Los Altos Rotary Club Home of the Annual Rotary Fine Art Show May 1, 2014

On this first day of May, the weather was beautiful and Rotarians were wearing spring clothes to match the 90- degree weather.

Ready to offer a fine Rotarian greeting to members were three Rotarian red shirts loaded with energy. It was KATHLEEN NICKOLL’s first time greeting, BRANDON SMITH’s second time and CINDY BOGARD- O’GORMAN’S fifth time saying hello to the guests.

Waiting to pay for the cost of the lunch ($20) was a long line with Cashier PP WYATT ALLEN trying to speed up the line.

Luncheon also had a long line with a surprise entree. After the rolls and salad, a big tray of a hot seafood dish made with salmon, shrimp, peas and carrots in a clam juice base, was ready to be poured over rice.

At 12:15 sharp, we heard the usual “Welcome to the finest Rotary Club in the land” by our President JACK KELLY. We only have to hear that 8 more times before the Kick-Out.

Norman Cousin’s Anatomy of an Illness as perceived by the patient was the thought for the day. It produced  “hearty laughter internal without going outdoors.”  delivered by JOAN ROSELLE.

BARBARA SMALL was our song leader with an old ditty we all knew. ‘Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah” an old Disney tune from a movie which brightened an already bright sunny day.

PE KENDRA GJERSETH was looking to introduce visiting Rotarians and found none but was lucky with our Rotarians with guests;

GARY MAGGARD introduced his wife Sandy Mingia.

President JACK KELLY introduced Gigi Kubursi and Michael Hensley from First Republic Bank, acknowledging them for hosting a good share of LARC committee meetings in First Republic's community room over the past many years.

Announcements:

PE KENDRA GJERSETH  brought to attention that next week’s Rotary will be the Partners for New Generations luncheon and those who are non-eating Rotarians should sit on the sidelines. Kendra also mention the fun you could have at the upcoming Rotary U.

KATHY LERA said anyone interested in becoming a “greeter” should sign the clipboard being passed around. Also give everybody a chance for this very social opportunity and only sign up for one slot.

JUDY OTT announced PP ROY LAVE was in the hospital for a planned procedure and is now home again.

HARRY PRICE announced the May 9 wine and cheese social at DICK BLANDING’S house. HARRY also reminded the  audience of the Paul McCartney songfest at Candlestick Park.  It seems that group tickets are not attainable.  So be alert and buy your ticket as soon as they are available for sale.

DAVID SMITH mentioned a LAREF Board meeting would be held at 5 today.

PP TRACIE MURRAY said we need more people to volunteer for the Art Show, particularly for traffic and shuttling duties.

HARN SOPER, Director of the Art Show, said everything was going fine and it will be a “ton of fun.”

PP MARY PROCHNOW announced the DUDE ANGIUS scholarship is now over $25,000 which is 50% of the $50,000 goal. The dedication will be Saturday May 3 in the L.A Gym at 3: p.m. Speeches will be short but Dude’s remarks will be given four times more time.

PEN JERRY MOISON reminded everyone of the LARC Golf Day and Poker Night at Shoreline Golf Links in Mountain View Friday June 13.  JERRY, displaying his yellow pants and handy belt buckle, gave us a remarkable demonstration on “How to mark your balls.”

FRANK VERLOT reminded us about the help to support Mothers with Aids and Child Aids Prevention in Nepal. Raffle tickets are on every table. Tickets are $5 each of five tickets for $20.

President JACK KELLY  thanked the audience for a meeting without a cell phone going off. BUT, Jack then fined MIKE SPENCE $50 for his cell phone screeching out two weeks ago.

STAN SCARDINO  announced they have sold out of the Emergency Back Packs for the Red Badge program. All 100 backpacks were sold, the last at a church social.  Congratulations and well done, Red Badgers!

STAN SCARDINO’S TEN-MINUTE TALK:

Stan was born in Houston, Texas in 1947 as a 3rd generation Texan.  Growing up was fun with scouting and his first car. He played the sax in a marching band and surfed the waves in Galveston.

Marriage brought a change in his life with a young child but several years later he had a new wife who is with him today.

When you are Italian, family is important but so is work and Stan spent 40 years in high technology. He spent years with Tymshare and later with Tandem. After working a couple of years in Houston with different companies he returned to Los Altos and is now involved with Collabworks.  

Stan’s last remarks were “Life is a study in balancing with faith, family and work. He is looking forward to less with work and balancing that with his future involvement in Rotary.

Fine Master:

PE JERRY MOISON took the podium and immediately fined himself $20. It was a good day for members to join the President Club. GARY MAGGARD did, BARRY GROVES did, and so did KIMBERLY COPHER.

MIKE ABRAMS announced that Los Altos Live, the talent show raised $7,000 for the organization and he fined $20 for himself.  After a slight discussion LOUIE BOREL paid $50.on another Rotarian's behalf.  Final Fine was STEVE POMEROY for $20.

Today’s Main Speaker:

After an introduction by RON LABETICH, today’s informative speaker was one of our own members: STEPHEN WU.

Steven is a partner with the law firm Cooke, Kobrick & Wu and advises clients on a wide range of technology and business law matters. His talk today covered the accelerating advances in technology and the medical snooping into personal records.

As Steven expressed, there can be elephants in the room and the fiasco at Target Stores may cost them over 2 billion dollars before it is over. 

Much of the world’s communication flows through the United States and we put a lot of private info on the Internet and it is always there and hard to remove.  There is a daily occurrence of medical record snooping into personal medical records.

Stephen discussed drones delivering packages, driverless cars by 2020  and new watches through the technologies we have today that we may see in our lifetime.  The technologies are here today in many areas and they are baby steps today for the future. 

Another example of technologies, Stephen discussed 3D printing of metal parts that will become more popular and in time, may even be able to print organs for the body.

In another discussion, Stephen mentioned nanotechnology that can promote medical procedures.

Stephen closed his talk on the year 2045. The year man becomes immortal. People in science are prepared for this coming change and collectively: “What does it mean to be really you?”  Be prepared for the coming change when there is a merger of life science information.

This Thursday's Program:

Dave Snow and Sally Meadows - Partners for New Generations Luncheon