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Los Altos Rotary Club
Home of the Annual Rotary Fine Art Show
July 9th 2009
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| Writer: John McDonnell - Photographer: Steve
Yarbrough - Editor: Cindy Luedtke |
This Thursday's Program: Jul 16
2009 Dave Brees
Update of Los Alto City Projects |
Newly-minted President TRACIE MURRAY chimed an overflowing meeting to order
promptly at 12:15 p.m.
Arriving Rotarians had been met by greeters GREG DABB, RANDY GARD, LOU WELLMEIER
and smiling LOUIS BOREL
Hard-Campaigning district Governor nominee, and visiting Rotarian ARLY MARLEY
led the Pledge of Allegiance. STEVE ANDERSON had a sudden urge to lead us in
singing “Take Me Out to the Ballgame.”
Busy GREG DABB gave us the Thought for the Day, taken from a past dean of
Harvard Medical School; If all the medicine in the world were thrown into the
ocean, it would be good for humanity, but bad for the fish.
President-Elect, DENNIS YOUNG, called on visiting Rotarians. We were
visited by Rotarians Patrick Edwards from South Hilo Hawaii and Arly Marley from
Sunnyvale. We also had a hybrid guest/visitor, former club member Don
Hull, who KURT HUEG had bumped into and invited to the meeting.
A very, very large group of Rotarians had guests, including VAL CARPENTER, JOHN
CARDOZA, MARLIS McALLISTER, PAUL SCHUTZ, KAREN FOX (2), BOB ADAMS (2); JOHN
SYLVESTER (2) and KENDRA GJERSETH. We had so many guests that there wasn’t
enough room for all the attendees, even with an extra table, so poor ALAN
LAMBERT could be found sitting on the stage (sipping borrowed coffee).
ANNOUNCEMENTS
- President TRACIE announced that the Rotary Foundation workshop will be held on
July 14th. Also, in November, Rotary International is having a trip to
West Africa to distribute polio vaccine. Interested persons should get the
information from TRACIE.
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KENDRA GJERSETH announced that following a palace coup, she had overthrown STEVE
ANDERSON, and she was now club secretary. All members are advised to
direct club biz to KENDRA, because STEVE will be resting.
- SANDIE WHIPPLE reminded us that she is still Club Treasurer, and that the annual
dues invoices had been sent out to all of us in the mail; time to pony up.
-
FRANK VERLOT announced that we are still looking for volunteers to help at the
Senior Games to be held at Stanford; See Frank for information.
- VAL CARPENTER reminded all that the Los Altos Art and Wine Festival is this
weekend (11th and 12th) and she thanked all the volunteers who will be helping
sell Chef Chu chicken salad at our booth.
- DENNIS YOUNG announced that LAREF had elected new officers. HERB MARSHALL
is the new President, JEAN MORDO is Vice President, JEAN NEWTON FRAGUGLIA is
Secretary and PHIL ROSE is Treasurer.
-
ESTER NG advised us that she had just returned from a trip to Hong Kong, where
she visited one of the local Rotary Clubs and brought back a banner.
NEW BLUE BADGER
JOHN CARDOZA stepped up to announce that new member DAVE CASAS had completed his
red-badge requirements in record time, and was now promoted to Blue Badge
status. Dave and his sponsor, VAL CARPENTER accepted the club’s accolades.
RECOGNITION (We don’t call them “fines,” because it’s not about the money.)
KURT HUEG was announced as Finemaster for 2009-2010; but he was nowhere to be found.
So TRACIE recognized STEVE GRUBER, who announced he would be the first to join
the President’s Club.
KURT, who was apparently conferring with Allison Janney in the rest room when he
was called, finally stepped up to announce that he had heard that some people
had complained last year that the fines got to be too much about getting money.
(JERRY MOISON apologized profusely for all of the pressure he put on people to
collect those record fines that JERRY collected last year.) KURT said
complaining about fines was not permitted. He then told us that “it’s not
about the money” and started squeezing big bucks from folks.
HERB MARSHALL announced his birthday was only # 32, but put in $50 because his
wife is pregnant.
JERRY MOISON put in $20 because, hey $20 is big money to JERRY; he cries every
time he can collect a fine that big.
ALAN LAMBERT announced that he complains about everything (especially his perch
today) and put in $20.
JOHN SINES announced that he would double HERB’s $50 because John’s wife was
pregnant with twins (soon to be the reality show, John and Mate plus 8).
SETH MANNING put in $20 in honor of Don Hull, the only person on our long-ago
club basketball team who could actually make a shot.
LARRY CHU put in $20
for Don also.
Finally, Don was so overwhelmed, he put in $20 just for old
times sake.
STEVE SHEPHERD announced that he would put in $20 to honor MEL KAHN who had just
been honored as the outstanding alum at University of the Pacific. MEL put
in $20 to clarify that it was an honor from the School of Pharmacy at UOP.
JEAN MORDO put in $40 to celebrate that he was finally free from his term as
Mayor of Los Altos Hills.
JOHN MOSS put in $50 to honor his recent birthday AND anniversary.
STEVE YARBROUGH put $20 in to announce that his son had graduated from Law
School.
BOB ADAMS put in $50 to celebrate his 50th birthday, again.
KURT then honored KAREN FOX, who was given a flattering article in Santa Clara
University magazine on the occasion of her retirement; KAREN put in $50.
CAREW MCFALL announced that he had recently returned from the reunion of the six
McFall Boys, and put in $40.
At this point, stalwart Duck Bucket manager, KENDRA GJERSETH, was running out of
paper and ink to write down the fines, but was still running the room to keep up
with the finees.
KURT then moved to a baseball theme, and announced that we should vote for Pedro
for the all-star game. This is probably the reason that PABLO Sandoval
finished at close second.
GEORGE STAFFORD, a fan of the real Sandoval, put in $20 to repeat Pablo’s quote
that baseball was an easy game, all you do is sit and hit.
JOANNE KAVALARIS, a REAL Giants fan put in $50 to honor Tim and Matt going to
the All-Star game.
ROY JONES was fined $20 for not knowing the win-loss records of Tim and Matt.
KURT, announcing again that it’s not about the money (really!), fined himself
for his numerous bloopers.
CHEF CHU'S ROTARY FOOD BOOTH Here are some pictures that
STEVE YARBROUGH took. Talk to anyone who
worked that booth last Saturday and Sunday, and I am sure that they will tell you it
was a blast. We do it every year, thanks to the generosity of Chef and
LARRY CHU.
THE WEEKLY PROGRAM: THE GIANT’S WAY
Note: Special thanks go to Marlene Cowan, who sent along her article for
the Town Crier about today’s speaker. Portions of this report are from
Marlene.
DENNIS YOUNG had lined up a powerhouse first speaker for his year, Bill Neukom,
the new CEO and managing partner of the San Francisco Giants.
Sharp, articulate and nattily attired in his signature bow tie, Neukom first
gave insights on the business of Giants baseball, covering their roles in
entertainment, content, information, service, and education. He sees baseball as
“the most nuanced and most subtle of all the major sports.”
Neukom outlined “The Giants’ Way” which has 3 ingredients: (1) every Giant will
be better conditioned than his opponent; (2) every Giant will be better prepared
for the game, and (3) every Giant will be better focused on each pitch.
He gave a brief summary of the first half of this year as “under promise and
over-produce.” The Giants had steadily built up to having the
second-best record in the National League. Neukom also highlighted the
depth of talent that the Giants were building up in their farm system. “The farm
system is our future,” predicted Neukom, as he invited the audience to witness
“the incredible talent” at a San Jose Giants night game, particularly
first-round draft choice Buster Posey.
In conclusion, the CEO reiterated that Santa Clara County is Giants’ territory,
not to be taken over by the Oakland Athletics who now seek a new home town. “The
Oakland A’s are a remarkable team. They originally asked for Alameda and Contra
Costa Counties and got them,” said Neukom.
Five counties including Santa Clara,
San Mateo, San Francisco, Marin, and Monterey were initially designated as
“Giants’ territory”. Since that time, the Giants’ ball park in San Francisco was
built by private investors with the expectation that all five counties would
continue to provide the fan base needed to support the ballpark’s annual $20
million debt. Neukom concluded that Santa Clara County is and should continue to
be an integral part of “Giants’ territory.”
Neukom responded profusely to several questions, and the crowd was so enthralled
that we actually ran 5 minutes over, when TRACIE chimed the meeting to a close
at 1:35.
template updated: 06/27/08
Busy GREG DABB gave us the Thought for the Day, taken from a past dean of
Harvard Medical School; If all the medicine in the world were thrown into the
ocean, it would be good for humanity, but bad for the fish.
KENDRA GJERSETH announced that following a palace coup, she had overthrown STEVE
ANDERSON, and she was now club secretary. All members are advised to
direct club biz to KENDRA, because STEVE will be resting.
FRANK VERLOT announced that we are still looking for volunteers to help at the
Senior Games to be held at Stanford; See Frank for information.
ESTER NG advised us that she had just returned from a trip to Hong Kong, where
she visited one of the local Rotary Clubs and brought back a banner.
JOHN CARDOZA stepped up to announce that new member DAVE CASAS had completed his
red-badge requirements in record time, and was now promoted to Blue Badge
status. Dave and his sponsor, VAL CARPENTER accepted the club’s accolades.
KURT HUEG was announced as Finemaster for 2009-2010; but he was nowhere to be found.
So TRACIE recognized STEVE GRUBER, who announced he would be the first to join
the President’s Club.
HERB MARSHALL announced his birthday was only # 32, but put in $50 because his
wife is pregnant.
CAREW MCFALL announced that he had recently returned from the reunion of the six
McFall Boys, and put in $40.
DENNIS YOUNG had lined up a powerhouse first speaker for his year, Bill Neukom,
the new CEO and managing partner of the San Francisco Giants.
In conclusion, the CEO reiterated that Santa Clara County is Giants’ territory,
not to be taken over by the Oakland Athletics who now seek a new home town. “The
Oakland A’s are a remarkable team. They originally asked for Alameda and Contra
Costa Counties and got them,” said Neukom.