Los Altos Rotary Club Home of the Annual Rotary Fine Art Show July 12 2012

On a lovely Thursday at the Garden House, arriving Rotarians were greeted by KAREN FOX, ROLAND PAYNE, and JERRY MOISON.  Then, defying the naysayers who said he couldn't last, our new President JOHN SYLVESTER bounded into his second Rotary meeting (two a row!) promptly at 12:15, with abundant energy to wave his arms enthusiastically when the occasion required it.  President JOHN called on his sponsor, SAM HARDING, to lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance.
 
JERRY TOMANEK was called on to give the thought for the day, and in honor of celebrating his 43rd wedding anniversary, JERRY gave us the list of the 5 things a husband can say to keep his marriage happy.  5. “Yes, dear,” 4. “Can I Help?” 3. “I’ll make dinner”, 2. “I was wrong,” and 1. “You look great.”
 
MARLIS MCALLISTER and KENDRA GJERSETH handled the song for the day.  In honor of the tremendous performance by the San Francisco Giants at the All-Star game, they led us in, Take Me Out to the Ballgame.
 
New President Elect JACK KELLY stepped up to the podium to welcome visiting Rotarians.  We were visited by Jack from Milpitas, the past president of the Milpitas club. 

We were also visited by Dr. Philip from India who is the president-elect of his club, which has been selected as the top club in his district.  JACK badly flubbed the Rotary greeting to visiting Rotarians, and everyone agreed that JACK is going have to step up his game if he wants to keep up with new president JOHN.
 
JACK did better calling on Rotarians with guests.  DAN HOLDEN, SAM HARDING, and SAM PESNER introduced their guests.  KIM COPHER introduced her two guests, members of the Los Altos High School Interact Club.
 

INTERACTORS
Pres. JOHN then invited KIM COPHER and her guests to the podium. KIM introduced Shadee and Jenny, the co-chairs of the Los Altos High School Interact Club for the upcoming year.  They presented a slide show of the various activities of their club.  The club has 35 members, and assists on many projects, including the Relay for Life and the Fine Art Show.  Jenny thanked the club for sponsoring her at Camp RYLA.
 

ANNOUNCEMENTS
MONA ARMISTEAD then announced that MARY MARLEY is continuing her battle against cancer.  She had surgery yesterday that lasted 3 hours.  MARY would prefer to not have any visitors right now.  Instead of flowers, MARY requests that donations be given to the El Camino Hospital Center for Cancer treatment.
 
Pres. JOHN announced a clarification of the announcement that was made the prior week.  Last week, President JOHN announced the winner of the Carl G. Orne Award which is named for the 1986-87 District Governor and which is awarded to the individual who makes the greatest personal commitment to world peace and understanding. This is the highest award given by District 5170, a great honor, given to only one Rotarian in our District. The 2011-2012 Carl G. Orne honoree is LARC and LARAP member, RICH CASEY.
 
GARY WALDECK announced that the annual Rotary Club Handbook is coming out.  Every member should review the current information in the Rotary Handbook and forward any changes to GARY by July 20. 

JERRY TOMANEK announced that your photo in the online directory will NOT be transferred to the handbook, (the resolution is too low for printing.)  So check your photo in last year's PRINTED directory.  If you want to change it, send a high resolution portrait file to JERRY before July 20.
 
SANDY WHIPPLE announced that all of the dues invoices had been mailed out, and payments were expected promptly.  SANDY reminded us that the PayPal service is available as a convenience for members, but that each time a person pays by PayPal, it costs the club $9.15. 
 
JUDY OTT announced that she was circulating a card for members to sign for Mary Marley.  MARLIS MCALLISTER announced that a Red Badge meeting would be held at 6 PM this evening at her office.  DAN O'DONNELL announced that he was circulating a clipboard for people to sign up for RotaCare food delivery for the months of July, August and September.
 
Songleader RON STEFANI announced that he had received enough sign-ups for song leaders through September, but is also collecting names for a backup list. 

KAREN GESSERT reminded us that on July 20 the wine & cheese social event will be taking place at the home of SAM PESNER.

FINES FOR THE FOURTH OF JULY
BILL MOISON took the podium to bestow some “recognition” upon members.  President JOHN announced that he had been tardy in coming up with the award for people who join the President’s Club.  The award this year will be a coin that contains the Four-Way Test, so each member can have it with him or her when they are tempted to do something to violate the Four-Way test. 
 
JOHN mentioned that MONA ARMISTEAD, JERRY WALDECK and CLYDE NOEL had already joined his President’s Club and he awarded coins to each of them. 

• Finemaster BILL announced that DWIGHT MATTHEWS had quietly joined the President’s Club by giving BILL a check before the meeting began
• BILL then demanded that his brother JERRY “volunteer” for some recognition
• JERRY was happy to announce that he will be a grandfather in a few months, and promptly joined the President’s Club
• BILL called upon several of the members who have July birthdays
• BAIDRA MURPHY and PHIL ROSE paid $20 each
• while ALLART LIGTENBERG decided to put in $71 in honor of his seventy-first birthday
• PAT FARRELL announced that he was celebrating his 55th wedding anniversary and contributed $55
• DICK BLANDING followed PAT by announcing that he was celebrating his 45th wedding anniversary, and put in $45
• STEPHEN WU was only celebrating his 22d anniversary, so not to be shown up too badly, he doubled that and contributed $44.

• BILL called on MEL KAHN, and asked him if he knew the number of people who lived in the 13 colonies when the Declaration of Independence was signed in July 1776.  MEL conceded that he didn't have the exact number on the tip of his tongue, and was fined $25.
• RICK GLAZE also came up empty with an answer and was fined $25.
• BILL then called on LARRY CHU JR., who preempted the questioning with an advertisement. t seems Serena Williams had dropped into Chef Chu’s the night before, and had generously sent out a tweet about how wonderful the place was. Normally, a boast like this would have required at least a $50 fine, but BILL fumbled and let LARRY off with only $10.
• BILL then asked DAVE BERONIO if he knew how many people were living in the United States today.  DAVE took a wild guess, missed wildly and was fined $20.
• BILL asked AL DIAZ if he knew how long the Fourth of July had been a Federal holiday, and AL confessed that he did not and was also fined $20.
• STEVE ANDERSON was fined $20 even though he fielded a softball and knew that there were a total of 13 colonies at the time of the Declaration of Independence.
• RON LABETICH joined the President’s Club, even though he claimed to know that there were approximately 3.1 million people in the United States in July 1776.
• However, STEVE SHEPHERD clarified that no one knew the real 1776 number, because the first census did not occur until 1790.  STEVE said the best estimate of 1776 is 2.5 million people.
• At this point Pres. JOHN told BILL “You’re done.”

{From MATT CABOT} RANDY GARD took the following pictures of Rotarians at Work this past Saturday and Sunday (July 14th and 15th) at the Annual Arts and Wine Festival serving Chef Chu's Chicken Salad to the masses. As you know, Chef Chu donates all the profits from this to Los Altos Rotary. PP JACK HEIDMILLER thanks all the volunteers that made this event fun and profitable.  We thank the Chus for they generous donation.

Just in case you wonder how good Chef Chu's Chicken Salad really is, I saw Ruth Chu (Larry Chu Jr's mother) paying her $5.00 just like the other hundreds. Pretty good validation I would say.

Also, if you are a Red Badger and are looking for a way to blend into the club, events like this are a perfect way to rub elbows (litterly) with some of the more seasoned members.
Here is the breakdown of the volunteers:

• 2 Past Presidents
• 5 members members who have been members of LARC for over 20 years
• 7 members who have been members of LARC for over 10 years
• 4 members who have been members of LARC for over 5 years
• 2 members who have been members of LARC for less than 5 years
• 4 spouses
• 1 RED BADGER

THE WEEKLY PROGRAM: ART MONTEIL OF THE CALIFORNIA HIGHWAY PATROL
 
GARY WALDECK introduced our guest speaker, Art Monteil from the California Highway Patrol.  Art is the public information officer for Redwood City in San Mateo County.
 
Art pointed out that the Highway Patrol is one of 3 law enforcement agencies that handle traffic issues in the Los Altos area.  The other 2 are the Los Altos Police Department and Santa Clara County Sheriff.  Art stated that many people wonder if a Highway Patrol officer can pull you over on a city street.  Art pointed out that the Highway Patrol has authority over all highways and roads in California and can stop and cite any driver on any highway, road, or city streets.. The Highway Patrol can also respond to any emergency involving a vehicle even if it is off the road (in case you're planning on driving off the side of Devils Slide).  Art also pointed out that the local Sheriff can stop you on the freeway anywhere in the County of which the Sheriff has jurisdiction.
 
Art then responded to some of the questions that had been written down by club members.  First, he explained what was on his belt.  This included a collapsible baton, flashlight, pepper spray, his gun and handcuffs.  He also had a taser (which was always on the week-hand side), a radio, the keys for the handcuffs and 2 clips of extra ammunition.  Art explained the power of pepper spray.  During training, new recruits are asked if they would shoot a person to defend themselves if the person was about to spray them with pepper spray.  The recruits always say no.  Then the instructor actually sprays them in the eyes with pepper spray, which completely incapacitates them.  So the cadets learn that they need to defend himself from a person with pepper spray, who could disable them and take their gun. 
 
Next, Art pointed out that the new law requiring you to turn on your headlights when you turn on your wipers is being enforced and is an effective.  He mentioned that daylight running lights will not be adequate, because they do not turn on your taillights.  The next question concerned whether the CHP could provide more enforcement for the diamond lanes.  Art mentioned that the public gives the CHP many suggestions for places to find large numbers of people violating the diamond lanes.  But, as Art points out, he has only 14 officers to cover the entirety of San Mateo County, so enforcement becomes a question of allocating resources.  The next question (although it's probably the first question on everybody's mind) was whether the CHP has a quota for giving out tickets.  Art stated that there was absolutely no quota, but that every officer must keep in activity log to show that he is busy on various duty matters during the day.
 
MEL KAHN asked if a person sees a very reckless driver out on the highway, can they report the driver?  Art stated that,yes,that person is a hazard and you are justified in using the 911 number to report it.  In fact, the Highway Patrol encourages these types of witness reports.  They are often useful in tracking down a reckless driver, and they can also help the CHP to reconstruct an accident if one of these drivers hits somebody a few minutes after you see them.  That way, the CHP has a history of the prior driving of one of the people involved in the accident.
 
BOB ADAMS asked if the CHP routinely runs a check of the license plate when it stops someone to give them a ticket.  Art answered no, they will only run the plate when they are actually giving a citation, or when there is a failure to stop, or they see some up suspicious activity.
 
Art pointed out that the level for driving under the influence remains .08, but there are efforts underway to lower it to .04.  Generally, one drink is likely to raise your level to .02 or .03 depending on the person, so people are advised that even 3 drinks can put them above current the legal limit.
 
Art then requested a volunteer to demonstrate a DUI test.  President JOHN was asked to walk a straight line heel to toe, heel to toe.  John flunked.  He had a tough time following the directions.  When he finally got close enough to doing it right, Art provided him with distortion glasses that showed how a drunk person would normally respond to trying to walk a straight line in similar circumstances.  Art then asked CHUCK LINDAUER to give try the test, and he flunked too.  Art asked “Is there anybody sober in this place?”  Chuck flunked even worse with the distortion glasses on.
 
Art took a couple of more questions.  He was asked if there is a favorite color for cars if they pull over, and answered that they don't target any color in particular; they just pull over the car is going the fastest (which just have to be mostly red). He was also asked how he decides to use the taser.  He mentioned that they will shoot out 25 feet, so he's most inclined to use it when a suspect is getting away from him, and gets to be about 15 to 20 feet away. 
 
President JOHN then stepped into chime the meeting to a close at 1:30 PM. 

THIS THURSDAY'S PROGRAM:

JEFF ROSEN, SANTA CLARA CO. DISTRICT ATTORNEY  

District Attorney Jeff Rosen, who was elected in June 2010 and took office on January 3, 2011, will speak on achievements of the office over the past 18 months and future plans for law enforcement in Santa Clara County.