Los Altos Rotary Club Home of the Annual Rotary Fine Art Show February 28 2013

Pres. JOHN SYLVESTER called the meeting to order at 12:15 PM. 
 
Arriving Rotarians had been greeted by FRANK VERLOT and PAT GRAY.  JOANNE KAVALARIS had stepped in to handle the cashier duties.
 
Pres. JOHN called on DENNIS YOUNG to lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance.
 
Pres. JOHN then called on HARN SOPER to give the thought for the day.  HARN reflected on the importance of sustainability; building projects that care for the resources of the earth.  HARN found inspiration from some of the thoughts of Native Americans, including “We do not inherit the earth from our fathers--we borrow the earth from our children.”
 
Pres. JOHN then called on JOHN MCDONNELL, this week’s song leader, who joined with JACK KELLY in leading the club it in a rousing rendition of “My Wild Irish Rose.”
 
Pres. Elect JACK KELLY then took the podium to welcome visiting Rotarians.  We were visited by Timothy Sakaly, President-elect of the new convoy Rotary Club in San Diego.  JACK then called upon Rotarians with guests, and JERRY MOISON, PAUL NYBERG, ABBY AHRENS, MARLIS MCALLISTER, and JACK himself introduced their guests.
 
MATT CABOT then let the club know that the pictures from Saturday's Rotary Day are now on the website, and everyone can view scenes from this great event.
 

BOARD NOMINATIONS
Pres. JOHN announced that nominations were still open for the 3 Board of Directors positions that we will vote upon in the upcoming weeks.  JOHN listed the current nominees, ALLAN VARNI, KATHY LERA, JEAN MORDO, LONNIE GARY, FRANK VERLOT and LEW FRASIER. Pres. JOHN then opened the floor for any further nominations.  There were no new nominations and at the brilliant suggestion of past Pres. SAM PESNER, the nominations were closed.

TEN MINUTE TALK
CAROL GARSTEN then gave her 10 minute talk.  Carol mentioned that this was her second Rotary 10 minute talk, her first being at her last Rotary Club in Palo Alto.
 
Carol was brought up on Long Island and then her family moved to California while she was still quite young.  Her father's career then took them to London, where Carol was enrolled in the Camden School for girls.  At the age of 13, she was asked to work at Buckingham Palace for the Queen's Silver Anniversary.  Security was a bit looser in those days, and Carol and her friends snuck out of the main event to run up and down the hallway looking in the various rooms of Buckingham Palace.  However, a few years later in a severe storm, the ancient and noble Camden School for girls collapsed.  Carol's family took this as an omen to move from London to Los Angeles.  Carol attended Hollywood High School and studied film and photography.  From there, she moved to the excellent film school at the University of Southern California.  Upon graduation, she leapt into the glamorous world of filmmaking by making traffic safety films.  She worked on a number of film projects, but then her mother was diagnosed with cancer, and Carol and her mother decided to do a great deal of work together on film projects as her mother underwent treatment. 
 
Fortunately, the treatment was successful and her mother was cured.  However at that point, her mother decided to move out of the fast-paced world of Los Angeles and up north to San Luis Obispo.  Once in San Luis Obispo, Carol's mother decided to open a crystal shop.  Carol spent several years living in LA but coming up to help her mother with the crystal shop.  The Hollywood film strike ended her film work in Los Angeles, and Carol decided to join her mother in San Luis Obispo.  At that point she became a partner with her mom in the Nature Gallery. 
 
A few years later they moved to Palo Alto, and opened the Nature Gallery in the Town & Country Village in Palo Alto.  Unfortunately, her mother's cancer returned and she eventually succumbed to cancer, but worked with Carol up to five days before her death.
 
One day, a gentleman named Garsten showed up to ask about Carol's last name because he had never encountered anyone else with his last name.  Carol’s family was the only one in America with this name, because Carol's father had made up the name Garsten, when he changed his name from Goldstein to avoid anti-Semitism.  The gentleman told her that his name, Garsten, comes from the Swedish, with “sten” meaning rock, and “gar” meeting special.  So Carol learned that her name meant “special rock,” and concluded that she was in the right line of work.  Recently, Carol moved her store from Town & Country Village to Los Altos, where it is located at the corner of second and Main.  In addition to operating the nature gallery, Carol is actively involved in many nonprofits, including several projects for the homeless, such as the Peninsula Healthcare Connection.  Carol was very active in the Palo Alto University Rotary and hopes become equally active in her new club.
 

ANNOUNCEMENTS
TOM POWERS announced that the morning satellite meeting will take place next Tuesday morning at 8 AM at the Jesuit retreat house.  Once again, space is limited so you must sign up ahead of time online.
 
MARLIS MCALLISTER announced that the Red Badge meetings will be the first Thursday of every month, so the next meeting is next Thursday at 11 AM here at the garden house right before the regular meeting.
 
KENDRA GJERSETH announced that Rotary Day in Los Altos had been a great success.  She particularly stressed how much members enjoyed the fellowship of being with fellow club members and visiting during parts of the day.  CAROL GARSTEN, along with KENDRA, thanked all of those who helped make the day a success.

 Here are a few pictures taken by CLYDE NOEL of the event.  More pictures are on our website, under ROTARY DAY - 2013  in the Photo Albums section. 

 
PAUL SCHUTZ announced that the Crab Cioppino feed will be this Friday evening starting at 6 at the Garden House.  This is a fundraiser for the Veterans’ Assistance Program, and it is $70 per head.

Here are a couple of pictures from Firday's Crab Cioppino Feed, taken by both John Hammerschmidt, and his son, Vadik.  The balance of the pictures are on our website under "Cioppino Feed 2013" in the Photo Albums section.

JERRY introduced Lisa Clark, from one of those organizations, Fresh Lifelines for Youth.  Lisa explained that the organization was started 12 years ago, when a group of people realized that juvenile offenders were returning to incarceration at an alarming rate.  They set up this organization, and conducted a survey to find out from the offenders what factors led them to commit crimes, and what factors they felt could help them succeed in school and life and avoid returning to crime.  In the last 12 years, the group has helped hundreds of young people in Santa Clara County emerge from a juvenile detention, and get back into productive education and living.
 

FINES by SINES
Pres. JOHN then called upon much beloved fine master JOHN SINES, who stepped up to the podium to a backdrop of resounding silence.  JOHN had decided that it was time to collect a few fines from Red Badgers.  To totally humiliate the Red Badgers, and bore the heck out of the rest of the club, JOHN came up with a test concerning knowledge of trees (yes, you read that correctly--knowledge of trees). 
 
But before JOHN could launch into his exciting question-and-answer period, DICK HENNING announced that he had a special announcement and would pay a fine.  It turns out that DICK had been working behind the scenes to have Pope Benedict appear at a speaker at the Celebrity Forum. Unfortunately, the Pope resigned and rode into the sunset.  Despite rumors to the contrary, DICK announced that he is not in the running for the new Pope.  However, he was in the running to join the President’s Club and did so.
 
JOHN then began the quiz.  TED SORENSEN had to pay $20 fine for not recognizing the Gen. Sherman tree.  KATHY LERA also paid $20, because she did not recognize El Palo Alto, the tall tree that the city is named after.  JARRETT FISHPAW won the “name that tree” contest, by recognizing the original Rotary Tree.  He was fined $40 anyhow.  CAROL GARSTEN recognized the second Rotary Tree and correctly guessed that it was photographed in 1964.  GARY BROWN did not quite recognize Rotary Tree number 2 and Rotary Tree number 3 and paid $20.  GARY LANDIS thought that he recognized Rotary Tree number 4, but as JOHN pointed out the tree has shrunken to the point where it’s better known as the “Rotary Bush.”  GARY paid $20.
 
Right before we started the weekly program DENNIS YOUNG announced that with the contributions he received today, the Mary Marley scholarship fund was now over $8000.
 

THE WEEKLY PROGRAM–BOOMERANG!
President Elect JACK KELLY, stressing the wide variety of entertaining programs we have presented this year, introduced this week’s program, the barbershop quartet, “Boomerang.”  The quartet began the program with “Zippedee Do Dah” and “The Bare Necessities.” 

They then explained the intricacies of the four-part harmonies that produce the unique sound of barbershop quartets.  They then launched into “My Wild Irish Rose,” which was, unfortunately, a pale shadow of the greatness of the earlier McDonnell-Kelly version (Jack wants to take over as song leader for every meeting now).  The quartet bounced back with another Disney classic, “When You Wish Upon a Star”, followed by the John Denver song, “Take me Home, Country Road.”  They then launched into the rousing, “Californiia, Here I Come,” and surprised the club with a stirring version of “Unchained Melody’ (from the 1955 movie, “Unchained”--a tidbit known to but a few).  The quartet then performed “Shenandoah”. They then explained the importance of “bell chords,” and demonstrated this with their finale, “Bye, Bye, Blues”.
 
The group’s timing was perfect, and as they finished singing, Bye Bye, Pres. John stepped up to chime the meeting to a close at 1:30.

THIS THURSDAY'S PROGRAM:

Tom Gregory, NASA-Advanced Aerospace Designs
Tom Gregory worked at NASA Ames for 37 years and retired in 1996 as Assistant Director for Advanced System Design. One aircraft concept that spanned all his years was the oblique wing. This concept continues to be of interest in aeronautics today. Tom feels that it may be "the next new thing". and he will explain why.

 Among his many other projects were testing aerodynamic aircraft models in wind tunnels, computer flight simulations, aircraft design and test, project management, and other executive positions.  He led teams that studied subsonic through hypersonic transports, earth to orbit launch vehicles, and many other advanced vehicle concepts.  Tom’s career also included teaching a course in aircraft design at the USAF Academy and at Santa Clara University.

  
 He continues to consult with NASA. Projects including efforts to develop a successor to the Shuttle. Another theme that spanned all his years at Ames, and afterwards, has been the quest for a truly revolutionary and low cost means of space flight.  Recently he consulted on projects related to the Richard Branson privately funded space plane.Tom was born and raised in Los Altos, attended San Jose High School, and graduated from UC Berkeley, where he majored in Mechanical Engineering.  In his spare time he enjoys playing tennis.
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