Los Altos Rotary Club Home of the Annual Rotary Fine Art Show February 26 2009

 In memory of LEE LYNCH and BILLY RUSSELL, President SETH MANNING opened the meeting.  He then asked LARRY CHU to lead the club in the Pledge of Allegiance. JOHN MCDONNELL conducted a rousing Clementine in the Song for the Day.

Past President, CINDY LUEDTKE, offered the Thought for the Day with a message to visionaries, dreamers, doers, and community builders from Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862).  He lived only 45 years!
 
If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be.  Now, put foundations under them.
 
Guests of the day were enthusiastically introduced from CINDY WEMYSS, DAVID BERGMAN, VAL CARPENTER, ROLAND PAYNE, BONNIE BURDETT, DWIGHT MATHEWS, KURT HUEG, and RANDY GARD. 

Announcements from the podium were started with Past President, JOHN MOSS, reminding that the votes for the amendments to our by-laws were to be counted during the meeting, with new ballots on proposed changes distributed to tables.
 
KENDRA GJERSETH reminded the club about the meeting next week, March 5th, at the Los Altos Country Club.  She noted that cell phone use and blue jeans were not allowed on the premises.  She also celebrated the large number of participants for this Rotary Anniversary event.
 
KAREN GESSERT announced herself as the new replacement for Sunshine Chair as she follows the good works of Past President, GINNY LEAR.
 
VAL CARPENTER announced an opening in City of Los Altos for a Youth Commissioner.
 
MIKE ABRAMS reminded us about the Los Altos Live to be held on March 7 at 7pm, at Eagle Theater at Los Altos High School.  The show is a fundraiser for Los Altos High.  He was at the door at the end of the meeting selling tickets. 

From an email from PP Dick Henning:

Recognition:  Past President, SAM PESNER, presented the recognition questions (and answers because a very few—maybe two--were answered correctly), about the site of past Rotary Convention in Los Angeles in 2008 and the 2009 Convention in Birmingham, England. 
 
We learned almost more than we needed to know about the oldest buildings in Birmingham and the architecture and the building founders in Birmingham.  Those who attempted answers were SETH MANNING, TRACIE MURRAY, STEVE ANDERSON, FRANK VERLOT, DAVE SNOW, ESTER NG, JOHN MOSS, JOHN MCDONNELL, RANDY GARD, GEORGE STAFFORD, and DICK HENNING. We are all ready, now, to go to Birmingham with TRACIE.
 
The next Annual Rotary Conferences will be:
    
2010  Montreal, Canada
2011   New Orleans, Louisiana
2012   Bangkok, Thailand
2013   Lisbon, Portugal
2014   Sydney, Australia

Program:  The speaker for the day was introduced by BOB ADAMS whose glowing introduction did not overshadow one woman’s move to change the world with “alittlehelp" (http://www.stasek.com/alittlehelp/).  

Rosemary Stasek, former sports coach, high tech employee, and council member and mayor of Mountain View, is currently Founder of A Little Help in Kabul, Afghanistan.  Rosemary first went to Kabul, Afghanistan on a mission for her civic work, and after 9/11, decided to go to live and work for the women in that country.  After seven years, Rosemary has a wealth of information about, in her words, Afghanistan; a poor and failing country.  When she arrived there she felt she was one of the few Americans who knew about the “Forgotten War.”  Now, with so much more emphasis and American military support for this country, Rosemary believes the world is ready to listen. 
 
Rosemary’s prioritization of threats to Afghanistan, are: 
1. Corruption of the country—central government has no power except in the capital city.  To obtain a drivers license, one needs to offer a bribe.  The corruption is rampant in every aspect of government. 
2. Drugs—the drug traffic (90% of the world’s drug supply exported from Afghanistan,) with drug traders earning millions, while a teacher earns $30 a month and a police officer earns $90 a month.  She fears the instability of people now using drugs in this country will result in an AIDS epidemic. 
3. War Lords in each community are the power brokers and not governed by even a corrupt government, but by their influence on the drug exportation.
4.  Her last priority was the Taliban, most densely present in the southern area of the country, but who burn and pillage on a daily basis. 
 
Rosemary’s projects for schools are presentation of tents for schools.  This is a better solution than putting up a building, because, as soon as a school is built, the Taliban burns it down. A Little Help works in many projects beside the school tents.  They provide yogurt to 95 prison women and their 85 children who live in the prison with them, to supplement the diet of bread and rice. The women are in prison mainly because they refused or have run away from an arranged marriage.  Her organization assists and mentors young artists, and teaches knitting in the Blind Center.  They also teach science to science teachers in Kabul. 
 
As the only woman in Kabul to drive a car, Rosemary acknowledges the danger of her position, but feels in the main, it is a matter of just being in the wrong place at the wrong time.  She does not give or take bribes and her assertive spirit, and her small projects, she claims, allows her to work in this troubled country without too much trouble.
 
Ms. Stasek believes that Afghanistan is a failing country, but that it’s neighbor, Pakistan, is even more dangerous with all of the same problems of corrupt government and diminishing spirit in the oppressed people.  Our American soldiers are sent there to guard all borders, and the infrastructure of both country’s governments will need re-structuring.  Rosemary Stasek will be “a little help.”  The audience gave Rosemary a grateful round of applause.
 
The meeting ended with JOHN MOSS announcing the positive results of the voting re the By-laws of the Rotary Club of Los Altos, with 83 votes, a majority needed for passage of all suggested amendments.
 
President SETH MANNING adjourned the meeting.

{Copyright � 2008 Los Altos Rotary Club. All rights reserved}

template updated: 06/27/08