THE LAMORINDAN 11-13-09

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

Strongly expressed by Ernie Furtado are these words by Dwight D. Eisenhower; "I think that people want peace so much that one of these days government had better get out of their way and let them have it."

VISITING ROTARIANS

Pate Thomson - Berkeley club
John Sherry - Noon club

GUESTS

Robbie Kunkel - Next week she will take the membership leap
Mark Weyland - Committee Chair, Cub Scout PAC 643
Steve Bauer - Cub Master, Burton Valley PAC 643
John Colman - EBMUD guest speaker

EXPRESSION OF APPRECIATION FROM PAC 643

The aforementioned Mark and Steve were here to present a special T-shirt in thanks to Dan Herbert who is our sponsoring representative to Cub Scout PAC 643. King Fazel accepted the shirt in Dan's absence. He was undoubtedly making up this meeting somewhere else in the world. We will carefully monitor the movement of the shirt, making sure it ends up on the right person. John threatens to charge an escrow fee for the shirt. Mark and Steve will be back next year to report on PAC activities.

HOW MANY TIMES DO WE NEED TO PROMOTE THIS GUY?

For the second time in two months Dominic Porrino was recognized for achieving blue badge status by Brad Davis. The first time Dominic's badge was pronounced "missing." Naturally Dominic was fined $5 for someone else's miscue and walked away still wearing the red badge. This time the blue badge was there, but Brad couldn't refrain from adding another $5 surcharge to take possession. This is a reminder of just how unreasonable some people in this irreverent group can get. Dominic did not take the bait.

A MOMENT FOR AYMERIC

For the second week in a row Aymeric's slides from preceding weeks were not available for showing. The first time the "dog ate my slides." Today there was no projector. When the slides eventually show up we will also feature Aymeric in his Elvis Presley Halloween costume. His immediate weekend plans consisted of sleeping in on Saturday and taking in a movie in San Francisco on Sunday. The following weekend is the promise of a fishing trip with three well-intentioned members who do not wish to be identified or reported on next week.

ANNUAL CHRISTMAS PARTY THURSDAY, DECEMBER 3, 6-9 PM

Jim Brencic distributed a flyer with everything we need to know about this event. There was a reminder for those bringing kids to be sure to bring a gift with their names on them so Santa can distribute them properly. Cal Lee will be providing piano entertainment and Christmas carol accompaniment to cover up the musically challenged adult songsters. The soiree will take place at the Orinda Community Church, 10 Irwin Way in Orinda. If you haven't already signed up please email your reservation request to Jim at jimb@jandparchitects.com.

HYPER ACTIVE BOARD MOVES ON MAJOR FUND RAISER

It's official! This year's major fund raiser will be a Car Show event, scheduled for Father's Day, June 20, 2010. Krysten Laine has been diligently at work developing a detailed proposal, including a detailed analysis of anticipated costs versus potential revenue. With proper execution this effort can produce an estimated net profit of $30,000. The targeted venue for the Car Show is the Postino parking lot. The Board unanimously approved the plan.

Krysten emphasized that this project will require the participation of all members. She passed out a sign-up sheet labeled with seven team categories to pull the event together.
They are the following:

1- Finance - Ernie in charge with total dictatorial control
2- Registration - Hays, team leader for show vehicles/vendors
3- Advertising and Promotion - TBD
4- Raffle Committee - TBD
5- Hospitality - Gillett to lead organization of a wine pavilion.
6- Entertainment - TBD for music/sound stage
7- Event Management - TBD for Rotaract participation, security

When we successfully pull this off it can become a signature event for the club for years to come. One of the major benefits to the club is that the revenue raised will not come primarily from our own members, as has been the case with the dinner auctions. This time the revenue will flow from participants and attendees, i.e. the ever popular OPM (Other People's Money) source! Way to go, Krysten. Now lead us on to glory.

BOARD PROVES IT CAN DO MORE THAN ONE THING AT A TIME

Hays Englehart and Joe Bettencourt brought to the Board a complete "how-to" proposal for providing home maintenance for the elderly. These two service-minded members rightly recognized that seniors have a difficult time with many common household repairs due to their physical limitations or safety issues. In some cases the cost of hiring a handyman or contractor to perform minor repair is prohibitive. There may not be any family members able or willing to assist.

Some of the repair or maintenance items include:

Replacing lightbulbs
Replacing batteries in smoke alarms
Leaky faucets
Toilet tank malfunctions
Squeaky doors and windows
Damaged or torn screens
Blown fuses
Loose handles or door pulls
Water heater temperature adjustments

The proposal is to form teams of two members, equipped with a repair kit, to perform this kind of service to the elderly on a Saturday morning, once a quarter. This activity will be coordinated by Hays and Joe who in turn will work with local organizations who can locate needy seniors. These can be local Fire Departments, Senior Centers, churches, or other groups dealing with seniors.

LMSR will prepare tool kits to be used by the teams. The tools can be donated or purchased. Items collected will be catalogued in a portable tool chest that can be transferred from vehicle to vehicle.

There is much more information available in the six-page proposal. The Board enthusiastically expressed approval. The project will kick off in January. Hays passed around the obligatory Home Team sign up sheet to get the ball rolling. Great idea Hays and Joe. Onward and upward!

ADOPT-A-FAMILY STORAGE FACILITY FOR PRESENTS

David Waal reminded members of his recent email requesting aid in locating a storage facility to store presents being collected by schools within the Lafayette community for the Adopt-A-Family program. Stanley Middle School used to do this, but not this year. Dave will be reporting more on the holiday project in later meetings.

TOM BLACK'S PHOTOGRAPHY WORKS TO BE IMMORTALIZED AT PANACHE RESTAURANT FROM NOV 15 TO MARCH 15

Tom announced the "world-premiere" showing of professional images of "Rural Americana"-barns and other bucolic structures plus "abandoned art" (mostly old, rusted pickup trucks, cars and tractors left to die in open fields). Several members originally thought that, by his description he was referring to them and their pictures which have appeared so regularly in the Newsletter. Not so!

The exhibit at Panache, located at 3653 Mt. Diablo Blvd, Lafayette (between Quiznos & 360 Burrito - near Trader Joe's) consists of one dozen pictures taken in 12 months in California, Washington, New Mexico, Maine, Massachusetts and New Hampshire. They are professionally matted and framed. All items are on sale. Tom has agreed to apply the usual Rotary surcharge for any member who has the audacity to purchase one. ed.note: this photo by Paul Fillinger is not for sale.

All kidding aside, this talented man does absolutely top-notch photography. You can visit his website atwww.tfblack,smugmug.com for these and his other great pictures from our various Rotary club meetings.

VICTORIOUS TEXAN ARRIVES IN NICK OF TIME

Charlie Franklin must read the Newsletter once in a while. He saw that Friday was the day in which the white ball would fall, and with it the contents of the Raffle purse. What to do if you are at your alternate abode deep in the heart of Texas? You saddle up the Ford and skedaddle north as fast as your lead foot can take you. You arrive dead tired on Wednesday, but able to sit up and take nourishment on Thursday, and undergo a complete recovery Friday with beaucoup bucks from the Raffle. Way to go Charlie and welcome home!

FINAL REMINDER: NEXT MEETING AT THE VETERANS CENTER, NOT POSTINO! SEMI-FINAL FINAL REMINDER: FRIDAY AFTER THANKSGIVING - NO MEETING!

PROGRAM:

John Coleman was elected to the Board of Directors of the East Bay Municipal Utility District (EBMUD) in 1990 and re-elected in '94, '98, '02 and '06, representing Ward 2, which includes the cities of Alamo, Lafayette, Danville and portions of Pleasant Hill, San Ramon and Walnut Creek. From 1996 to 2000 he served as President of EBMUD's Board of Directors. John maintains a whole host of leadership positions on various water resource boards and associations across the state. He has also served Governors Wilson and Davis as Deputy Director of External Affairs for the California Conservation Corps.

Long active in our community, John is past president of the Lafayette Chamber of Commerce. He is an Eagle Scout and is Scoutmaster of Troop 243 in Lafayette.

John began his presentation by querying the assembled masses about how many thought we are in a drought condition. Almost every hand went up. He then opined that is the problem and the reason why EBMUD is not selling enough water. He unequivocally stated that we are not in a drought condition. Because of lots of rain and snowfall last winter, coupled with EBMUD's customers using water wisely and doing a great job of conserving, we are in excellent shape.

Furthermore, due to great future planning between EBMUD and a partnership with the Sacramento Water Agency, they have designed and built a new regional water supply project that will provide water for East Bay customers in dry years and needed water for the Sacramento region. EBMUD's Mokelumne River water supply is adequate to meet the needs of the District's 1.3 million customers in normal and wet years, but in prolonged droughts, customers face severe rationing. Through the Freeport Regional Water Project, which comes on line in 2010, EBMUD's customers drought-year cutbacks will be greatly reduced.

EBMUD continues to plan ahead for population increases with a 30 year water plan to provide water supply for the District's project 1.7 million customers. The Water Supply Management Program (WSMP) 2040 is a long-term plan that will meet future water supply needs by:

1- Maximizing conservation, saving 39 million gallons a day
2- Aggressively recycling, stretching the supply by 11 million gallons a day
3- Limiting drought rationing to 15 percent
4- Developing 43 million gallons a day of additional water supplies through a combination of water transfers, groundwater storage and regional supply projects.

The remainder of John's presentation focused on the recent water bill approved by the legislature earlier in the week. It has been hailed by Governor Schwarzenegger as a long-sought breakthrough in solving California's broken water system infrastructure. John made no bones about his belief that this is a horrible bill and a bad piece of legislation out of Sacramento.

John alleges that the bill was put together in the back room behind closed doors by five people including the Governor, Assembly Leader Karen Bass, Senate President Pro Tem Darrel Steinberg and two others from southern California. Everyone else, including EBMUD, was excluded from the process. In fact, the vote was taken at 3:00 am with a 3,000 page written version of the bill still not produced.

Among other things the Peripheral Canal will require a use tax on water bills for all of us, while providing absolutely no benefit to northern Californians. In this bill they did not consider other alternatives for increasing water supply, such as those being implemented in the Freeport Project. He asserted that water quality will be a problem. John is projecting this bill could result in spending of up to $50 billion over time, at which point the implementers will be wondering "what did we do wrong?" to get such poor results.

Then key questions came from our attentive group. How could this happen and what can we do about it? John's answers were that the media has been AWOL on this issue with no reporting on what was transpiring. Secondly, there are a lot more people in southern California than up here, so they have the political muscle to push this through.

The legislature will be coming back into session to "clean up" the bill in January. This provides a short window of time for EBMUD, other agencies and the general public to react by focusing on the cost versus the benefits, or lack thereof. Finally, the voters will have a final say when they consider the $11.1 billion bond measure next year.

As for the media, KGO Radio has started a segment each morning this week at 7:45 am to shed light on the water deal. In fact John Coleman was the first person interviewed on Monday. Of course the other side will also be invited to present their views. Darrel Steinberg will be on the Tuesday segment.

Thank you John, for continuing to put in a lot of years working tirelessly on behalf of the constituents in your district.

CALENDAR