Los Altos Rotary Club Home of the Annual Rotary Fine Art Show August 23 2012

On a another lovely Thursday in late summer, the Los Altos Rotarians gathered for our weekly meeting and  were greeted by ALLART LIGTENBERG,  DICK DUHRING, and JANE REED .  President JOHN SYLVESTER chimed the meeting to order promptly at 12:15.  President JOHN called on PP ROY LAVE to lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance.
 
JEANNE MACVICAR, ably assisted by the Buoyant Baritone, JOHN SYLVESTER, led us in a magic rendition of “Moonlight Bay.”
 
President Elect JACK KELLY stepped up to the podium to welcome visiting Rotarians.  We had only one visiting Rotarian, Rick from the Burlingame Club.  SAN HARDING, BONNIE BURDETT, PAT FARRELL, JOHN SYLVESTER, AL DIAZ, ROY LAVE, and JACK himself, introduced guests.
 
 

ANNOUNCEMENTS
KENDRA GJERSETH announced that the Public Relations committee will meet regularly each month on the second Thursday, at 11 a.m., right before the regular meeting.  Everyone interested in helping KENDRA on PR should attend.
 
FRANK VERLOT announced that the World Community Service Committee will meet next Tuesday at 8:00 a.m. at First Republic Bank.
 
TRACIE MURRAY announced that the date for this year’s Asånte event had been set for November 7.  Asånte is the fundraiser sponsored by 5 local Clubs to raise funds to support the Mountain View Rotacare Clinic.
 
GARY WALDECK announced that our Rotary Club directories are out and that anyone who has not picked up their copy should see GARY at the table after the meeting.  To save money, a great deal of the information about Rotary and the club, such as the Club Constitution, will be available on the Club website instead of in the directory.  President JOHN announced to make sure that we are all familiar with the Constitution, he will personally host a special meeting to read the Constitution aloud. Stay tuned for further details.
 
 

10 MINUTE TALK
ALISON SALISBURY took the podium to give her 10 min. talk.  ALISON’s family traveled a lot when she was a child, but her grandparents lived in Los Altos and she spent all of her summers here and always considered it home.  She was born in San Luis Obispo, but her dad worked for Boeing and was stationed all over the world.  She spent a good part of her youth in Canada, Seattle and Kansas City. 

She mentioned that the trip from Seattle to Kansas City in 1966 was by car with 3 kids and a dog in the back seat.  She then went to London, where she attended the American High School.  She wanted to stay in London rather than come back to America for college, but her parents bribed her.  In 1972, she came back to Los Altos and attended Foothill College and then San Jose State.  She worked at the local recycling center in Los Altos and also worked at the Palo Alto Medical Clinic. 

But her true love was art, and she eventually began to work for the Palo Alto Art Council.  She moved to Massachusetts, and worked on the Art Council at MIT.  She met her husband, Ken, and they continued to work at MIT. 

In 1996, they moved back to Los Altos when her husband got a job at Intuitive Medical Devices.  They were stunned at the cost of housing in California.  They ended up buying a tiny ranch house, and Alison became a “stay-at-home” mom for 11 years.  Later on, she divorced, and then taught at San Jose State.  In 2008 she started her own business as a money manager.  She met Rotarian JOAN ROSSELLE while they were both on jury duty.  A few years ago she met the current love of her life, Andy, who works for SRI.  She joined Rotary last year to build relationships with the people in the town she loves.

FINES FOR ALL
Pres. JOHN called up his Fine Mistress (hmmm, that doesn’t sound right) KENDRA GJERSETH to wring a bunch of bucks from the assembled multitude.  KENDRA was on a roll and RON LABETICH had to scurry to keep up with the Duck Bucket.
 

• KENDRA's first victim was ALISON SALISBURY who donated a “10 min. talk” fee of $30.
• Next, KENDRA planned on fining the “Hula Man,” dancing Rotarian, RANDY GARD. But after displaying a wonderfully embarrassing video and scanning the room, KENDRA realized that RANDY was not present.
• STEVE SHEPHERD, who took the video of RANDY and the hula dance, was fined $25 in RANDY’s name.
• KENDRA called on PP DICK HENNING, and asked if he knew of any major events that had taken place lately.  DICK informed us that PP BOO BUE had celebrated his ninetieth birthday with a small group of friends, and that LARRY CHU had put on a special dinner for this milestone birthday.  DICK then paid $50 in honor of BOO and for announcing his upcoming salmon fishing trip to Alaska.
• BOO got into the spirit, and paid a whole $1.
• KENDRA called on MIKE ABRAMS, who donated $30 to announce that he is planning a trip to India.
• SALLY MEADOWS confessed that she had missed four meetings, because she had attended her step daughter's wedding and then taken a trip to Italy. SALLY put in $10 for each missed meeting.
• CINDY WEMYSS joined the President’s Club, because she had been chosen to attend the Top 100 Female Financial Advisors Summit, held by Barron’s magazine.
• BARRY GROVES also joined the President’s Club, in honor of the High Schools of Mountain View and Los Altos at achieving a 95% pass rate on the exit exam and the top 2% on the advanced placement tests.
• Red Badger and Elementary School Superintendent, JEFF BAIER, contributed $25 just for the joy of having the school year starting.
• TAYLOR ROBINSON, thrilled about the upcoming America's Cup races, contributed $25, and announced that she herself would be participating in a yacht race on September 22.
• BILL MOISON, after much prodding by KENDRA and not to be surpassed in fines by his twin brother, also joined the President’s Club.
• DENNIS POTTER put in $40 in honor of his Rotary anniversary of 10 years.
• STEVE WHEELER celebrated both his 36th birthday and his 10th wedding anniversary this month, and contributed $50.
• BOB RAYL also quietly joined the President’s Club by slipping Pres. JOHN a $100 check prior to the meeting.

THE WEEKLY PROGRAM: RUTH PATRICK and the Women of Means Escape Network
 
ROY LAVE introduced Ruth Patrick, who is starting a domestic violence program that is currently being “incubated” by the community Foundation.
 
Ruth pointed out that our usual impression of a “wife beater” is an impoverished drunken man living in trailer.  However, the statistics bear out the fact that there is a high level of domestic violence against more affluent, highly educated women.  Ruth is developing the Women of Means Escape Network (WOMEN).  Many more affluent women, including many women in the tonier neighborhoods of Silicon Valley, are subjected to domestic violence.  Ruth also pointed out other problems such as financial abuse, and emotional abuse.  Ruth spoke about the pattern of coercive control, and “death by 1000 cuts.”  The cycle of violence usually continues into a downward spiral until there is a serious, often life-threatening event.  Ruth stated that it's all about power and control.
 
She pointed out that in 2011 the deaths from domestic violence had risen to 16 from only 5 the year before in Santa Clara County.
 
Ruth is just getting her project off the ground, and is being supported by the Community Foundation.  The program is also supported by the Los Altos police chief, Tuck Younis, and local politicians, Joe Simitian, and Anna Eshoo.  Ruth encouraged all of the members of Rotary to contact her for further information and to let her know if they can provide support.
 
President JOHN then stepped into chime the meeting to a close at 1:30 PM.
 

THIS THURSDAY'S PROGRAM: Cindy Wilber
"WCS Service Project in Mexico"
Cindy Wilber is the founder and executive director of Proyecto Itzaes, or “Project of the People.” She started it in 1995 to serve Maya villages in the Yucatan in Mexico.
 
She will speak on her ongoing efforts of this program to help the villagers, primarily of Maya descent, to promote literacy, develop new skills, and to teach those that follow. Children learn to speak three languages (Maya, Spanish and English) in after school programs which emphasize early childhood education, family literacy, special education, cultural preservation, and more.
 
Cindy is also the Education Coordinator of Stanford's Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve. She has lived in both Palo Alto, CA and Chicxulub Puerto, Yucatan since the early 1970's.