Los Altos Rotary Club Home of the Annual Rotary Fine Art Show March 20 2014

Spring has sprung and only two greeters welcomed Rotarians today in the vestibule of the Garden House. Those official greeters were STEVE POMEROY and HARRY PRICE.

Inside the main chamber, KAREN OWEN manipulated the cash box before Rotarians and guests approached their weekly buffet. The line was long today but I noticed after the salad tray there were several trays of assorted sandwiches that included a roast beef sandwich to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day and Italian wedding soup with assorted cookies.

At 12:15 sharp, President JACK KELLY announced the club is still “The finest in all the land”  and had RICH CASEY lead us in a salute to the flag and PAUL GONELLA provided Albert Einstein’s philosophy on life as our Thought for the Day….

“A man’s ethical behavior should be based effectually on sympathy, education, social ties and needs; no religious basis is necessary. There is nothing divine about mortality, it is a purely human affair.”

Without his guitar or banjo, RON STEFANI wanted us to be blessed and we all sang “God Bless America.”

Introductions:
PE KENDRA GJERSETH asked for visiting Rotarians and Phil Shemanski of the San Jose big club was given a big hello.

Rotarians with guests were: BARBARA SMALL, PAT FARRELL, CHUCK LINDAUER, and PP BOB ADAMS.

KENDRA mentioned next weeks speaker would be Frederick Marx of Warrior Films.

Announcements:
PP JOHN SYLVESTER, in his final PP role, will be spearheading the Kick Out for President JACK KELLY in June.  He needs imaginative help for the luncheon and volunteers should be “mean spirited.” See John to participate in a hilarious exit for our present but soon to be past, President JACK KELLY.

FRANK ELMER mentioned the mock interviews for High School students next week and ALAN VARNI mentioned the WCS meeting being held next Tuesday morning at 8:00 AM at First Republic Bank.

PP TRACIE MURRAY announced results for the successful Cioppino Feed which garnered $21,000 profit to go for veteran’s scholarships. The members thanked TRACIE and her hard-working committee especially RON LABETICH for his dedication to the Foothill College program.

PP BOB ADAMS brought to attention the Challenge Team will award Scott Vermeer, Mountain View police chief for their annual award on May 7 at 8: a.m.

PP ROY LAVE mentioned the next satellite meeting would be held at the Jesuit Center April 1. Roy said they talk about a lot of things and a lot are trial balloons for Rotary action. Sign up early the next meeting will be a big one. Starts at 8:00 A.M. and costs $15.00.

PP SAM HARDING mentioned a new youth program called ELC Conference that he attended with ARLEY MARLEY. It’s a 3-day program for leadership with kids where entrepreneurial ideas are expressed and awarded.

Anyone wishing to go to Australia for the International Rotary meeting should see ROY JONES for directions and travel dates.

10-Minute Talk: Tina Pierce
Completing her last requirement as a Red Badger before becoming a blue badger, Southern Belle TINA PIERCE presented her life before us on a slide screen show.

Born in Albany, Georgia on farmland, TINA is of English and Scottish heritage. Her father built a pool at the house for the kids because then you know where they are: in the pool!
Tina went to Agnes Scott College in Atlanta and as a graduation gift her parents provided her with flying lessons.  She has a certificate to prove it!   Her summer was spent working at Disney World in Florida.

Married at the age of 20, she spent her first winter in Rochester, NY and graduated from Rochester Institute of Technology.  After Rochester the family moved to Fort Worth and later moved to Brisbane, Australia in 1986 and lived there for 7 years before she moved again.

Then living in Boulder, Colorado, Tina spent her 50th birthday on Summitt Ave in Boulder. Today she has lots of free time looking at sunsets and traveling. She spent part of 2013 in Paris and she finally completed her red badger checklist.

Recognition:
Fine master GREG DABB presided today in an attempt to get late money from tardy Rotarians and achieve membership in the President Club. To become a member of the President’s Club they contribute $100 to the cause.  But he was just looking for people to get to the half-way mark.

Volunteers presided today with their own escapades. The following contributed to the Rotary touch:

STEVE YARBROUGH, SAM PESNER, GEORGE STAFFORD, LEW FRASER, GARY BROWN, BILL BALSON, MATT CABOT, PAT FARRELL, HARRY PRICE, TED SORENSON, BILL MOISON and JOAN ROSSELLE.

Guest Speaker:
PP BOB ADAMS introduced our guest speaker, Bill Coleman and his contributions to Silicon Valley corporations. Best known as an executive CEO at BEA Systems, he currently is a partner with Alsop Louie Partners, a Silicon Valley venture capital firm.
Bill Coleman’s topic was Cyber Security and what can you do about it, stating, “Today we are not in a good situation. The Internet is not being used in the most secure way, which allows criminals to act with impunity as they obtain our personal information”.   

“Our threats are escalating because the attacks to our system work at network speed while our response is at human speed,” Bill said. “Anything can be hacked with electronic mail, the most prominent, but it can also include thumb drives and printers.”

The bad guys are well organized and they spend more money and are protected by law with little reason to fear attribution. Cyber crime has cost us $100 billion in 2012, and the leading threat in the world is Russia who is well funded and believed to be in collusion with the Russian government. 
The types of cyber attacks are either polymorphic which are the most prevalent, Spear Phishing, because people are easier and APTS (Advanced Persistent Threats).

What can we do as individuals?
Keep our devices physically secure, Use strong passwords or use a password management system. At home, consider changing your ISP service provider. Use security software or a comprehensive package update to scan and flex. Keep the system current and automatically update.
On a personal level we should:
-        Use a separate credit card for the computer.
-        Never use a debit card.
-        Never give out financial information

In addition,
_Adjust your browser preferences
_Pay close attention to URL’s
_Only open documents you trust,
_Only browse safe sites.

Each week we have guest speakers that provide information on different subjects, but today’s speaker Bill Coleman provided useful information for every one in the audience because we believe all Rotarians have a computer and are on the Internet for hours on end.

Frederick Marx
"Rites of Passage-Mentoring the Future"
This film, by Frederick Marx, will not only tell an inspirational story showing people exactly why ritually guided rites of passage and mentorship are necessary for all young people, it will offer the launching pad for a movement that begins right when the lights come up for communities’ to begin co-creating programs for their own youth right then and there.

Frederick Marx is an internationally acclaimed, Oscar and Emmy nominated director/writer with 35 years in the film business. He was named a Chicago Tribune Artist of the Year, a Guggenheim Fellow, and a recipient of a Robert F. Kennedy Special Achievement Award. His film HOOP DREAMS played in hundreds of theatres nationwide after winning the Audience Award at the Sundance Film Festival and was the first documentary ever chosen to close the New York Film Festival. It was on over 100 "Ten Best" lists nationwide and was named Best Film of the Year by critics Roger Ebert, Gene Siskel, Gene Shalit, and Ken Turran and by the Chicago Film Critics Association. Ebert also named it Best Film of the Decade. It is one of the highest grossing non-musical documentaries in United States history.