Windmill for Thursday, October 13, 2011
Welcome to the friendly and award-winning Westwood Village Rotary club. It is Thursday, October 13, 2011 with the sweltering heat from a summery day in fall amidst the usual pleasantries, greetings and catching-up among members and guests. Today was another wonderful time of fellowship at the club. President Ed Jackson called the meeting to order at 12:30pm with a warm welcome to all. He highlighted a few announcements to kick-off the meeting.
Dr. Colby Smith is working on a future volunteer project under his Chair as New Generations, and the date will be announced to members in a subsequent meeting. You will recall the club distributed 150 dictionaries to 3rd graders at the Westwood Elementary Charter last week after the meeting. President Ed Jackson hinted that he hopes we win the next race at the district picnic and followed-up on his visit with PP George Dea and Janice while in San Francisco leading the delegation to Chinatown rotary club. As you will recall from Mark Block's announcement 2 weeks ago, PP George Dea hasn't been feeling well. He appreciated our "get well" card and was overwhelmed by our outpouring of affection. President Ed Jackson promises to share slides from the club's recent trip to San Francisco's Chinatown rotary club next week. Thanks all!! Next up, was a slide showing the DG Brad Robinson being dunked-on at the recently concluded district picnic. You will also recall that the club sponsored the dunk tank for the district picnic and we like to remind everyone that we will be hosting DG Brad Robinson next week Thursday, October 20, 2011 at the club.
Athena Jackson led the pledge and Jack Paul provided the invocation. Jack Paul admonished us to tailor our humor with caution and discretion in the spirit of Rotary to foster good relationships and friendships. He referenced icons like Bob Hope, Jack Benny as masters of situational comedy and the power of humor to engender great feelings of endearment and connection.
President Ed Jackson welcomed visiting Rotarians and guests of Rotarians. PP Steve Scherer introduced his guest and past speaker at our club, Rev Dr. Lynn Cheyney of Westwood Presbyterian Church. Of course, Mark Rogo jokingly introduced Abraham Carons as his African guest because he was adorned in African attire. Again, President Ed Jackson reminded the club that we will be playing host to DG Brad Robinson, and underscored the importance of his visit. On the head table was PP and AG Gordon Fell, PP and AG Ted Grose of Westchester, PDG Bill Goodwyn, our program Chair Sally Brant and speaker Bob Trimborn. President Ed Jackson hinted that DG Brad Robinson would love to meet with all the board members before the meeting next Thursday, and he also reconfirmed our feeding the homeless project with John Heidt on November 10, 2011. Pres Ed Jackson invited members that were interested in going to the "Get Motivated" seminar at the Staples Center on Halloween day with a stellar line-up of speakers including Collin Powell, Joe Montana, Rudy Guilliani and Bill Cosby. Unfortunately, due to other important commitments with LAUSD and UCLA, president Ed Jackson said he might not be able to make the "Get Motivated" conference. PP and Club Treasurer, Don Nelson reported that PP and Executive Secretary, Ernie Wolfe is doing much better. We were also reminded that on Friday, November 18, 2011 we will be meeting with the Santa Monica club at the Riviera at 12:30pm, so there will be no meeting on Thursday, November 17, 2011 at UCLA. PP Eric Loberg announced the passing of Mike O'Connor's wife, vocational Chair, Steve Pettise reported that PP Ed Gauld is feeling much better, Marsha Hunt invited the club to a meet and greet session with Rev Dr. Hamlet Mbabazi from Uganda at the Westwood Presbyterian Church and International Chair, Abraham Carons reminded the club of Eleanor More's celebration of life service on Saturday, October 22, 2011 at 10:30am at the Westwood United Methodist Church.
PP and Club Treasurer, Don Nelson provided an update to the suggested amendment to the bylaws and constitution of the club. He reiterated that the reason the amendment was necessary was to make our bylaws and constitution more amenable to the new Rotary International initiative Pilot program. He thereafter summoned the club to move-on the motion to make the necessary amendments to the club, which was unanimously voted upon by club members.
President Ed Jackson summoned on PP Peter More, who is also the world president of International Flying Rotarians to introduce our guest speaker. Our speaker, Robert Trimborn is the Airport Director at Santa Monica Airport. Bob has been involved in aviation since 1965 when at the age of 14 he started to take flying lessons. He soloed at age 16, became a private pilot at age 17, commercial pilot at age 18, and currently holds a certified flight instructors rating with over 3000 hours of flight time. In 1983, Bob was hired as the Airport manager for the Hawthorne Municipal airport where he worked for 10 1/2 years. In 1993, he accepted a position as the Airport Manager at the Reno Stead Airport in Reno Nevada. In 1996, he was hired by the city of Santa Monica as Airport manager of the Santa Monica Municipal Airport; one of the oldest and most active general aviation airports in the nation. Bob has been an active member of the Southwest Chapter of American Association of Airport Executives since 1983 and served as president of the organization from 1988 through 1999. Bob is a member of Santa Monica rotary club, lives in Thousand Oaks with his wife, JoAnne and his two children, Douglas and Claire.
Bob Trimborn gave a delightful photo presentation about the Santa Monica Municipal Airport and it's economic impact on the region. The Santa Monica airport has been around since 1917 and has been owned by city of Santa Monica since 1926. It is the largest piece of land owned by the City of Santa Monica, about 227 acres, seats over 400 base air-crafts, a dozen jet air-crafts, the run-ways south is about 5000km, 2 parallel taxi ways, 54 structures on ground, FAA tower with 160 non-aviation leases. The city of Santa Monica purchased the airport from the Stanton Brothers in 1926 for the sum of $755,000 and it is the oldest operating airport in Los Angeles County. The pictures shown by Bob indicates that the airport might have been used as a grass landing strip in early World War 1 which was originally called Clover Field, after a WW1 aviator lieutenant Greayer Clover. The airport was home of the Douglas Aircraft company. In 1920's through 1940's, the Douglas Aircraft Company began production on it's military aircraft at the airport (DC-3 and DC-4.) At some point, it is reported the company employed about 44,000 people working 3 shifts. In 1924, Douglas Aircraft Company and the Santa Monica Airport became world renown when its World Cruiser biplanes became the 1st aircraft to successfully circumnavigate the earth. More pictures, more slides of the airport and it's surroundings and how it has evolved over the decades. Bob Trimborn ended his presentation by providing data on the economic impact of the Santa Monica airport on the region. The presentation was followed by Q&A session.
