Los Altos Rotary Club Home of the Annual Rotary Fine Art Show October 24 2013

On a cold and misty Thursday, the only place to be is attending the Rotary Club of Los Altos.  Greeters SANDIE PREVOT, GEORGE STAFFORD and SHELLEY EMERSON immediately provided welcome warmth.

The meeting starts when President JACK KELLY hits the bell and pronounces the Los Altos Club is the finest Rotary club in the world.

Rotarian PAUL NYBERG directed us with the patriotic salute to the flag but there was no thought of the day to follow.  PP JOHN SYLVESTER led us in the song for the day titled “By the Sea”:

“By the sea. By the sea, by the beautiful sea,
You and me, you and me, oh how happy we’ll be.”

President JACK KELLY picked up the obvious vacuum with a thought for the day by Dale Carnegie.

After calling us all a rowdy bunch, PE KENDRA GJERSETH asked for visiting Rotarians to announce themselves and three Rotarians spoke up. They were the District Governor elect from Oakland, a Rotarian woman from the Seychelles Islands and a member of the San Francisco Club No. 2.

Rotarians with guests were: GARY MAGGARD, PAUL NYBERG, BONNIE BURDETTE, BILL PALMER and PE JACK KELLY.

Announcements:
PAT GRAY repeated her invite to “A Sante,” the Rotary event to celebrate and raise money for the Rotacare Clinic on November 7.   Ticket sellers will be at the Rotary meeting entrance for your convenience.

PP CYNTHIA LUEDTKE the “She’s Back, Girl” and the TRF chair want every Rotarian to assume his/her responsibility and contribute as a sustainer. She and her committee will be on you to collect if you haven’t contributed yet.  She wants to enter you in a raffle the District puts on every year and doesn’t want you to miss out.

PAUL SCHUTZ spoke about gathering ideas from LARC members on what type of Community Capital Project we can develop for our Community.  Please share your ideas with Paul.  Contact him if you have any ideas to improve the community you live in.

DUANNI HURD’S ten-minute talk:
One of the requirements of a “red badger” before they can become a full fledged Rotarian member is a ten minute talk and today DUANNI provided the history of her family dating back to her grandfather in China.

Showing us on the map of China, DUANNI was born in Wuxi, but grew up in Beijing.  Her dad said the sky is the limit through intelligence and work ethic while her Mother said you can have it all.
As a good student, DUANNI attended a Chinese school that was called the Chinese Wharton. She traveled at lot and on arriving in USA; she was working on a PhD program in the interdisciplinary program of Communication and Media Arts at the University of Arizona.

DUANNI’s life was portrayed on the screen with many pictures in China and Arizona that including her American wedding in San Francisco.

Assuming different working positions, she worked in small to medium and big companies, but enjoyed the small companies best.

Today, DUANNI owns and operates a senior care company with technology and diversity.
At 12:40 she got the hook from the President, and Membership Director JOHN MORDO took over and presented DUANNI with her blue badge after a short introduction.  And of course, he hugged DUANNI for her many accomplishments including a speedy Red to Blue Badge process. 

Guest Speaker:
As a treat to the majority of Rotarians, Ken Smith, the director of the Mobility Division at the Stanford Center on Longevity spoke about products and services that help improve the lives of today’s society’s of senior citizens.

The center focuses on impairments such as trouble remembering things, concentration and learning new things and making decisions.

Using the screen on the stage, Smith provided 15 benefits outlined on the screen that were proven by science. They went fast and unable to copy each benefit.

“How much do I have to do for exercise? Does a 10-minute walk provide benefits?
Smith referred to his favorite author of “How can I exercise better? How can I train smarter and how can I live longer? We all have questions such as can you get fit with only a few minutes of exercise on any given day? Gretchen Reynolds, columnist for the New York Times, supplies the answers with daunting regularity for Ken Smith.

Smith’s conclusion was to get the Rotary together because people need exercise after they get out of school and it is best exercising with other people.

Smith concluded by showing all the gadgets available to track your progress in exercise.

The Fining period:
PP BOB ADAMS assumed the money collection period and had members line up with memories that help pay the fines:

• DENNIS YOUNG was inspired by the Ken Smith talk and paid $70
• CHUCK LINDAUER had birthdays in his family and joined the President’s Club
• PP SAM HARDING had birthdays in the family and joined the President’s Club
• BEVERLY TUCKER recognized her family, announced she got MARRIED!, and joined the President’s Club
• Other Rotarians paying smaller amounts were:
  • SHELLY EMERSON,
  • ROLAND PAYNE,
  • BUD OLIVER,
  • JOHN SINES,
  • PP JACK HEIDMILLER
  • PP CYNTHIA LUEDTKE

Guest Speaker:
After a short introduction by LINA BROYDO, Frank van Diggelen spoke about the GPS (Global Positioning System) that intrigued numerous younger Rotarians but put some old folks to sleep because they didn’t understand the subject.

Dr. Frank van Diggelen is the senior technical director for Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) at Broadcom. He is also a consulting Professor at Stanford University where he teaches a course on GPS. He has been doing navigation his entire career.

He started out by mentioning the early beginnings of the GPS system in Russia with the Sputnik in 1957. It provided scientists with valuable information where the density of the upper atmosphere could be deduced from the drag on the orbit.

Van Diggelen commented that signals travel to earth with a time delay at a speed of light in approximately 70 milliseconds.

GPS is imbedded in our culture all over the world. There is a big future in GNSS to 2020 and beyond. GPS can get very deep; the technology is based on spread spectrum where math is deeply involved.

A book by van Diggelen is available from Amazon. The book goes into a lot of technical details but remains readable by non-engineers. It is primarily intended for GPS/GNS engineers.
After a short questions and answer period, the Rotary program was concluded early and their conversations were concluded around the box of Rotary pins in the lobby of the Garden House.

"Winchester Mystery House"

Nathan Emmett began his career at the Winchester Mystery House in 1987 as a tour guide, steadily worked his way up through the ranks, and is now the Sales Manager.   Nathan has also worked in the sales department at Bonfante Gardens Family theme park (Now Gilroy Gardens) in Gilroy, and Roaring Camp & Big Trees Narrow Gauge Railroad.

 He is one of the most knowledgeable employees at the Winchester Mystery House with a keen sense of the mistress of the estate and her beautiful, but bizarre, mansion. Nathan has presented the story on radio stations such as KLIV and KGO, and is responsible for Corporate & Hotels sales for San Jose’s #1 attraction.