Los Altos Rotary Club Home of the Annual Rotary Fine Art Show January 17 2013

 On Thursday January 17, 2013, the Los Altos Rotarians gathered for just the third meeting of the new year.  Arriving Rotarians were greeted by JUDY OTT, PAUL NYBERG and ABBY AHRENS.  President JOHN SYLVESTER chimed the meeting to order promptly at 12:15.
 
President JOHN called on Past President DICK HENNING to lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance.
 
GARY WALDECK gave the thought for the day.  As a newly installed politician, he came to appreciate the wisdom of Winston Churchill, who observed that, “Everyone agrees that democracy is the worst form of government, except for all the others that we have tried in the past.”
 
President JOHN then called on GARY LANDIS to give the thought for the day.  Whoops, JOHN realized GARY was up for the song.  (President JOHN noted that he had been skewered in last week’s Rotator for making a series of similar gaffes.  However, let’s look at the glass as half full--JOHN made it all the way to the THIRD item on the agenda before he goofed).
 
GARY then stated that in honor of the upcoming celebration of the birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr., we would sing an old gospel song that became a mainstay of Dr. King’s civil rights meetings and marches, and led us in “This little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine.”
 
Vice President JACK KELLY stepped up to the podium to welcome visiting Rotarians, but we had no visitors this week.  ROY LAVE, GARY WALDECK, and JEAN MORDO all introduced guests.  JACK then introduced his guest, Al Ward, who is going to be doing a weekly program for us next month.

NEW BLUE BADGE EARNED
President JOHN called on Membership Director RANDY GARD to present a blue badge to RON LABETICH (sponsored by SAM HARDING).  Both RANDY and JOHN observed that RON had completed the red badge requirements in record time (as well as leading the RB fundraising drive).

ANNOUNCEMENTS

1. KENDRA GJERSETH announced that the club social event, the Bocce Ball tourney is set for February 9 at 5-7 p.m; Fun and games for all. See last week's Rotator for details
2. SAM PESNER announced that STEVE ANDERSON was home from the hospital.  He has pneumonia, but is getting treatment and coming along
3. BARBARA SMALL announced that a silent auction fundraiser will be held on Sunday, January 27 from 2 to 5 PM at the First and Main Street sports bar and lounge.  We will be raising funds to support the SOPUDEP, our Haiti school project that the Club has been supporting since the devastating earthquake in that country.
4. New Blue Badger RON LABETICH, announced that our local American Legion chapter had donated $300 to the Red Badge project welcoming home our veterans.  DENNIS YOUNG rushed up to take custody of the check.
5. CRYSTA KRAMES announced that it’s never too early to begin working on the Fine Art Show.  CRYSTA will be hosting a meeting at her house on February 7 at 10 AM, to begin organizing committees for the show.  CRYSTA lives right across the street from Shoup Park.
6. ROY LAVE announced that the next satellite meeting will be on February 5 at 8 AM at the Jesuit retreat house.  There’s limited capacity so please sign up ahead of time, either by responding to the email invitation that will be sent out soon, or go to our website and click on the event on the left side of our homepage.
7. BUD OLIVER announced that BOB ADAMS had successfully had his knee replaced, and would be returning home from the hospital.

SPECIAL PRESENTATION--Allart Ligtenberg -   Back from Nepal
 
President JOHN called up World Community Service (and RAP) all-star, ALLART LIGTENBERG to report on his six week (yes, six week) trip to Nepal to continue to promote Rotary services and innovative technologies in rural areas. Allart brought back 2000 slides, but graciously cut his presentation down to fit the timeslot.  He reported on many of the matching grant projects that are currently being expanded in the Nepal area.  These include solar cookers, solar water distillers, and solar panels to provide electricity for lighting. 

Allart also pointed out the project in which briquettes are made for fuel by the handicapped and the blind, who sell them to raise funds for the projects. (For those of you who are unfamiliar with the contents of the fuel briquettes, contact Allart for a sample).
 
Allart also reported on many of the new Rotary Cubs he visited in the area who will cooperate in trying to develop Matching Grant and Global Grant Programs with Rotary International.
 
Allart informed us that the Nepal clubs, in coordination with medical providers, are developing national guidelines for Child AIDS Prevention projects.  They’re trying to expand this into a national program.  The Rotary projects being promoted and developed by Allart had gained such notoriety that they’ve become news events when new projects open, and Allart is now a TV star in Nepal.
 

FINEMASTER, JEANNE MacVICAR
JEANNE MacVICAR stepped up to handle finemaster duties, assisted by CRYSTA KRAMES on the duck bucket.  JEANNE politely recruited a slew of new members for the President’s Club.
 

• DAN HOLDEN announced that he’s a new grandpa, and that was worth $100 to join the President’s Club.
• MIKE ABRAMS announced that his daughter had just graduated from UC San Diego, and his other daughter was promoted to regional buyer at Marshall’s.
• CLARI NOLET announced to the club that JEANNE was heard last week on an NPR interview.  Red-faced JEANNE confessed that she had failed to reported on herself last week, and put in $50.
• JEANNE then stated that she wished to honor Donald, our caterer, for the wonderful work that he does above and beyond merely providing the food for the club every week.
• JEANNE then joined the President’s Club in honor of Donald.
• RON STEFANI was already in the club, but he added $20 to honor his wife, Jane’s birthday.
• PAT FARRELL announced that his daughter is teaching, and is now at the Masters program at Santa Clara, and put in $15.
• BARRY GROVES, superintendent of schools, announced that he would put in $20 “for Jeff and I” (really BARRY?) in honor of the accomplishments of the Los Altos/Mountain View School District.  Among the other noteworthy achievements is that the boys cross country team from Mountain View placed first in the Central Coast Section.  In addition, a Los Altos High School student reached the finals of the Intel National Science Competition.
• JEANNE then called on reluctant members with questions from an interesting book, “Random Kinds of Factness”.
• She asked JOHN BOGART which president was the first to shake hands with the public (earlier presidents greeted people with a polite bow).
• JOHN missed that it was Thomas Jefferson, and joined the President’s Club.
• JEANNE then asked JOHN CARDOZA if he knew that the Puritans had made bathing illegal, and which colonial leader lobbied to have that law changed (it was Ben Franklin). JOHN also joined the club for $55.
• NANCY DUNAWAY put in $25 for not knowing that the Navy had accidentally bombed a town in Oklahoma during World War II.
• JEANNE then asked DAVE SMITH how many times a deck of cards needed to be shuffled in order to be sufficiently random.  DAVE, calling on his card-shark knowledge from his sinful days, knew that the correct answer was 7, but still put in $20.
• GEORGE STAFFORD stumbled a bit on which day has the most phone calls, but finally came up with Mother’s Day and put in $10. (JEANNE pointed out that Father’s Day is the day that has the most collect phone calls).
• RANDY GARD was stunned to learn that the wheel was patented in 2001 (apparently in Australia where they didn’t have them before).  RANDY needed to put in only $10 to join the President’s Club.
• For some reason, JOANNE KAVALARIS was not aware that the Bunny Hop had been invented in Sun Valley Idaho.  JOANNE put and $60 to join the Presidents Club.

THE WEEKLY PROGRAM: Update on the California Common Sense Project.
 
JOHN CARDOZA introduced Autumn Carter, the current Executive Director of the California Common Sense Project, a project started by Stanford students to try to obtain all available data to help the public evaluate the performance of government.  The prior director, Dakin Sloss, reported on this project as it was growing two years ago, and Autumn was back to give us an update.
 
Autumn pointed out that she actually got her start in politics on a Rotary-sponsored trip to Washington DC.
 
Autumn outlined that the goal of the California Common Sense Project is data transparency--to obtain government data and make it accessible and understandable for the public.  She pointed out that the goal is to produce useful information.  Raw data dumps are not useful, since they merely create a mountain of information for investigators to climb through.  So the Project has the goal of making the data not only available, but also easy to understand and work with.
 
Autumn pointed out the many reports that the Common Sense Project had produced.  One of the most important was “How Stockton Went Bust,” which identified the 3 key issues that led to the bankruptcy of Stockton; (1) the housing bubble, (2) unjustified optimism on future revenues, and (3) the creation of large pension bonds to pay pension liabilities.  This report was so helpful and insightful that it gained national prominence.
 
A second report by the Project was on the retiree healthcare system for public employees.  A third report addressed the shift of funding between higher education and correction facilities.  Over the last 30-year period, there’s been a steady decrease in funding for public higher education with an increase in spending on the cost of prisons.  A fourth important report came out in 2012 and reported on the major ballot initiatives.  The report was a data-driven analysis of the likely costs and results of each major proposition, and it was widely praised as very readable and helpful.
 
A new project is the analysis of K-12 grade education, “Where does the money go?”  Right now, the California education system presents produces tons of data, but it is opaque and largely useless.  The California Common Sense Project is looking to convert that data into useful information.
 
The California Common Sense Project continues to be maintained primarily by Stanford students and graduates.  Further information can be located at www.CACS.org. 
 
Members had several questions for Autumn.  Looking at prior government “transparency initiatives,” she pointed out that the work has been sloppy and not effective.
 
One of the questions was, “who’s providing the funding for the project?”  Autumn pointed out that they’ve received funding from a large number of private donors in Silicon Valley.  She also pointed out that in the spirit of full transparency the CACS website has a list of all of the supporters and the amounts that they have given.
 
President JOHN then stepped in to chime the meeting to a close at 1:30 PM.
 

THIS THURSDAY'S PROGRAM:

Marcia Somers & Carl Cahill  - "Los Altos and Los Altos Hills City Manager updates"

Marcia Somers
Los Altos City Manager Marcia Somers started on April 2, 2012.  Previously she worked for the City of Danville, CA for 19 years, beginning as Community Services Director and ending as Assistant Town Manager.  Marcia served as Project Manager for a number of capital projects in Danville: a 17-acre Town/County community park, renovation of the historic Village Theatre, and restoration of the Veterans Memorial Building and its integration into a shared-use facility with the downtown Senior Center
 
Her professional experience includes working for the City of Sunnyvale for eight years and management and executive-level positions with non-profit agencies in Santa Clara County and the City and County of San Francisco. 
 
Marcia also taught graduate courses in strategic planning, fiscal management, and organizational development issues in public, non-profit and private organizations at San Francisco State University and San Jose State University for over 20 years.
 
She holds a B.A. from San Francisco State University and a Master of Public Administration from California State University - Hayward.  Marcia and her family have lived in Campbell for nearly 30 years. 
 
Carl Cahill
Carl Cahill, City Manager of Los Altos Hills, has worked for the Town since 1999. He served as the Town’s Planning Director until February 2006 and at which time he was appointed City Manager.  He has a bachelor’s degree in Urban Studies and a Master’s degree in Public Administration from Cal State University, Hayward. He is a member of the American Institute of Certified Planners.