THE LAMORINDAN 2-12-10

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

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In honor of Lincoln's Birthday, Al Sevilla offered a bunch suggestion of behaviors in which we might engage, all of which violated the idea of the Aristotelian mean. This is a high-fallutin' way of saying I didn't get any of what Al said down on paper and I didn't snag a copy of the paper from which he read. Such is the hard lot of this Scribe.

VISITING ROTARIANS

John Moulthrop - Clayton Valley/Concord Sunrise
George Cabot - Walnut Creek Sunrise
Don Jenkins - Orinda

GUESTS OF OTHER PERSUASIONS

Kelly Watkins - Significant Other of one Dominic Porrino
Rene Aguirre - spousal unit of a certain Krysten Laine
Natalie Bove - Probably still wondering what Daddy Chuck inflicted upon her
Cameron Shearer - Already looking into low-cost options for Papa Rich's nursing home enrollment

BIRTHDAYS, ANNIVERSARIES, AND OTHER MISCELLANEOUS GOODIES

Gary Fulcher paid for his wife's birthday, and Rich Shearer paid an excise rich 2-12-10

fee for his Volvo having turned 250,000 - miles, not years. That was about it this week. Oh, wait, I almost forgot: Thomas Peeks paid $10 to be reunited with his badge.

GOOD NEWS ON THE MEDICAL FRONT

The good word is that Joanne Luscher is recovering well from surgery to replace whatever joint she had replaced. joanne 3-13

(Old joke: "What a joint like that doing in a nice girl like you?") Thanks for the update, Ulrich. Come back soon, Joanne, but not so soon that you do damage to the repairs.

FUTURE OF DISTRICT 5160 LOOKS GOOD

It's official: Come 2012-13, District Governor will be Laura Day of the San Ramon Valley Club. It was she who accompanied DG Earl Kilmer a couple weeks earlier, and she also was part of the team (with PDG Candy Pierce) that led our crystal-ball session during Past-Prez Pat Flaharty's reign of error. In an exclusive with this reporter, Laura told about the reaction she and DG Earl had when they got into the car after their visit to us: "Boy, that was fun!" Seriously, that's what she said. Several Members of Lamorinda Sunrise have worked with Laura on District Conferences and the like, and this reporter would be surprised if there was any one of them who did not have good things to say about Laura's abilities and fun-loving way of getting things done.

ADD THESE DATES TO YOUR CALENDARS

In addition to the various things going on with Lamorinda Sunrise, there are other Rotary events you should keep in mind. They include:

The District Assembly will be on Saturday, April 17. This is a great opportunity for all Members to expand their knowledge of what Rotary does and how we in Lamorinda Sunrise can tap into things like District Simplified Grants, Matching Grants, Polio Plus, water purification, the LN-4 Hand project. It is also a great chance to learn more about things about which you hear but may still have questions, such as The Rotary Foundation, Paul Harris awards, the Paul Harris Society, and the multitude of ways that you, or people you know, can contribute to Rotary's good works.

Also on April 17 the Wine Valley Cycle for Sight - Rotary Ride for Veterans bicycle ride (sponsored by the Napa Rotary Club) will take place in the Napa Valley, only one of the most wonderful places to ride in the entire world. There are fully-supported rides of 50, 25 and 15 miles and there will be a post-ride festival featuring delicious food prepared by Napa Valley restaurants, wine and micro-brew beer tasting, a silent auction and live music. The money raised will go to support two great projects. First, camperships will be provided for campers to attend Enchanted Hills Camp, a 300-acre spread in Napa Valley for blind and visually impaired youth, adults, families and veterans. The camp is the only one of its kind in the western states. Second, funds will to go to help create a pilot project rehab ernie 11-13

center for returning Iraq and Afghanistan vets who are suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. The vision is that this center will be the prototype for additional centers throughout the country. More info is available at www.cycle4sight.com. Maybe we can get a Lamorinda Sunrise team together for this one. If interested, talk to Ernie Furtado or Rich Shearer or you can register on-line at www.cycle4sight.com.

What with our pétanque experience, we should be naturals for this. On May 8, there will be a bocce tournament in Martinez, and the Martinez Club is somehow involved.. Start rubbing Ben Gay on your shoulders, as they will get plenty of exercise both from the bocce balls (which, technically, is redundant) and the vino, certain to flow.

TGITLFOTM is back! After the traditional holiday hiatus, come to Urban Suburban on February 26 for a gathering to remember. A hearty thank you to Krysten Laine and Rene Aguirre for offering their place of business for the first TGITLFOTM of 2010.

The Fifty-gazillionth Inter-Club Meeting in Thursday, February 25 at the new Lafayette Library. Come meet you old friends from the Orinda, Moraga and Rossmoor Clubs, or come make new ones. The guest speaker is Barry Jekowski, Conductor of the California Symphony. Buddy Burke has more info.

A MOMENT WITH AYMERIC

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Is there no end to the talents that our Youth Exchange students possess? Aymeric announced that he will be one of the dancers in the upcoming Acalanes High production of "Cinderella." This reporter is assuming this is the Rodgers & Hammerstein musical which first was produced in the late 1950s as a television special, starring a little-known up-and-coming British actress and singer of whom some of you may have heard, one Julie Andrews. But we digress. Aymeric claims to have no dancing ability whatsoever, but they needed male dancers, the qualifications began and ended with XY chromosomes and a pulse, and he fits that bill perfectly. But first, he is off to Redding for the weekend to visit a Youth Exchange friend and then off to Lake Tahoe for a week of snow-related fun with the D5160 Youth Exchange students.

IT PAYS TO PAY ATTENTION

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In his ongoing campaign to inflict more Stupid President Tricks than any other President in Lamorinda Sunrise history, President John queried the crowd: Who among the current Lamorinda Sunrise membership has never - repeat, never - been a Red Badger here? Past President Paul Fillinger - or is that Fil Paullinger? - was queried on this query, and he querulously quipped that such a thing could never have happened. Five bucks was extracted for his failure to know, as new member Robbie Kunkel did, that George Chaffey, Tay Wheeler and John Fazel himself had never been robbie 2-12-10

Lamorinda Sunrise Red Badgers because - drum roll, please - they were and remain Charter Members of our Merrie Band. That makes almost 23 years of mischief-making for this trio, and a blown opportunity for King John to fatten the coffers beyond a mere $5.

MOTORAMA UPDATE

Paul Bettelheim will be the Keeper of Information, Buddy Burke is lining up the shirts, and Tom Black will head up the effort to do the write-ups of the various vehicles that will be on display. Skip McCowan is in charge of collecting a bottle of wine from every Member ($20 value minimum - no Two-Buck Chuck allowed) all of which will be creatively displayed in a half-barrel or some such and raffled off at the event. Thus spake Krysten Laine.

AND RENE DIDN'T EVEN BLINK

Spaking of . . . I mean, speaking of Krysten Laine, there she was, shamelessly snuggling up to another Lamorinda Sunriser of the male krysten ron 2-12-10

persuasion, that being a certain Ron Brown, who was snuggling right back, all within eye- and earshot of a certain Rene Aguirre, who has a fairly close relationship with Ms. Laine. Scandalous? Nah, just another Stupid President Trick, the one where King John extracts moolah from members on or about the anniversary of their induction in the Rotary Club of Lamorinda Sunrise, so no divorce lawyers are needed after all, Dom. In keeping with the spirit of fairness and equity for which he is justly renowned, Herr Fazel extracted $10 from Ron and $20 from Krysten. It is reliably reported that Ron kicked in $20 as well.

LATE BREAKING NEWS

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Details will have to wait for the next issue of The Lamorindan, but this reporter has it on good authority that the first set of "HOME Team Work Party Saturdays" went off without a hitch (such as trips to the ER), with five seniors being served and nine happy volunteers feeling pretty darn good about themselves. Stay tuned for next week's report from Hays Englehart and Joe Bettencourt, who deserve major kudos for their path breaking efforts.

PROGRAM

Dave Simpson, who is a member of the Board of the Lafayette Chamber of Commerce, has owned and operated Lafayette Books for 12 years. One would think that trying to make a living owning a single, independent, brick- dave simpson 2-12-10

and-mortar store that sells only new books would be quixotic at best. It turns out that Mr. Simpson would be the first to agree with you. That is why Lafayette Books is anything but the bookstore you knew as a kid. Today, Mr. Simpson talked about the evolution of the book business and about his involvement in the effort to get Lafayette residents to try shopping Lafayette first.

First, about bookselling. Thirty years ago, independent book stores ruled. Every town had at least one. About then, Crown Books opened its first West Coast store. More followed, all based on the deep discount, no customer service model. Independent booksellers closed their doors in droves.

B. Dalton was not far behind. Its shtick was to be in every mall they could. Among his other places of employ, Mr. Simpson worked at B. Dalton's Embarcadero Center store in San Francisco, one of the flagship stores in the chain.

B. Dalton then took things to the next level: They opened Barnes & Noble, which was modeled on the Tattered Cover store in Denver. The idea was to make B&N a "third place/" Whazzat? Everyone has two places where they spend a great deal of time, home and work (or school, if you are a student.) The idea is that everyone needs a "third place," somewhere one can just hang out and be comfortable for a while, without the pressures of home or work/school. The Tattered Cover created a comfy place to hang out with a large selection of books and magazines, and B&N (and, later, Borders) carried forward the idea. Independent booksellers vanished faster than Houdini.

Fifteen years ago, the next big thing hit, Amazon.com. The original business model was simple. Amazon would never touch the actual book, but instead would be, in effect, a broker between the warehouses where the books were and the customer. In practice, Amazon found that it had to have its own warehouses for new books, but it has held on to its intended model for used books and a ton of other goodies it sells through its website. More Independent booksellers dried up.

And, yes, you should be detecting a pattern here.

Twelve years ago, to repeat, Mr. Simpson bought Lafayette Books. No, he is not insane.

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He is, however, very smart (hey, he graduated from UCLA, only the finest institution of higher education in the known world). He also fathoms the need to understand the competing business models and adapt to them rather than shaking his fist and cursing the darkness. So in the face of all the changes hitherto discussed, not to mention the introduction of electronic reading devices such a Kindle and now Nook (Barnes & Noble excloo), Mr. Simpson has adroitly adapted.

How? First, he started and then expanded a used book section. This ties in with an interesting fact about Amazon.com; they break even on new books, and make their money on used books and advertising. Bet you didn't know that, right? Now, used books are a significant money-maker for Lafayette Books as well.

Another thing Mr. Simpson talked about is changing the way buyers think about "book culture". For example, for $120 per year (that's roughly $10 a month, I believe), one can buy as many new books as one wants at bookstore cost, meaning wholesale. To his knowledge, this program is unique among independent booksellers and is an example of how the savvy Mr. Simpson successfully morphed his shop from provider of goods to more of a provider of services.

Another way that Lafayette Books has branched out is setting up site-specific, interest-specific temporary book stores for conventions and the like. These temporary stores even feature book signings by authors of interest to the targeted group. Mr. Simpson is actively expanding this aspect of his business. It offers fairly low margins, but excellent volume.

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Mr. Simpson next turned to his interest in Lafayette's "buy local" campaigns. Promoting such projects is, in fact, why he joined the Chamber's board of directors. (And here we thought it was because of Jay Lifson's sparkling wit.) He was instrumental in the "Try Lafayette First" campaign, and is now involved in the next iteration, "Put your money where your house is." In Mr. Simpson's view, this goes directly to what citizens want their downtown to look like. If you, as a local denizen, want your downtown to include, say, an independent bookstore (to pick an example at random), how else will the downtown include such a store if residents do not support the one that is there?

The first campaign - i.e. "Try Lafayette First" - aimed at getting people to give local merchants the first chance at their business. Mr. Simpson does not advocate blind allegiance, as he clearly believes that it is incumbent on local merchants to earn our business. But the campaign aimed at giving the local merchants a fair shot at earning that business.

The new campaign - i.e. "Put you money where your house is" - addresses the same issue from more of a self-interest perspective. If, say, we locals make our purchases at Nordstrom instead of a Lafayette purveyor, Walnut Creek gets the sales-tax revenue, and each dollar is now circulating there. This is self-evidently not a good thing for Lafayette (or Orinda or Moraga, if that's where you live), as it decreases both the tax revenues coming into your home town and lowers the number of local businesses, which are run by people who also contribute, directly and indirectly, to municipal tax revenue coffers. Lower revenue translates to reduced police, fire, library and other vital services. So, in a very real way, shopping locally contributes to the vibrancy and your home town. It is indeed in our collective interest!

But there is an even more direct benefit to Lafayetters. If you go to TryLafayetteFirst.com, you will find slew of discounts and deals at local merchants for all manner of goods and services. Check it out.

When asked about how local merchants are reacting to the economic downturn, he answered that many are going back to how they operated when they first opened. This means being more careful about inventories, getting by with fewer employees, working longer hours themselves, and generally being more conservative in their business decisions. This helps, but there are still local businesses that are just hanging on and could use more of the community's support. There is thus some sense of urgency about getting people to react positively to the "Try Lafayette First" effort.

Mr. Simpson was also asked about the impact of the new library on his business. He admitted that he was somewhat surprised that the impact on his supply of used books was as large as it has proved to be. How that plays out over time is not clear, but for now, used books are not walking in the door in the volumes of yore.

Thank you, Mr. Simpson, for taking the time to talk to us about the book business and the efforts of the Chamber of Commerce to encourage local shopping.

And for our readers, how about giving the merchants of Lafayette, or wherever you live, a fair shake at earning your business and your loyalty?

CALENDAR