Los Altos Rotary Club Home of the Annual Rotary Fine Art Show December 19 2013

The Upside-Down Meeting in All Ways

Fortunately for me this was an upside-down meeting, getting my pen out late.  The Program for the day was presented at the beginning of the meeting, and Thought for the Day at the end. 

PROGRAM The program was the ever magical Mountain View High School Madrigals.  I am guessing there were about 40 young men and women to entertain us, plus the accompanist and Director. 
As I sat there eating my meal, I felt disrespectful eating, and not giving my full attention to these wonderful young people.  I tried to keep my fork scraping to a minimum.  As usual they went through a program of Christian, Jewish, folk and “general,” for a better word, selections. 

Several female soloists brought the house down, and they left with an appreciative audience giving them a standing ovation.
 

REMAINDER OF THE MEETING President JACK KELLY then proceeded with the remainder of the meeting, in reverse order. 

FINING  I picked up the meeting during PP CYNTHIA LUEDTKE’s stint as The bitter and slighted  MS. Clause who never gets any credit.  While not as mean as she originally made out to be, she was passionate in extracting money from already strapped Christmas shoppers.  Some just gave up and joined the President’s Club.  GARY HARTWELL and RON PACKARD to name two.  There may have been others who joined, but I was trying to understand the “jokes” (quotes deliberate) she dug up.  Santa’s nationality- North Polish???  Santa’s helpers are Elf-Insured????  Ms. LUEDTKE seemed to understand them, us, not so much, almost prompting the ever-present HOOK! 

One of the things I have learned over the years about Cynthia, and a very few others, you will entertain the crowd if you are willing to make a fool of yourself.   Remember the curtain rods across the shoulders?  I say this with great admiration.  Ninety percent of us are unwilling to do that, myself included particularly.   Good job Cynthia.  BTW, PEN JERRY MOISON called her “Cindy” and got fined $10, so try not to make that mistake. 

Others that got fined were, PAUL GONELLA, KURT HUEG (for showing up – Foothill must be on vacation), GARY LANDIS JOHN MCDONNELL, ALLISON SALISBERY, and our own president, JACK. They were all given a “joke” again, quotes deliberate, then asked what they were doing special for Christmas.  From the answers, it appears that this is going to be a very normal Christmas, unless of course it snows. 

TEN MINUTE TALK - JEFF BAIER took to the microphone to show us a glimpse of himself and his family.  I wish all ten minute talks were video-taped for members who don’t make the meetings could listen and see them.  Personally I think we should tape them, put them on our website. 
JEFF is Superintendent of the Los Altos School District, is married to Stacy, together, having three children Zachary, Andrew (deceased) and Daniel.  He spoke about growing up in the South Bay, Redwood City, and Menlo Park and finely” to the country”, Los Altos. 

He recalled his parents paid $28,550 for their home in Los Altos back then, and that caused many a pork and beans dinner over the first years.  In fact he revealed that there were sometimes just beans. 

His early childhood memories of playing in homes in the neighborhood under construction, collecting the plug steel circles that came out of the junction boxes, and trying them in coke machines (as a lot of my friends and I did as well).  That BTW is why all coke machines, and public phones now have magnets to collect this sort of thing.  He and his brother graduated from St. Simon and St. Francis.

He began a life-long interest in working with kids.  He met his wife at a baseball game where the two of them officiated and had discussions regarding the rules.  They both headed to San Diego, him to San Diego State and Stacy to University of San Diego. 

His son Andrew was born with a missing a chromosome, and was developmentally disabled from birth.  He died a few years ago.  But he left a life-long legacy of unconditional love that his whole family learned. 

JEFF’s family loves the warm waters of Hawaii and particularly the Caribbean.  He says the long trip it takes to get there is definitely worth the effort.  As a family they like to take the “Path less Traveled.”  Welcome to Rotary, JEFF!

ANNOUNCEMENTS - The announcements were as backward as the meeting.  I think there was only one.  But during the second half of the meetings there were a number of them tucked into different parts of the meeting.  For example:  During the fining,  Joy from San Jose East Evergreen got up and announced the Elefante Blanco (White Elephant to us gringos) Thrift Boutique at 1343 The Alameda in San Jose. 

This thrift shop is one of many service projects of East Evergreen Rotary.   She paid to announce that the Elefante Blanco is open year-round to accept any used goods you would like to donate and proceeds go to important international projects.

TED SORENSON mentioned during the fining about “Los Altos Prepare.”  Los Altos Prepare is a part of the Los Altos Community Foundation.  It is a volunteer group of Los Altos citizens who have organized to prepare for a natural disaster that they hope never comes.  The foundation of their group is a program called the Block Action Team (BAT).  They are currently recruiting BAT leaders and hope that Rotary members will volunteer and or talk with friends and colleagues who might be interested in volunteering as BAT leaders. 

The goal is to have the BAT leaders identified by January 29th when the first leadership meeting will be held.  Apply on line at losaltosbat.org or request an application via email at info@losaltosbat.org
 

AN AFTER MEETING ANNOUNCEMENT - This year PP ROY LAVE has decided to combine our monthly Satellite meeting (normally breakfast) and our DARK Meeting (normally luncheon at Chef Chu’s between Christmas and New Year’s) into one meeting.  Our January monthly Satellite Meeting will be held on Tuesday, Jan 7, at noon at Chef Chu’s. 

Please sign up for this event.  There is usually a 20 member limitation.  The meal will cost $20 per person. 

PRESIDENT JACK KELLY mentioned that the Board Nominating Committee is looking for prospective board members.  Please contact JACK with your suggestions. 

President JACK also gave a Christmas gift to the catier,Donald and his wait staff. 

VISITING ROTARIANS AND GUESTS - PE KENDRA GJERSETH introduced visiting Rotarians (1) and Guests (8).  She also mentioned that we will be DARK the next two weeks for Christmas and New Year’s.  Our next meeting will be on January 9th which will be a Club Assembly.  Prizes will be awarded.

She then led the group in our traditional Christmas song: “The Twelve Days of Christmas.” sung by table (well, 12 of the 14 tables.)  She said the table with the best rendition of what was given would get a prize.  Table 5 won, hands down. Table 5 always wins.  From my perspective, table 8 lost. 

Then President JACK and DAVE SMITH did some ditty which I didn’t get and the meeting was over.

Merry Christmas everyone, and a Happy and Prosperous New Year to all!