THE LAMORINDAN 3-5-10

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

Steve Ware was suffering from illness and fatigue, meaning he was sick and tired of the news. Crime. Natural Disasters. Political gridlock. The Raiders. It was more than he could take. Until, that is, he spotted a poster in Katie Rose's room, one put up by Becky some years back, quoting four lads from Liverpool of some renown. And it became our thought for the day, to wit: "All you need is love." The Beatles.

VISITING ROTARIANS

John Moulthrop - Clayton Valley/Concord Sunrise (geez, John, fill in the transfer papers already)

GUESTS OF OTHER PERSUASIONS

Linda Gruber - John Muir Caring Hands group, looking for volunteers
Adam Clark - Principal, Miramonte High
Sandy Weber - President, Miramonte Parents Club

BIRTHDAYS, ANNIVERSARIES, AND OTHER MISCELLANEOUS GOODIES

Gary Fulcher's wife had a birthday on Valentine's Day, but I could swear that was already reported.

Alex Arnold claims to have turned 65, which no one believed for a moment.   It involved something to do with his kids driving him around in a golf cart with weaponry, which means ain't nobody at that golf course gonna chew Alex out for not replacing his divots.

Hays Englehart turned 55, which also raised some disbelieving eyebrows. His daughter's b-day was the day before, so family hi-jinks were the order of the day.

Skip McCowan took Linda to Vino for her special day and raved about the food, the service, but especially the company. He seemed less enthusiastic about the LSR service fee that was exacted, though.

Dominic Porrino, being the mere pup that he is, turned 31 just the evening before the meeting. (He was surprisingly coherent, too.) Drinks and dinner with his significant other, Kelli, were the order of the evening, including that luscious red wine from the area near Avignon that he pronounced "shat-uh-noff duh pop."

IMPORTANT ISSUE FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION

Adam Clark and Sandy Weber, Principal and Parents' Club Prez, respectively, from Miramonte High, stopped by for breakfast and to chat. In particular, they wanted to chat about Miramonte High and its sister schools of the Acalanes Union High School District, meaning Campolindo, Acalanes and Los Lomas High Schools. The present looks great - AUHSD is #1 in the state, and both Campo and Miramonte are in the top 100 high schools in the country. AUHSD schools excel in academics, in the arts, in sports, and in getting its graduates into a stunning array of colleges and universities. Pretty impressive.

The future, on the other hand, is not looking so hot. Budget cuts have been a way of life the last few years; the money from Sacramento just isn't there the way it used to be. Belts have been tightened with every round of the budgetary merry-go-round. So far though, the District has been able to maintain the programs for which it is justly renowned.

That's about to change, The sad fact is that there simply is not going to be enough money, either from Sacramento or the District's reserves, to fund the current level of programs. To put it in more concrete terms, without more cash the seven-period school day will have to go. The number of Advanced Placement classes will have to be trimmed dramatically. Some academic programs - such as Miramonte's Public Speaking courses that produced the Four-Way Test speakers who so impressed us a couple weeks back - will go the way of the Mohicans. Not to put too fine a point on it, but this would have a very real and adverse impact on the graduating seniors' ability to gain admission to the colleges of their choices - it puts them at a competitive disadvantage.

So what is there to do about it? One thing is to learn about the parcel tax that is on the May 4 ballot. This will impose a tax of $112 per parcel in the AUSHD on an emergency basis, meaning it has a sunset clause after 5 years. Oversight is built into the measure, meaning that there will be watchdogs watching to make sure the funds go only for the designated purposes. There is a senior citizen exemption.

So please, educate yourself about this measure and give it serious consideration. The future of our high schools - and your property values - very well may be at stake.

SCOOP - HELP WANTED

John Fazel needs help.

No, not that kind of help. (That wouldn't be news.) No, in an exclusive post-meeting interview, King John told this reporter that our very own Acalanes Interact Club needs six adult-type people to help chaperone a social event they are putting together at the Lafayette Community Center for Interact Members and prospective Interact Members. This event will take place on Saturday, March 20 from 7pm to 11pm, give or take. More details to follow. If you can help, call John.

MISCELLANEOUS MONKEYSHINES IN THE GUISE OF CLUB BUSINESS

Remember a couple weeks ago when Dave Isenberg won the raffle and pulled the white marble? Well, he remembers it, too. Club moneybags Ernie Furtado wasn't here then to fork over the loot. Ah, but Dave is patient and Ernie is honorable, so all was squared away this week.

Meanwhile, Tay Wheeler explained that he, as one of the last three Charter Members, and the senior one at that because he was the first of the three (the others being George Chaffey and John Fazel) to serve as Grand High Poobah (aka "Club President"), has the chore of convincing some poor unfortunate to take up the mantle of Chief Cat Herder for the year after Thomas Peeks' involuntary servitude. After claiming that the dog had eaten his homework and one or two other lame excuses for not having seen to this task sooner, Tay picked a name out of a hat and, lo and behold, Alex Arnold was selected to be our President for 2011-12. The decision was quickly approved by acclamation before Alex had a chance to beg off, so he is now officially on the hook.

Seriously, congratulations, Alex, and thanks, Tay, for all the work you have done over the years to help insure that the Presidents keep a'comin'. And congratulations to all of us in Lamorinda Sunrise Rotary, as we now know we will have two years of excellent leadership under Messrs. Peeks and Arnold as we try to dig out of the morass inflicted by the current administration.

A MOMENT WITH AYMERIC

Life in these United States is nothing if not diverse for the good Monsieur van den Hove. First, a week in the Tahoe area with the other D5160 Youth Exchange students. Somebody busted a wrist, but it wasn't Aymeric (and thank goodness - do you know how much paper work that would've involved?). Then, off to the Chinese New Year parade in San Francisco with Rich Shearer and fiancé Valerie, followed by dinner of (what else?) Chinese food in Berkeley.

This week, Aymeric is lighting up the stage as a dancer in the Acalanes High production of "Cinderella." (This reporter learned in an exclusive interview with Aymeric that his Belgian high school does not put on musicals, only plays, in which he takes part.) Unbiased patrons of the arts George Chaffey and Dave Waal gave the production, and especially Aymeric's Fred Astaire-like terpsichorean efforts, enthusiastic thumbs-up.

Our boy Aymeric also came armed with real Belgian chocolate this morning. And yes, he brought enough for everyone. Scarfing the chocolate was about the only thing that shut most of us up during the meeting.

But wait, as Ron Popiel would say, there's more. Come Tuesday (about the time this slug of a reporter gets his copy in), off Aymeric goes to Hawaii. Which island? He doesn't know and who cares? This will be a first for a Lamorinda Sunrise Youth Exchange student, at least to this reporter's knowledge, and it is part of some Rotary sponsored deal, so he should be in good hands. So in a week or two, if you happen upon a bushy-haired young man with a loud Hawaiian shirt, shades, puka shells and a tan, it will probably be Aymeric.

MOTORAMA UPDATE

Krysten Laine had everyone who already has a Motorama-related job stand up. It was at least half of those in attendance. Those of you who did not stand up, you will soon, because Krysten is bound and determined to have 100% participation. This week's wish-lit includes: (1) people to help lining up sponsors (this will be targeted, not just knocking on doors randomly); and (2) people to help with advertising.

And as you may recall, Skip McCowan is in charge of collecting a $20 or better bottle of wine from each and every one of us to be pooled together as a raffle item for the event. Last time, Skip complained that no one had yet brought in any wine, and he chided us and told us to bring in the bottles and attach a tag with our names and the value of the vino. This week, several LSR stalwarts brought in bottles with names and values noted, and Skip found a way to complain about that, too. I guess we put too many line numbers on the pleading paper or spelled "judgment" with an extra "e" or something else that is offensive to lawyers. In any event, if you have not brought in a bottle, please do so. This has been a big hit at past Dinner and Auction fund raisers, and it should be a big hit at Motorama, too.

PROGRAM

Today, Bill Roth paid us another visit. The last time he was here Bill was talking about the green/sustainability wave that is building in the business world. That is still his topic, but this time he focused on best practices that businesses are using right now to take full advantage of the changes happening in the marketplace.

Throughout his talk, Bill noted that the real-world discussions about issues of whether something is "green" or "sustainable" can be framed in myriad different terms. For example, young people - the "Millennial Generation" - often couch the discussion in terms of what is "cool." Other terms that one hears in addressing these issues include "safe," "recyclable," "renewable" and a host of others that vary depending upon the particular field or application.

Bill identified what he sees as two mega-trends that are already here and still growing fast. First, it is increasingly true that consumers will buy "green" if the green product has price parity with the non-green alternatives. With younger consumers, they will buy "green" even if they have to pay a bit of a premium for the green product, so this bodes well for the future of green products and less well for non-green competitors.

Second, this is big and getting bigger. Economies of scale are beginning to kick in with green products, and increasingly will do so. This, of course, means that prices for green products will continue to become more competitive with their non-green counterparts. That means that mega-trend #1 will become increasingly pertinent to buying decisions.

Bill also identified three critical factors to making money in green products: pricing, branding and marketing. As the mega-trends show, pricing is critical. An example of how pricing makes a difference is Amanda's, a fairly new fast-food chain. The point of Amanda's is that the food is not only fast, but green. They use meats and poultry that do not have additives from animals that were not stuffed with hormones and other nasty things. The greens are organic. Low toxicity is stressed at all steps of the way. But here is the real kicker - the average meal at Amanda's costs about $6. The cost of the average meal at McDonald's? About $6. Mega-trend #1 predicts that Amanda's will do well, and so far that is being borne out.

Branding is also critical. This involves creating a name that consumers identify and trust.   There are two elements to this: recognition and trust. An example of successful branding is Clorox's Green Works line of cleaning products. Clorox has done an excellent job not only of making this brand one that users identify but also one they trust. On the other hand, Campbell's soups made a colossal blunder with their tomato soup. How can you blow it with tomato soup? Well, Campbell's introduced a new tomato soup that they touted as "low fat" and sells at a premium. And it is low in fat. The problem? The original tomato soup has no fat at all. Thus Campbell's is now seen in a growing segment of the market as having tried to pull a fast one and cash in on the "green" and "healthy" bandwagons in a deceptive way.

Bill also noted that changes in communications technology plays a major role here. Concerned moms, for example, are a significant driving force. Twenty million of them have blogs ("Mommy-bloggers," Mr. Roth called them.) And they read them as well as write them. Suddenly, word of mouth amongst concerned moms is no longer about two or three chatting in the park while watching the kids play, but is literally transmitted immediately and all over the country and world. Replicate that truth over hundreds or thousands of other identifiable groups . . . well, you can see the potential.

Marketing being important is hardly news. But it does mean refocusing on what consumers want. And increasingly, CEOs are coming to recognize that consumers want products made with sustainability in mind. Again, this trend is only going to increase, says Bill, as the younger generation gets older. The Millennial Generation number only slightly less than the Baby Boomers, and their economic power will be commensurate with those numbers. These are the people who are willing to pay a premium for the green product over the non-green product. These are also the folks who are deeply concerned about the future of the planet and are not exactly thrilled about the state of the world they are inheriting.

Marketing matters because it is how a company convinces these up-and-coming drivers of the economic bus to buy its product. Bill gave the example of Hewlett Packard vs. Apple. HP has always held sustainability to be a key corporate goal. It is part of HP's corporate culture to conduct its business and build its products in as sustainable - as "green" - a way as it can. HP measures and records everything they do, and carefully analyzes those figures with a continuous view toward trying to make this printer or that laptop in a way that consumes fewer resources, contains fewer toxic or hazardous materials, or is more fully recyclable.

Apple is very different. Unlike HP, Apple has rejected the idea of having sustainability standards. It just isn't part of their corporate culture.

But if you ask people which company they perceive as more green, the data says they answer "Apple" far more often than they answer "HP." Why? Marketing. Apple has done a far better job of plugging into the Millennial Generation than has HP (something, incidentally, that HP is looking to fix). The lesson here, as has always been the case, is that it really does not matter if you build the proverbial better - or, in this case, greener - mousetrap if the buying public thinks it's just another boring garden-variety mousetrap.

Want to learn more? You can purchase Bill Roth's new book, :The Secret Green Sauce," containing case studies of real businesses have used "green" strategies to prosper. You can also check www.earth2017.com, e-mail him at bill.roth@earth2017.com, or call him at (925) 323-2304.

Thank you Bill for coming to talk to us again about this interesting issue.

CALENDAR