THE LAMORINDAN 1-8-10

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

Ken Kosich may be somewhat happy that we are switching from Auctions to Motoramas this year, although he couldn't have spent more than 1,000 hours on each Auction in the past. Perhaps he was thinking of this when he gave two mini-Thoughts this morning -   From FDR:   "When you get to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on" (well it does beat hanging);   and from Henry Ford:   "Failure is only the opportunity to begin again more intelligently."

TOLERANT GUESTS

Today was a Club Assembly, which is not always a great drawing card for guests. But happily, we had some anyway. In fact, one was a repeater - William Wang, who innocently went to the Controller John Chiang program at the Veterans' Hall and was shanghaied by a couple of our recruiters. When asked, William allowed as how Hays has been talking with him. Hopefully Hays assured him that not all programs are like the Club Assembly.

Also present was Rosalba from Bogota, Colombia, introduced by Katie Rose. She participates in student exchanges from there, and chaperones children who are visiting Stanley Intermediate. In addition, Robbie Kunkel's daughter Caroline, a glutton for punishment, paid us another visit.

TIME MARCHES FOR LOTS OF FOLKS

An effort was made to catch up and tighten procedures on Birthdays & Anniversaries. First-off, Al Sevilla has been somewhere else for many weeks, during which he had an anniversary and a birthday in November, plus he joined the club in November 2006. The Prez naturally assumed that Al did a number of makeups while he was away. Wrong. But John's outrage turned to mush when Al voluntarily ponied up $100.

Ron Brown's birthday is 3 days before Christmas, which may be a perfect example of a mixed blessing. Instead of birthday gifts and Christmas gifts, he was lavished with birthday/Christmas gifts. Whether the total joy was the same is ambiguous. Anyway, it was a quiet evening at home, and it all was worth $50 to Ron.

Thomas Raeth turned a half-century older on December 29th, which his kids treated very respectfully.

Don Reichert, relishing his seniority, also had Feliz Cumpleanos, which he modestly said made him another year better, and there would be many more. He recommended Cirque de Soleil as a not half-bad way to celebrate, presented straps from old conventions as party favors this morning, and paid $100 for the privilege.

Dan Garfin celebrated Erin's birthday with lunch and dinner and a tour of the State Capitol. He rubbed elbows with all the celebrities, including Kevin Johnson. He also tried the old excuse that he spent all his money, which didn't work.

Walt Nelson has been hitched for 27 years today. He hopes that Kathy will accept his invitation to dinner, but she hasn't committed yet.

Dan Herbert noticed that everyone in town has been wearing Tom Black buttons. Tom tried a rejoinder, but was given a difficult choice - $5 per word, or $10 for being speechless. Anyway, even more impressively, Dan's daughter did a little self-defense and got her Ph.D. at Johns Hopkins, a combination of early British literature and women's studies. And Annette Herbert was nominated for three Grammys - well, the SF Symphony Chorus, of which she's a member, was nominated for Mahler's 8th Symphony. For all this, Dan was awarded a "Pack 643 Rock" T-shirt. Don't ask.

HE SEES THE LIGHT(S)

Perhaps worn out by the B&A reports, Aymeric's report was brief, but enlightening as always. Lights, of Christmas persuasion, made a big impression on him. He was very flattering, calling it a "crazy American thing". Well, it was Buddy/Holly who took him to see the lights, so the word crazy doesn't seem inappropriate. Aymeric also went snowboarding at Tahoe, showing slides to prove it. No less an authority than Dave Waal verified that he's one of the world's great snowboarders. Ah, these athletes - Aymeric was interviewed by an interesting female for the school paper. This week he'll be meeting new fans in the garden spots, going by train to Chico and Corning with other exchange students.

CLUB ASSEMBLY

Taking advantage of the constitutional Right to Assembly, the Prez trotted out assorted directors to give a sort of Expose Yourself by the club.

The newest directorship is Director of Development, and who better than Krysten Laine. She proudly passed around the new logo for the Motorama, designed by Hays' daughter who obviously inherited his artistic talent. As might be expected, Krysten is taking her new-found power and running with it. She organized the first Exhibitor Committee meeting, and named Hays as Lord High Collector of Information. (When you find participants, send the name and address to Hays, who will send them an informational letter and packet.) Krysten has formed a Sponsorship Committee which is developing a list. She was out in the cold measuring the Postino parking lot and determining there are 128 spaces available. And there's a new website:   www.motorama.us, developed by Chuck Yeager and Gary Fulcher.

A vital position is Director of Programs, which presently has two heads - Steve Ware, who was here, and Buddy Burke, who wasn't. Steve acknowledged that Buddy pulled the laboring oar during the first half of the year. Please give suggestions to either of these gentlemen, preferably people who are new, different, and relevant.

Any board of directors worth its salt has members who argue. Endowment Director Paul Bettelheim thinks he should get all the members' money for club projects. Cal Lee doesn't feel the Rotary Foundation is rich enough yet. Anyway, there's lots of room for both, and both are admirable causes. The benefits of the club projects are very helpful and visible locally. The worldwide good Rotary does can only happen if individual clubs are on board. Both are bound to be well run as long as Ernie Furtado is LSR treasurer.

Ron Brown, News Director, named some of the cats he herds. Club brochure requested by Hays Englehart and Walt Nelson. Formatted by Rich Shearer, photos by Paul Fillinger, Tom Black and Don Reichert, PhotoShop by Paul Fillinger, printed by Chuck Yeager. For the Newsletter, Tom Black is photographer, and doubles (along with Pat) as copy editor with Ernie Furtado and Ron Brown. Tom is also the communications specialist with the outside media, and communicates with everyone at Peet's Coffee Orinda. Perhaps the hardest part of the job of reporters Rich, Ron and Cal is paying attention to everything said in the meetings. The whole shootin' match is assembled by Ron. Check out the website, even though it's slightly out of date showing Pat Flaharty as president - it does carry newsletters. But then, to get one, all you have to do is watch your email.

Walt Nelson, speaking for himself and the quiet Hays Englehart as Membership Directors, drove home the point that the Membership Committee is every one of us, by making us get off our duffs and stand at attention. (The Prez saw William Wang standing and welcomed him to the Committee.) Walter also observed that our membership is not about numbers but about people. Well, this was one way for him to get a Standing O.

Gillett Johnson observed that Skip McCowan, the immediate past International Director, has big feet. Oh, maybe those were the shoes Gillett is trying to fill. He has been struck by the number of calls he receives about potential outbound students and what people think Rotary will pay for. Gillett has already earned his spurs by going to Vietnam as part of a donation of a traveling library to a Vietnamese school. He is into polio eradication, clean water, and education around the world. Any ideas will be appreciated, and he needs to know more about the new 2-week student exchange program.

And finally, Alex Arnold, Community Service Director, had to leave the community, so he spoke through Prez Fazel. John ran down a whole bunch of our projects. He sort of mixed in upcoming events, including 4-Way Speech contest in February, the Inter-Club Luncheon at the Lafayette Library February 25th, the District-wide changing of batteries in smoke detectors April 24th, and painting the Lafayette Gazebo May 22nd. (One event that is not happening is the Reno Train Trip, which has been cancelled due to insufficient signups, although Tay Wheeler promised the usual 7:00 a.m. fizzy party anyway.)

This doesn't begin to exhaust the wealth of information John was covering. Maybe it was the members who were exhausted. When the clock approached 9:00, Rich Shearer subtly reminded John of the time by shoving an LN-4 hand at him and pointing to the adjournment bell.

CALENDAR

Tuesday, January 12, 7 a.m. Board meeting

Friday, January 15 - Larry Swindwell, World's foremost expert on baseball, back by popular demand

Friday, January 22 - District Governor's report

Friday, January 29 - Adarsha Shivakumar, the Jatrophia Miracles

Friday, February 5 - Terry Englehart, Seniors without walls