Los Altos Rotary Club Home of the Annual Rotary Fine Art Show September 9, 2010

We need new writers.  Anyone with a gift of writing (or even a curse) is welcomed.  Check out this link to see the requirements.  You will be surprised that it is pretty easy.  The commitment is about once every 5 or 6 weeks.  We do have an alternate, and others that can trade if you can't make a scheduled assignment.  Give MATT CABOT a jingle at home or email (see online directory).

Summer is winding down, kids (and grandkids) are back in school and life goes on.  We all paused in our busy week to meet, greet and exchange ideas at our weekly meeting.  Today was about to be an exception.  San Bruno, a sleepy town to the north of us had yet to be shaken by the tremendously devastating explosion and fire.  That would happen five hours after the end of our meeting. 

There is no shortage of need for the work of our club.  Today's speaker, Bill Somerville spoke on philanthropy.  Imagine that.  A philanthropist talking to a meeting room filled with philanthropists.  Our club defines itself in philanthropy.  Did we learn anything?  You bet we did.  More on the speaker will appear later in this newsletter.  But, with the heartbreaking event of a devastating fire taking place so close to us, it brings home the daily devastation of fires, famine, poverty, illiteracy, and war that populates our world every day. 

Mr. Somerville talked about local needs.  Rotary tends to focus on global needs, but clearly, need is all around us. 
It is more than a guy outside Draegers, or some sign holder at El Camino and San Antonio that you know nothing about.  It is about kids, about jobs, about food, about shelter.  All these things in our little world are within our reach, but yet so far out of reach for many people in our own community; in nearby towns as with San Bruno, in far away towns like New Orleans, in neighboring countries like Mexico, or Guatemala, and in such far-away lands such as Darfur, Ivory Coast, and Afghanistan.  There is no shortage of need.

A day after our meeting President DENNIS YOUNG sent out a global email to you talking about the opportunity to help those in need in San Bruno: Rotary to Rotary.  While, as Dennis said, compared with other assistance programs we have gotten involved in, though only a small number of people have been directly affected, their devastation was complete.  They have lost everything.  Money is probably our best and most useful response.  Make a check out to Los Altos Rotary Endowment Fund (LAREF).  Indicate on the check your donation is for this purpose and it will go in the form of a grant to the San Bruno Rotary Club.  Your generous contribution will be tax deductable.  Bring your check with you this coming Thursday.  Or mail it to our Post Office Box 794, Los Altos, CA 94023.
Greeters today were GARY WALDECK, JAN MINERS AND TIM BYRD.

PE MONA ARMISTEAD introduced visiting Rotarians.  There were four, including our old friend, Bob Bratman, who was a member of LARC for many years until he followed his wife, Marilyn back to Wales where they now reside.  What else could he do?  PP CINDY LUEDTKE had all of the guests today, other than the afore-mentioned wife of Bob Bratman.  They were, Malka Kopell and Stephanie Anderson, both from Community Focus, a non-profit organization that acts as a catalyst organization to forward community initiatives, and Maria Marroquin, Executive Director of the Day Worker Center of Mountain View. 

PP Mona also mentioned that Ken Graham, another former member of LARC, will be our speaker next week.  See details at the end of this newsletter.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:  PDG Carolyn Schuetz, District 5170 Rotary Foundation Chair for 2010, and a member of Alameda Rotary Club was a stand-in for KAILAS CHIDAMBARAM, and spoke about the upcoming Coaniquem Burn Center Fundraiser. See last week's Rotator, Sep 2nd and Aug 19th or go to the District website for details about the upcoming fundraiser on September 26th at Wente Winery, 5050 Arroyo Road in Livermore.  Dr. Jorge Rojas, Founder and Director of the Burn Center in Chile will be there.  He is a renowned classical guitarist and will perform the composition he wrote in celebration of Chile's 200th year of independence.  

RICH CASEY said the WCS committee is finalizing the Global Grant for Child AIDS Prevention and plans to submit the application to Rotary International.  He is looking for additional funds to add to that application before sending it on to International.  Remember, Rotary International will match 50 cents for every dollar we collect, so we can get some real bang for our buck.  He said we have about two weeks to get the funds in before the application is finalized.  So get to it. Checks should go to Sandy Whipple.  Make them out to Los Altos Rotary Endowment Fund (LAREF) and notate it is for "AIDS Prevention".  This, by the way is a very good example of donor-directed funds that today’s speaker talked about.  RICH sweetened the pot by putting $2,000 of his own money in there.  That alone will grow to $3,000.  Way to go, RICH.

Gesticulating JOHN SYLVESTER,  Director of Fellowship, touted the Wine and Cheese Social this coming Friday (9/17) at PP SAM and Lou PESNER'S home.  You need to sign up and bring something (That would be wine and/or an appetizer, which can be cheese!).  Contact Gesticulating John to sign up or for more information. 

There’s good news in a number of ways.  First of all, this writer won an IPAD and your Rotator Editor, PP CINDY LUEDTKE won an LCD TV.  Oh, by the way, the club won $10,000!  All thanks to the tremendous efforts of PP TRACIE MURRAY, and CLARI NOLET.  By constant reminders, announcements, emails, shear effort, sign-up sheets, G3 connected laptops etc, their effort paid off in a big way.  There will be an official presentation of the check from Ennovations, sponsor of the Greenathon Promotion, in a few weeks.

PP TRACIE also mentioned that the annual Asante’ Fundraiser will be held on November 11th.  While that seems a long way off, we are known as the 'busy ones' and need to get this important event on our calendar.  But also, because it has a silent auction component, it is necessary to have items to auction off.  So look at the goods and services you provide, and if they are as good as you say, then they would be great items for the silent auction.  Contact Tracie.  100% of the proceeds will go to the Rotacare Clinic in Mountain View.  Yet another donor-directed example! 

MARY MARLEY pointed out the flyer on the table that was about the Grants Training Event.  Usually this may have been of interest only to WCS (World Community Service committee) members.  But because of the change in how Rotary grants are to be distributed, it is of interest to every committee that is looking for funds from Rotary International.  Incidentally, one of the points that our speaker made today was how difficult grant getting and grant giving has become, and he is espousing something he calls “Paperless Giving”; More on that later.  But back to the subject at hand:

District Grant and Global Grant Training Event
Quinlan Community Center
10185 N Snelling Rd
Cupertino CA
Tuesday, 9/14 (THIS COMING TUESDAY) 6:30 - 8:30PM
RSVP to Bert Raphael
Email: Bert@RaphaelConsulting.com  Phone: (650)291-8628

LUNCHEON QUESTIONAIRE:  There was also a questionnaire on the table today that wanted to know how you felt about the weekly LARC food service.  Someone will send out a copy of that in case you missed it.

KENDRA GJERSETH announced that Relay for Life earned an additional $475 from a recent Wine and Cheese gathering in Los Gatos. Thanks, Kendra, for putting that together!

KAREN FOX talked about The Community Services Agency’s Hometown Heroes Recognition Breakfast, scheduled 7:30-9 a.m. Sept.17th at the Crowne Plaza Cabaña in Palo Alto.  It will honor community contributors, PAUL and Liz NYBERG and PP ROY LAVE of the Los Altos Community Foundation.  The featured speaker is RICHARD HENNING, LARC member and founder of the Celebrity Forum Speaker Series at Foothill College.

DAVE BERONIO’s announcement was simple but heartfelt.  He asked us all to raise our glasses and:  "Welcome back MARY MARLEY."

TEN MINUTES OF FAME- BARBARA SMALL introduced herself to us.  If you missed it, that’s a shame.  One of the limitations to this newsletter, is, it’s not like being there to hear and see it for yourself.  This becomes even more obvious when I report on the speaker today.  A writer can't possibly keep up!  Things you hear don't seem relevant until you hear something else later.  Like "Cherry Hills NJ"   The writer just does his/her best to keep up, writing this, missing that, scribbling down something I can’t even decipher later.  Eventually, it has to be translated into a paragraph or two about someone's life.  How did he/she get here?  What formed his/her need to join Rotary?  Most of the facts are here:

About BARBARA SMALL:  Born the youngest of two, to loving parents, blue collar, workers.  Her parents moved to CA while she was still quite young; Graduated from USF, then moved to Honolulu. Became a legal assistant; went to law school at Santa Clara University.   She is grateful to STEVE YARBROUGH for hiring her in his firm,  mentoring her when she decided to open her independent practice, and then sponsoring her into Rotary.
But of course there was much more.  The trip back East to where she grew up, the decision to go into law; the bowling league, meeting and falling in love with her husband there; the commitment to their children.  The measure of a person can't be detailed in a paragraph or two, or even in 10 minutes talks.  BARBARA, you’re special!

MUSIC PLEASE:   Picture the voice of Alex Trebeck, along with the tick tock music and you will get the feeling of PP SAM PESNER with his iconic Jeopardy board asking, "What is the Question" to a whole audience.  You would think that being a PP (Past President) and Rotary Foundation Chair, he would have hiked up the penalties for wrong answers.  PE(President Elect) for $10?  I mean, come on!

My count got $200 from 11 people.  MATT CABOT put a bunch of money in for the pleasure of winning an IPAD in the Ennovations contest.  CINDY LUEDTKE, winner of the LCD TV?; $20!

FEATURED SPEAKER:  Philanthropist, Bill Somerville spoke today to our club about, well, philanthropy.  While it seemed at first to be a strange choice for a topic, Mr. Somerville was anything but strange. His rapid fire presentation had this writer wishing for a TIVO so it could be paused and rewound as to allow every little pearl and tidbit he spoke not be missed.   I did not bring a working TIVO, however, so I missed a bunch while I fumbled for the nonexistent PAUSE button.  I was able to capture a few key points, however.

He talked about why people give.  He said people generally liked to “give where they live”.  This may not be entirely true with Rotarians given our International network of clubs.  My guess is, that we as Rotarians, are an exception to that rule.  But he did talk about the 8 types of 'giving'.

• Impact giving
• Emotional Giving
• “Sounds Good” Giving
• Recommendation Giving
• Prestige Giving
• Tax Deduction Giving
• Coercion Giving
• Default Giving
  

But he said that the problem with those eight reasons is that none necessarily relate to meeting real NEED.
He talked about the difference between donations and grants. Donations are just that. No further expectations. They might go to that guy in front of Draegers.  Givers of grants, however give with an expectation of the grantee that certain things will happen.  "I give you this money so you can do this, or buy that, or solve that."

Mr. Somerville stated he is not a problem solver.  He directs donations and grants to others who are problem solvers.  He said, “Outstanding people do outstanding things.  Find those people and fund them”.
He doesn't think much of the numerous websites that relate to giving.  He says they rely too heavily on looking at overhead percentages, and not on other more important factors. 

He talked about paperless giving. He gave a number of examples.  Many of them relied on prior relationships and trust; That is, you know your recipient; a need for a truck, a need for ESL trainers, etc.  Bill responds quickly to requests.  He likes to fulfill donations and grants within 48 hours or less.  "Get the money to the people who need it WHEN they need it."
He talked about being willing to take risk in philanthropy.  He said, the way most philanthropic organizations operate in today’s world, risk generally does not exist.  You need to accept  that a grantee could fail.  If you do not ever have failures in your giving, you are not giving enough.   

His closing message was, about creating your own donor-directed funds.  Donor-directed funds can be established with community foundations such as Los Altos Community Foundation, Silicon Valley Community Foundation, or, Philanthropic Ventures, his own foundation, or, as pointed out by PDG Carolyn Schuetz, the Rotary Foundation.

If you want more information about Bill Somerville and his programs, visit his website: http://www.venturesfoundation.org/index.htm
In the Rotator today, there are many donor-directed opportunities for us to consider;  Asante’, San Bruno, RAP, CSA, and Coaniquem Burn Center.  My advice?  Skip the guys with the handwritten signs, and look at the myriad of opportunities to direct your donations with someone like Bill Somerville or Rotary. 

I know this is a bit of editorializing, but what the heck, I am writing.  If you want to editorialize, become a Rotator writer. BUT WHATEVER YOU WRITE DOES  STILL NEED TO GET PAST THE EDITOR!

THIS COMING THURSDAY'S PROGRAM
Ken Graham is President and Chief Executive Officer of El Camino Hospital, a 542 bed, not-for-profit hospital which is consistently ranked as a leading hospital in the State, including the highest ranking in the Patients' Evaluation of Performance in California survey. It was named one of the nation's "Most Wired" and "The most technologically advanced hospital in the world" by Popular Science Magazine.
Ken has 38+ years of healthcare leadership experience. Previously, he was President and CEO of Overlake Hospital Medical Center, in Bellevue, Washington and Saint Louise Hospital and Health Center in Morgan Hill. He and his wife, Anne, have been married for over 40 years and have three adult children. In his leisure time, he enjoys history, reading, and jogging.

Throughout his career, Ken has committed to community involvement in local, regional and national organizations, having served as a Member or Advisor to more than a dozen hospitals or healthcare organization boards, including voluntary Executive Director of RotaCare Free Clinics, which is dedicated to providing over 14 free clinics to serve the homeless, migrant workers, new immigrants, and the uninsured or underinsured. In 2010, he was appointed by Governor Schwartzenegger to serve on the California Healthcare Policy and Data Advisory Commission.