Los Altos Rotary Club eNewsletter "Rotator"

Los Altos Rotary Club

Home of the Annual Rotary Fine Art Show

April 14, 2011

Writer: Matt Cabot - Photographer: John Hammerschmidt - Editor: Cindy Luedtke Issue: 2011-39-0414

Just a normal meeting today. NOT. While I rushed in, paper in hand, sans pen, I missed the pledge, song and thought.
In my rush, I was still warmly greeted by the Golfer's-Anonymous Club, JACK (let-me fix-your-putter) KELLY, PP BOB (you-DO-want-to-donate-to-PNG-don't-you) ADAMS, and STEVE (look,-I-paid-it-back) SHEPHERD.
My tablemate, PP JACK HEIDMILLER filled me in on what I missed. Sorry I missed BARBARA SMALL's thought and PP SETH MANNING'S song.

We had lots of guests today, ostensibly to see and welcome our Russian Open World delegates from Yekaterinburg, Russia

Yekaterina Demchenko
Natalya Kiryukhina
Anastasiya Magdeyeva
Yekaterina Sibirtseva
Aleksandr Vasilevskiy
and Yaroslav Pisarev, Facilitator for the delegation, from Chelyabinsk

In addition to the Russian Delegation, we were replete with guests of ABBY AHERNS, CINDY WEMYSS, JACK KELLY and BARBARA SMALL. Oh, and we were honored by visiting Rotarian, Santa Clara County District 5 Supervisor, Liz Kniss.

ANNOUNCEMENTS
President DENNIS thanked the Red Badgers for their work in making the picnic in Shoup Park a success last Sunday. The picnic was a "welcome to our town" to the Russians, and an opportunity to talk to the Russian delegation. They met today with us and expressed their gratitude. (More on that later).

Pres DENNIS also talked about the district Assembly held last week, where we had 21 members in attendance; very impressive.

Here are some of the additional announcements. But, first let me make an excuse, and a suggestion or two.

if you were at the meeting today, and you read these announcements you will notice that some are missing. Generally it is the fault of the writer, not hearing the announcement, table talk, getting the dates wrong, not understanding the point of the announcement, yata yata yata.

So if you really want your announcement heard, recorded and understood, please do the following:

Be Concise. Rambling generalized announcements are a waste of time. No one listens after about 30 seconds.
Be Interesting. Strong voice, close to the mike. Many of us are hard of hearing (or talking ourselves). One speech consultant says: "Eat the mike." In other words, be uncomfortably close to the microphone. When you look down to read your notes, your voice will drop off.
Be Clear. The old 5 W's is appropriate: Who, What, When Where and Why.
Current Information. Don't expect any announcement to be in the Rotator that is for some activity before the following Tuesday. Old news. But the announcement may be appropriate as a reminder to the members. So make your announcements at least one week before the planned event.
Copy the Writer. If you want to guarantee that your announcement gets into the Rotator, send or hand a copy of your announcement with all the pertinent information (5 W's) to the Rotator Writer for the day. That is why President DENNIS tells you who the writer is, and points him or her out.
Website Appropriate. Some of the more important announcements make it to the Website each week for the whole world to see, so keep it interesting.
Who Are You? Finely, when you come to the mike, tell everyone your name and classification. I doubt there is anyone in the club who knows everyone. Particularly this writer.

So here are the announcements.

JEAN (John) MORDO. Tickets for the Art Show Raffle are now available. See Jean. Proceeds from the sale go to the WCS School Building Project in Haiti. Take a pack or two. Encourage your employees to buy them. Have them available for customers of the Art Show as well. The price is $5 per ticket; 5 for $20. Everyone should take at least 1 packet to sell to others or purchase themselves.
All three wonderful prizes for the Art Show raffle were provided by All Horizons Travel. We are all grateful for the generosity of ROY and Mo JONES who have used all their influence to obtain the prizes.
- One week for 2 at Club Med Ixtapa
- 2 nights and breakfasts for 2 at Meadowood Resort in Napa
- 2 nights and breakfasts for 2 at Carneros Inn Resort in Napa
PP JACK HEIDMILLER (Poobah of the Art Show Shuttle Crew) needs a couple of fill-ins for the Art Show. Go the website, look for the Shuttle schedule, and put your name in there. How hard could that be? BTW, if you do need help, contact Jack directly and he will fill you in.
PP MARY PROCHNOW reminded us of the mixer that will be/was held tomorrow (Last) Friday. If this is news to you, forget it - you missed it.
PAUL SCHUTZ reminded those who were interested to meet for a few minutes after the meeting to continue to explore the feasibility of a Mayfest Gala event tied to the Fine Art in the Park event in 2012. There will be more to come on that later.
PHIL ROSE announced that the Art Show Posters are now available. Be sure to pick one up and put it prominently at your workplace.
STEVE FICK reminded us about the April Social Event at Borel Private Bank on April 29th, 5:30 to 7:30. Online Signup is requested.
RAE HOLT was handing out free "I walked a mile to End Polio" shirts.
KATHY BERRY announced that today was the last call to purchase tickets for "Ride the Rails", benefitting Relay for Life, raising funds for American Cancer Society.
The historic ride on the Niles Canyon train on Saturday, April 23, (last Saturday) will(did) be leaving at 3 different times: 10 a.m., 12 and 1:30 p.m. Ticket costs; $25/Adults and $15/children.
Los Altos Rotary team received credit for all ticket sales. The day features entertainment, surprises, and food for purchase, or bring your picnic! A Signup sheet was circulated.
While this is an example of why announcements for events that will occur before the Rotator is out for the week is a bad idea, I have included it because it is intended to be an annual event, so advertising each year actually helps raise awareness as people get more familiar with the event. But it is too late to order tickets at this point. So for those of you who went, I am sure it was a great time. For the rest of us, there is always next year.
RICH CASEY announced that LARAP's (Los Altos Rotary AIDS Project's) financial goal in 2011-2012 is to raise about $250,000 from a combination of corporate, foundation and individual donations and matches from The Rotary Foundation.
To reach this goal we're in need of about a half dozen new members for LARAP, especially in the areas of marketing, fundraising and IT. LARAP meetings are at 1:45 PM at the First Republic Bank, the second Thursday of every month.
PRES DENNIS then reminded everyone about the District Celebration (link here) on May 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8. Actually the Celebration is on the 6 - 8, but if you want to participate in a Tennis Celebration on the 4th, See ALLART LIGTENBERG, or a Golf Celebration on the 5th, see STEVE SHEPHERD.

Aleksandr (Sasha) Vasilevskiy, incoming president of the Yekaterinburg Rotary Club, spoke briefly to us today with the aid of an interpreter, Slava Pisarev. Mr. Vasilevskiy was the only Rotarian in the group, and spoke to us on behalf of the other members of the delegation.
Sasha thanked KAREN FOX for being such a gracious host, and our community for being so open and welcoming. He hoped to be as welcoming to us if/when we were to visit Yekaterinburg. He said we shared many mutual interests (toothpaste but not shampoo - you had to be there), warm clothing when it is cold, love of our children. He hoisted a symbolic wine glass to our health. He also gave Pres DENNIS several books for us to share.
Finely, he invited us to Yekaterinburg when we get tired of Alaska and, assumingly, want to be as cold (but welcomed warmly).

FINEMASTER, JEANNE MACVICAR kept up the Russian theme by asking questions about our town, that we should know. If we failed in our answer, the Russians got the chance to set us straight. Fortunately, for Jeanne, she wasn't working on commission this time. She only raised $135 from six people.

Today's speaker was introduced by JOHN CARDOZA.
Patrick “Paddy” Hirsch was born in Weymouth, England and raised in Ireland. He earned a bachelor's in French and international studies at University of Warwick. From 1990 to 1995, he was an officer in the Royal Marines. A commander and intelligence officer during the Gulf War, he received the Sword of Honor.

Drawn to the idea of gathering and disseminating accurate information, he entered journalism with an internship at CNBC. He became a field producer for CNBC in Hong Kong and later was a consultant to the Open Broadcast Network, creating and managing television operations in Bosnia.

He has been an editor for Direct Capital Markets, a Santa Monica website and newsletter, Institutional Investor Newsletters and the Vietnam Economic Times. As senior editor with American Public Media’s Marketplace, he oversees reporters in New York, Portland and Los Angeles and is well known for "Whiteboard," his video tutorials on economics, shot with a camera phone.

Hirsch was selected to receive one of 20 Class of 2011 John S. Knight Fellowships for Professional Journalists at Stanford.
John also said Mr. Hirsch is somewhat famous for his "White-Board" videos on economics.
He said he was tasked with the job of creating a website that helps visitors understand financial news.
Mr. Hirsch reviewed the transition from print media to electronic media, and how it is different. He spoke of how his father used to follow one newsprint paper in Ireland. Now, because of the internet, he follows five papers, and at a substantial savings.

He asked us how we got our news. Surprisingly many (most, I thought) still rely on newsprint. However, nearly most of us also use the internet as well. Maybe it was the age of our club. He said the trend was for those 45(ish) and below were much more attuned to the electronic media world.

Mr. Hirsch talked about revenue from subscribers, advertisement, and classifieds. There are fewer subscribers, less advertisers willing to put in block page advertisements, and because of Craig's List types of sites, there are either little or no classifieds; less revenue means less income to the journalists.
He mentioned the reluctance of consumers to pay for online content. His answer: "you get what you pay for." He said it is very hard for a company to charge for something they traditionally give away. They need to offer something new.

Contrary to public opinion, Paddie said there was not a shortage of readership. Take a look at his father's consumption: from one newspaper to five.

Parenthetically, I know when I subscribed to the San Jose Mercury a while back, I pretty much skimmed it. I read the headlines and a few articles. Now, having no newsprint subscription, I watch cable news, have Flipboard, Zite, Bing News, and The Daily on my IPad, plus Fox and Google news on my home computer.

Paddy mentioned Jeff Garvis' book, What Would Google Do?. Do your own search on his book, and you will find any number of references to his book, even a video version.

He said, because many media centers are unable to 'think outside the box” and to avert risk, they are failing.

He pointed out that news bureaus need to create “niche” content and leverage content with commentary. They will need to be willing to take risks and be more entrepreneurial, which may result in allowing for some divisions to fail. He urged the need to create partnerships among other bureaus. If someone is doing something right, buy it, or emulate it.

Mr. Hirsch ended by saying this is a painful time for the news business. His plea was for us to have patience, to bear with us. He ended with "We're going to give you what you want."

THIS THURSDAY'S PROGRAM:

Carole Rodoni was formerly President of Fox and Carskadon Real Estate, Chief Operating Officer of Cornish and Carey Real Estate, and President of Alain Pinel Realtors. She is a renowned speaker on the economy and real estate and is currently the President of her own consulting company -- Bamboo Consulting.

Carole has served on the Board of Regents of Santa Clara University, is a Member of the Board of Directors of BayNet and CondoWorks, and has been a guest columnist for the San Francisco Examiner. She also is a frequent guest speaker on several radio and TV programs across the Bay Area.