Los Altos Rotary Club Home of the Annual Rotary Fine Art Show September 10th 2009

NOTE:  REVISED Rotator (See COETA's announcement of RAP Project below)

President TRACIE MURRAY called the meeting to order and TIM BYRD led the pledge of allegiance.
 
Tracie acknowledged: Greeters PAUL NYBERG, RANDY GARD, and MATT CABOT, photographer LARRY MADSEN, Sergeant at Arms STEVE POMEROY and MIKE ABRAMS, and cashier WYATT ALLEN.
 
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY  BILL MOISON provided the thought for the day saying that if you can get through a day without coffee, pep pills, drugs, and the like AND if you can take criticism, not lie or be deceitful AND a very long list of other things THEN (here comes the punch line) you must be the family dog.  (Bill told it much better in person.)
 
SONG FOR THE DAY  Songmeister JOHN SYLVESTER led us in a lively rendition of You are My Sunshine.
 
VISITING ROTARIANS AND GUESTS  President-elect DENNIS YOUNG welcomed visiting Rotarians from Burlingame Rotary, Rotary E Club Southwest USA and North Raleigh North Carolina. Rotarians with guests included SETH MANNING, BOB ADAMS and KENDRA GJERSETH.
 
PROGRAM FOR NEXT WEEK  Dennis Young announced that our speaker would be Don McClure, Generations Community, who will tell us all about wellness and nutrition.
 

ANNOUNCEMENTS  Tracie thanked GARY MAGGARD and his wife Sandy for opening their beautiful home for Wine and Cheese fellowship.  Everyone had a fabulous time.

• Avenues of Service will be October 15.
• JEAN MORDO had three announcements. 
  1. He reminded people to sign up for the Treasure Island performance at the Bus Barn Stage Company on September 18.  Dinner will be at 6:00 p.m. at Maltby’s prior to the show.
  2. On September 27 there will be an Oktoberfest fundraising event for the History Museum featuring sausages from Dittmer’s and beer from Gordon Biersch.
  3. The Los Altos Rotary Endowment Fund (LAREF) held the first Contributions Committee meeting on September 9 and is in the process of inviting organizations to apply for grants.  The concentration this year is on community service.  If anyone knows of an organization that fits the criteria, October 1st is the deadline for submissions.
• COETA CHAMBERS asked members to check out the save the date flyer on the table for the October 11th (corrected date) See flyer here.  Celebration of the 20th Anniversary of the Los Altos Rotary AIDS Project and the launch of the group’s newest project Child AIDS Prevention.
• Red Badge Chair BAIDRA MURPHY announced the next meeting of the Red Badgers would be held at 6:00 p.m. on September 10 at First Republic Bank.  Blue badgers are also invited to attend to hear HERB MARSHALL talk about LAREF.
• VAL CARPENTER announced there will be a Community Forum at Los Altos Youth Center on Tuesday September 15 from 6:30 to 8:15 to gather input from the community on parking.

NEWEST MEMBER Membership Chair JOHN CARDOZA introduced sponsor Bob Adams who inducted JASON SANBORN as the newest member of the club.  Bob met Jason at a hospital affair and calls him the “Rajun Cajun.” Jason is the son-in-law of former club member Ken Graham.  Welcome Jason.

TEN-MINUTE TALK
Dushan “Dude” Angius ten-minute talk was humorous and insightful as he brought us up to date on his current health situation and told us about his life story.  Referring to himself as Quasimodo because he has been walking around like ‘the hunchback of Notre Dame’ due to spinal stenosis, Dude thanked everyone for their notes, calls and emails. Though it has been difficult for him to get to meetings, he was pleased to be here when Seth announced his selection as District 5170 Rotarian of the Year.  He informed us his macular degeneration makes it difficult for him to recognize facial features.  Jokingly, he said he alerts the CHP every time he heads to Los Altos from Danville where he lives. 
The Angius family is prominently featured in the journal of Arizona History.  In the town of Bisbee, Arizona there is an Angius Mansion, Hotel, Library, and Museum.  But, the family traces its roots back to Yugoslavia/Romania and Dude’s grandfather came from the Belgrade area.  On a recent trip to visit the old country, his tour guide said “Welcome Home” when he saw the name Dushan. In his quest to find out what the name meant, Dude was told it meant  “Imperial Leader” and “Valiant Warrior” but not once, Dude said, did anyone mention it stood for “Uncommon Lover.” (Lots of laughter.)
 
Dude’s father finished 8th grade, was in the artillery in WWI, drove an oil truck and worked in the family business. His mother worked for Edith Head, a famous costume designer, in Hollywood.
 
Dude met his wife Barbara during his days at Stanford University at one of the popular hangouts.  Noticing a beautiful woman at the other end of the table, he turned to a friend and said, “I’m going to marry her.”  They had four sons and one daughter and now have eight grandchildren and one great grandchild.
 
Dude attended high school in Gilroy, college at Santa Cruz, grad school at Stanford and received his doctorate from University of the Pacific. He was a student teacher at the old Mountain View High School on Castro and had the best athletic department in the state of California at Los Altos High School where he served as a coach and athletic director.  His career in education also took him to Lassen County where he served as Superintendent of Schools. After retiring from education, Dude became the insurance broker for the National Association of Metal Finishers.
 
Though he only makes it to LARC meetings twice a month or so due to the long trip over, there is a significant reason why he keeps coming and would never consider leaving the club.  That’s because in 1989 when Dude was president of the club, his son Steve died of AIDS, and he is still amazed that when he asked for help, people stepped forward and responded to his call to action. The rest became history with the filming and worldwide distribution of the Peabody-award winning film “The Los Altos Story” that features Dude and his family, as well as the story of Rotarians Walter Singer and Greg Betts.  Dude has worked tirelessly on the Los Altos Rotary AIDS Project since its inception 20 years ago.
 
Thanks so much to Dude for sharing his story with us. (I believe “Dushan” means “True Hero.”)

  DG GIFT  AUCTION SAM PESNER auctioned off the District Governor’s gift to Dennis Young for $350. THANK YOU DENNIS.

SPEAKER FOR THE DAY
DICK HENNING introduced speaker and fellow Rotarian Rushton Hurley who told us about the new concept of online Rotary Clubs.
 
A former Japanese language instructor and principal of an on-line high school, Rushton currently serves as the director of Next Vista for Learning, a non-profit group that provides a library of free videos for learners everywhere.  He is also a consultant at the Krause Technology Center at Foothill College.
 
Rushton learned about the value of service early on as his grandfather was a Rotarian in Magnolia, Arkansas. Rushton also served as an Ambassadorial Scholar through the Rotary Foundation in Perth, Australia and became a member of the San Antonio Downtown Club in Texas, considered to be the largest in the world with 750 members. 

Then, when he and his wife transferred to the Bay Area, he joined the Santa Clara Rotary Club but his teaching scheduled interfered with the meetings.  That’s when he joined the online club called recswusa.org  (No, it doesn’t mean “Uncommon but Valiant Lover” in Native Indian).  It stands for Rotary E-Club of the Southwest USA and allows Rotarians to attend meetings online from anywhere at anytime that is convenient. At the site, the club’s programs are featured online along with a message from the President, thought for the day, service project opportunities, announcements, and all the other components of a Rotary meeting.  They also hold membership inductions by video.
 
So, if you can’t get to a Rotary meeting, this is a great way to make up and the club secretary will receive an automatic email that you attended.  Go to either www.recswusa.org or www.rotarymakeup.org. 
 
Tracie thanked Rushton for a great presentation and had him sign a bookplate for a dictionary for a third grader in Los Altos as a thank you for speaking to the group.

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