Los Altos Rotary Club Home of the Annual Rotary Fine Art Show September 11th, 2008

LINE UP TIME FOR ANNOUNCEMENTS!
DAN O’DONNELL reminded us that RotaCare delivery drivers are still needed. Please sign up today! It only takes about an hour of your time, and really helps a local cause. DAVID SMITH reported that the Los Altos community picnic went very well, and gave a huge thanks to all of the LARC members that volunteered.
 
PP CINDY LUEDTKE is the new LARC Club Trainer. She will be attending the District Avenues of Service BBQ, October 16th in Hayward, and would like your company.  There will be breakout sessions educating us on the different areas of Rotary Service, dinner with a keynote speaker, and a lot of FUN.  Redbadgers:  This is a great way to satisfy a blue-badge requirement.  Sign up and the club will pay for your registration.  A car pool will be organized. 
 
JOANNA MEDIN prompts us to SAVE the DATE for A’Sante (note that the date has changed) Wednesday, November 5 – tickets on sale soon.
 
Cupertino Rotarian Tina Ferguson & Raika Alur joined our lunch and announced an upcoming PolioPlus fundraiser – Saturday, October 11th, which is a concert at the Flint Center in Cupertino.
 
PP BOB ADAMS gave us two important dates to save. There will be a PNG training program on Wednesday, Sept 24th at noon at Alta Vista HS; lunch will be served. Then on the evening of Oct. 9th - Jose Antonio Vargas, former mentee of Rich Fischer, and Pulitzer Prize winner, will be speaking at the Spartan Theatre of Mt. View H.S. at 7pm.
 
Yours truly,  KENDRA GJERSETH, announced the upcoming wine and cheese fellowship event at JEAN MORDO’s house September 26th.   Please sign up today and pay $5/person plus bring a bottle of wine and to share.
 
This announcement in from JANE REED: World Community Service needs volunteers for the “Bring Me a Book” program that donates books to Mexico. The volunteers are meeting Friday, Sept. 19th from 2-4pm at 1045 Terra Bella Avenue in Mt. View.  For more info, call 625-5000.
 

Announcements were over and it was time to get down to business-- monkey business, that is!  Our very own Hometown Hero, DENNIS YOUNG, was finemaster and his lovely duck bucket assistant was none other than PP SAM PESNER.  First up to get fined was PP MARY PROCHNOW – a proud grandma paying for a photo that she probably took!  Next up on Dennis’ hit list were ALAN LAMBERT, LARRY CHU, JR., and STUART BOWEN - all not aware that the first professional sports team in San Francisco was the 49ers!
 
Queen of the duck bucket, BONNIE BURDETT (off-duty today), was nabbed for not knowing this correct answer; Professional Baseball was started in 1835.
 
Wait! LARRY CHU, JR. breaks in with this news. The Seals WERE the first Bay Area Pro team. Thanks to the Four-Way Test, DENNIS needs to match LARRY’s $20 for his error.
 
STEVE YARBROUGH joins the President’s Club to celebrate his 15th anniversary. JANE REED follows with $46 to celebrate her 46th anniversary.
 
GREG DABB donates $20 in PE TRACIE MURRAY’s name for hooking his wife up with a swift doctor appointment.  PP GINNY LEAR is celebrating her birthday with $20. SCOTT FLEMING pitches in $20 because GREG DABB gave him such a great chiropractic adjustment.  PP LEN MCBIRNEY has a check for $62 in celebration of his 62-year anniversary (paying his IOU).  WYATT ALLEN was soon called upon to pay up, and he recognized his son with the broken arm with $50.  PP STEVE ANDERSON pays up $10 for having his table answer his question for him. J
 
After fining, PRES SETH gave the group some great news!  His wife, Marilyn is doing fine now. And we even had some time for fellowship.
 

Our program today was an Introduction to Microfinance, led by Lucy W. Reckseit, Director, Outreach and Alliance Development and Sanjay Sinha, Deputy Chief Financial Officer for MicroCredit Enterprises.
 
In a nutshell, Microfinance is an approach to help the very poor work their way out of poverty. According to our speakers, half the world – nearly 3 billion people – lives on less than $2/day.  24,000 people will die today of poverty-related conditions and ¾ of them will be children.  During our Rotary lunch, 1,000 people will die from poverty-related disease (starvation, lack of drinking water, avoidable diseases).
 
What is the standard model of microfinance? These are loans as low as $25 with interest rates ranging from 30-70%. Our speaker noted that the reason the rates are so high, is first because of economics. These rates are much lower than if the borrowers were to go to a local lender (110% interest) and secondly due to how costly to do these loans in such remote areas. The outreach is hard (often via bicycle or donkey), and the paperwork is great. The average term of loan is 4-6 months, paid back weekly, bi-weekly or monthly. The majority of borrowers (88%) are women. The repayment rate is 98% globally with a lower default rate among female borrowers.
 
These loans are made by MFIs (Micro-finance Institutions) they are banks, credit unions, etc. There are approximately 7,000 MFIs globally. These are programs of donor-funded NGOs (non-government). Today, microfinance is a $7B industry.
 
Our speakers gave two examples of who the beneficiaries are.
 
Ana Cortiza, Guatemala, mother of 3 children, took a loan of $40 to purchase a loom. She sells wedding shawls and other woven textiles.
 
Cordelia Juarez-Santos, also from Guatemala, has 6 children. Her loan of $70 was to purchase cooking utensils and a grill. She makes tortillas and quesadillas.
 
Within months, both of these women were able to put their children in school; an important hallmark of success for these very poor people.

Learn more about microfinance at these online resources:
www.microfinancegateway.com
www.MCEnterprises.org (the speaker’s site)
www.CGap.org Consultative Group to Assist the Poor
www.svmn.net Silicon Valley Microfinance Network. They hold monthly events.

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