Los Altos Rotary Club
Home of the Annual Rotary Fine Art Show
November 13th, 2008
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Los Altos Rotary ClubHome of the Annual Rotary Fine Art ShowNovember 13th, 2008 |
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| Writer: Jack Kelly - Photographer: Larry Madsen - Editor: Cindy Luedtke |
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This Thursday's Program: Nov 20
2008 John Dodson "Giving - What you get from it" |
On a day more fit for the middle of June rather than the middle of November, LA
Rotarians were in for a surprise. Even before being greeted by KATHY BERRY
and VAL CARPENTER, you may have noticed the Los Altos Police car in the parking
lot and that your name badges weren’t on display. About 11:30,
Sergeant-at-Arms MIKE ABRAMS discovered that our storage lockers in the back
room had been broken into. The locks had been cut and the cabinets were
somewhat “trashed.” Los Altos Police were called immediately. A
quick inventory showed that our laptop computer, overhead projector and one
microphone were missing. One of the responding police officers was Dan
Corkern, son of our very own WILL CORKERN. WILL, ya shoulda been there!
The police did fingerprinting and began their investigation. Stay tuned
for further details.
President SETH began the meeting, as he does all meetings, with his dedication
to the memory of BILLY RUSSELL, LEE LYNCH and RON INCERPI. He called on
member JOHN to lead the pledge and RICK GLAZE to lead the song. RICK took
a moment to teach the words to “Ain’t She Sweet” to the choir; maybe he should
have required a rehearsal too. In another example of Prez SETH’s
flexibility and preparation, when he called for the thought-for-the-day, LOU
WELLMEIER hadn’t arrived as yet, so he gave a thought of his own: “If you’re
flexible, you won’t get bent out of shape.” Words a Rotary President must
live by!
There were no visiting Rotarians. VAL CARPENTER, VICTORIA EMMONS and PHIL
ROSE introduced their respective guests of the club.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Red Badger STUART BOWEN wants you all to participate in the Red Badge “Putt-Putt
for Books” event next Saturday at Golfland USA. All proceeds go the
Gardner Bullis Library. The event takes place next Saturday from 10:00am
to 1:00pm. Golfland is at 855 El Camino Real in Sunnyvale (near Wolfe
Rd.).
Past President, CINDY LUEDTKE slid into line in time to let us know BONNIE
BURDETT could use a hand for project Share-a-Life, on Tuesday, November 18th.
If you have three hours to spare that day to assist with a donor drive at
Stanford, to save the life of a small child, please contact BONNIE BURDETT
pronto! MIKE ABRAMS, JEANNE Mac VICAR, PAT HYLAND’s husband, BILL, and
FRANK VERLOT have answered the call. We could use a few more.
Thanks, all!
NANCY SIMON is the Chair of this year’s Rotary Holiday Drive. If your
holiday spirit moves you to write a check, make it out to CSA and note “Holiday
Program” on the memo line. If you’re more inclined to donate gifts or gift
cards, here are a few ideas. Gift cards for $25 or $30 from Walmart,
Target, Loehmans, Marshalls, Ross or Macy’s work well. New gifts for
teenagers such as pajamas (larger sizes), purses, wallets, perfume, cologne,
styling products, CDs and pedicure sets might make someone’s holiday a bit
merrier.
Past Prez JOHN MOSS let out the secret that one of our own was to be presented
with the “City Volunteer of the Year” award. Kudos, congratulations and a
champagne toast to PAT FARRELL. Good job, Pat!
DON WITT invites you all to attend the Festival of Lights Parade and join fellow
Rotarians at Main Street Café for some pre-parade festivities at 5:30pm.
You may not have heard Don’s parting words as he left the microphone. He
said this might be the last year for pushing the Rotary Goose. If you
haven’t enjoyed that particular thrill (seeing a huge goose being pushed through
the streets of Los Altos), come on out for the evening and enjoy the parade.
Pardon the interruption – LOU WELLMEIER just walked in and is ready to give us
his thoughts for today. Lou says that every morning he gets up and looks
through the Forbes list of the richest people in America. If his name’s
not there, he goes to work.
Lou’s thought on life appreciation is: It may be that your sole purpose in
life is simply to serve as a warning to others.
Back to announcements:
Past President, Rotary Foundation Chair and Art
Show Chair, SAM PESNER gave his Foundation presentation. If you haven’t
received your envelope yet, you will. November is Rotary Foundation Month
so we need to get busy selling those raffle tickets.
Sam then assumed the role of auctioneer. It’s traditional to auction the
gift, delivered by the District Governor, given to our club from another club.
The bidding was fast and furious between NANCY SIMON and DENNIS YOUNG.
Dennis won with a final bid of $300. Good job, Dennis; the Foundation
thanks you. By the way, what was the gift???
Sergeant-at-Arms MIKE ABRAMS asked if anyone might have an extra laptop computer
or projector they might not be using and would be willing to loan the club until
the stolen equipment is replaced. See Mike if you might be able to help.
From the “You asked for it – you got it” department: When Los Altos
Rotarians like a change in something club related, sometimes they say something.
When Rotarians don’t like something that changes, they always say something.
The loud and clear rumblings of a goodly number of members were heard. A
good portion of you didn’t like the “club directory” idea presented last year,
you wanted the good old, familiar “handbook” back. You got it! For
those of you that don’t have yours yet, please attend a meeting and pick it up.
Thank you!
President SETH declared ten minutes of fellowship. Fellowship is that time
when past due fines are collected, deals made and I’ve actually sold a couple of
golf clubs during this time. It’s also the most difficult time to get the
group back to order. Just too much energy, I suppose.
POWER OF THE MICROPHONE
Past Prez MEL KAHN was introduced as finemaster and actually received
applause. In true MEL KAHN fashion, he stated that enjoyed the job and it
was his tradition “to get ‘em, because I can.” We then saw the sweet,
sensitive and compassionate side of Mel because he only fined his high school
basketball coach, DUDE ANGIUS, one dollar and STEVE ANDERSON five dollars.
MONA ARMISTEAD, after suggesting he might need therapy, was fined $20. For
just standing up, MARGE BRUNO was fined $5. VAL CARPENTER managed to
negotiate her fine down to $20. RICH CASEY insulted Mel’s golf swing and
was fined $10. He also fined JANE REED, MIKE SPENCE, JOHN McALISTER, GARY
MAGGARD and JOHN McDONNELL. Mel recognized Past Presidents ROY LAVE and
DICK HENNING for being the club historians, and, therefore, not subject to being
fined.
PROGRAM
PP JOHN MOSS introduced two past presidents who would share their year
with us. First up was Past President JACK HEIDMILLER. Jack was prez
in ’94-’95 and presided over Rotary’s 90th birthday celebration. The club
had 112 members and met at the Elks Club in Palo Alto. This year was one
of significant technology breakthrough: members email addresses were added
to the club handbook. Back then, the Rotator was all paper. When you
see Jack, ask him about his “Rotary fortune cookies.”
Next up was Past President BOB ADAMS. Bob was prez in ’96-’97 and started
his talk by saying this would be more of a true confession and that he had lots
of points in his life that stand out but none were outstanding. This was
the year of the Olympics, so he used chocolate stars as his awards.
Partners for New Generations and the Red Badge Club got started under his watch.
Bob met his wife while they were both attending UC Berkeley. Next time you
see Bob, ask him why he got married an hour and a half after graduation.
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