Los Altos Rotary Club Home of the Annual Rotary Fine Art Show January 23 2014

Push to Name New Gym in Honor of Rotarian Dude Anguis
MEL KAHN has deep feelings for fellow Rotarian and well-known coach and high school athletics director DUDE ANGUIS.   Mel asked members to support his effort to name the new gym at Los Altos High School after Dude.  A contingent of Rotarians and community members will present the idea to the School Board this Tuesday and Mel invited members to participate.  I can think of no better way to honor Dude as one of the most inspirational and insightful members of our community and Rotary.  Thanks to Mel and his team for the effort to recognize Dude! 

President JACK KELLY was a little late starting the meeting.  He didn't chime in until almost 12:17.  Then he went right to work on the "Best Rotary Club in All the Land," by calling on STEVE ANDERSON to lead the pledge. 
 

Doing a good turn daily
 
BILL BALSON exposed everyone to a little history lesson.  Did you know the Boy Scout motto "Do a Good turn daily," was started in 1910?  Yep.  Bill was kind enough to share the background:  The motto is instructed to Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts of all ages and is a crucial aspect of teaching leadership and character skills in youth development. 
 
This is the motto of the Boy Scouts and the Girl Scouts.  But what does it really mean and is it relevant today?
 
The origin can be traced back to similar concepts.  “One Good Turn deserves another” has its roots in early American history and goes back to at least the 1600s in English literature; “quid pro quo”, or this for that, was used by the Romans; and versions of the Golden Rule, or “one should treat others as one would like to be treated”, has roots in the earliest religious beliefs. 
 
Another phrase made popular with the movie “Pay it Forward” is a contractual term from the 1700’s used to define repayment of a debt, not to the original lender, but by funding a similar person and/or venture so that the act of funding helps successive generations. Today, a phrase coined in the early 1980’s “Random Acts of Kindness” has also become part of popular culture.  In the 2007 movie, “Evan Almighty”, God tells Evan that the way to change the world is by doing one Act of Random Kindness ("ARK") at a time.
 
Rotary adopted a version with the phrase "He Profits Most Who Serves Best" at its first convention in 1910.  In 1950, the motto “Service Above Self” was added and in 1989 this altruistic motto was made our primary motto.
 
Curiously, economists, biologists and psychologists who began studying altruism in the 1940s cannot reach agreement about the nature, motives, or benefits of altruism.  However, two recent studies** suggest that giving to others before self makes us happy and being happy makes us want to give more, creating a kind of positive feedback loop.
 
The Good Turn is really a philosophy of living, of which service to others becomes the key.  Children are not born to think this way.  They must be taught and nurtured to embody this into their everyday life. 
 
The motto is instructed to Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts of all ages and is a crucial aspect of teaching leadership and character skills in youth development.  As such, it is a process of education and can only be accomplished with careful planning and by presenting the matter again and again under all sorts of circumstances. It’s estimated that several million service hours are performed each year by Boy Scouts as a direct result of this motto.  In the local area, several tens of thousands of service hours are performed each year directly benefiting local environmental, religious, education, and charity causes.
 
You never have to look for good turns, they find you…but only if you have your eyes open and your mind ready to see them.
 
Thanks to Bill for the research and history lesson.

"I Scored it My Way"
Sinatra he's not, but he's our guy President-Elect-Nominee JERRY MOISON, trying his best to follow in the footsteps of "Old Blue Eyes," scored it his way.  In a personal tribute song to the maestro, Jerry crafted a sad musical tale of having the blues on the greens.  He can't sing, but with a little help from Rotary friends, he scored it his way!
 
Intros and Announcements
President-elect KENDRA GJERSETH scored it her way and introduced visiting Rotarians and guests including Alden Cunningham from Carlyle, PA; Monique Kane, of Mountain View Rotary and Natasha, from St. Petersburg Russia, Rotary.  Natasha is a founding member of that club.
 

Next Week:
Author Juilian Guthrie will speak on the "The Billionaire and the Mechanic," about the rise of Oracle, and her new book about the incredible come-from behind victory of the America's Cup Oracle racing team.

Neil Bronke Introduced as World's Newest Rotarian
Membership Committee Chair JEAN MORDO welcomed the newest member to Rotary.  New Red Badger NEIL BRONKE was sponsored by President Jack.  Neil and wife Karen are Los Altans who split time between here and Tahoe.  They have four grandchildren.  Neil and Karen came to California in 1987 where Neil was involved in high tech business and the launch of a successful IPO.  Of course, Kendra recognized Neil for $25 during her stint as fine mistress to welcome him in Rotarian style.   Neil said he really appreciated that Rotarians have reached out to him.  Great to have you Neil!
 

Cioppino Feed 3-7-2014
Mark your calendars to the Annual Cioppino Feed.  Don't miss out on JOE RENATI'S and DAVE LUEDTKE'S (Honorary Member) excellent secret sauce.  Past President TRACIE MURRAY reminded everyone that Cioppino is a fish or crab stew originating in San Francisco.  It is considered an Italian-American dish, and is related to various regional fish soups and stews of Italian cuisine.
 
Tracie said she needs a few more sponsors for the event as well as donations for the silent auction.  She now has $2100 of the $5,000 goal.  All proceeds go to the scholarship fund at Foothill College, which also helps Veterans.  Contact RON LABETICH or Tracie if you can support the cause or would like to donate to the auction.  Look for fliers in your email.
 
Support for Haiti School; Art in the Park; Golf Tourney
DONNA VERNA, standing in for BARBARA SMALL announced that Sunday was the Los Altos High School sister school project at First and Main in Los Altos from 2-4:30 p.m.  The school is our Rotary project in Haiti, still recovering from the disastrous earthquake.
 
Donna also announced that Art in Park is about 25 percent of its way to sponsorship goal.  Contact Donna or HARN SOPER to join in sponsoring our own Rotary Art in the Park. 

 
STEVE SHEPHERD took the mike and encouraged golfers to play in the Rotary District Golf Tourney on April 10, 2014 at Cinnabar Hills.  Just $160 gets you green fees, range balls, lunch and dinner.  What a deal!  Time to defend our (former) title. Contact: johnguisto@me.com or call 408-821-7563 to register.

WCS Lights the Way
ALLART LIGTENBERG invites everyone to participate in the World Service Committee.  The group meets the fourth Tuesday of the month at First Republic Bank at 8 a.m. Plans are in the works for Child Aids Prevention in Africa, projects in the Yucatan, Nepal, Haiti, Sumba, Guatemala and others.  Red Badgers are encouraged to attend.
 

Fine Fine Mistress
She's warming to her role.  President-elect Kendra loves the microphone, especially when she can wield it as a wand of power!  Today she used it to extract fines from NEIL BONKE, JACK HEIDMILLER, TOM POWERS, RAE HOLT, DAVE SMITH, DICK DUHRING, BILL MOISON, STAN SCARDINO, JOHN SYLVESTER and PAT GREY.  Nice job, Kendra!
 

LAREF DOLES CASH TO WORTHY PROGRAMS
DAVE SMITH, President of LAREF, explained it this way.  The Los Altos Rotary Club, LARC, raises money at Art in the Park.  Los Altos Rotary Endowment Fund, LAREF, gives the money away during two annual grant cycles. 

Grant committee chair JERRY MOISON said that 100 percent of the money received by LAREF is given away to worthy projects in our community.
 

This grant cycle, Jerry presented awards to the following groups who had representatives present to accept them:
 

1. Breast Cancer Connections, Karen Nelson, cancer support.
2. Child Advocates, Jeannie Connor, advocates for foster children at court.
3. Mountain View-Los Altos Scholars, Candice Lubin, making college affordable.
4. Westwind, Myra Hamilton, horse therapy for handicapped.
5. Just Read, Alison Kibrick remedial reading program
6. Mountain View Foothill DAnza Foundation, Alexandra Duran
7. Kara, Jim Santucci, grief and loss counseling for youth
8. CHAC, Monique Kane, for mental health counseling at schools.
9. Day Worker Center, Maria Marroquin, connects workers with employers.
10. Next Door Solutions, Donna Newton, domestic violence support.
11. Tech Treck, Vicki Reader, supporting girls for Stanford science and technology camp.
12. ALearn, Carol Falherty, math tutoring for disadvantaged.
13. Sky's The Limit Fund, Rochelle Bochner, serving extremely at-risk kids with wilderness programs.
14. Penninsula Health Care, Carol Garsten accepting for Joanna Carey, primary health care clinic in Palo Alto.

President Jack closed the meeting by thanking the organizations we support for the great work they do in our community.  He reminded everyone that each of has a role to play in raising the money for these programs at the Fine Art in the Park show coming up in May.  Another great meeting of the Los Altos Rotary led by our gracious President Jack "Bloomer" Kelly. Salute!

 Julian Guthrie is a journalist with the San Francisco Chronicle, who
has won numerous awards, including the Best of the West Award and the
Society of Professional Journalists' Public Service  Award. Her
feature writing and enterprise reporting have been nominated
multiple times for the Pulitzer Prize.
 
Her articles have also been published by the Wall Street Journal
Salon.com, San Francisco Magazine, Forbes FYI, The Huffington
Post, and Conde Nast Traveler. The Grace of Everyday
Saints: How a Band of Believers Lost Their Church and Found Their Faith,
published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt in 2011, was her first
nonfiction book.
 
Ms. Guthrie's book The Billionaire and the Mechanic: How Larry
Ellison and a Car Mechanic Teamed Up to Win Sailing's Greatest
Race, The America's Cup was published in 2011 by Grove/Atlantic
and is a national best seller.