June 29, 2012
           Reporter: Ron Brown      Editor: Ron Brown        Photographer: Paul Fillinger                     President:  Alex Arnold, 2011 - 2012          

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

 

Mary is definitely one who can

In honor of the Anniversary of Title IX, Mary Mark chose a quote, posted on the wall of the Title IX Store in Walnut Creek, that came from Mary Kay, to wit: "If you think you can, or can't, you are right!"

 

GUESTS

 

Anna Stevenson - Noon Club

Patrick Harpole - Guest of John Fazel, from Orinda

Anne-Liise - Checking on brand new hubby, Mark Larks

 

HAPPENINGS

 

Good job Ron

Ron Melvin provided Pancake Breakfast details prior to the Orinda July 4th Parade. He thanked the many volunteers who signed up to cook and serve that morning from 7 to 10 am. There will also be a Rotary float in this Parade, with all Rotary clubs from Lamorinda and Rossmoor invited to participate. Hays Englehart volunteered the HOME Team banner as an appropriate accoutrement from our club. Mark Roberts requested that all members who show up there, either to work or watch the parade, wear Rotary attire.

 

Alex Arnold, in his last appearance as reigning President, announced that Motorama made between $3,000 and $4,000 this year and thanked Krysten Laine and all members who participated this year.  

The beat goes on with Joe

 

Joe Bettencourt announced he has assumed major control of HOME Team activities for the coming year. He contributed $100 to the cause to honor Hays Englehart for his stalwart performance as a co-founder/leader of the very successful HOME Team Program. A calendar for the upcoming year will be published separately in the Newsletter at the end of the Calendar section.

 

How could you possibly forget it?

David Waal presented the Pope Alex picture from the demotion party for the second time in a week to Alex, who was stubbornly clinging to the gavel to the bitter end. Alex claims he forgot to take the picture with him, even though Mary Jane promised to hang it on their mantel at home. This may not make any sense to many of you, but if you take the time to read the Demotion Party Special Edition, coming to your computer in the near future, you might (or might not) "Get It." Past President Pat Flaharty fined Alex $20 for this egregious error, then Brad Davis stepped up to pay it. Only Brad knows why he did that. Best guess? Brad was getting bored and just wanted to move things along.

 

Gary Fulcher was called front and center by Alex in a desperate effort to re-take control. Gary was on his boat way up north last week so he missed the Demotion Party. But Alex remained steadfast in his desire to award Gary the Lamorinda Sunrise Rotarian of the year. He proclaimed none were more deserving, citing Gary's masterful shepherding of the canoe project last year which netted the club nearly $20,000. Gary also took on the overhaul of the website, which greatly lessened the

It's for real, Gary!

administrative record keeping burden which had been residing on Chuck Yeager's sturdy shoulders. Gary contributed mightily to the HOME Team efforts and for good measure, earned two Paul Harris Awards. Gary was surprised and suitably humbled after receiving what had just earned him a standing ovation from this otherwise unruly and unmanageable crowd.

 

RECOGNITIONS

Please don't interrupt the scribe

 

Ron Brown's wife Sara had a birthday on Saturday. They haven't quite celebrated that yet, since the weekend was pretty well consumed with demoting Alex, attending a memorial service and finally a lovely family dinner. An upcoming trip to Cape Cod and Arlington, VA should provide ample opportunity to cook up something really special. Lord knows, the lovely lady certainly deserves it!

 

The happy couple keep on truckin'

George Chaffey and Carol celebrated their 48th wedding anniversary in fine style with dinner at Ruth Chris' Restaurant. George was so amped he also contributed serious money to the club endowment in honor of Brad Davis' great service on behalf of the Garden Park Apartments housing for homeless families in Concord and the HOME Team. George remains the ultimate, elegant Rotarian.

 

Keep digging Brad

The ubiquitous Mr. Davis was also recognized as having lasted in this club since June 30, 1989. His wallet took another sawbuck hit. Go home now Brad before you are completely cleaned out.

Glad to see Ray as feisty as ever

 

Ray Welles chastised erstwhile Service Director, soon-to-be President Mark Roberts, for missing the fact that he and Jackie celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary last month. Jackie and Ray, overlooking the slight, took their kids to enjoy a wonderful few days to the Ahwahnee Lodge in Yosemite. Now that is special.

 

PROGRAM

Jim's great exposure

 

How do you get to be the 2011 Northern California Entrepreneur of Year? Nothing to it. Just start out life as Jim Margraff on June 4, 1958 in Connecticut. Survive a rather tumultuous first five years and move to a farm in Litchfield with mom and sisters to live with grandparents. At that point, Jim could barely speak as a result of a terrible lisp. He revealed the daily tongue twister that helped him get through it. Living on the farm was great.

 

His interest in science was also keen from the beginning. He showed the diagram of a mini lie detector experiment he acquired in the sixth grade. It contained a small memory chip that, when connected to a finger, was supposed to buzz when it detected a forthcoming lie. It made its debut at a family Christmas gathering. One of his uncles experienced a fair amount of trouble when he was asked by his wife what he had been doing last Wednesday night? The buzzer got quite a work-out.

 

When Jim was in the eighth grade he was inspired by The Memory Book. Co-authored by Harry Lorayne and Jerry Lucas, it is described as "the classic guide to improving your memory at work, at school and at play." Jim cited this as an example of how one idea can change everything. He went on to graduate as valedictorian of his high school class of 83 students. That was the springboard to MIT where he attained BS and MS degrees in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.

 

Jim managed to get himself introduced to MJ, on Tuesday, March 17, 1986 (St. Patrick's Day). Even then he firmly believed she was destined to be his wife. They honeymooned in Tonga where he experienced a "when we don't know, what we don't know" event while in the process of exploring the Mariner's Cave, located 15 feet down into the water and 45 feet at the end of a natural tunnel into the rock. Stressful...exhilarating.

 

Jim's first start-up company, in which he was employee number six, was StrataCom, a highly successful, wide-area networking communications company that was acquired by Cisco Systems in 1996 for $4.5 billion. To date, Jim has been involved in five start-ups, four of which have been successful. He spoke briefly about the one that didn't make it. That had to do with the Magellan Touch Globe, which was a really good idea, attracting serious interest from the Nature Company, but failing because manufacturing expectations could not be realized in a timely manner. The lesson learned here was "if at first you don't succeed"... and so he continued to ignore the words "can't" or "impossible" and pressed on to greater success.

 

Another of those successes was LeapFrog, where he was the developer of the LeapPad paper-based multimedia learning system. Jim became known for this effort as the Steve Jobs of the toy industry. He recounted some of his experiences working with Whoopi Goldberg, who became the voice for several interactive children's programs.

 

Jim's no stranger to the podium 

Jim has spent the last five years with Livescribe, his start-up number five creation. During this time, the company has raised $100 million and sold about one million pens, which record speech and link to handwritten notes. His initial introduction to LSR two years ago was as guest speaker, where he wowed the members with a fantastic presentation of his "magic pen's" capabilities. Jim has recently moved on from serving as Livescribe's CEO in order to focus on the next great idea being germinated jointly with son Blake.

 

Jim has applied for a host of patents along the way, which have either been granted or are pending. He loves to travel. His interests, first and foremost, are inventing, followed in no particular order by running, karate and flying. Jim is very proud of being recognized by the American Diabetes Association and the Father's Day Council of San Francisco as Father of the Year.

Great way to end it, Jim

 

He acknowledged he has become publicly known for his abilities to develop business ideas and products. This leads to meetings and interviews with budding entrepreneurs. Jim can tell by the way they conduct themselves, including body language, that a high percentage of them will never give their ideas a real try. He attributes this to fear of failure, or even success. Obviously this affliction has never applied to Mr. Marggraff.

 

And now you have a glimpse at how easy it is to become an Entrepreneur of the Year! Who's next?

 

CALENDAR

 

Friday 6/29, 7am - Jim Margraff exposes himself

 

Wednesday, 7/4 - Pancake Run - Orinda

Friday 7/6, 7 am - Antje Jahnke - Procrastination Researcher

Tuesday 7/10, 7am - Board meeting

Friday 7/13, 7 am - Club Assembly

Friday 7/20, 7 am - John Yoo, Legal Counsel, George W. Bush

Friday 7/27 7am - Expose yourself, Claire Roberts

 

Friday 8/3, 7am - Saving lives, a woof and a meow

Friday 8/10, 7 am - Economist Tappan Monroe

Tuesday 8/14, 7am - Board meeting

Friday 8/17, 7am - Dan Borenstein & Pensions continued

Friday 8/24 7am - B'wana Carole Chaffey, Liberia


HOME Team schedule...Saturdays 8am to noon 

 

2012 - June 30, August 25, October 27

2013 - January 26, March 23, May 25, July 27   

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