T’was the week before our annual Holiday Party and our greeters were well into the spirit of the season.  LOUIS, FRANK, JOANN and MIKE (that would be BOREL, VERLOT, ZIMMERMAN and ABRAMS) spread their good cheer with warm welcomes.  PRESIDENT JOHN rang us to order at precisely 12:15 and after the pledge, KENDRA GJERSETH led the glee club in a rousing rendition of a seasonal ditty about jingling bells.

JULIE ROSE presented a most seasonal thought for the day by asking “What would it have been like had been three wise WOMEN instead of three Wise Men?”.  It would have meant something like this: They would have asked for directions, arrived on time, helped deliver the baby, cleaned the stable, made a casserole and brought practical gifts.  JULIE also suggested that there might even be Peace on Earth.  Now there’s a thought!

Breaking from the normal flow of things, PRESIDENT JOHN tried to keep membership on their toes by calling for announcements before the introduction of visitors and guests; but some of us noticed. 

First (and apparently important) announcement by the PRES himself: someone left a pair of glasses on the table!

You may have noticed the bucket/box with a little cash in it on the table next to LEE LYNCH when you checked in.  That was the annual gratuity collection for our ever-present and hard working luncheon servers.  How about we all chip in what amounts to a buck-a-week for these folks.  Fifty bucks from each of us for a year’s worth of tips for waiting on this crowd ain’t all that bad.  I’ll bet that would make their season bright;  just a thought.

THE PRES then announced that ROTARIANS MONA ARMISTEAD and JOHN CARDOZA were Community Volunteer Service Award winners (just in case you missed the Town Crier article and picture).

The club will be dark with respect to normal meetings on December 27^th and January 3^rd.  History suggests that ROY LAVE is not about to let a week go by without a Rotary meeting.  So watch your email for a special invitation from ROY to join him for lunch at Chef Chu’s to brighten those dark days. (You should have received it by now)

DENNIS YOUNG announced that COETA CHAMBERS was the newest Guy Shoup Fellow.  Congratulations, COETA, and thank you for you contribution.  True to his naturally helpful financial nature, DENNIS also reminded the rest of us that we have 18 days left to make a contribution to LAREF so we can get the tax deduction in this year.

NANCY SIMON, Toy Drive Chair, made the first delivery of the toys donated by the club.  The collection period is drawing to a close but there’s still time.  NANCY reminds us that we can still donate gifts appropriate for teenagers, especially PJs (size large) and books.  Next Thursday is the last day to donate and she’ll make the delivery on Friday.

DICK HENNING stood before membership to announce that he wasn’t there to make an announcement. He was simply there to get his glasses that were left on the entry table by someone other than him.  There’s most likely a long involved story there which might be totally inappropriate for the Rotator.

KENDRA GJERSTH is still promoting the annual LARC Holiday Party. It’s this coming Thursday!

PAST-PRESIDENT SAM PESNER presented book plates signed by our past speakers to Mr. Tim Justus, Los Altos School District Superintendent.  In lieu of gifts to our speakers, we ask them to sign a book plate which is then placed in a dictionary to be donated to one of our local schools.

Other news about members:

A note just in from ALAN LAMBERT

Fellow Los Altos Rotarians--------

As some may have noticed, I haven't been around for a while. Initially that was due to surgery and recovery.

Now it is due to a compromised immune system which makes me not get too close to people. That should be over in a few months. I will then be back to acerbic comments at lunch!

I hope you are all well. I basically feel fine with very few of the side effects I was dreading. All's well that goes well! I've lost a lot of weight, to which John commented "people would die to lose weight like that". I don't intend to.

My best to all. Enjoy your holidays.
Alan

Also, BILL PALMER has had surgery on his knee.  He will be out of commission for a while. But he too should be back to regular meetings soon.   

SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT TO THIS EDITION OF YOUR ROTATOR FROM DUDE ANGIUS PERSONALLY: 

It takes less than one dollar to immunize a baby from HIV through mother to child transmission of the virus when breast feeding. This is what RAP's African project is all about. If you wish to help, please send your tax-deductible donation to 'Friends of RAP' , PO Box 794, Los Altos, CA 94023.

Just to prove that he had missed a number of Rotary meetings with a legitimate excuse, DENNIS POTTER sent us these pictures of his visit to the Rotary Club of Perth Australia.  Sure, Dennis. 

Back to normal:  PRESIDENT-ELECT SETH introduced our visiting Rotarians.  In attendance today were Judy Hanneman from Mountain View, Hank Cobb from Mobile and Dr. Bob Smithwick from Palo Alto.  Rotarians with guests were CINDY LUEDTKE with George Stafford and DON WITT with his wife Debbie.

	Visiting Rotarians: (Left to right) Judy Hanneman from Mountain View Rotary, Hank Cobb from Mobile Alabama and Dr. Bob Smithwick.  All three are frequent visitors to our club.  WELCOME.

RED-BADGER CLARI NOLET gave her ten-minute talk.  We learned she’s from Michigan, went to college in New York, worked in New England, got her MBA in Southern California and moved to Los Altos two weeks before the ’89 quake.  She comes from an athletically inclined family.  Her father was a scratch golfer, her mother was a pro tennis player, so naturally, she took up skiing.  She chose St. Lawrence College in New York for its strategic location near the Vermont ski slopes.  Clari has a broad hi-tech background and is a wife, mother, inventor (she’s applied for her first patent) and is most proud of her daughter.  Welcome to Los Altos Rotary Club, CLARI, we’re glad to have you.

RECOGNITION TIME by MEL KAHN.   It seems like MEL really enjoys this job.  He especially likes to pick on his former high school basketball coach, DUDE ANGIUS.  After some discussion about the accuracy of the information provided by the club secretary, DUDE agreed to pay something.  MEL then fined STEVE ANDERSON just for being the club secretary and MONA ARMISTEAD for her award. 

DON WITT escaped being fined but did announce that SANDY BOZICH had just received the “Optometrist of the Year Award” for Santa Clara County (for which she was fined).  Congrats, Sandy.  MEL asked a number of members what year they joined, who their sponsor was and what year they were president (if applicable).  He got DICK DUHRING, DAN DUTTON, JANE REED, CINDY LUEDTKE, JULIE ROSE, BOO BUE and finally, DICK HENNING “just because he likes to fine him.”  Time really flies when MEL has the microphone, and yes, he really did play basketball in high school.

In order to reduce the time PP Mel had to fine people, PP DAN DUTTON stole the mike and serenaded us for a long, long time.  Thanks, (I think)  Dan. 

PRESIDENT-ELECT SETH introduced the program: Public Education in Los Altos, presented by our very own BARRY GROVES, MVLA Superintendent, and Mr. Tim Justus, LASD Superintendent.   School Board President, Judy Hanneman was also marked present. 

BARRY and Tim gave us a sheet of pertinent facts about their respective school districts, which, I’m sure by now, has been added to our three-ring-binders entitled “Important Information About Local Topics Learned At Rotary Meetings.”  In addition to the info on the handout, we learned that some of our dictionaries will be going to the new Bullis Purissima School and that some high school graduates actually start college as sophomores because they’ve taken enough high school advanced placement classes to more than cover their freshman year.  Now that’s impressive and, as one quick thinking Rotarian from Cal suggested, that can save about thirty grand a year.

Our Rotary Club touches about 3,700 high school students in a variety of ways including Rotacare, PNG tutors and mentors, scholarships, speech contest and the others listed on the handout.

As PRESIDENT JOHN said in closing the meeting “we all can be very proud of our school districts.”  And the bell rang.