Los Altos Rotary Club Home of the Annual Rotary Fine Art Show October 29th 2009

President TRACIE MURRAY chimed an overflowing meeting to order at 12:15 p.m.  
 
Arriving Rotarians had been met by greeters MIKE ABRAMS, RON PACKARD and past president SETH MANNING.
 
BILL PALMER led us in the pledge, and Piano Man, BRUCE CANN led us in a rousing sing-along of “Mairzy Doats and Dozy Doats”.

PP MARLENE COWAN gave the thought for the day.  Turns out our beloved American Holiday of Halloween is not really an American Holiday.  It began thousands of years ago as a Celtic Druid celebration of the end of summer.  It was updated and adapted by the Romans and later the Christians, as All Hallows Eve.  Turns out that we did not even begin to call it "Halloween" in America until 1934!
 

President-Elect  DENNIS YOUNG, called on visiting Rotarians.  Ernest Gamashaur came all the way from Sun River, Oregon to be with us. More local Rotarians included Lisa Rosenblum from Sunnyvale, Karen Sinakatari from San Jose and Steve Aker from San Mateo.
 
Rotarians ABBY AHRENS, VAL CARPENTER, STEVE YARBROUGH and MIKE ABRAMS all introduced their respective guests.
 

ANNOUNCEMENTS: 
JOHN SYLVESTER reminded all who has signed up for AL TRAFICANTI’S for the social, to show up, and to please park ONLY on Al’s side of the street (or be doomed). 
 
Sunshine director KAREN GESSERT announced that DUDE ANGIUS had just had a successful hip replacement, and passed around a get-well card.
 
SAM PESNER announced that the Rotary Foundation pledges are now due and to send your checks in now.  Checks are made to “The Rotary Foundation” and can be given to Sam or mailed to the club P.O. Box.  Remember that the theme of the Foundation is “Every Rotarian Every Year” so please step up and get those donations in.  The Polio Plus drive now has polio down to only two countries.  And if you think there might be better places to put your money, consider that the Gates Foundation, notoriously careful in grants, has given $355 million to the Rotary Foundation, because this is the place where money is spent most efficiently and does the most good.  Rotarians all over the world volunteer to make the programs work, so let’s remember to support them all.
 

SPECIAL 10 MINUTE TALK
ABBY AHRENS introduced her special guest Wendell Roscoe.  Abby started the intro by pointing out that at 91 years old, Wendell had just successfully renewed his pilot’s license, continuing a flying career that dates back to World War II.  When he was stationed in the South Pacific during the War, Wendell always wanted to get back where it was peaceful.  But his return to Tahiti had an unexpected meeting with a Polio epidemic. 

Flying into Bora Bora, he was warned that there was a Polio epidemic in Tahiti, but he and his friend Jack thought polio only hit young people and they would be fine.  But when they flew out of Tahiti, they found that they could not land at their destination, because authorities viewed the plane as contaminated.  When they finally were allowed to land, they could not get out except on a freighter to Australia.  During this trip, Jack suddenly collapsed and could not move.  By the time they got to Australia, it was clear Jack had polio and doctors put him in a full body cast and told him he’d never walk again. 

When Jack was finally allowed to travel back to the U.S., he happened to be on the same plane as noted therapist Sister Kenny.  She told him to get out of the cast and begin physical therapy.  Jack did, and then went to Sister Kenny’s clinic in California and continued the therapy.  He was finally able to walk after receiving 23 implants in his legs.  And a year later, he was able to pass his flight test and pilot again.
 

Notez la date ! (SAVE THE DATE:)  JEAN (John) MORDO reminded us of the on The Peninsula French Fair.  Note that Partners for New Generations is one of the beneficiaries.  Try to support the faire. 

The Peninsula  French Fair A Day in France

Notez  la  date  !   Save  the  date ! C'est magnifique ! Venez passer un moment entre amis dans une ambiance française. L'occasion idéale de  commencer vos courses de Noël, de goûter charcuterie, viennoiseries et crêpes !   La quatrième édition de La Peninsula French Fair  se tiendra le Samedi 14 novembre à Saratoga. Joan Pisani Community Center,     19655 Allendale Avenue,          Saratoga CA,94070                Entrée gratuite  Les enfants,  v enez  écouter  les histoires racontées en Français par Anne Marie  "Les Petits Livres " 10h30 à 11h pour les 18 mois / 3 ans   15h à 15h30 pour les 3 / 5 ans   Venez admirer le spectacle de danse de la compagnie "Harmony Dance".  Trois spectacles dans la journée : 11h30 , 13h et 14h   www.frenchfair.org    frenchfair@gmail.com    Une partie des bénéfices est reversée à l'association  Partners for New Generation qui apporte un soutien  aux jeunes en difficulté scolaire. www.partnersfornewgenerations.org/

FESTIVAL OF LIGHTS PARADE  As was mentioned in last week's Rotator, Los Altos Rotary will no longer sponsor the Snow Goose for the Festival of Lights Parade.  However, we will sponsor the Gingerbread house.  Naturally, we are celebrating the parade with a social at the Main Street Cafe, behind the fenced area.  Plan to have a soup and sandwich at the café.  They also serve wine.  Time: The Parade start time has changed from 7:00 to 6:00PM.  DO NOT BE LATE.   As usual, the parade will be held the Sunday after Thanksgiving.  Just enough time to work off all that turkey.  Please join us.

THE WEEKLY PROGRAM: JAMES TOWERY ON LEGAL ETHICS
DENNIS YOUNG introduced our guest speaker, James Towery, a former President of the California State Bar, and a teacher of Legal Ethics at Santa Clara University.  He posed the question: “Where were the lawyers?” while Bernie Madoff was stealing billions (or when Enron was cooking the books).  Mr. Towery pointed out that lawyers’ ethics are different, due to the lawyer’s duty to his client and the critical importance of the attorney-client privilege.  He recounted the case of a young man who was injured in an auto accident.  When the Defendant’s doctors examined him, they discovered that he had a serious heart condition that could kill him at any time.  But the defendant’s lawyers did not tell the young man of this condition, and he died.  In analyzing the case, the court determined that the lawyers had a duty to their client to keep this information secret, unless the client allowed the release.  In another case, three public defenders were representing a robbery defendant who admitted that he had committed a murder that another man was charged with.  They too were required to keep quiet to protect their client.  Their silence let to the other man being convicted and spending 26 years in prison.
 
Turning to the Madoff scandal, he pointed out that the thefts went on for years under the watchful eyes of many lawyers.  The same was true at Enron.  Towery said part of the explanation is found in the stories of three people in federal prison.  One is Mickey Scruggs, who made over a billion in legal fees suing big tobacco, but who went to prison for bribing a judge in a $150,000 fee dispute. 

The next was William Lerach, who made hundreds of millions in class action securities fraud cases.  Yet, he was convicted of wrongfully paying people to pose as plaintiffs in some to these cases, so he could be the main attorney.  The final person was Mark Drier, who began stealing a little money from hedge fund clients by giving them phony investments.  He continued to push the phony investments until he had stolen $380 million.  The key in every case was greed: even when the attorney had made millions, he committed crimes to make more money.
 
Towery pointed out that there were two big lessons to understand.  First, as the Enron and Madoff scandals showed, too many lawyers want to be the person who says “yes” to anything the client wants.  The other lesson is that people form ethical standards before they get to law school, and how we raise out children is critical.
 
After some Q and A for Mr. Towery, President TRACIE chimed the meeting to a close at 1:30.

Update from Allart Ligtenberg in Nepal:   An email from Allart:

Hi Matt –
As promised, here are some pictures of heart breaking trip to the leprosy colony (160 families) where we demonstrating  biomasss briquette making for income generation and household use. The situation of the leprosy folks is quite desperate, but they seemed to be accepting and in good spirits. They are extremely poor and could save money for cooking fuel, and start selling briquettes they would make. The doctor who is running the place is doing a fantastic job here with very limited money. I am donating briquette pressing equipment and stoves to get things started here. Also there is interest in solar cooking.

And here are some general pictures of Allart working in Nepal, specifically in Kathmandu:

template 10/29/09