Los Altos Rotary Club Home of the Annual Rotary Fine Art Show July 10th, 2008

It was a hot time in the old meeting hall for session number two under the REIGN OF SETH.  Yes, the temperature, outside and inside, was well into the 90s.  Greeters ROY LAVE, JACK HEIDMILLER and BILL BALSON warmed us even more.  Our Sergeant-at-Arms SCOTT FLEMING led the pledge and DAN O’DONNELL shared some of George Carlin’s more appropriate words in his thought-for-the-day.  DAN’s complete thought-for-the-day will appear in its entirety at the end of this missive.
 
Songmeister JOHN SYLVESTER pulled out an oldie but goodie and led the glee club in “A Girl Like You.”  Note to JOHN:  Baritone section needs strengthening.
 
First announcement:  Super salesman DAN O’DONNELL had his card table set up at last week’s meeting and managed to enlist enough RotoCare Dinner Drivers to fill his sheet.  He thanks you for this, RotoCare volunteers thank you for this and LARC thanks you for this.
 
Second announcement:  PRESIDENT SETH wants to know when you’re going to China so you can deliver wheelchairs for Rotary.  See SETH and your travel agent.
 
PRESIDENT-ELECT TRACIE MURRAY could find no visiting Rotarians to introduce.  Rotarians JEANNE MACVICAR, JOHN MOSS and DAVE SNOW introduced their respective guests.
 

PRESIDENT SETH turned the meeting over to Membership Director JOHN CARDOZA for the induction of brand new Red Badger BILL BALSON.  BILL’s sponsor, JEAN MORDO, gave a few words of introduction and presided over the badge presentation.

 
PRESIDENT SETH introduced PAST PRESIDENT JOHN MOSS to deliver his 10-minute talk, and this time it wasn’t a surprise.  Apparently JOHN scheduled himself in order to set the record straight.  He really was born in Dayton on the 4th of July, has an older brother, younger sister, and, if you want to believe it, no alien encounter. 

By his own admission, he wasn’t the best of students in high school.  He described himself as a nerd who was a shot putter.  He wiggled his way into Princeton where he also put the shot and studied electrical engineering.  His first job out of college was a systems engineer for IBM in Trenton, NJ.  He used a medical metaphor to describe how most folks felt about Trenton.  The IBM job took him to Hawaii and Vietnam.  While living the luxurious life (yes, he really did) in Vietnam, he met Jackie, his wife to this very day. 

Other highlights included his Stanford Business School education, a tour of duty with HP, then Agilent where he managed thousands of patents and then involuntary retirement in 2007, which allowed him all the time he needed to be our President.  His political career, which began when he did manual labor at Loyola School, which led to his election to the school board in 1989, which led to his election to Los Altos City Council (and Mayor) is well documented by the Town Crier.
 
RECOGNITION MEISTER DENNIS YOUNG started his portion of the festivities by fining himself for missing the Kickout and being chosen by the California CPA Society as their “Man of the Year.”  Nice start, DENNIS, and congratulations!  LOU WELLMEIER managed the duck-bucket.  Other “contributors to the cause” were JULIE ROSE for having a new man in her life (new grandson, in this case), JOHN MOSS, SETH MANNING for cell phone violation at last week’s meeting, MARY PROCHNOW on behalf of JEAN NEWTON who was attending the taping of her son, the chef, in San Francisco, SCOTT FLEMING for being married nine years today, JEANNE MACVICAR, JOHN BOGARD, JOANNE KAVALARIS, BUD OLIVER, BAIDRA MURPHY, JEAN MORDO for political reasons, and FRANK VERLOT.
 
PRESIDENT SETH, reminiscent of a president of long ago, told a fish story.  Mostly groans, but a few laughs. 

THE PROGRAM – CLUB ASSEMBLY (as required by the by-laws). 
KENDRA GJERSETH  is Fellowship Director.  Fellowship committees include Greeters, Song Leader, Thought for the Day, 4-Way Test, Sunshine, Softball (Kendra will be at third base this year) and Golf (STEVE SHEPHERD is still trying to get his name on that trophy).  Plans for the year include re-instituting the Progressive Dinner and possibly the poker tournament.
 
KENDRA encourages ya’ll to “mix it up, meet new members, and enjoy your time at Rotary.”
 
JACK KELLY is Operations Director.  Operations committees include Cashiering, Rotator Editor, Photographer Scheduler, Webmaster, District Technology Liaison, Fine Arts Show, Young At Art, Food Booth, Property Management, Insurance Review, Club Historian, Yearbook, Club Handbook, Meeting Place, Sergeant-at-Arms, Audit, and Bylaw Revision.
 
Stay tuned to this station for news about revising our bylaws; as you can imagine, that’s always a hot topic and it does require your participation.
 
This club is loaded with creative, imaginative and thinking members!  I need some help in coming up with a plan to make the Sergeant-at-Arms role more streamlined and efficient.  The current and former Sergeants-at-Arms (SCOTT FLEMING, MIKE ABRAMS and DAVID BERGMAN) have been doing yeoman work and they each have schedules that require them to miss a meeting every so often.  We need back-up for setting up and tearing down the meeting room.  Your thoughts, please!

JOHN CARDOZA is Membership Director.  Membership committees include Attendance, Classifications, Orientation, Red Badge, Membership Development and 10 Min Talks.
 
Here’s some membership trivia for you; it may be worth knowing, for some finemaster in the future just might ask these questions:  Our average age is 63 years; 2/3rds of our membership is over 60 years of age; we are 71.5% men and 28.5% women.
 
More thoughts from JOHN: Our goal is 20 new members in the next 12 months.
 
It’s the responsibility of every member to recruit a new member, just as you were recruited by your sponsor.  Talk to your friends, neighbors, and colleagues.  Look through your e-mail and contact lists, etc., for prospective members.  Ask family members (sons, daughters, or a spouse) to see if they are interested in becoming a Rotarian.
 
Use the “BE MY GUEST” lunch ticket to invite a prospective new member to lunch.
Use the “What’s Rotary” card and the new LARC brochure to educate a prospective new member about Rotary
 
 

The entire “Thought for the day” for your reading pleasure, as delivered by DAN O’DONNELL:  
The great comedian, George Carlin, died June 22.  He was able to take everyday situations and words and open our minds through humor.  Here are some of his more serious thoughts from one of his memos.

The paradox of our time is that we’ve learned how to make a living, but not a life. 
We’ve added years to life, but not life to years. 
We’ve been all the way to the moon and back, but have trouble crossing the street to meet a new neighbor.
We conquer outer space but not inner space. 
We’ve done larger things but not better things.
So don’t forget:  Give time to love, give time to speak, and give time to share the precious thoughts in your mind.
And always remember:  Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take out breath away.
He ends with this sentimental thought:  If you don’t sent this to at least 8 people, who cares?
George Carlin

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