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

Greeters:  JOHN CARDOZA, JOHN NICHOLSON and GARY WALDECK

Cashier:  WYATT ALLEN

Thought for the Day was given by RANDY GARD:  “ma ka hana ka ‘ike” which means “by doing, one learns” or as we would say “we learn by doing.”  So don’t just sit around dreaming, get out there and make your dreams a reality!  The more we do, the more we learn, the more we grow.

 
Song for the Day:  RON STEFANI led us in an inspiring round of The Star Spangled Banner, to remind us of our national pride despite the past two weeks of political wrangling.
 
Visiting Rotarians:
LISA AKSELRAD from Sunnyvale Sunrise Rotary
GINNY LEAR from Palo Alto Rotary and Past President of Los Altos Rotary
JIM SPANGLER from Mountain View Rotary
ED PHILLIPS from San Mateo Rotary
WAYNE JOHNSON visiting from the Rotary Club of San Miguel, El Salvador
 

Rotarians with Guests:
TAYLOR ROBINSON announced guests and guest speakers for today:  KATIE TAMONY and JANET BISHOP of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art,
FRANK ELMER announced guest SALLY OKAYA,
JEAN MORDO announced guest SANDY BURNS and her husband MIKE BURNS
TRACIE MURRAY announced guest CASEY HEENEY
ROY LAVE introduced his guest, his lovely wife, PENNY LAVE
KAREN GREGURAS introduced guest BETH STOLYARCHUK

Announcements:
VAL CARPENTER announced four volunteer openings on the City of Los Altos Volunteer Commissions:  Design Review, Financial, Planning and Transportation, and Senior Commission

RON STEFANI announced he is passing around the clipboard for new sign ups for weekly song leader

JOE EYRE thanked everyone for the fabulous response to the Red Badge Auction to benefit Vida Verde.  The auction earned enough to sponsor 45 camper scholarships

FRANK VERLOT announced the Day Worker Program fundraiser to take place at Community School of Music and the Arts from 6pm to 8pm Friday;

CAROL GARSTEN announced that the November First Friday theme is Los Altos Youth Welcomes San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.  The event will feature artwork from high school students displayed in the windows and inside of downtown shops, along with the artists from local high schools wearing flashing yellow badges. 

PP MONA ARMISTEAD announced the Los Altos/Los Altos Hills Community Values Youth Project is encouraging everyone to come to the November First Friday event to view the art and meet the young artists.

PP STEVE ANDERSON announced Friday’s wine and cheese mixer at STEVE ANDERSON’s house this coming Friday, the 18th from 6pm to 8:30pm.
 
 

New Member Induction
JEAN MORDO announced the induction of three new members, and the graduation of one member from Red Badge to Blue Badge.
Welcome new members:

• STAN SCARDINO sponsored by BOB ADAMS
• SUNDE PREVOT and AMY BOGART, sponsored by BONNIE BURDETT

• GARY BROWN, sponsored by SAM PESNER

Ten Minute Talk:
JOHN SINES entertained us with his ten minute talk.  He began by saying that, when he told his wife he was giving his ten minute talk, she responded that two minutes would be more than enough.  John told us how his father had worked for the Southern Pacific Railroad for more than 40 years, and indulged the club with a little history of the Southern Pacific Railroad in the region.  In particular, SP bought 160 acres from Sarah Winchester to run a railroad and trolley line between Palo Alto and Los Gatos.  Paul and Guy Shoup bought the excess acreage from SP and started Altos Land Company.  Paul Shoup was also one of the founders of this Club. 

In 1976, the County bought the railroad and made the railroad line into a road instead.  John referred to the book The Octopus by Frank Norris about the Southern Pacific Railroad land dealings in Santa Clara County. 

John is married to wife, Bea, and has two sons.  John says his wife selected him as a spouse and breeder.  Bea, who is a real estate agent and has a degree in architecture, won the hearts of John’s family because she got straight A’s in math, which delighted John’s dad.  From then on, John says he was no longer included in the family conversations.  John’s son, JB was a commissioned officer on a Submarine, and married about a year ago.  John’s other son, Charlie, began at Westpoint and, after accumulating in excess of 100 hours in a certain club, decided to resign and head to the oil fields of North Dakota, and eventually Oklahoma.

Gordon Eustice was John’s boss and a member of the Los Altos Rotary Club.  Gordon’s project for the club was the Rotary Tree in the Plaza, which is now the Rotary Bush.  Gordon Eustice was known for his dry humor.  When he was a young lawyer, (now) Justice Panelli of the California Supreme Court once tried a case against Gordon Eustice, after which Panelli remarked he wanted to go to medical school.  Gordon was also John’s sponsor in the Los Altos Rotary Club.

John concluded by telling us that he likes this Club because the members do great things and unexpected things.
 

Special Talk
Ginny Lear introduced a special talk from guest Wayne Johnson, visiting from the Rotary Club of San Miguel, El Salvador.  Wayne is a fourth generation Rotarian from Woodstock, New York.  He majored in Latin American Studies at the University of Virginia.  He has twice been President of the Rotary Club of Kingston, New York.  Wayne also received a Rotary Foundation Grant to built water filtration in the homes of Salvadorans.
 
Wayne greeted our club and gave us some additional background about his involvement with the Rotary Foundation.  Wayne served as the Youth Exchange Chair in his Rotary District for three years, and is visiting Santa Clara County as part of the Partners in Service Program.  Rotary International has been in El Salvador since 1921.  When Wayne moved there, he chose the club that had the most Rotary Foundation projects during their history. 

Examples of the projects that Wayne has been involved in is a grant for $12,000 to fund simple hernia surgery for indigents – all done at national hospitals; an annual fundraiser to supply stocked backpacks for school children; and a grant to ask Clubs to sponsor an English-Spanish Dictionary.  Wayne explained that when The Rotary Foundation provides a grant, they like to see financial participation from the community, and gave the example of a poor community turning out to help build a nursery school. 

Wayne is proud of his program that provided 1,800 water filters in people’s homes in El Salvador.  It is clear Wayne loves El Salvador and continues to do wonderful work there.  We are fortunate that Wayne took the time to share his experiences with our club in advance of the Avenues of Service meeting.
 

Presentation
TAYLOR ROBINSON introduced the speakers for today:  KATIE TAMONY and JANET BISHOP of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.  Janet is the curator of painting and sculpture for the SFMOMA.  Katie is the Director of Marketing and Communications.  Janet and Katie are overseeing the SFMOMA project in Los Altos and at the Cantor Museum on the Stanford Campus.  As most everyone knows by now, SFMOMA is close to engaging in a massive expansion project, to reopen in 2016.  There are two parts to the museum’s effort to showcase work in local communities, including Los Altos, while it is being renovated. 

One part is based on the permanent collection, such as the fabulously popular piece by Mark Rothko.  This includes exhibits such as 100 Years of Art currently showing at the Contemporary Jewish Museum, a ten month long presentation of the Matisse collection, and an exhibit at the Cantor museum entitled Flesh and Metal: Body and Machine in Early 20th Century Art.

Then there is the second part, which includes non-traditional format artworks, such as the painting at the corner of Fourth and State Streets.  Other works will be shown in Lincoln Park, City Hall and Downtown.  These include nine contemporary artists, seven new commissions, and a work by a former art teacher at Los Altos High School.

The key audiences for the exhibits are local and regional, the tech community, families, art enthusiasts, and current SFMOMA members.  There will be a media outreach campaign that includes National journals such as the Atlantic and Wall Street Journal, as well as regional newspapers and magazines, blogs, and general interest publications.  The media outreach efforts will be most pronounced in November and June.  After meeting with LAVA, they found that postcards are a very successful way to reach the Los Altos Community and you may have noticed the colorful postcards in your mail announcing the SFMOMA local exhibits.  They are also creating a video for people to share which will feature 20 artists showcasing their individual stories. 

Needless to say, Janet and Katie were very excited about the efforts to showcase new and exciting art in various formats in Los Altos.  They assured us this effort is getting national attention and will hopefully bring people to our community to see the wonderful art and enjoy Los Altos during their visit.  We can look forward to November’s media push, and enjoy the artwork in our community as SFMOMA does its expansion.  Thank you, Katie and Janet, for your time in visiting our club to share information about your efforts. 

Frank von Diggelen "Global Positioning System"

Dr. Frank van Diggelen is a Senior Technical Director for Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) at Broadcom. He is also a consulting Professor at Stanford University where he teaches a graduate course on GPS.

He has been doing navigation his entire career. At the age of 19 he became a navigation officer in the South African Navy before going on to college.

Dr. van Diggelen is the inventor of coarse-time GNSS navigation, co-inventor of Long Term Orbits for A-GNSS, and holds 69 issued US patents on A-GNSS.  Dr. van Diggelen was the winner of the ION Thurlow Award for “the outstanding contribution to the science of navigation” in 2011. He is the author of “A-GPS: Assisted GPS, GNSS, and SBAS”, the first text-book on A-GPS; now available in Chinese.

He has a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Cambridge University, England.