Los Altos Rotary Club Home of the Annual Rotary Fine Art Show July 15 2010

  President DENNIS YOUNG called the meeting to order with a welcome to the “best Rotary Club in the world.”  Our newest member, LONNIE GARY, led the Pledge of Allegiance.
 
Dennis thanked Greeters LEW FRASER, CRES MCFALL and JOE CORRAL.  Cashier for the day was LARRY CHU, JR.

 
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
COETA CHAMBERS thoughts focused on friendship. She believes the Four Way Test is a good foundation for valuing friendship by being empathetic, helpful and supportive as well as building community, a large part of Rotary.  She lives in a neighborhood that embodies this concept with a group that meets called Sip and Stitch or Stitch and “B…” that has a lot to do with neighbors getting together and sharing wine.  She encouraged all Rotary members to build community by doing something similar in their own neighborhoods.  Cheers!
 
SONG FOR THE DAY
It was a baseball theme for song leader JEANNE MACVICAR who composed very clever local lyrics to sing along with the tune of “Take Me Out to the Ballgame.”  If she hasn’t already received a call from Bus Barn Follies, she will.

 
VISITING ROTARIANS
PRESIDENT ELECT MONA ARMISTEAD asked visiting Rotarians to stand and introductions included:  A Rotarian all the way from India, who has been a member of his District 3230 since 1969; two Interact students from San Jose Sunrise and Gunn High School Interact; District Governor Roger Hassler and his wife, Angie; and former LARC member, Ginny Lear, from Palo Alto. Nice to see you, Ginny.
 
AND GUESTS
JULIE ROSE introduced Kathy Lera, director of sales at the Town Crier.  CRES MCFALL introduced his wife, Paula.  PAT GRAY introduced Michelle Wood, an online boutique owner.
 
NEXT WEEK’S PROGRAM
PE MONA announced that the famous Gary Richards, who is a Mercury News columnist called “Mr. Road Show”, would be here to share his take on traffic and driving in the Bay Area.
 
INTERACT REPORT
Interact representatives, Ryan and Sophia, reported on their experiences at the Rotary Convention on behalf of Interact Clubs in District 5170 and announced a fundraiser where members could buy raffle tickets for a drawing with wonderful prizes.  They also thanked LARC for its sponsorship and support.  PRESIDENT DENNIS said their presentation at the convention received two standing ovations. 
 

ANNOUNCEMENTS
PREZ DENNIS reported that we would be seeing something in the Town Crier on the fourth Wednesday of every month featuring a photo of a Rotarian and contact info to raise awareness about Rotary.
 
“GESTURING JOHN” SYLVESTER reminded everyone that the next wine and cheese social would be held at DICK BLANDING’s home on Friday, July 24.  Please sign up.
 
Wearing a Relay for Life hat, KENDRA GJERSETH relayed information to the club about a fundraiser to benefit the American Cancer Society to be held in Los Gatos on August 18 at 6:00 p.m. It’s a wine tasting event and she will send an email out to the club. You can also check out the LARC web site for more details.
 
Director of New Generations CHUCK LINDAUER asked for a volunteer to serve as co-chair with KATHY BERRY for the Scholarship Committee.  If you are interested, please contact CHUCK.
 
Your invoice is in the mail according to Club Treasurer SANDIE WHIPPLE so if you didn’t get one let her know since LARC dues are now due.
 
Partners for New Generations (PNG) Chair BONNIE BURDETT showed off the new poster that recruits new mentors and tutors.  Let her know if you can put one up in your business window. PNG is also looking for a bookkeeper with accounting background to do payroll and help the group as it becomes a 501(c)3. Just six hours a month is all that is needed.
 

A FINE TIME
BONNIE stayed at the podium to receive a one-clap acknowledgement as fine master, or rather, recognition chair for the day. Her theme was “Tour de France” but first she asked for volunteers.
 
PP MEL KAHN stepped up to the plate and told us about how he was with some high school buddies talking about how great their coach PPDUDE ANGIUS was and how DUDE was MEL’s hero, the best coach he ever had. Then MEL read the Rotator and was devastated to learn DUDE had said at the last meeting that MEL had DPS (delayed puberty syndrome).  MEL was so affected by this that he feels, sad, quiet, timid, is humble and lacks confidence.  You can now find him sitting in a corner all by himself.  (Boohoo)
 
RANDY GARD wanted to set COETA’s record straight.  He said that his wife started the neighborhood group, whose official name is Sip and Stitch, and while some whining does go on, it’s really all about the wine.
 
CLARI NOLET shared a wonderful success story regarding her hearing problem and how a connection with Rotarian BONNIE BURDETT made a huge difference in her life. BONNIE’s daughter is a PhD audiologist who works for a surgeon doing clinical trials on a new device that restores hearing and CLARI was accepted to receive one of the very expensive implants.  After a four-week wait, the device was turned on and now CLARI is hearing better than ever.  She joined the president’s club and paid for BONNIE, too.  Congrats, CLARI.
 
PP SAM PESNER (who had been told to sit down earlier) finally stood to announce that as “Pastor Pesner” he married a friend over the weekend.
 
ROLAND PAYNE announced that two of his sports oriented family members just clinched the Ultimate Frisbee competition in Prague, coming home with gold medals.
 
HINDA WEBER, whose birthday was July 7, joined the President’s Club in honor of marrying off her eighth child in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
 
KAILAS CHIDAMBARAM is indebted to the new Rotary handbook for reminding him that he has a wedding anniversary to celebrate.  He said he has been married to the same wife for 42 years.
 
LARRY CHU (who told DENNIS he was a walking advertisement for the club by wearing the new President’s Club hat for the 40+ hours he worked at the Los Altos Arts & Wine festival over the weekend) says he will pay $100 if MEL can really feel any two of the following: quiet, humble, timid, low self esteem.
 
SHAWN KELLEY is celebrating his first anniversary with wife Kate.
 

On to the TOUR de FRANCE:
 
STEVE FICK knew everything about the Tour, including that the riders took a holiday from riding in honor of Bastille Day but not on the day itself.  STEVE GRUBER did not know that 181 riders were left.  PP STEVE ANDERSON didn’t know that 125 miles were left (and said he didn’t care.)  PP MEL KAHN thought Bastille Day was when the Basques stole the still, but PP DICK HENNING correctly knew it was the French Revolution so MEL thought DICK should be fined instead of him.  DAVID SMITH didn’t know that Frenchmen have won the Tour 13 times.  JASON SANBORN didn’t get a chance to answer because ALLART LIGTENBERG knew that the Tour started in Rotterdam. 
 
THE ROTARY PROGRAM
PRESIDENT DENNIS introduced Ginny Lear, a long time former member of LARC, now Director of Membership for the Palo Alto Rotary Club.  Ginny served as president of LARC in 2000-01.  A former executive director of the Los Altos Chamber of Commerce, Ginny came on board the same year DENNIS was president-elect of the Chamber Board.  Dennis acknowledged Ginny for initiating several ongoing events such as the Golf Tournament and the Fall Festival during her tenure.
 
Ginny, who reminded DENNIS that they go back even further than the Chamber connection to the babysitting coop days in the early 80s, introduced District Governor Roger Hassler.  Roger, who is a native Californian, has been actively involved in Rotary for many years and is married to another Rotarian, Angie Hassler. He is well known for his financial expertise as well as his dedication to youth programs. He was responsible for working with the youth protection program, resulting in District 5170 becoming the first in Rotary to have all clubs certified.
 
As Roger walked to the podium, he received a standing ovation from the club. Roger called the LARC club a shining star and said he was pleased to be with such an energetic, fun and talented group.  He thanked PP TRACIE MURRAY for her fabulous year; MARLENE COWAN for her work with STARZ; ALLART LIGTENBERG for doing the good work of Rotary in the world; DUDE ANGIUS, MARY PROCHNOW and RICH CASEY for their work on the Los Altos Rotary AIDS Project known throughout the world of Rotary; and the Interact representatives for making District 5170 very proud.
 
The Rotary theme this year is Building Community; Bridging Continents and Roger’s theme is “Bigger, Better, Bolder.”  His goal is to expand Rotary so that more people can enjoy a life of service and he acknowledged the people in the district who are going to help him during the year.  In addition to help from Arley Marley, he told MARY MARLEY she was an inspiration to him. He also recognized DICK HENNING as “another solid Rotarian.”
 
Roger promised a big announcement was coming soon, but couldn’t divulge the details.  He did encourage us to attend several events, including the Day at the A’s on August 21; Avenues of Service on October 21, which will be held at the Doubletree in San Jose this year; the District Assembly on April 9, the District Celebration (aka District Conference) May 6-8 and the Rotary International Convention in New Orleans in June 2011.
 
(NOTE:  When we get it, we will post on our website the information about the for the Days at the A’s order form for tickets.)
 
When it comes to the Rotary Foundation, Roger said the End Polio Now program was doing well but there was still a challenge with new outbreaks in just a few countries.  He urged all Rotarians to support the Foundation and be a part of history to end polio. 
 

In honor of the Foundation, PP Sam Pesner presented LARRY CHU, Jr. and HINDA WEBER with Paul Harris Fellows (PHF) and MARY MARLEY for PHF plus two and BAIDRA MURPHY for PHF plus one.

 
Membership will be another focus for Roger.  He and his wife joined Rotary to meet other people and ended up staying for the service to others so he hopes to inspire others to do the same.  He encouraged everyone to take a “Bigger, Better and Bolder” approach to Rotary this year.
 
Roger presented a gift from the East Oakland Club that will be raffled off next week and took a gift from our club (donated by Linda Janus from Cook’s Junction who wanted to contribute to support Rotary efforts.)
 
PRESIDENT DENNIS adjourned the meeting after flowers were presented to Angie and a big thank you to Roger for his inspiration and motivation on behalf of Rotary.
 
Meeting adjourned.