Los Altos Rotary Club Home of the Annual Rotary Fine Art Show April 1 2010

 
April Fool’s Day Meeting Struck by Mysterious Bell Ringing
After a mysterious bell rang, a voice from the heavens spoke down on the jocular women and men mingling at Shoup Park on April Fool’s day, 2010.  “Good Afternoon Los Altos Rotary!” she said.
 
Then, MARLIS MCALISTER began the April Fool’s Day meeting of the Los Altos Rotary Club by leading about 100 gathered Rotarians in the pledge to the flag, which was promptly followed by “I’ve Been Working on the Railroad” led by JEANNE MACVICAR. BEVERLY TUCKER gave us a Thought for the Day.
 

President-Elect DENNIS YOUNG announced that there are less than 100 days remaining in President TRACIE MURRAY’S term.  He then proceeded to introduce visiting Rotarians and Rotarians with guests, of whom there a multitude.
 

STEVE WU Presents 10-Minute Talk
Rotarian Red Badger STEVE WU, presented a 10-Minute Talk to introduce himself to our club members.  On his father’s side, Steve’s great-great grandfather Ny Shek Hing helped Sun Yat Sen start the Republic of China.  His Ohioan mother’s father was instrumental in laying the Trans-Atlantic Cable.  Steve grew up in a suburb of Columbus where his mother worked in a research laboratory and his father was a plant biochemist.

After earning Eagle Scout honors, Steve attended the University of Pittsburgh.  He then went on to Harvard Law School.  Now he is a partner of the firm of Cooke, Kobrick, and Wu, where he focuses on business formation and litigation, technology and electronic discovery law.  He has written five books and is active in developing networking through Second Life, an interactive internet arena.

Steve is married to Mary and they have three children, Kate, Michael and Elizabeth.  Their family attends First United Methodist Church in Sunnyvale.  Welcome to Rotary, Steve and family!
 

Announcements from the Field
Rotarian KENDRA GJERSETH reminded all Art Show shirt buyers to give their $31 check to her.
 
BUD OLIVER announced that a CPR refresher class will be held at El Camino Hospital April 5-7.
 
DAN HOLDEN requested volunteers for tutors to serve at the middle school as part of Partners for New Generations project.
 
ABBY AHRENS announced the Red Badge meeting to follow.
 
President Tracie announced the death of former Rotarian Kurt Hammerstrom.  Kurt served as President of the Los Altos Rotary Club in 1988-89.  A private service will be held this week.
 
Tracie also reminded us that the District Conference is April 23-25.  Our club will attend the Kiwanis meeting on April 20th.  That is Tuesday, at noon.  Click on the Kiwanis link to get directions.  Let's have a good turn-out.   

When Drought Strikes, Watch for Rain
President Tracie said that she had planned for a speaker today, but that person had called in a last minute cancelation.  Magically, two Rotarians visiting from the Edmonton Rotary Club, District 5370, Quebec, Canada, and both of them stepped in to fill the void.  DENNIS YOUNG introduced both Shall Sinha and his wife Pramila Sinha.
 
First, Shall gave an account of the origins of the Four-Way Test. It is a part of Rotary history that Herbert J. Taylor, a businessman and Rotarian conceived the idea of the four principles that epitomize the creed of Rotary.  But the idea was developed by Taylor in order to make his kitchenware manufacturing company stand out during the challenging times following the crash of the stock market that triggered the Great Depression of the 1930s.
 
Taylor thought that if he could instill these four principles in his workers, it would filter through in a message of trust to his customers.  The concept is credited to resurgence in his company’s fortunes and it survived the Depression.
 
Taylor donated the copyright to Rotary.  He served as president of RI in 1954.  He died in 1978 at age 85.
 
Shall said, “The principles set forth in the Four-Way Test are the backbone of Rotary”.
 

Speaker Pramila Sinha, presented her PowerPoint slides of her work as a team member of Nonviolent Peace Force, an NGO, in Sri Lanka.  Sri Lanka has been the center of violence between the Tamil Tigers and the Sri Lankan Government.  The war between the factions has resulted in many deaths.
 
Pramila worked with Sri Lankans by responding to violent situations.  The focus of her work was as a mediator to try and get the factions to see their common interests.  Pramila and Shall are the recipients of the Donald Macrae Peace Award for 2009 for the advancement of international understanding, good will and peace.
 

Fines Feature Some Fun
JEANNE MACVICAR served honorably and ably as finemaster.  She collected funds to be used for club operations from DON WITT, MIKE SPENCE, JOHN SYLVESTER, DAVID SMITH, SANDY WHIPPLE, MARY PROCHNOW, DAN O’DONNELL, and STEVE ANDERSON.