Los Altos Rotary Club Home of the Annual Rotary Fine Art Show March 17 2011

Our Greeters today were STEVE O'FICK, STEPHEN O'WU, and JANE O’ REED.  Both O'FICK and O'REED sported green.  I guess O'WU didn't think he could fool anyone. 

Green-shirted President DENNIS O'YOUNG chimed the St Patrick's themed meeting promptly at 12:15.  PE MONA O'ARMISTEAD reminded us about the introduction protocol, and then called for introductions of visiting Rotarians and guests.  We had two visiting Rotarians, Don from San Jose, and John Evens PP from Palos Verdes.

We also had a number of visitors, most of whom I missed the names of, just because it is difficult to hear the names over the talking. However, I did note that Jarrett Fishpaw, Bruce Barton, Lois Adams, and Steven Wheeler were guests. KAREN O'GESSERT, in dry dock, also brought as a guest, one of her coworkers.  

We had a slew of announcements:
President O'DENNIS reiterated the District Assembly and District Celebration:

• The Rotary Celebration will take place May 6-8 and is preceded by the District Golf Tournament for which STEVE O'SHEPHERD is organizing a team to represent our club; a men’s team, that is.
• Cindy O’LUEDTKE made an impromptu announcement to add that a LARC women’s team has also been assembled and are signed up to play in the District Tournament.
  Links:

• DISTRICT WEBSITE
• POLIO WALK FLYER March 20th
• POLIO WALK SIGN UP March 20th
• DISTRICT ASSEMBLY April 9th
• DISTRICT CELEBRATION May 6 - 8th
• DISTRICT CELEBRATION GOLF TURNAMENT May 5th
• BEV O'TUCKER passed a card around for MICHAEL STADLEN (more on Michael below);
• DAVID O'SMITH invited all to attend the Los Altos/Los Altos Hills Community Expo for 50+ on Saturday, April 2 from 9:30 am – 2:00 pm at the Los Altos Youth Center.  It will be an opportunity to hear Kenneth Smith from the Stanford Center on Longevity speak on “Become an Entrepreneur of Your Life”, enjoy free breakfast and lunch, and volunteer for a “twofer” by which both the community and yourself benefit from your volunteer activities. Register at losaltosrecreation.org using Activity Number 645518-09 or simply phone 650-947-2797.  You will get a reminder about this important event, if you haven't already.
• PP  MARLENE O’COWAN thanked the four people, DAVE O'SNOW, STEVE O'POMEROY, JACK O'KELLY, and  GEORGE O’STAFFORD, for attending the STRS training; all current and future leaders of our club and community.
• PP MARY O'PROCHNOW reminded us about the John Gardner Awards. There are three LARC members who will be honored at the 8th annual Gardner Community Building Awards with the Annual Community Service Award presentation to Pinky Whelan. Your club honorees are JOHN O'SYLVESTER (nominated by the Bus Barn Stage Company), MARGE O'SENTOUS (nominated by JustREAD), along with CINDY and DAVE O'LUEDTKE (nominated by the Los Altos Community Foundation).  The dinner will be held Thursday, April 7th at the Crown Plaza Hotel, Palo Alto.  Make your reservations and buy your tickets now by going to the LACF (Los Altos Community Foundation) Website or call in directly.
• JULIE O'ROSE mentioned the Frank Duveneck Exhibit at the Los Altos History Museum currently running.  This was a follow up to our speaker from last week, Laura Bajuk, who spoke on Los Altos History.
• Thanks to CHUCK O'LINDAUER, all of the Russians coming for the friendship exchange have been placed in local homes.

From: mstadlen@usa.net
To: pesner@aol.com
Sent: 03/17/2011 10:13:26 A.M. Pacific Daylight Time
Subj: Today's meeting:
Sam,
I know you're planning to make a brief announcement at today's meeting -- if you would be kind enough to share some of the thoughts below with the club on my behalf, I would be very grateful.

I'm truly saddened that I will have to miss the remainder of the preparations for this year's show.  I have been looking forward to this for a long time, and I am honored to have been given the opportunity to take on this responsibility.  As a team, we have been lucky to have nine experienced chair people running the program, as well as one new and talented chairperson and quite a few new vice chairs learning the ropes and preparing to take on active roles for future shows.

I'm grateful for their hard work and particularly delighted to see some of the new ideas we've been able to put into action for this year's show, including an increase in the number of participating artists and the revenue we will bring in for the club's programs from each of them.  We are hoping for ideal weather conditions this year, as this team is poised to achieve the highest financial earnings the show has ever raised -- and this is no small accomplishment, given the tremendous success of past years. 

Of course, none of this would be possible without the cooperation of all the club's members, and I know you will all enjoy working with this talented team throughout the final preparations and over the weekend of the show itself. 

I am confident that I will have recovered from my surgery and be feeling healthy enough to take on this assignment again next year. In the meantime, I am grateful for having had the chance to work with so many fine people on this project, and particularly thankful that Sam, Jerry, and Herb, with their combined ten years of experience running this show, are available as resources to make this year a fantastic success. 

I am also sorry to miss the remaining few months of Dennis' presidency, but I look forward to returning to active participation in Los Altos Rotary as soon as possible once Mona takes the reins.
All the best,     ...Michael

 
Keep Michael in your prayers, and thoughts.  His email is at the top of the printed email, should you personally want to touch base with him. 

BAIDARA O'MURPHY (stereotypical Irish lass) ushered in St Patrick's Day with the showing of the green - your green for LARC, that is. 

She also mentioned that she would match (depending on how much was raised) to the JOANNE BYRNE Fund at the Los Altos Community Foundation.  An awful lot of people got into the spirit of giving because of the JOANNE BYRNE connection.  I counted 17 people, of which about half joined the President's Club.  Most were asked questions about Ireland, St Patrick or other green things. 

PP BOB O'ADAMS introduced our speaker today with the warning, "Hold onto your Wallets."  That is because our speaker, Barbara Larson, CEO of the American Red Cross Silicon Valley Chapter, is a crackerjack fundraiser.
However, while it might encourage members to contribute to the vast workings of the American Red Cross, in her talk, Barbara mostly encouraged us to (borrowing a phrase from Boy Scouts)  "Be Prepared."  She said that preparedness is the key to survival. 

We all know about the blood drives, health and safety classes, and of course the disaster relief that they provide, completely free of charge.  But one underappreciated facet of the Red Cross we may not have known is their Military Support. 

The Red Cross motto is "Empowering ordinary people to perform extraordinary acts".
Currently the Red Cross gives classes in CPR, aquatics, baby sitting, pet first aid, disaster preparedness, health and safety of youth, and provide safe rides for kids.

Ms. Larson handed out a disaster preparedness checklist, which we will try to provide on our web.  I encourage you to print it out, review it, and distribute it to your family, friends and neighbors. 
Her final comment about preparedness is GET WATER. 

THIS THURSDAY'S PROGRAM:

The Honorable Stephen V. Manley Superior Court of California, County of Santa Clara "Collaborative Courts"   Judge Stephen V. Manley, a Superior Court Judge in Santa Clara County, has served on the Bench for 29 years and has served
as a Presiding Judge.  He is the Supervising Judge for all Felony and Misdemeanor drug cases as well as all mental health cases in the Drug Court Division.

He was a founder of the Drug Treatment Court in Santa Clara County in 1994 and founded the Santa Clara County Mental Health Court in 1999.  In 2008, he established the first State Parolee Reentry Court in California., working directly with the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, and providing treatment alternatives to prison for high risk parole violators.  He also established a Veterans Treatment Court in collaboration with the local Veterans Administration and
County agencies to work with offenders, nearly all of whom suffer from co-occurring disorders, at all stages of criminal proceedings.

He serves by appointment of the Chief Justice on the Judicial Council Task Force for Mental Health Issues, and chairs the Post Adjudication and Re-Entry Committee that is currently making recommendations to the Judicial Council of California on proposed reforms to laws and practices.