A BUSY WEEK - WVRC, May 4th

Underway at the Bel Air Hotel, with PP RALPH WOODWORTH leading the Pledge.  The now-familiar duo of those PPs, STEVE DAY and JIM DOWNIE led us through Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory. KEN KILPO allowed as how we could sit down, and then gave a good Invocation. There were no visiting Rotarians, but Prexy STEVE brought Holly Strool from Nordstroms, and Robert Rosebrock of Healthy Hour was also present. The bell tolled for PP MIKE NEWMAN, honoring him for being patient with United Airlines, who after 12 years, settled a suit he had brought - the amount was $510K, and for this, it cost MIKE 100 big ones! It was announced that Janice Dea's mother passed away recently. PP HOWARD SISKEL is at St. Johns, and should be home again on Monday. Beverly, KEN LEVER'S wife, recently had back surgery, and ALTHENA JACKSON, while present, was recovering from an automobile accident. The Endowment Committee Managers were to meet immediately after lunch today - no doubt, they will declare a dividend for each WVRC member…And that fearless promoter of his Alma Mater, PP BOB WESSLING reported that DePauw won the trophy for the best average in all sports for this year. We are all waiting breathlessly for the Press Conference announcing the Plaque in honor of BOB'S coaching assistance.

Looking slightly ahead, May 19th is the District Assembly for all Board Members - GEORGE DEA is in charge, and this is an important event, which should be attended. JULIE THOMPSON was welcomed back, and Special Guest Clarice Evans was introduced.

This past weekend was our District Conference in Newport, and we garnered a bunch of awards. Under International Service, Club of Distinction for Exchange Programs, World Community Service and Recreational & Vocational programs. Club Service provided Merit Awards for Polio Plus, Polio Corrective Surgery and our Contribution to the Rotary Foundation. We received Merit Awards for our Club Brochure (the Silver Quill), Electronic Communication, District Participation, Membership Development, and Attendance. Community Service provided a Club of Distinction award for Community Development and a Merit Award for Rotary Community Task Force, Beautification.  Vocation Service received a Club of Distinction Award, plus a Merit Award for Literacy and Special Projects. Our Booth, featuring the PLLUS Program, was the best of all, and the PLLUS exercise video ran continuously on a 25 inch TV screen. Major players included PETER MORE and GEORGE DEA (of course), plus Shirley More, Janice Dea, Claude Cutright, TED IHNEN, Pat and PDG ANDY ANDERSON, Eloise and PP HOWARD SISKEL, Roz and DON NELSON, RUDY ALVAREZ, RON LYSTER, Judy and PDG BILL GOODWYN, and Joe and LENORE MULRYAN.. In addition, Scholars Lee Broeckman and Suzanne Karpilovsky, Rotaractors Yvette Garfield and Gaea Schwabe, and visiting Scholars JinBaek Lee and Mihoko Ono, so 34 members and guests were present. Prexy STEVE thanks all who attended.

PP MIKE NEWMAN introduced our speaker, his friend Jake Butts, CEO of Cameron Communications. He is an expert in coaching public speakers on how to be more effective, and much of his presentation dwelt on the difference between a presentation and a conversation. The first difference, of course, is the size of your audience - necessarily small for conversation, and relatively unlimited for a presentation.  Jake has worked with Governor Pete Wilson, Jack Kemp, and spent four days with Kenneth Starr in advance of his appearance before a congressional committee. He reminds us that everyone does better in conversation than in a presentation, the difference being the stress created by having a larger audience. You must know your audience, by the way, to be most effective.  The difference between conversation and a presentation is that in the first, we think before we speak, while a presentation is, of necessity, a canned speech. He told the story of Kelly Slater, perhaps the most famous Surfer of all time, and Jake's son, when Jake told him that they would be having lunch with Kelly Slater - he got his full attention!  In a presentation, pauses (which come naturally in a conversation) can be overlooked, and this can hurt your effectiveness. You should use silence to emphasize an important point. Remember, we have time to process information in a conversation, with it's pauses and silences, and you should allow the same opportunity in a presentation - don't run it all together. You cannot have real eye contact when speaking to a group, while that is so helpful in a conversation - note the old saying, "I wanted to eyeball him". Many speakers today have one or another kind of TelePrompTer at the podium, and you should never look down after making a point - that is when you pause and LOOK at your audience. Think of yourself talking just to one person, and you can feel the audience reaction, which is helpful, certainly.  YOE, along with PETER MORE and PP JOHN SINGLETON had to scoot, since we were meeting the Manager of the Bel Air Country Club to scout for the Demotion, and thus we missed the Q&A. However, DAN PRICE has volunteered a question which didn't get asked - "Could Jake Butts schedule ANOTHER lunch with Kelly Slater?"  DAN can guarantee at least one attendee - himself!

Thought for the Day - "As a rule, men worry more about what they can't see than about what they can:" Julius Caesar, during Gallic Wars.

YOE, Ernie.Wolfe