Los Altos Rotary Club Home of the Annual Rotary Fine Art Show March 11 2010

On a lovely almost-spring day, over 110 Rotarians joined us for our March 11 meeting.   President TRACIE MURRAY chimed the overflowing meeting to order at 12:15 p.m. Arriving Rotarians had been met by greeters MIKE STADLEN, BUD OLIVER AND PAUL SCHUTZ.
 
BOB RAYL led us in the pledge, and RANDY GARD gave us two brief but memorable Thoughts for the Day; “Be Kinder than necessary” and “Many people have photographic memories; they just don’t have any film!”  JON SYLVESTER led us in an upbeat, “America (the beautiful).”

TRACIE introduced two special guests, Cheryl Canning and Lindsay North, from the Rotacare Clinc.  TRACIE presented them with a BIG check for $5,400 from LAREF to support the continuing work of the clinics.  Cheryl thanked the many members of our club who provide so much support for Rotacare and the clinics; including JOHN CARDOZA, PP MEL KAHN, DAN O’DONNELL, and the many volunteers who put the Asante event on each year.   TRACIE also introduced Candace Roney, a guest from San Jose Rotary, who is the President of the Rotacare Bay Area Board of Directors.  TRACIE pointed out that the Asant'e event had raised over $20,000 for the clinics this year.
 

VP DENNIS YOUNG just arrived back from PETS, (PRESIDENT ELECT TRAINING SEMINAR) and was not quite as, shall we say, “loudly charged” as TRACIE last year.  He was, however, very excited about the upcoming year, which will have the theme, “Building Communities and Bridging Continents.”  DENNIS noted the many international projects our club works on through WCS and other actions, and reminded us that we are close to eradicating polio, and this could be the year.  Dennis learned three things, (1) We have a great club; many others struggle (2) we have great projects at out club, and (3) they load you with a ton of information at PETS.  Dennis was so overloaded with information that he confused President TRACIE with Past President CINDY LUEDTKE.  Fairly simple to confuse them of course, since they are both redheads (right Baidra?)
 
DENNIS then introduced two visiting Rotarians, Jay Miller from the Burlingame club and Bob Berger from the Kurtsville MO, club, home of next year’s RI president.  Two Rotarians, JEAN MORDO and MARY MARLEY had guests today.
 

ANNOUNCEMENTS 

• TRACIE then made a few announcements.  First, she announced that the District 5170 Conference is set for April 23-25 in Monterrey. 
• Also, there will be a Chamber of Commerce Mixer at the History Museum on April 28, and that our Club is co-sponsoring this event with the Kiwanis.  We were also invited to the April 20 Kiwanis Club meeting. 
• The San Jose Evergreen club is having a White Elephant sale fundraiser, and the Grand Opening will be this Saturday, noon-6 pm.
• JEAN MORDO then announced that the LAREF gift making process is ongoing.  We give away over $50,000 each year to local organizations.  The grant application is now on our web site.  JEAN pointed out that anyone in the club can join the grant committee and help decide how to allocate the grants. 
• KIM COPHER introduced two members of the local Interact club at Los Altos High, Jack Montgomery and Ben Bilanca. Their club has over 30 members and has been supporting a number of projects, including a Live Strong bike race, and the Festival of Lights.  Next week they will be putting on an End Polio project , and on May 22 they will be supporting the Mountain View Relay for Life.
• JOHN SYLVESTER, standing in for STEVE SHEPHERD, reminded us that on Friday, March 26 there is a wine social at Steve’s house, and there is still room to sign up.
• BAIDRA MURPHY announced a career clothes drive to support Job Train, in addition to the White Elephant sale going on at San Jose Evergreen.  Job Train devotes itself to helping people who have not had a prior job get some basic training and interview skills to help get back into the work force.
• RON PACKARD announced that so many Rotarians had volunteered to be testers for his new candy products, that he was making our entire club the tester site.  He brought a new confection of green-tea, white chocolate and caramel (sounds strange, but tasted pretty good!) Incidently, if you have any comments about the product, contact Ron.  He would be delighted to hear your comments, pro or con. MATT CABOT took a bunch home in his pocket and found out they are not like M&Ms.  They do melt in your pocket, fusing, keys and coins alike.
• ROLAND PAYNE announced that in connection with the 5170 Conference in April, there will be a tennis tourney on our side of the hill in Campbell.  Please sign up. 
• DAVID CASAS announced that April 24 will be the 50th Anniversary of the JUNIOR Olympics, and there will be event that day at Mountain View High, and volunteer helpers are needed.  Even if you are not involved, everyone is invited to show up as spectators and support the Olympians. 
• LOU WELLMEIER announced that we are seeking sponsors for the Fine Art Show, and are looking to give the sponsors even greater recognition to show our appreciation for their support. 
• BAIDRA returned to announce that there would be a Red Badge meeting tonight (3/11).  All are welcome. 
• PP WYATT ALLEN stepped up to let us know that the salad tickets really have no monetary value, so he’d like to get back the many that have gone missing lately.  Check the pockets and purses from the last few weeks to see if you slipped one in there by mistake.  WYATT is also looking for a team to help on the cashier duties.  He’s hoping to get 4-5 folks, so each would only do one week a month (or less). 
• TRACIE reminded us that the Cioppino feast is on for Friday 3/12, and there were still a few slots left.  Thanks to the wonderful sponsorship of many folks, ALL the proceeds will go to the polio plus project.  TRACIE thanked DAVE LUEDTKE and PP JOE RENATI for taking on the Herculean task of putting on the event.

Cioppino Feed 

We had a VERY successful Cioppino Feed last Friday night; largely because of the tireless work of Dave Luedtke and PP JOE RENATI.  Of course there were lots of others who helped:  decorations, serving, clean up etc.  We will have a complete writeup of the even for next week's Rotator, but just to remind you of all the fun, here are some pictures that PP DICK (The Silver Fox) HENNING sent.

WEEKLY PRESENTATION: GEORGE GOETZ AND THE ROTARY AMBASSADOR SCHOLARSHIPS 
PP MARLENE COWAN introduced our guest, and outlined the Rotary Ambassadorial Program.  It’s an intense competition, but each year Rotary sponsors over 600 students who wish to pursue graduate work in another country.  The grant is $24,000 for one year.  Rotary actually provides more money for graduate education than the Fulbright Scholarships.  Marlene mentioned that our club sponsors such scholars, and SHIV SHASTRI is in charge in our club.
 
Steve Ross from Palo Alto University club, introduced the scholar he is hosting (and driving) this year, George Goetz, from Bordeaux France, who is studying mechanical engineering at Stanford.  George gave us an outline of the scholarship program, and the competition to be chosen as an overseas scholar.  The group contains over 600 people each year from over 70 countries.  Given the many years of the program, there are now over 40,000 alums of the program.   Each District selects a scholar and provides the sponsorship.  The applicant outlines a program that he wishes to follow, both in the study year and afterward.  Once the applicants reach the final stage, they are informed that day whether they have been chosen. 

Although the applicant selects his course of study, it is Rotary International that chooses the University they will attend.  Once RI selects the university, the student must still apply and be admitted, which is usually not a problem given the quality of the scholars.   George then gave us some information about his home region, Bordeaux.   Everyone knows that it is famous for it excellent wine industry, but George also pointed out that the region is home to a very large aeronautics industry. 

George also explained how the French education system differs from ours.  France has few large universities, and most students do their higher education at the Grande Ecoles, small elite colleges, which form the heart of the system.  Generally when a person finishes high school, he or she will do another two years of general education work, and then apply to the Grande Ecole. 

The competition for entry is intense, with highly competitive written and oral exams.  The education is elite, but it is also almost free (about $800 a year).  George then answered a series of questions about France and his experiences in the scholarship program.  He mentioned that his biggest surprise in American education was homework, which is not assigned in France.
 
After some more Q and A for George, President TRACIE chimed the meeting to a close at 1:30.