Mid-November at WVRC, the 16th, and the
Good Programs Continue
PP BOB WESSLING started us off with the Pledge. Before he began, BOB
reminded us that earlier this week we had celebrated Veteran’s Day, honoring
both those who have served and those who are now serving. Well done, BOB. PP
STEVE SCHERER and PP JIM DOWNIE led us through American the Beautiful, which
remains one of our better numbers. PDG BILL GOODWYN came forward with the
Invocation, which included a number of condition statements, always followed
by a caution, the inclusion of which considerably expanded the original
statements. The result usually was that barring the caution, the speaker had
not been educated. One example would be if the speaker had read John Locke
and Shakespeare and could discuss their thoughts in detail – but had not
read the Bible, and thus was not an educated man. Thought-provoking
material, BILL, and we thank you for sharing it with us.
DENNIS CORNWELL was asked to name our Visiting Rotarians – and there were
three.
Hotta Masao belongs to Nagoya North in Japan, and his classification is
office building management. Our other two visitors were from UCLA, and had
called me earlier today to be sure we were meeting, etc. Alfred K. Louis
belongs to then Saarbaruecken Club in Germany, and he is a Mathematician.
Dr. Heinz Engl comes from the Linz-Sup Club in Austria, and his
classification is Science. I introduced Shane Waarbroek, my Special Guest,
who is being circularized this week. Shane is in Private Banking with
Merrill Lynch.
Some historical event, which occurred on the 13th of November: In 1789, Ben
Franklin wrote, “In this world nothing is certain but death and taxes”. The
Vietnam War Memorial in Washington D.C. was finally dedicated in 1982. PP
HOWIE HENKES came forward to brief us on the schedule for the Braille
Institute Holiday Party, which will be on Friday, December 12th. This is a
major gathering of the many students who attend the Braille Institute, and
hundreds of them are bussed in from outlying areas. It starts at 10:30, with
some instructions, and the actual luncheon begins at noon. Our job as hosts
is to assist as needed – in many cases simply overseeing part of a table
with the blind or sight impaired. I’ve done this before, and it is a
worthwhile event – you are NEEDED, and afterward you’ll feel good about
giving them a hand. Call HOWIE to sign up, please.
Secretary/Treasurer KEVIN KOMATSU presented an outline of what is needed to
get us started on Angel’s Flight. This is a very well-organized program
which fills the gap between getting outlying patients, once they are at the
local airport, delivered to the local hospital where their treatment is
scheduled. Once treated, they must then be returned to the pilots – who,
note, provide all their services free – their aircraft, fuel, landing costs,
whatever. So we provide a sort of taxi service, which is quite important to
complete the link between the patients arrival into LA and their return to
the Angel Flight pilot who returns them home. A show of hands was requested,
and several of us said we were interested. This is really a worthwhile
service which we not only CAN, but SHOULD, provide, and I urge you to
contact KEVIN with questions, please.
Pres. PETER gave a nice plug to PP RON LYSTER’S son, Marty. Less than a year
out of University, Marty and a friend started their own mobile Pet Service,
under the name of California Paws. They have a brand new van, and will come
by on an appointment basis to give your pet a real shampoo. The dogs seem to
enjoy it (no report at this moment on the cats reaction), and it’s certainly
less trouble than trying to do the job at home. The phone number is (310)
453-3007, www.CaliforniaPaws.com.
After this plug, the idea of a fine crept in, and it was fixed at $88.00.
KACY ROZELLE offered four excellent UCLA/Oregon football tickets. ELLIOTT
TURNER bid $100.00, and hearing no challenges, raised his own bid to
$110.00. Sold!
SHARON RHODES WICKETT made an interesting presentation. “The honor of your
ABSENCE is requested – the PRESENCE of your money is”. SHARON is an active
Board Member of PATH, and they are conducting an “Imaginary Feast” for
Thanksgiving. PATH has used this ‘feast’ for the last twenty years to
provide a real Thanksgiving Dinner for their clients. They are requesting
gifts of any size, but the stated numbers start at $50, going to $100, $250,
$500, $1,000 and $2,500 – so obviously they are receiving some major
donations. You can charge it on your card, also – the information number is
(323)644-2205, or you can reach SHARON at (310)474-3469.
PP DAVE WHITEHEAD and Pres. PETER combined for a brief visual report on Burt
Rutan and his Scaled Components program based in Mojave. They are actively
proceeding toward a flight to outer space, which will be privately funded! A
one million dollar prize has been offered for the first outfit to reach this
goal. They will use a twin jet aircraft to carry their spacecraft to 50,000
feet, where it will be released. With a ONE MINUTE burn they should reach
100,000 meters – that being the goal to collect the prize. High tech stuff,
for sure.
As we continue toward our 75th Anniversary, Pres. PETER is asking various
Past Presidents to capsulize their year. This is designed to be about a ten
minute shot, and you will recall that a couple of weeks ago, PP ERIC LOBERG
started us off with an excellent presentation on his term, 1982-83. Today it
was PP MIKE NEWMAN’S turn, and he provided a very well thought out review of
1992-93. While I enjoy what they are giving us, in the back of my little
mind I’m wondering if maybe I can crawl under a rock somewhere and get
passed over. After all, where you were President in l967-68, some of these
events tend to get a bit blurry – but I digress.
PP MIKE began by outlining his plans for the year. This included naming
those who helped him – CHRIS GAYNOR, STEVE SCHERER, RON LYSTER, RALPH
WOODWORTH, JIM BECHTEL, HENRIETTA KNAPP and STEVE DAY, with his two
Sergeants at Arms, JIM DOWNIE and JIM EDWARDS. He noted that by elevating
daughter Amy to a Paul Harris Fellow, she became the youngest such,
overtaking Brian Wanglin. The first fines were assessed on PP DAVE WHITEHEAD
and PP RON WANGLIN, since they had both fined MIKE at their first meeting!
And thus it was necessary to fine PP ANDY ANDERSON because he had FAILED to
fine MIKE when he could have. Along about this time, an attractive lady
police officer appeared, immediately cuffed MIKE for some unspecified crime,
and started to lead him away.
HENRY HEUER leaped to the defense, providing a write of Humongous Corpus.
This caused PP SUNNY JIM SUMNER to get involved, but the loud voices of
protest soon led to the release of MIKE. Amy and Patrick presented MIKE with
a huge gavel, which was suitable displayed.
MIKE had a whole bunch of prior Rotary connections – Bob Perkins taught him
to swim, Erny Pinckert lived around the corner, Tom Biner was his dentist,
with Mike O’Connell as his partner. Dick Walker was his Little League Coach,
Brian Bumpas was his first boss, and Doug Desch was always providing Rotary
history. Henrietta provided the following copy, which was displayed on the
pier at Malibu – “Wanted, Woman to Cook and Clean Fish, Dig Worms and make
Lures. Must have good boat and motor. Send picture of boat and motor”. In
summary, MIKE reminds us “We had fun – and we got it done”. MIKE, you did
indeed get it done, and WVRC is better off for your efforts.
TONY DERYAN introduced our Speaker, Albert Perdon, P.E. Mr. Perdon’s firm
specializes in management of large transportation programs, and since 1999,
the firm has provided strategic program management services to the Southern
California Association of Governments for the California Maglev Deployment
Program. Mr. Perdon is a Professional Engineer in California, and serves on
the Board of Directors of the American High Speed Ground Transportation
Association, based in Washington, D.C.
The Maglev Program will carry passengers and freight at speeds over 200 mph,
above Southern California’s congested freeways. His firm will be managing
the Orange Line deployment program, a 35-mile Maglev system connecting Los
Angeles and Orange Counties. He began by pointing out that we wouldn’t see
much change in the next two or three years – but 20 or 30 years from now,
most major freeways will have a Maglev line installed. He showed an
excellent video of the October 2003 opening of the Shanghai Maglev System,
which provides top speeds of 260 mph. going up to 315 mph. The
Southern California governments are considering four routes: LAX to
downtown, to Riverside, south to Irvine, and along the 405 to Palmdale
(which would take 35 minutes).
These systems can be built without subsidies, and the next stage at present
is project implementation. The first route should be operating by 2011 or
2012 – and of course it’s faster to get underway in China, where the
Government has total control. Are the cars noisy – no, mainly there is a
whoosh as they fly by. DON NELSON – Are the routes all elevated? Yes. They
run on electricity and are very efficient. Maintenance is minimal because
there are so few moving parts. MAKR BLOCK – What will rides cost? LA to
Santa Ana, $10, LA to downtown $8 or $9. ELLIOTT TURNER – Will they actually
be able to originate at LAX – nothing can at present? A lot of public
pressure will be exerted, and it will prevail. The Orange line will open up
residential land in Orange County – which will ease the approvals needed by
local governments. Some of the problems which must be solved include
location of stations, with parking needed, plus which route to begin first.
Mr Perdon suggested we would be using Chinese technology, since they are far
ahead of us – which in turn brought our two visiting Rotarians into the
discussion, reminding us that Germany also has an existing Maglev System.
Other areas in the US that are currently interested include Pittsburgh and
Las Vegas.
Again, this is high tech stuff – but we do need to know about it. Thanks,
Albert Perdon.
YOE, Ernie Wolfe |
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