 |
||||||||||||||||
| Program Chair: Mark Rogo | July 11, 2013 | |||||||||||||||
.jpg) |
This Week...
July 18
Senior Rotary Leadership
"What You Always Wanted to Know About Rotary, But Were Afraid to Ask."
Upcoming...
July 24
Executive Board Meeting July 25 Club Presidents Panel "Keeping Up With the Joneses" |
|||||||||||||||
|
July 18 Senior Rotary Leadership "What You always Wanted to Know About Rotary, But Were Afraid To Ask." |
||||||||||||||||
 |
||||||||||||||||
|
July 25 Local Club Presidents "Keeping Up With the Joneses" |
||||||||||||||||
|
Welcome by PE Aly Shoji for our first meeting for the
2013-2014 year (not yet inaugurated President Mark Rogo
is STILL on vacation!)
Paul Aslan led our pledge and IPP Dwight gave a stirring
invocation
Announcements:
Avenues of Sevice:
Youth Chair, Jim Crane reported on the award winning ethics competition by our UCLA Rotoractors. But mentioned we can improve communications with our youth opportunities. More Interacts than Rotoracts so more competition. Encouraged members to join this committee, it is richly rewarding, Club Service was reported on by Colby and you heard him say it, "If you're not having fun, it's ALL his fault!" ;) We're having fun, Colby, I think ;) A Vocational report was also provided by Dick Thompson about many efforts in the community and we will be working with members to be more active with our many projects.
Now..... for Dwight 's SWAN SONG.........
"A Few Words from your IPP. Thank you for my Demotion.
It has lowered my Blood Pressure and reduced the size of
my Email Inbox greatly. My Calendar for August has
empty spaces and my tennis game is improving. I thank
the "Not Ready for Primetime Players" who weren't quite
ready and the authors, Mark, Paul, and Phil I am told,
of the brilliant Rotary President Skit "Are you
Insane." Like the trial of Ed Jackson, Communist Spy
for the Kiwanis last year, it bears little resemblance
to fact. It was interesting that the script had me born
with a Rotary gear on my forehead, as if Club Presidents
were born and not made. Other than questionable sanity,
I don't see any other attributes that our now 21
surviving Club Presidents have in common.
Anyway, I drank the same Rotary Kool-Aid they all did at
President-Elect Training and woke up excited about my
first meeting one Thursday morning
in July, 2012., I stuck my really big Club President
pin on my lapel and was the center of attention until
about 12:15 when
Henry Tseng glided in behind his walker. He and Betty
Bloomfield were 195 years old that day and I was the
Birthday Party Host, not Commander-in-chief. Then, I
shared the spotlight with the new BOD, most of whom
survived their tenure to this day. I met Frankie Aslan
after that meeting and as soon as he joined our club, I
made him the Greeting Committee Chair, which, I'm sure
you'll agree, was my first good idea. Now, if he could
just learn how to hit the high backhand shot, he'd be a
perfect Rotarian.
Speaking of hard workers, the hardest working
non-official member of my team was Uncle Leo. When I
needed a venue and planner for the October fun party,
Uncle Leo was ready-as long as I promised a belly dancer
and karaoke singing. When our friends from Chinatown SF
Rotary Club came to LA in November, nearly all of them
moved in with Leo on the mountain and stayed there until
the parting party-again in Leo's back yard. Best of
all, Leo can still hit the high backhand shot by
twirling 360 degrees counterclockwise-as evidenced by
all the matches we won this year-the best were the games
after lunch on Thursdays.
But, what is a Rotary year without the programs? 2
years ago, 30 club members responded to my requested
program survey.
Showing their serious side, Problems (local more than int'l) won 33% of the vote. I'm ashamed to report that we had only 2 programs on homelessness and a couple on international projects dealing with water. Education and Entertainment split fully 54% of the vote, so since good education is entertaining, we concentrated there, though I'm not sure what category the politicians fell into at by the end of the mayoral campaign, the Four-Way test banner fell off its stand. RI only received 5% of the vote, so we complied with the program on South Sudan and the one on wells for the Sahara. Two of my favorites were the professors of internet statistics and joint replacement and I did like most of the history, be it sports, Hollywood, or Presidents. It took two speakers from JPL to understand what's going on over there. The Oscar goes, as usual, to Craft Talks-from Therese and Diane to Jack and Phil, to Bob Wessling, Don Nelson, Igor, and Richard Thompson-thank you all for sharing. And Jim Collins-you're a Peach and not a Whippersnapper! Best new features Awards go to Richard Thompson's CD shows and Mark's Merchant Minute. In our last survey, 63 members liked singing and only 9 hated it.
Programs are important-too big a job for 1 and maybe
even for 4 members. We can probably thank a LOOMING
empty date for inviting any regrettable speakers we had
this past year. My partners in crime for programs were
Ed Jackson, Sally Brant, and Pres Mark Rogo.
This is my chance to thank some others for their efforts
this year. It begins with PP Ed Jackson, who called me
onboard over 18 months ago to ride shotgun. Without
this preparation, my team would have been in the dark.
Ed, Mark, and I have connected very well over the past
year and a half, which makes transition easy.
Unfortunately, neither plays a recognizable game of
tennis-so it's NOT perfect.
Mark is to blame for the Merchant Minute-oh, you liked that? Oh, that was a good idea WE had, wasn't it? He's also to blame for that stupid rapper performance--Rotary in the House at the W Hotel with Aly and Marsha and I embarrassing ourselves-what? You liked that too? Well, with Igor unavailable the whole year, Mark did provide some over-the-top silliness. Geez, I'm hardly gone and he's getting all the glory.
As many of you know, without Don Nelson, our Most
Valuable Treasurer, I would not have survived the year
since Google cannot answer most Rotary protocol
questions. From the budget in July through all the good
advice and guidance, he was the best conciliere we could
ever have. The rumor that I drove him crazy is not
true-he announcing he would be retiring from Treasurer
before I was nominated.
We owe a lot to the busiest Rapper Momma in Westwood-Aly
Shoji, our new PE. She persevered without having Ernie
around to write the Windmill, so we kicked her
upstairs. Next year, her children are both getting jobs
at UCLA, so she can be our full-time president.
Dr. Colby put the finishing touches on the Windmill
every week and made it look good. As Membership Chair,
he single-handedly ran the Young professional Marketing
Program last year and contacted quite a few-they are out
there. It is a BIG jump from dropping by for a beer and
talking about service to actually committing to Rotary
membership, however, as we found. We need to put more
thought and resources behind our next effort, but thank
you, Colby, for scouting the market.
Then there were the Avenue Chairs-Lords over their
Dominions. Answering to no one, they rode a roughshod
path of destruction-Excuse me-they made sure the actual
work got done.
Marsha "Mad-dog" Hunt: What's with the hair? Chaperoning Rotaractors to Hawaii (tough duty), working for her students in Uganda, promoting Engineers without borders, etc, etc, etc. Jim Crane: 2 Interact clubs of adolescents too busy to return his phone calls and a Rotaract club of UCLA students always taking exams-Great results, Jim!
Richard Thompson-vocational-chasing those teachers down,
crashing through barricades to get to PP meetings. We
know it was a hard pull for you this year, but you
always had embarrassing photos ready of those parties we
could not remember.
John Heidt-on leave right now-Father of the Bride last week. He kept us networked with the business community and neighborhood councils. We need him back soon.
I want to thank everyone on the Board who served the
club last year. It was a privilege to see you in action
and an inspiration every week. Early on, I realized
that is how the Club President survives his term by
getting a lift when things fall down. Like when I see
Mike Newman bringing an exchange student to the Santa
Barbara conference-how many years has he helped them
out? And then stepping into MCing my Demotion at the
last minute and enjoying every minute.
So, what does the scorecard for last year look like?
Is the president of the Auxiliary in the house? Would
you come up here please? I understand you'll be
bringing a taser to the BOD meetings this year-is that
right? Here's a laser-it causes less permanent damage.
I need to acknowledge that you were involved with nearly
everything that happened this past year. Even though I
got cranky at times, I never heard a complaint from
you. Of course, my hearing isn't what it used to be.
This coming year, my dear, you get more husband, but
probably less fun-because it was a lot of fun!
I don't think we were Rotary World Champions this year,
but we got to the playoffs. I mean no disrespect to the
honored members we lost during the year, but our team is
already stronger and more experienced than a year ago.
There is a lot of talent sitting here and we are WAY
under the Salary Cap. I'll close with more tennis. If a
Brit can win at Wimbledon after waiting 77 years, then
Westwood Village Rotary can be world famous, too, after
84 years."
Dwight actually finished early, EARLY! Can you believe
it? So being that I asked members to identify a
committee they were interested in participating this
year, e.g., International, Community, Vocational, Youth,
or Membership, all the members had 10 minutes to sit and
talk about initial thoughts and projects for these
areas.
When I rang the bell to dismiss....no one got up and you
continued your conversations about service at your
tables. Maybe you all do like each other! ;)
Thank you Dwight (and Sook!) for your tireless service
to our club. Your commitment was a wonderful example
and it was an honor to serve on your Board!
YYE (& PE!) Aly Shoji |
||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||
