ALYSSA SHOJI led the Pledge. PP ED (the "Preacher") GAULD, with 26 seconds to prepare, gave us a wonderful invocation, thanking the almighty for allowing us to serve others through Rotary. We skipped the song (methinks PP SEAN MCMILLAN is unduly influencing PREXY ED JACKSON).

We had two visiting Rotarians today: our speaker, CHURAIRAT PANYARACHUN, Past President of the Bangkok Thailand Rotary Club, and PANJAWANNEE MUANGMONGKOL, President of the Thai Town Rotary Club (Toluca Lake). PP CHURAIRAT and PREXY ED exchanged club flags, with PP CHURAIRAT observing that the symbols on her club's flag stand for angels, and she was visiting our club in the City of Angels!

PP DON NELSON brought his two wonderful daughters, LINDA ROBERTS and ADELAIDE PORTER, to our meeting. PP STEVE SCHERER introduced special guests KRISTA STILLEY (Director of the Salvation Army's Transitional Center) and ANTIONETTE MONGELLI (Director of the UCLA Volunteer Center). LENNY FRIEDMAN brought his better half, SUNNY FRIEDMAN. BRIAN WHITNEY introduced us to his special guest, JENNIFER CASPER.

Prominently positioned at the head table were RALPH BEASOM, PP JOHN SINGLETON, ELLIOTT TURNER, PP GORDON FELL and our speaker, PP (Bangkok Club) CHURAIRAT PANYARACHUN.

PREXY ED gave us a slide show of each Avenue of Service, which listed the chairperson and members of each committee. PREXY ED also made a number of important announcements (so listen up!):

• The next District Breakfast is on Tuesday, July 27th, at the Westin LAX. Please let Ed or Don know if you're coming.
• The Auxiliary Summer Fun Party is on August 27th at PP LEO TSENG'S beautiful home.
• Between September 12th and 15th we will undertake a hands-on program in elementary schools.
• Our trip to the San Francisco Chinatown Rotary Club will take place October 6th through 9th.
• The District Governor pays us a visit on October 20th.
• The District's Paul Harris Celebration (started long ago and far away by our own PDG & PP BILL GOODWYN) on November 6th at Circus Vargas in Del Amo.

PP SEAN MCMILLAN gave us some Irish history and an Irish joke. Seems like the Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland haven't gotten along for hundreds of years. While under British yoke some Northern Ireland terrorists (even SEAN agrees they are, and he's Irish, as if you couldn't tell from his whiskey, I mean coffee mug attached to his body) bombed and otherwise killed people, both in Ireland and England. Glad that's all over now! I can't fully repeat PP SEAN's joke in this column, but men don't ask your wife to see if she can fit into your trousers, as you certainly won't be able to fit into her knickers (or otherwise get any love or affection)!

PP STEVE SCHERER had the pleasure of presiding at the induction ceremony for our newest member, KRISTA STILLEY. KRISTA is the Director of the Salvation Army Transitional Center. She told us her interest in Rotary was sparked by one of our favorite programs, the Christmas Dinner & Shopping Spree, in which we chaperone young children from the center to dinner and help them buy Christmas gifts for their family. KRISTA got a well deserved standing ovation as our newest Rotarian. Congratulations, KRISTA!

Our speaker was CHURAIRAT PANYARACHUN, Past President of the Bangkok Thailand Rotary Club. PP CHURAIRAT encouraged us to go to the next R.I. International Convention in Bangkok, Thailand, in early May, 2012. Due to a $9 million grant by Thailand, this will be the least expensive R.I. International Convention in recent memory. It only costs $160 to attend (if you early register by December). The convention will be located in a campus housing multiple large arenas, with wide open interior spaces (enough to fit several young elephants, on which you can ride!). They expect 30,000 people to attend. Go to the R.I. website for more information, including participating hotels and reservations.