Los Altos Rotary Club Home of the Annual Rotary Fine Art Show July 7 2011

Writer: Clyde Noel  - Photographer:John Hammerschmidt  - Editor:  Cindy Luedtke

This Thursday's Program

 

On a lovely Thursday in July, the Los Altos Rotarians gathered tocelebrate and initiate the "Year of Mona," with our new president MONA ARMISTEAD. The arriving Rotarians had been greeted by LOUIS BOREL and MARLENE COWAN. As a special celebration for our new president,JOHN SYLVESTER and his jazz band played for us as we arrived and took up our meal.

New president MONA, nervously but promptly chimed the meeting to order at 12:15. MONA let us know that she is a Southern Belle from Virginia, and was back recently from the Rotary International annual convention in New Orleans. So the theme for today's meeting would be "southern hospitality." MONA thanked BEVERLY TUCKER for bringing the pineapples that were on the tables, and explained that pineapples are a sign of southern hospitality. It seems that on their way across the Atlantic, ships would stop to pick up rum and pineapples on the way. A recipient of a keg of rum would put a pineapple out on the porch to let his neighbors know that the rum was "a-flowin" and the party was "a-goin".

At MONA's request, PP DENNIS YOUNG led in the Pledge of Allegiance. STEVE WU then stepped up to deliver the thought for the day, to remind the group that there are many instances where one person can make a difference in the world. Mother Theresa said, "If you can't feed 100 people, feed one." And Margaret Mead said, "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world, indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."

JEANNE MACVICAR stepped up to lead us in a special song to celebrate the beginning of MONA's year, sung to the tune of, "California Here I Come."

Our recently promoted, JOHN SYLVESTER, enthusiastically stepped up to the podium (does he know any other way?) to take his first stab in the new year at introducing visiting Rotarians and guests. Our first guest was from the Los Altos Sunset Club, and he was greeted with a hearty "Hi Bobby." JOHN was pleased, and enthusiastically (natch) congratulated us on a greeting well done. We were also visited by Ginny Lear from the Palo Alto Club and we had a special visit from Arley Marley, our new District Governor.

DICK HENNING, BUD OLIVER, CLYDE NOEL, MARLIS MCALLISTER, and JOAN ROSSELLE all introduced guests. JOHN SYLVESTER introduced his Jazz Group guests. MONA introduced her special guest, her husband Bob, the new "First Gentleman."

ANNOUNCEMENTS

JACK HEIDMILLER announced that we had a full schedule of helpers for the Chef Chu booth for the Los Altos Art & Wine Festival this weekend, and that everyone should check the schedule on the website to be sure of their times.

BEVERLY TUCKER (our new Social Director), announced that this evening there will be a free concert at the Hillview Center. However her main announcement was that on July 29 we will once again begin the ever popular wine and cheese socials. A clipboard is going around to sign up for this month's event.

JUDY OTT, the new Sunshine Director, let us in on the troubling news that long-time member, Pat Millar has cancer, and a get-well card was circulating.

President MONA then announced that we would take 10 minutes of "hospitality time" to chat with folks at our tables. Despite many pleas that this time could be better used to expand the finemaster's time, MONA held firm for hospitality.

FINES BY MOISON

Then our director of "Recognition," JERRY ("could you PLEASE give me $20?") MOISON started the new year of fines.

In honor of MONA, JERRY'S theme was Southern Hospitality. However, before he could move to that theme, he was overwhelmed by volunteers. Past-president DENNIS YOUNG was the first to jump up and volunteer to join MONA's President's Club. VAL CARPENTER volunteered $20 in honor of fellow member Meg Solera's son's recent wedding. That prompted JERRY to donate $20 for his own daughter's wedding last month. CLYDE NOEL volunteered to join the President's Club, but wanted to do it on the $10 per month installment plan that he had just created. His math-challenged pledge was readily accepted. RON PACKARD stood up to confess that he lived in terror each week, afraid of being called on by the finemaster and giving an embarrassing answer. To allay his fears, he decided to join the President's Club right away. BONNIE BURDETT donated $20 because she became a new grandmother last Wednesday when her first granddaughter was born. BRIAN WARD was very happy to volunteer $20 to announce that he had the pleasure of skiing at Squaw Valley on 4 July, where he was pestered by skiers in bikinis. Red-badger STEVE WHEELER volunteered $50 in part to honor his sponsor, MONA, and in part because he recently celebrated his ninth wedding anniversary. JERRY TOMANEK, feeling quite flush, announced that he had finally received the last payment on the sale of his business, and it was the biggest check he'd ever seen. He contributed $60. ALLAN VARNI put in $20 to announce that his son would be getting married in Varni Italy, the family home town.

Having already exceeded the combined totals of his previous five appearances as fine master, JERRY giddily moved on to his theme of Southern Hospitality. His first victim was STEVE WU, who knew that the state of Virginia was the home to the most presidents (seven), but still kicked in $20. JERRY then called on SAM PESNER, who tried to claim he was already a member of the President's Club and had the hat to prove it. JERRY was unimpressed, and fined Sam $20 because he did not know that the state that had produced the second most number of presidents was Ohio. TRACIE MURRAY was fined $20 for not being entirely sure of the intricacies of southern etiquette. STEVE SHEPHERD volunteered approximately12 different versions of southern etiquette, all wrong, and paid $20. Wise historian MARY MARLEY knew that the Confederacy began in 1861, but was still fined $20. STEVE POMEROY was also fined $20 because he did not know the population of the southern states at the beginning of the Confederacy (9 million).

FRANK VERLOT a little late on the volunteer bandwagon, volunteered to pay $20 because a close friend of his family, Javier Colon, had just won the competition on the television show "The Voice."

WEEKLY PRESENTATION--The Club Assembly

MONA kicked off her year with the annual Club Assembly to introduce the "new team" and invite all members to join the team and help on the many club activities.

MONA announced that the new President of Rotary International was Kalyan Banerjee of India, and his Theme for 2011-2012 is, "Reach Within to Embrace Humanity."

As part of this new year, Rotary is sponsoring "Vision Training" on Saturday August 6. A group of current and past club leaders will be going, but we have been allotted 25 spaces, and anyone interested in attending to become more involved in Rotary, should contact MONA.

President MONA introduced the new directors for the upcoming year, and each of them outlined some of the areas that they will be emphasizing in the upcoming year.

RANDY GARD is the director of membership. He outlined plans for developing new members and even more importantly, programs for member retention and mutual development of member business.

BEVERLY TUCKER will be the director of Fellowship. Along with the many current social events she has planned, there will be some new opportunities such as the bocce ball team and some bike rides.

CLARI NOLET will be the director of Club Services. CLARI has many assistants, but some important posts remain open. MIKE STADLEN and is still under the weather, so we still need a director for the Art Show. (As an aside, MIKE's condition does not appear to be improving. You can get an update at Caringbridge, at http://bit.ly/MichaelStadlen.)

CLYDE NOEL is the director of New Generations. This year, we will be stressing youth protection awareness, and JACK KELLY will be the person assisting Clyde on this important program.

The director of community service will be KAREN FOX, and CHUCK LINDAUER is the Director of International Service.

Finally the other board members for this year will be immediate Past-President - DENNIS YOUNG, President-Elect - JOHN SYLVESTER, Secretary - KENDRA GJERSETH, Treasurer -SANDY WHIPPLE, Parliamentarian - TRACIE MURRAY, Rotary Foundation Chair - CINDY LUEDTKE, World Community Service - LEW FRASER, and Club Trainer - MARY MARLEY.

Putting a lie to the myth of a slow and meandering southern style, President MONA efficiently moved the meeting to an early conclusion at 1:25.

Los Altos Rotary Club Board, 2011 - 2012

THIS THURSDAY'S PROGRAM: