PP MIKE NEWMAN gave the Invocation, an email written to his wife by David Bloom. This was published in the St. Paul's Newsletter, and it was written a scant two hours before Bloom died of a heart attack on April 5th, while riding in a tank on patrol. It was very moving, and spoke of what the future might be if he, himself, were to die while in Iraq. A lovely message, MICHAEL - thanks for sharing it with all of us.

STEW GILMAN found two visiting Rotarians, Serge Polakoff, from the Alta Monte Springs, Fl, Rotary Club who is in land development. The other 'visitor' was just that -she signed in, from the Brentwood Club, attended the International Service Committee meeting, and then slipped out. There were several guests of Rotarians -the two Patricia BUMPAS'S, and LILLIAN KEIEWER brought along the Godfather of Cassandra, Brian Kinney, M.D. JIM BECHTEL was with Dr. Elliott Kolin, who is also in financial services. RALPH SMITH brought along Barbara Hecht, PhD, and the President Elect of the John Tracy Clinic. One of the major activities of the Tracy Clinic is to teach deaf children to speak - a difficult and time-consuming task, but vital to these kids being able to function in our society today. KEVIN KOMATSU'S Special Guest was Gordon Prell.

Two hundred years ago to the DAY, John Ericsson was born (in Sweden, so you could be forgiven if you don't instantly recognize his name). He invented the ship's propeller, which fully proved its worth when installed on the Ironclad 'Monitor. This revolutionized ship propulsion - and in Sweden, it's a National Holiday. And Now Hear This! We will not meet at the Bel Air Hotel on the 21st of August - that's our Club Assembly, and you have received a flyer (with bill attached) to indicate your attendance. We'll be gathering at the Riviera CC, in the evening. It's always a special event, so plan on attending, and bringing your spouse or significant other. And while you are making notes - the 19th Annual Paul Harris Dinner will be on Saturday, Nov 1st, at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in the City of Commerce. This event started under PDG BILL GOODWYN, and it has raised a lot of money for the Rotary Foundation - again, mark it down! PP STEVE DAY will be pitching this as the date gets closer - and it IS indeed a good one.

The last two Thursdays of August will be when we once again support the Salvation Army Transitional Housing Program, located on Sepulveda between Wilshire and Santa Monica Blvds. SLOSS VIAU will provide his usual excellent leadership, and they need clothing, bedding, a bunch of stuff. Stay tuned, please. Our two PP's and convicted Computer-nuts, were up next - who else could this be but DAVE WHITEHEAD and RON LYSTER. DAVE showed the visuals, and RON explained our WVRC Website (wvrc.net) and the many items of useful information that can be found there. Our Home Page has many hyper-links, which provide specific information. I'm sure all who know me well will realize that this may not be my strongest area of competence - but it is worth checking, so give it a go (and you can always call RON or DAVE, too). An additional source of information on each member is contained in the program, ClubMate, which is supervised by DON NELSON - he can get you into this, of course.

BRIAN BUMPAS and our Speaker, Norman Pattiz, both went to Hamilton High School, although a few years apart. In his introduction, BRIAN noted that Mr. Pattiz was the founder, owner and still President of Westwood One, which he started in a one-room office in WW in 1976. Today they are the largest radio programming service in the country - and as we listened to Norman, it became clear why this is the case - he's a LEADER.

Norman serves on the Board of the United States Broadcasting Board of Governors, the Federal Agency which oversees all our international broadcasting, all over the world. - such programs as Radio Free Europe, Voice of America, Radio Free Liberty, and Radio Free Asia are examples. His specific area of supervision is the Middle East - 22 countries, with three hundred million mostly Muslim residents, but speaking 65 different languages. He was appointed to the Board by President Clinton, and later reappointed by President Bush -something of a rarity in today's politicized atmosphere. This appointment requires Senate confirmation, and from his first contact with President Clinton until he actually was approved was an eighteen-month delay.

The journalistic mission of US International Broadcasting is to combine truthful news with public diplomacy. They are mandated by Congress to show all sides of an issue. In Nov 2000 they had only one broadcast to his Middle East area of responsibility, for seven hours a day. Today they provide 65 different foreign language broadcasts, essentially around the clock. The rule in radio is simple - it they don't listen, the message doesn't get out. Thus they began to adapt to local conditions, targeting the 30 year old and under residents, and allocating about 3/4th of their total broadcasting time to music - both Arabic and western. They conducted research in five target cities when they started this new approach, and found that 50% of their target audience listened sometimes, but only 1% listened to the news. Six months later the audience figures were about the same, but now, FORTY PERCENT listened to the news! They are planning a full service TV network, hopefully by the first of next year. Radio Farda in Iran now receives 2.2 million hits per month - so the message is being accepted, apparently.

Q&A - DON NELSON - Do you have commercials? No, our message is our news content. RALPH BEASON - Is Cuba jamming your messages? They were for awhile, recently, but this has now stopped. DAVE MATSON - What about Al Jazarra? They criticize everybody, but they are becoming more factual, in part due to our even-handed reporting. They pander to their audience, and do not lead that audience. GEORGE COX Is your information always fair? If it is controversial, someone in Congress will be in touch - but this isn't a serious issue. LENNY FREIDMAN, How do you mix thought and opinion - and what about a woman's perspective? We are constantly challenged, and we do provide considerable women's viewpoints. Prexy PETER, Are broadcasting licenses hard to get? FM is easy, and AM is tougher. We still have no transmission rights in Egypt and Saudi Arabia. Norman, thanks - a terrific program!

Final meeting note - Prexy PETER, more of less out of the blue, then fined my stand-in as Editor, a sum (ELLIOTT remembers it as Five Bucks) for making a mountain out of a molehill.  Nuff Said.
YOE, Ernie Wolfe