicle and even on foot to reach remote villages in need of water purification, medical assistance,  sustainable agriculture, and alternative cooking methods.  He took time to lead a seminar for priests who serve the isolated areas that need purified water and solar cooking and attended a conference sponsored by Rotary on Renewable Energy sources and techniques. 
ALLART was rewarded for his efforts with a dinner meeting at a Jakarta Rotary Club (picture showed members in suits eating a banquet-type meal) as well as opportunity to attend a dinner hosted by the President of Indonesia. 
 
MEMBER INFORMATION
Pres. JOHN introduced HERB MARSHALL for his ten-minute talk who actually turned out to be FRANK VERLOT, filling in when HERB couldn’t attend.  FRANK was born in Belgium at the beginning of WWII (about one tenth of our members of our club were born in international locations – no wonder we have such interest in helping others abroad).
His father was conscripted into the Belgium army and became a German prisoner of war until the war ended.  They returned to the US by boat, and landed in the Boston area where his mother’s relatives lived.  After his father was certified in the medical field for either North Dakota or New York, they chose New York (obviously they hadn’t heard of BOO BUE or JEAN NEWTON FRAGUGLIA a that time who hail from North Dakota).  He went to schools that were identified by numbers rather than names and attended classes in junior high school with the likes of NEIL DIAMOND, PAUL SIMON, and ART GARFUNKEL (Nobody asked FRANK if any of that musical talent rubbed off on him).
After graduating from MIT in 1963, FRANK came to graduate school at Stanford.  He shared the contrast of cold, dark winters in Massachusetts compared to the palm tree lined streets and red brick tiled roofs of Stanford where the sun could be seen year-round.  He remembered that year particularly since Stanford beat Notre Dame (a close relative went to Notre Dame and touted their football program) and also when the big game between Cal and Stanford was delayed a week due to the assassination of John F. Kennedy. 
FRANK had a varied career in the aerospace industry with stints with the likes of Lockheed and United Technology.  His greatest thrill and challenge came with participation in a multi-year collaborative effort between the US and Russia in developing rocket engines for the space program.  He met and worked with many prominent people in both countries in government roles and space exploration. 
 
RECOGNITION by SAM PESNER
Past-Pres. SAM fined everyone not wearing their Rotary Pin a “Lincoln” (five dollars).  You won’t necessarily earn money by wearing your pin, but you could certainly save yourself the fines – words to the wise. 
VAL CARPENTER, newly appointed to the position of mayor of Los Altos, joined the president’s club for the opportunity to say she would be promoting volunteerism during her term as our mayor. 
KEN GRAHAM offered $100 toward fines as his way of keeping a family tradition.  When his son was born 33 years ago, he was given a $100 bond.  Now that KEN’s grandson was recently born, he is keeping up the tradition, this time to Rotary.
MICHAEL STADLEN introduced himself to new members (as well as established one) after a four-month absence on a consulting contract out of the area.  He paid $50 for having been interviewed by Newsweek Magazine regarding an article on Michael Bloomberg with whom he attended school years back. 
TRACIE MURRAY was called upon by SAM PESNER regarding their version of the big game (USC vs. UCLA).  Instead of paying for the game results, TRACIE contributed to the cause for her ten-year-old daughter achieving a black belt in martial arts and for completing her second year of law school on the dean’s list.  Way to go TRACIE!
 

SUBJECT OF PRESENTATION – WiFi Efforts in Silicon Valley
Seth Feary is the president and COO of Joint Venture Silicon Valley Network which is a collaborative effort to create a complete a WiFi network in the 1500 square miles of San Mateo and Santa Clara Counties (as well as part of Alameda County and the City of Santa Cruz).  SETH stated that there is not a lack of technology, but funds for the project are not as yet forthcoming anywhere close to the estimated $100 Million if might cost to complete the task. 
The idea would be for someone to be able to travel throughout the area without losing his or her internet connection which unfortunately is the case today.  The project goes far beyond the convenience of wide spread internet connection by providing huge potential benefits to cities, counties, schools, parks, utilities, transportation groups, etc.  He used examples of the application to enhance education in schools, care and maintenance of our parks and open spaces, transportation entities to vary the synchronization of traffic signals for traffic flow or the cost of parking at peak time, communicating to sensors that control watering systems in parks and public lands, assisting utilities in monitoring the use of energy and other resources, and even helping reservation systems for publicly used resources.
The participating businesses to date are IBM, Cisco Systems, SeaKey, and Azulstar.  The business model is attempting to show benefit for business and government as well as education, recreation, retail and service firms.  The business plan needs to protect public interest at the same time providing an opportunity for profitable returns to businesses participating. 
Thanks to Google, Mountain View is already relatively up and running.  There are planned test sites in Palo Alto and San Carlos in the not so distant future to apply the technology in hopes that it will provide an edge for our area in terms of competing in a global economy by providing low cost efficiencies to governments, both private and public business, education and individuals living here.  All this highly sophisticated technology and innovation is on the relatively near horizon and Los Altos still doesn’t have adequate cell phone coverage.  Go figure!

WEBMASTER'S NOTE:  This week, I will also send out the Rotator using our new Website's tools.  It may appear different, as it has some very useful tools, but it may take me a bit to get used to doing it a different way.  Let me know how you feel about it when you get it.  Also, if you have any comments about the new website, let us know as well.  We will keep the old website up as long as it has significance.  But we will eventually close it in favor our our new approach to communicating to the club, so YOUR input is very important to us. - Matt Cabot, Webmaster.