Los Altos Rotary Club Home of the Annual Rotary Fine Art Show July 11 2013

Smiling broadly, our newly-inducted President JACK KELLY called his first LARC meeting to order precisely on time. He honored JOHN SYLVESTER, now proudly sporting the title of Past President, by asking him to lead the flag salute.

MARLIS MCALLISTER quoted Charles Lindbergh as a thought-provoking preparation to camping in her favorite vacation spot at 9,000 feet elevation in the mountains.

The new Board of Directors were greeters for Pres JACK’s auspicious first meeting. While he thanked all who had served to make the meeting run smoothly today, candid photos of members were being taken. Is it already “Thanks for the memories” photos time?

President-elect KENDRA GERSETH called for the introduction of visiting Rotarians who came from Rotary Clubs as near as Sunnyvale Sunrise and San Jose,  and as far away as Denver and the area of Munich, Germany.

Numerous guests were introduced by their hosts ROY JONES, STEVE SHEPHERD, PP MARLENE, PAUL NYBERG, PAT FARRELL, and PAUL SCHUTZ. We also welcomed three veterans from Foothill College’s Veterans Resource Center.

Next week’s program speaker will be Steve Yvaska, writer for the San Jose Mercury News, on collectibles and antiques.

Pres JACK led the announcements period by revealing the theme of his presidential year: Communication.  On the very day he received his red badge, PP MONA recognized his talents and suggested that he chair the annual LARC Speech Contest. After a very successful run as Contest chair, he’s now super busy as President and looking for a new Speech chair. Please let him know if you’re interested in this interesting contact with local high school students.

JACK plans to dedicate this year to his friend PP BOO BUE who passed away last November . BOO developed outstanding Dale Carnegie franchises in Hawaii and California and always made a point to encourage the Rotary Speech Contest competitors after the awards were announced. He even encouraged newbie Red Badger Pres JACK who was lamenting a mistake. BOO just laughed it off and suggested, “Jack, when you lay an egg, stand back and admire it!”

The gift for joining the President’s Club this year will be a pedometer. JACK assured us that the one thing guaranteed to guard against Alzheimer’s disease is exercise, so he wants to keep us all healthy, which, it should be noted, should also keep our club’s 170 membership number healthy.  JACK seems to have found the one item that cannot be embellished with the Rotary wheel, so instead the pedometers will sport the name of State Farm Insurance, his employer. There might even be a small cost reduction for LARC members signing new State Farm policies, JACK suggested.

Beware JACK’s new phone policy. Any phone ringing during the meeting will require an automatic $20 fine and request to press the speaker button so we can all share in the conversation.
 

Carmela Xuereb, Director of the Veterans’ Resource Center at Foothill College, was introduced by RON LABETICH. She and three veterans currently benefitting from the Center’s services presented a plaque recognizing RON (aka the “Energizer bunny”) for his persistence, dedication and creation of a vets scholarship.

A second plaque thanked Pres JACK for his service in mentoring vets twice a week at the Center.  JACK also recognized a group of LARC members who had organized a career exploration program at Foothill College.

Finemaster RON LABETICH opened the fining period by waving contribution lists that he announced were still blank, just waiting for the first members to join the President’s Club. First up was PP JOHN SYLVESTER, closely followed by STEVE SHEPHERD, KAREN GEGURAS, DAVE BERONIO, DWIGHT MATTHEWS, RON LABETICH, KATHY LERA and JACK HIGGINS. JUDY OTT volunteered a fine to crow that her son had placed second in his category after a 7 day trail bike race.

Just to break things up, PP DICK HENNING charged that PP MARY PROCHNOW should be fined for her comment that he “didn’t know a breast from a thigh”. After a good laugh, we realized Mary was referring to the chicken pieces served for lunch.

There were just a few announcements today. PP ROY LAVE called for a volunteer to head First Fridays, as JOE EYRE will leave that role to become President of the Community Foundation. He reminded us that CAROL GARSTEN is generously hosting a First Friday Wine Tasting fundraiser with Peachy Canyon Wines and a silent auction at The Nature Gallery this Saturday, July 13.

HARRY PRICE announced a Wine and Cheese Social at the home of KIRK and Kathy MAHNCKE, 240 Trianon Way, Los Altos Hills on Friday, July 19 from 6-9 pm.

The program of Pres JACK’s first meeting was a Club Assembly; the Directors listed their numerous committees’ chairs and described their plans for this year. The Power Point list is now posted on www.losaltosrotary.org so members will know who is responsible for what this year; only what’s new and needed is detailed in this newsletter. Members are encouraged to check out the complete Power Point online.

President-elect KENDRA GJERSETH is chair of the Programs Committee. She promises to invite a high-level series of speakers, like last year. With a team of 24 members and their contacts we should again have fascinating programs. This year JARRETT FISHPAW and PP DICK DUHRING promise a program on the Four Way Test. Club members interested in serving on the Programs Committee or enlisting for weekly program evaluation forms emailed by JOHN CARDOZA, may contact KENDRA or JOHN.

KATHY LERA is Director of Fellowship and has planned events under the theme “Family, Friends and Fun”.  She plans new outdoors events including families, along with bikes, hikes, wine and cheese socials, poker, and STEVE SHEPHERD’s golf event, which prompted her to remind us that our speakers hook is called a “shepherd’s crook” for a good reason!

FRANK VERLOT is Director of International Service with the theme “Reaching out to the world”. Vocational Training Team applications are planned for Nepal and Liberia this year. His goal is 100% participation in giving to The Rotary Foundation (a goal we have not yet achieved). New roles include PP DENNIS YOUNG and LONNIE GARY as Parliamentarians, HARM SOPER as Director of the Fine Art Show, and a new LAREF officers slate to be announced after the election tonight.

STEVE POMEROY, Director of Club Service/Operations was unfortunately sick. His theme is “Operation Smiles: giving smiles, embracing new members”. He needs volunteers for the audit committee and promises to improve the acoustics of our meeting room by September 2013, though our history of attempting this has been less than gratifying. Part of the club’s strategic plan, as launched by our beloved late member MARY MARLEY, is for each member display the Four Way Test in his/her office.

KAREN GREGURAS, Director of Youth/Vocational Service, reiterated the need for a new Speech Contest chair. A new initiative established by PP MONA ARMISTEAD is Los Altos/Los Altos Hills Community Values Youth which meets monthly and seeks new members.

PAUL SCHUTZ, Director of Community Service, described the array of 50-60 ongoing projects under his theme of “improving the quality of life in our community”. He needs a volunteer to head Holiday Gifts for Teens.  ANABEL PELHAM has volunteered to head up Partners for New Generations (PNG).

JEAN MORDO, Director of Membership was absent. Under the theme “Engagement and vocation”, he plans to raise the vocational awareness and interaction among members.

Convention report: Pres JACK enthusiastically reported on his participation in the Rotary International Convention in Lisbon, Portugal. JACK even offered several times to show his complete series of vacation photos in Ireland as he toured various watering holes like the Guinness factory where he did his best to stay well hydrated. New Rotarians may not know that each June LARC sends our President-elect to this annual convention of 21,000 or more Rotarians to make new contacts and fully immerse him/her in the world of Rotary service.  

For many years LARAP members have hosted a convention booth illustrating our Rotary AIDS Project”, distributing CD’s of “The Los Altos Story”, and meeting Rotarians throughout the world who seek help combating HIV/AIDS.

While the 2013-14 theme of RI President Ron D. Burton of Oklahoma is “Engage Rotary, Change Lives”, JACK contributed his own memorable quote:

“Oftentimes we don’t understand the mother tongue of our Rotary neighbor, but Rotary doesn’t need a translator; our worldwide works and deeds all speak the same language.”

He closed his first LARC meeting with a fun photo of his new convention friend at the end of a long line who was holding a large sign that read “End”.  Enthusiastic applause followed.

Now for President JACK KELLY's real first meeting:  (by PP ROY LAVE)

LARC Satellite Meeting – July 2, 2013 – Courtyard  by Marriott
 
(The secretary for this meeting wishes to make it clear than anything written here is not authorized by anyone and may have some resemblance to what actually transpired.  President Jack has all year to correct any misconceptions created by this writing.)
 
Brand new President Jack Kelly opened the first meeting of his tenure by thanking the members for a pleasant inauguration dinner.  He spent the remainder of the meeting seeking input for the activities, programs, themes, philosophies which will be the hallmark of his tenure.
 
Every leader in Rotary chooses a theme for their time to focus activities – or not.  Jack is choosing COMMUNICATION which is appropriate for him to select this them as he was the top participant in his Toastmaster class and the long-term hocho for our speech contest.  He has chosen this theme to honor his LARC hero Boo Bue an honoring about which there will be more COMMUNICATION.  To implement his theme, Pres Jack is planning a number of surprises for the Club which is not yet willing reveal (will not COMMUNICATE yet).  
 
The first action to execute his theme will be to ask officers and board members to serve as greeters so as to COMMUNICATE to members who their leaders are for the year.
 
President Jack noted that the Clubs 65th birthday is March 5, 2014.  His is seeking 1) a chair to plan the COMMUNICATION celebrating this milestone (any anniversary ending in the digits 0 or 5 seem to get special attention leading the writer to wonder why not celebrate 2 and 7 or 3, 6 and 9 ……), and 2) a special guest for the anniversary meeting in March.
 
The discussion turned to the use of tangible tokens to commemorate the anniversary.  President Jack COMMUNICATED a tidbit he learned at the RI meeting in Lisbon – a Rotary wheel can be put on anything -- sparking the thought about what RI would not want to see the wheel adorn. Shopping bags with the wheel were suggested triggering some support in spite of the fact that almost every organization has created a bag providing shoppers many choices of which bag they will forget to take into the grocery.
 
President Jack expressed his desire to continue to support two of the more recent initiatives of the Club – the Veterans Committee activities under Ron Labetich and the PEGS Committee activities under Anabel Pelham.  Both activities are designed to COMMUNICATE to their respective beneficiaries.
 
The upcoming County Library parcel tax election which will be a mail in in August was discussed as a possible program.  Of course, the LARC policy is to not endorse ballot measures but the feeling was that the Club members should be informed (COMMUNICATED to), so a program on library and library finance will be suggested to the Program Committee.  AS an aside, President Jack allowed that he really liked the Program Committee because there was active advocacy over what programs should and should not be programs -- lots of lively COMMUNICATION.
 
More on COMMUNICATION, President Jack observed that the Club should know about the grants LAREF makes from  the proceeds of the Art Show. He asked if the attendees like the idea of inviting one recipient to a meeting giving them a check and 5 minutes to talk about their organization.  The group seemed to COMMUNICATE approval.
 
President Jack revealed that he was wondering about leadership for the speech contests (which are all about COMMUCATION) and if the group had any ideas about a successor to him as chair.  He confessed that he really liked the job but was concerned about whether he should continue.  The group was puzzled about this matter until the CLUB therapist Mona Armistead cut to the chase and asked President Jack if he really felt about the matter – whether he wanted to continue to run the contest or not.  The writer thinks that President Jack decided he would continue – and why not, he likes it and he does a great job.
 
The discussion turned to issues about how Art Show jobs are allocated.  The writer believes that the usual practice has been to ask or allow those to continue in the jobs from previous years unless members ask for changes.  A problem arises when members who are no longer members are counted on for filling some roles and they don’t show up.  The idea of switching folks around to different jobs was raised.  The writer is motivated to declare that replacing a member in a job without COMMICATION is really a bad idea – does not build goodwill.  It’s bad COMMUNICATION which is outlawed this year by decree of President Jack.
 
Respectfully submitted by Roy Lave.
 

This Thursday's Program:

Steven Wayne Yvaska has been a collector since he was nine years old.  His topic is:  “The Six Factors that Determine the Value of Antiques and Collectibles.”   Mr. Yvaska is perhaps best known for his long-running column “The Seasoned Collector” which appears exclusively in the San Jose Mercury News and other Media News papers.  

Several years ago, he began to make guest appearances at Bay Area Home & Garden Shows where he offers "informal evaluations" of local resident’s heirlooms, or newly found treasures. He enjoys telling folks how to care for their goods, as well as explain their history and value.

He has been a frequent speaker at historical societies, study groups, museums and antique clubs, has organized classes about antiques and collectibles in San Jose and Morgan Hill, and has presented lectures at several colleges and universities.  

Originally from  Boston, Yvaska graduated Cum Laude with a Bachelor’s degree from Syracuse University. He then went on to receive his Master of  Science degree in Environmental Arts.