Los Altos Rotary Club Home of the Annual Rotary Fine Art Show June 4, 2009

CORRECTIONS

After going to press, two items came to my attention, at least one of which warranted an immediate update to the Rotator:

We apologize for the errors. Corrections have been made below for the record. —STEVE POMEROY, Publisher of the Month

As we entered the final month with Captain SETH's hand at the club's tiller, the happy greeters were ESTER NG, JACK KELLY, and WARD WILDANGER who passed us on to the friendly “Chancellor of the exchequer”, WYATT ALLEN, who smiled as he took our $18 for lunch.

After President Manning clanged the group to order at 12:14 p.m., STEVE SHEPHERD led the Pledge to the Flag in which most of the group carefully stuck to DICK HENNINGS' instructions of yesteryear that had reminded us that there is no comma or pause between the phrases ". . . this nation under God . . . ." President SETH handled the "thought for the day" himself, quoting a former president who said "We should never start a war to pay for the last one."

No visiting Rotarians showed up to be introduced, so Rotarians with guests took the floor included RICH CASEY, JOHN SYLVESTER, JOHN CARDOZA, MARV PATTERSON, BOB ADAMS, and GREG DABB.

Announcements were swiftly passed along:

Recognition host JOHN SYLVESTER launched the exercise with the report that PRES SETH was the first ever Rotarian President to have a car towed from the Fine Art in the Park show. The fine: $435. Unfortunately, none of this amount accrued to Rotary.

Others hit for fines included PAUL NYBERG, ROLAND PAYNE, TIM BYRD, CLARI NOLET, TATYANA KANZAVELI, BILL BALSON, and BARRY GROVES. BARRY paid a fine for bragging rights: 900 students graduated the night before from MVLA High Schools; The MVHS Robotics Team came in 1st place in U.S. competition; The LAHS Debate Team ranked 2nd place, and finally making golfers weep, a MVHS student shot a 58 last week on a San Mateo golf course!

WORLD COMMUNITY SERVICE

A double-barreled program followed with a focus on World Community Service activities and LAREF's current budget of revenues and expenditures.

FRANK VERLOT and ALLART LIGTENBERG tag-teamed a thorough power point overview of the WCS mission: a. Helping impoverished people improve their lives around the world; b. Providing the tools and knowledge they need to make improvement possible, and finally, c. Working internationally, in partnership with Rotary, NGO's and charitable foundations. The keyword to the group's success: Leveraging through partnerships.

In 2008-2009, $15,000 from LAREF was leveraged into $50,000 for projects in Indonesia, Haiti, Nepal, and Guatemala. Looking ahead, the group is considering teaming up next year with the Cupertino Rotary Club for a micro-credit effort in India, a sustainable agriculture project in Yucatan, equipping an orphanage school in Bali, Indonesia, in cooperation with 'One Dollar for Life,' and supporting the San Jose North Rotary Club in transferring solar technologies to recipients in rural areas of Baja, California.

LAREF

RICK GLAZE, as any financial wizard would, walked us through a bit of the history of LAREF (Los Altos Rotary Endowment Fund) and reviewed current $$ and sense. Selected data from Rick's power point presentation are included here:

LAREF BOARD MEMBERS:

RICK GLAZE - President, Investment Committee
HERB MARSHALL - V.P., Interim Secretary, Co-Chair Contributions Committee
JEAN MORDO - Co Chair Contributions Committee
DENNIS YOUNG - Treasurer
JOANNE BYRNE
ROLAND PAYNE

INCOME AS OF MAY 31, 2009

INVESTMENT COMMITTEE - RICK GLAZE, DENNIS YOUNG, JOHN MCDONNELL, PAUL NYBERG

WHERE THE MONEY IS:

TOTAL GRANTS MADE:

About a dozen more slides with relevant data were included. Club members seemed to stay awake through both of the detailed presentations. And so, at 1:28 on the button, PRES SETH adjourned the meeting.