Los Altos Rotary Club Home of the Annual Rotary Fine Art Show August 26 2010

Hey there, jolly swagmen! (translation: transient workers, per our Songleader PP TRACIE who memorialized late LARC member Bruce Cann by leading his favorite song, “Waltzing Matilda”). As we waited til our “billy boiled” (can of water for boiling foods), President DENNIS thanked the many who make our meetings run so smoothly: Greeters JULIE ROSE, GREG HARTWELL, GEORGE STAFFORD, and Thought Mentor JOANNA MEDIN.

BOO BUE introduced his visiting Rotarian pal and fellow speaker, Byron Thompson. Guests included SHIV SHASTRI’s Ambassadorial Scholar candidate Preeti Piplani, BOB ADAMS’ friend Mark Thompson, PAT FARRELL’s wife Betty, DAVE SMITH’s wife Lenelle, and two of Prez DENNIS’ guests: Warren Hirshman in retail business and Louie Pelligrini of Mission Trails Waste Company.

Who else makes this club so effective?  It’s the spouse volunteers, two of whom have worked incredible overtime for our club and were awarded Honorary LARC member pins today: LOIS ADAMS and DAVE LUEDTKE.

Announcements
JEAN MORDO invites new participants into the community grants committee which will award $35,000 during this fall and spring grant-making cycles. He also enthusiastically invites all LARC members to attend the CSA Hometown Heroes Breakfast hosted and chaired by LARC members. Guess who! Let’s support them by attending. Make your reservation for Sept. 17 at 7:30 am, $50.

“Hands free” JOHN SYLVESTER controlled his usual conductor tendencies to announce the September 17th  Wine and Cheese Social at PP SAM PESNER’s home. Sign up on the clipboard.

PP MARY encouraged us to purchase Macy’s Glam Pass for $10 to benefit our Child AIDS Prevention effort.  Last chance to purchase is Aug. 31 for savings until Sept. 24.

PP TRACIE wants LARC to win that $10,000 prize by submitting the largest number of responses to the Ennovationz (home energy conservation) questionnaire. She will even input your handwritten answers today. To participate by computer, please visit www.ennovationz.com/group/los-altos-rotary. If you have any difficulty, simply click on the button to estimate your PG&E bill without giving your account number. It’s quick and easy, and could bring in great funding for our club’s many projects. Please register today, as the contest will end very soon.

KAILAS CHIDAMBARAM invites us to attend/donate to the annual COANIQUEM Burned Children’s fundraiser on Sept 26th to benefit the Chilean surgery/rehab center.

MATT CABOT needs another Rotator writer. Heat up those creative juices and enjoy a little literary fame (or simply offer your service, as we generally do).

VAL CARPENTER invites all to the final Los Altos summer concert to be held at the Hillview Soccer field tonight, Aug. 26.

SHIV SHASTRI passed the microphone to Ms. Preeti Piplani who had won a LARC Community Service Scholarship, studied politics at UCB, and now works for UCB in Washington, D.C. to encourage 1,000 students in volunteerism. She is a candidate for one of the prestigious District 5170 Ambassadorial Scholarships.

Louie Pelligrini of Mission Trails gave us a valuable description of the new services and changes to Los Altos residential and commercial solid waste collection, starting Sept. 1. He explained that the new blue 96 gallon recycling carts are to be used for all recyclables and will be emptied every week. The new green cart for organics will replace the old brown one and will also be emptied every week. He asked us to put out the old brown carts next week (week of Aug. 30), and they will be removed.  

Residents can order a second green cart at no charge. Disability service will be provided for those with a note from their doctor if they cannot wheel their carts to the curb.

Amid cheers from the audience, he confirmed that no-cost garbage collection at our annual Fine Art Show will be continued. Note that county areas and public schools use will continue to use Recology Company instead of Mission Trails. It sounded like Louie Pelligrini is being loudly encouraged to apply for LARC membership.

Red Badger ANNE ARJANI described her very eventful life in 10 or so minutes. Beginning as a tomboy with two older brothers in Oakland, she eventually attended Long Beach State U to study and work in Industrial Design. Along the way, she studied cello under a high school instructor who taught her to master whatever she does. She married Farouk Arjani in 1986 and learned about the Zoroastrian culture, raised two children, and became active in the community. Now in real estate, she has entered “my season of giving back” and supports the Rotary solar project.

A generous visitor returning after 12 years to LARC described the local children he had met here who were running a lemonade stand and wanted to donate the $38 they raised to Rotary projects. He kindly added his own $100 to the mix and received a President’s Club hat from Prez DENNIS in the bargain.

JOHN CARDOZA announced that the average age of LARC members is 60, and then introduced program speaker on a topic that should be of interest to us.

Laura Carstensen is a Stanford professor of Policy and founder of the Stanford Center for Longevity. Her book, “A Long, Bright Future” was available for sale and signing after the meeting. She opened our eyes to the “extraordinary and unprecedented change” in our population: in this century, we have gained an extra 30 years of life, and many in this room are even expected to live to 100 years of age.

In fact, the majority of children born since 2000 will reach 100 and will be the first centenarians of the 22nd century. Within 15 years, there will be more Americans over 60 than under 15, constituting a truly aging society. ”In the blink of an eye, we nearly doubled life expectancy”, for the average lifetime in the early 1900’s was only 47, and in the year 2000, it reached 77. The oldest person was a French woman who died at age 122 in 1997. She had known Vincent van Gogh and appeared in a movie about his life. Amazingly, she had kept her sharp wit, and when asked in what sort of movie she’d like to appear in the future, she quipped, “A very short one.” However, though replacement parts are available, nothing can yet slow or reverse the aging process.

In the USA, the previous pyramid-shaped graph of population ages is now transforming itself into a rectangle. It’s clear that Social Security and Medicare are in real trouble, and supporting our aging population is becoming a huge burden on young people. Though difficult to visualize, as many as six generations could soon be living simultaneously. Our challenge is to improve the quality of life for aging individuals and society, while keeping physically fit, mentally sharp and financially able to survive. Probably we should read her book!

His own work as an aeronautical research engineer involved wind tunnel studies of supersonic and subsonic aircraft and included major contributions to theories of conical camber. He later did early research on the design of unpiloted planetary probes to explore Mars and Venus. He helped develop early configurations for the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo capsules and then later moved on to managerial duties.

Following eight years teaching in the University of Texas System, Jack returned to Ames to establish its Aerospace Encounter, an educational program for middle school students. In 2003 Jack retired from the Ames Director's Office to two full-time jobs. As Center Ombuds, Jack hears privately about problems and tries to illuminate how the problem can be solved within the Ames culture. As Senior Advisor for History, he continues to lecture frequently about the culture of Ames and how its leadership has evolved to fit the needs of the time.

Jack is married to Winifred G. Boyd, and has five children and nine grandchildren.

Since October 2009, Carolina Blake has served as the Acting Director of the Office for Equal Opportunity and Diversity at NASA Ames. She is responsible for planning, developing and managing Ames Research Center's Equal Opportunity Programs.
 
Prior to this assignment, Ms. Blake served as the Associate Director of the Programs and Projects Office at Ames.  She also formed and managed the Commercial Reusable Suborbital Research Project for the purpose of conducting scientific research and technology testing using human suborbital launch vehicles. In addition, she worked in several different management roles as Associate Director for Human Capital and Deputy Director for Strategic Communications and as Chief of the Commercial Technology & Technology Transfer Office.
 
Prior to 1990, Ms. Blake worked in business development in Europe and South America.  She is fluent in English, Spanish and Italian and conversant in French and Portuguese.