Los Altos Rotary Club Home of the Annual Rotary Fine Art Show June 12 2014

It’s another beautiful spring day and Thursday 12:15 is approaching for Los Altos Rotarians. It’s their obligation to go to the “Finest Rotary Club in all the land,” because the short-term president said so.

Entering the lobby I wasn’t sure whom to confront because only two of the three greeters had badges. Leader of the greeting trio was MARV PATTERSON sans badge, but I did shake hands with official pinned greeters GREG DABB and RAE HOLT. The club needs a couple more official greeter badges.

At 12:16 President JACK KELLY exercised his gavel and after a short salute to our national emblem, BONNIE BURDETT led us with encouragement for our San Francisco Giants baseball team that has lost three consecutive games. BONNIE’S song was “Take me out to the Ball Game” but it didn’t sound too convincing for the Giants.

With Father’s Day this coming Sunday, ALISON SALISBURY paid reverence to the man of the house. She read so fast it was hard to determine. So here is another quote for Father’s Day: “I think my mom put it best when she said little girls soften their daddy’s hearts.”

PE KENDRA GJERSETH, our next President just returned from Australia and the 2014 Rotary Convention and her comments were: “Sydney was great, there were 18,000 people at the convention and the speakers were great. There are a lot of Rotarian workers in this world and you could see many of those workers at the convention.”

Visiting Rotarians:  Two guests introduced themselves from the Cupertino Rotary Club as well as one guest from the Palo Alto Club.

Rotarians with Guests: RANDY GARD introduced his wife, Lara Pai.

Announcements:
PP JOHN SYLVESTER said the Kick Out lunch committee was to meet after today’s meeting to rate their mischievous events and brush up on the humor. Hope the meeting proved to be positive.

RON LABETICH commented the Veteran’s committee was meeting this Thursday.

KATHY LERA reminded us the next wine and cheese party will be held at CHUCK and Ilona LINDAUER’s house. Bring food and good bottles of wine.

JUDY OTT provided good news on BILL MOISON: He is now home from the hospital.

SANDY WHIPPLE: “It is end of the year time and any receipts you want money for get them in before the end of the month.”

NANCY DUNAWAY commented on the Art and Wine Festival. She needs 400 volunteers for the entire event, but specifically she needs Rotarians help with staffing the Chef Chu’s chicken salad booth from which the proceeds benefit our Club.

KATHY BERRY: A reminder the Relay for Life will be held this Saturday.

LINA BROYDO mentioned the opportunity to visit the new 49er stadium on August 8 and 20, noon to 2 p.m.   Twenty people can pay $25 for the privilege and she will make it happen.

NEW BLUE BADGERS:

Membership Director JOHN MORDO introduced new blue badgers into the club today; NELS BURDETT was made an “Honorary Blue Badger” with his daughter BONNIE BURDETT accompanying him. 

BRANDON SMITH was given his Blue Badge with sponsors RON PACKARD and DENNIS YOUNG. DEBORAH PENDER received her Blue Badge and was sponsored by BONNIE BURDETT.

Not present, but included in the ceremony, NEIL BONKE received his blue badge and will be honored at a later date.

DISTRICT GOVERNOR PRESENTATION:
Arriving after the meeting started District Governor ANGIE HASSLER came with thanks and commentary for the fantastic year the Los Altos Rotary had and under the leadership of President JACK KELLY and the Board of Directors.

“I think about the recipients of the work we do in Rotary and I came to provide a Presidential Citation to the Los Altos Rotary Club, and note it is with distinction,” said the District Governor.

MATT CABOT also received a certificate award as a District Service Award for Web Master.

THE ROTARY ART SHOW:
Show Director HARN SOPER provided information on the recent Rotary Art in the Park show and commented: It was a great Art Show.”

The revenues were down a small percentage and expenses were higher with larger expenses. We also had to make room for the free speech people and they took some of the spaces.
We had several changes from previous years such as lowering the number of artists and raising the fees. The sponsorships were lower this year and we will try to amend that next year.
The result: “We made $1 more than last year’s take. In 2013 the total revenue was $101,810 and in 2014 the revenue was $101,811.” SOPER said.

LAREF (Los Altos Rotary Endowment Fund) ANNUAL REPORT
The LAREF mission is the management of contributions received by the Rotary Club. The largest is the receipts from the Art Show and that sets 70% of the LAREF budget.

President DAVE SMITH said we give out all the money that comes in and our sources this Rotary Year totaled $112,890. This spring we awarded $17,450 out of that amount to our community organizations in LAREF’s second of two funding seasons.

SMITH commented as of March 31, the portfolio balance totaled $629,437. This year to date the investment portfolio has increased $40,000. 

PEN JERRY MOISON said the Los Altos Rotary Club since 2001 has donated $1.26 million to local community organizations.

The 13 organizations in the community provided their thanks and acknowledgement of the LAREF donations awarded this Spring were:

Vicki Amon-Higa	Sonja Palmer	Nancy Couperus
Animal Assisted Happiness	Music for Minors	Westwind 4H
Maria Reyes	John DeLoach	JOE EYRE
YWCA	Ye Olde Town Band	Block Action Team (BAT)
GaryLandis	Elizabeth Medina	Claire McMurty
Los Altos Stage Company	Community Service Agency	Viva Verde Nature Education
Carla Dorow	Candace Stark	Bonnie Stearns
Friends of Deer Hollow	Living Classroom	SV Quilts for Kids
	Andrea Temkin
	Peninsula Symphony

Judy C. Miner has been president of Foothill College in Los Altos Hills, California since July 1, 2007. She has worked as a higher education administrator since 1977 and in the California Community Colleges since 1979 where she has held numerous administrative positions in student services and instruction at City College of San Francisco, the California Community Colleges Chancellor's Office, and De Anza College.
 
She earned her B.A., summa cum laude, in history and French at Lone Mountain College in San Francisco; her M.A. in history at that same college; and her Ed.D. in organization and leadership (with a concentration in education law) from the University of San Francisco.  She also holds an honorary A.S. from Imperial Valley College.