Los Altos Rotary Club
Home of the Annual Rotary Fine Art Show
May 26, 2011
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Los Altos Rotary ClubHome of the Annual Rotary Fine Art ShowMay 26, 2011 |
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| Writer: Jean Newton Fraguglia - Photographer: Jerry Tomanek - Editor: Cindy Luedtke Issue:2010-45-0526 |
| This Thursday's Program |
President DENNIS YOUNG called the meeting to order with a welcome to the “best
Rotary Club in the world” followed by the Pledge of Allegiance.
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
LEW FRASER thought about the thought for the day and decided he already wasted his only thought for the day while thinking about it. (You had to be there.)
So, he studied on the Internet to come up with a thought for the day and was
interrupted by Pres Dennis saying he was thinking too long. Ok, now for
one of his thoughts for the day: If choosing between two things that are
evil, choose neither. If choosing between two things that are good choose
both. Good thinking, Lew.
The song of the day was a duet by JEANNE MACVICAR and JOHN SYLVESTER to the tune
of Moonlight Bay with harmony at the end and everything.
Dennis thanked Greeters RAE HOLT, KATHY LERA, and MARLENE COWAN; photographer
JERRRY TOMANEK; Sergeant at Arms LEW FRASER, MIKE ABRAMS and FRANK VERLOT; and
cashier JOHN MOSS.
VISITING ROTARIANS
Taking President Elect MONA ARMISTEAD’s place this week was President
Elect-Nominee, JOHN SYLVESTER because Mona is at the Rotary International
Convention in Louisiana. Paul Wheeler from the Gilroy Club and Les Wheeler, Past
President of the Corvallis, Oregon Rotary Club, joined our own STEVE WHEELER to
make three generations of Wheelers in Rotary.
AND GUESTS
Rotarians with guests included RICK CASEY, MARLIS MCALLISTER, CLARI NOLET, KAREN
OWEN and BAIDRA MURPHY.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
DENNIS YOUNG announced that he had received inquiries about donations in memory
of LEN McBIRNEY and said that checks could be made out to LAREF. If you
designate a specific project like LARAP, PNG, or WCS, it will go there;
otherwise it will go to Members Memorial Scholarship Fund.
MEMBERSHIP
CLYDE NOEL conferred a red badge to AL DIAZ, sponsored by ABBY AHRENS, and a
blue badge to JUDY OTT, sponsored by JOHN SYLVESTER to a warm welcome and
standing ovation by the club.
He told them “We should all be proud to call ourselves Rotarians because we
carry out projects that address poverty, hunger, illness, AIDS, illiteracy and
other critical issues in the world. We voluntarily give our time and
resources to help others not so fortunate.” Congrats AL and JUDY.
MORE ANNOUNCEMENTS
PP
TRACIE MURRAY announced that the Kick Out party for Dennis will be on July 1 at
the Los Altos Country Club starting at 6:30 p.m. Rotarians do need to sign
up even though their dinner is included in their dues. Guests will be $90.
A public service announcement from BARBARA SMALL on behalf of Partners for Elder
Generations noted that on June 15 there will be a program from 11:00 to 2:00 at
the Santa Clara County Government Center Front Plaza to commemoration World
Elder Abuse Awareness Day.
Our darling STEVE ANDERSON, with a few prompts from STEVE SHEPHERD, announced
that the Rotary Golf Tournament would be held next Friday June 3 at Shoreline.
Although golf is sold out at $75, dinner at $45 is still open and starts at 5:30
p.m. Poker, immediately following, at $10 is also still available. You do
need to sign up so call STEVE SHEPHERD.
KATHY BERRY reminded everyone that Relay for Life is coming up on June 19 and 20
and that Rotary will have a team and needs walkers. (That’s people who
walk.) It’s lots of fun so please join in, but if you can’t make it,
please consider making a donation for a good cause.
ALAN VARNI, our man about the world, just returned from Santa Fe where we are
working on a matching grant project. He brought a banner from the Rotary Club
there.
YOUNG AT ART
FRANK VERLOT presented the winners of the Young at Art contest from the following high schools:
Winners of the contest were:
ON WITH ANNOUNCEMENTS
JERRY TOMANEK will take your photo if you need a new one for the new directory
that will be coming out soon. Also, you should log on to the website and
update your profile. Your profile will be used in the printed handbook.
Email MATT CABOT if you can not log on.
A FINE TIME
Recognition Master BILL MOISON said he was surprised to find he was fined $20 in
absentia last week when he was in Montana and although everyone was really nice
to him during lunchtime; he was ready to extract some cash.
Although quite a few people were not in attendance (no wonder they are behind on their fines!) Bill was able to get some moolah from ALAN LAMBERT who insisted the next significant holiday was Bastille Day on July 14 instead of the good old American Memorial holiday coming up.
TOM LISTON didn’t know that a photo of famous golfer Jack Nicklaus was in the latest Rotarian.
KAREN OWEN answered “yes”, when asked, “What month is Rotary Fellowship celebrated?”, and then forked over the big bucks for a president’s club hat.
JUDY OTT knew part of the answer as to how the states were formed: rivers, lakes and oceans and there was some mention of railroads in there, too.
STEVE YARBROUGH became a grandfather for the third time and his son just passed the bar. (Of course, Bill asked what bar he passed, as there were quite a few in Los Altos.)
AL DIAZ did not know that the state of Montana was 80% owned by the government
and also contributed because he missed the art show this year.
THE ROTARY PROGRAM
DICK HENNING introduced our speaker for the day. Richard Lowenthal is a
member of the Cupertino Rotary Club and former city council member and Mayor of
Cupertino. He is now CEO of Coulomb Technology, the leader in electric
vehicle charging systems in 14 countries. Richard said he was honored to be
introduced by Dick since Dick hob knobs with presidents, heads of states, and
actors so he couldn’t say “no” when asked to speak to the club.
Why electric vehicles? Richard said things have changed since the days
when Jed Clampett shot his gun into the ground and oil spurted out.
Electric vehicles allow us to stop using oil, they generate no emissions, they
cost about 3 cents a mile to run and they use fuel from the U.S. Richard
owns two electric vehicles a BME that gets 95 miles in range and a Chevy Volt
that will take him 350 miles on a charge. He gets approximately 145 miles
per gallon. He charges his car while he sleeps and while he is at work.
The electric car industry is expected to boom. There are approximately
3000 electric cars in the U.S. currently, but that is projected to grow to one
million in four years with three million electric cars projected for the entire
world. So what will happen when we plug all these cars into the grid?
According to Richard 160 million cars can still be charged without adding any
new generators.
When he first started into the business, there were no cars, so he received a
lot of no thanks from investors. Now, the climate has changed and there
are many new electric cars on the horizon. He sees the industry as growing
to 12 billion dollars and providing great jobs in the U.S. His company was
able to take advantage of the Obama stimulus and he can already count heavy
hitters such as Apple, Microsoft, Google, and Netflix as customers with his
charging stations. However, he can’t count Los Altos as a customer because
they have said no, so far, to charging stations. Los Altos Hills is
already on board.
Questions included: What about big cars? Richard says there are some SUV’s
being built. How much does it cost to fuel an electric car? Richard
says about $40 a month to fuel his volt as opposed to $80 at the gas station.
He thinks he saves around $200 month on fuel costs. What about diesel?
Richard says clean diesel is getting more efficient and is an alternative.
Coulumb has now gone from first to being the best and most reliable company as
the electric car charging industry ramps up and more competitors enter the
market.
Dennis thanked Richard for an informative talk and the meeting was adjourned.
Art Show Wrap-up