The Windmill
Program Chair:  Mark Rogo July 18,  2013
 
This Week...
July 24
Executive Board Meeting

July 25
Club Presidents Panel                           
"Keeping Up With the Joneses" 

Upcoming...
                                          
August 1
Chris Gaynor 
"Senior Craft Talk"
August 8 
Simon Board, Ph.D. 
"Designing Online Reputation Mechanisms" 
August 9 
Literacy Breakfast
Lawry's Steakhouse 
7-9AM 
July 25
Local Club Presidents
"Keeping Up With the Joneses"
 
Member picture  
August 1
Chris Gaynor
"Senior Craft Talk"
 
 
Our President is Back!  For his first welcome, he invited PP Steve Scherer to lead the pledge. 

The Invocation for Mark Rogo's Installation as President of our Rotary today was provided by Rabbi Sandy Regins of Leo Beck Temple in Bel Air. 

"O Thou who sustains the world, we ask You for three blessings... 

    Bless the man we honor today and his loved ones; may the fulfillment he knows at this hour linger, and may the years to come be graced with more times of celebration like this one. 

    Bless all of us who are gathered to celebrate him.  For those who are afflicted, bring some healing.  For those in pain or in need, some solace.  And refuge too.  We cannot prevent or control the storms of life, but we can build shelters to hold back the cold darkness, shelters to comfort and console, structures of justice and compassion. 

    Bless all of Your children everywhere, and teach us at last to see them, everywhere, as our brothers and sisters.  You have been so patient with our hatred and our failure to create justice.  Make us, we pray, impatient.  Help us see the world the way You do, so that some day, perhaps, in our time, we will learn at last that nothing which harms or destroys the human spirit can be done in Your name.  Nothing. 

    May the one who makes peace in the high places, help us to be among those who make peace here, for ourselves and our families for our community and our city, our world.  Amen.  MOTZI"
Our guests today included the lovely Sharon Bradford, Rabbi Regins, Karen Ayers from Mark's office and Maxine Rogo, Mark's beautiful mother. (obviously adopted)
 
Our President shared he will NOT be sharing Irish or Jewish history each week but rather a Rotary History moment  which, he then shared.
This week's Health and Welfare Update:
  • John O'Keefe just went through Melanoma surgery , please send him a card and let him know we are all thinking about him and wishing him well.  
  • Jim Collins is coming home soon from his double knee surgery and continues to get stronger each day, GO JIM!
  • Tony Maroni's wife, Denise, passed away on July 12.  Wishing their family heartfelt condolences.
  • Head Table intros of our Past Presidents included: Bill Goodwyn, Ron Lyster, Don Nelson, and Ed Jackson.  Gordon Fell elected not to sit at the head table although he presented.
President Mark's First Turkey of the Month Award unfortunately went to me, Aly Shoji!  When I protested, our fine President asked where I was this past Tuesday and I immediately held out my hand for the deserving award.  In my earnest to make sure I was NOT late for the District Breakfast on Tuesday, I made sure I was bright and early at the
Carson Community Center  :/  That was fine and all if it had been a District Conference as this is the location for these meetings but District Breakfasts are ALWAYS held at the Westin on Century Blvd (five minutes from my house arrrrrrrrrgh!)  I just told Mark stick with me this year and you'll look like a genius!  ;) Thankfully b/c I was so early I was still able to make the breakfast for the speaker, newly installed DA Jackie Lacey, and it was a terrific program.    
For the 12 Rotarians who answered Marks email trivia while he was abroad (Ed Jackson, Chris Bradford, Brian Whitney, Ron Lyster, John Woodall, Don Nelson, Andrew Mukhey, Ann Samson, Aly Shoji, Diane Good, and Terry M. White) he called everyone forward and presented us with some "foxy" rewards.  Please see pics for reference.
 
President Mark thanked PP Bill Goodwyn for hosting the quarterly "Keep Mark and Aly in Line" club more commonly known as the PP meeting and asked all the PP's attending to stand so we could again, acknowledge and thank their past and collective efforts to our club.  THANK YOU!
Announcements: 
  • Leo announced the San Francisco trip to visit our fellow Rotary club in Chinatown  is scheduled for Oct 25-27.  If you are interested in going, next Sat. on  July  27 at 10:30 is the first planning mtg at Leo's house.  Call or email Leofor more info.
  • Oct. 6 is the District Picnic (not at the Carson Community Center ;) but at the Seaside Lagoon in Redondo Beach. Nov. 9th is the Paul Harris Celebration at the CA Science Center with special guest The Endeavor!     
  • There is a Literacy Breakfast on Aug. 9th from 7:00a.m. to9:00a.m. at Lawry's, and Phil Gabriel's first cheerleading event.   
  • Congrats to Phil Gabriel's daughter, Samantha, who made Varsity Cheer Team as a freshman! Our President assessed him a $500 fine! (OR the option to chair our merchant minute speakers ;)  Thanks, Phil, looking forward to meeting more of your fellow merchants in Westwood and Brentwood.    
  • IPP Dwight Heikkila gave Mark the official charter as another tool to assist with his Presidency and noted there was only room for two more signatures after his.  Gordon noted President Mark must be VERY trustworthy as Gordon was merely shown the charter as he was leaving his Presidency to sign the charter but then never saw it again.  ;) 
Mark began by thanking his sponsors, Steve Scherer, Peggy Bloomfield, Ed Gauld, and Gordon Fell.  He has been a student of Rotary for the past year and has seen a well governed behind the scenes, organization with basically cosmetic and "style change" only, e.g., Mark's style will be different than Dwight's, who's style was different from Ed's etc.  Mark is challenging our club to raise the bar and expectations to be more than style change, stating we are in the business of community service, not Thursday lunch.  

His Goals for this year are:
  1. To add 10+ new members
  2. Have the WVRC become a 100% Paul Harris Club 
  3. More Fellowship
  4. More Fun
  5. And finally better understanding of what Rotary stands for in our world.  
He expects no whining and 100% participation.  How do we achieve this?  He provided examples through the Board Discretionary fund, led by example with himself and Ed Jackson as society members, Dinner with your Ex, Bring a Guest program with Tom Barron, White Elephant auction, instituting Social Media Avenue of Service, and tightening up requirements to be a member and remain a member.
Our esteemed Past Presidents provided the membership with the following information re: Rotary history, by-laws, governance and customs, finance, endowments, and our pilot program. 

Rules and Bylaws
PP Ron Lyster: 

Bylaws are the rules and regulations enacted by a corporation to provide a framework for its operation and management. The Rotary Club of Westwood 
Village - Los Angeles is a corporation, and we have Bylaws. 

In addition to the Bylaws, the club has adopted a Constitution, addressing a number of issues as required by Rotary International. You can find them both on the club's website. 

Here are a few of the provisions from these two documents, in no particular order and not verbatim: 
  1. Members must be adult persons of good character and good business and professional reputation.
    • You cannot simultaneously hold active membership in 2 Rotary clubs.
    • Not more than 10% of the club's active membership may have the same classification. For this purpose, retired members are not counted.
  2. If you are interested in Proposing a New Member, invite him or her to attend a meeting.
    1. Introduce your guest to several members of the Board, and be sure to introduce your guest to President Mark. If you know someone in the club who has a similar business, introduce your guest to him or her. When President Mark asks you to introduce your guest to the club, don't say you guest is interested in joining the club - just introduce him or her as our "special guest."
    2. The board will ensure that the membership proposal meets all the classification and membership requirements.
    3. The prospective member will be requested to submit a membership application and his name and proposed classification will be published to the club.
    4. If no written objection is received within 10 days following publication, the prospective member is elected to membership.
  3. Members must attend or make up at least 60% of club meetings. Many of us have raised the bar to 100%, and I, for one, would encourage and support perfectAttendance. Make-ups may be done within 14 days before or after the missed meeting.
    1. Attendance at international fellowship events, club board meetings, club service projects, district breakfasts, district conferences, and Rotary International conventions are also permitted make-ups.
    2. Our club has also permitted cruise-ship make ups.
    3. You can even do make ups online now. There are 2 e-clubs inDistrict 5280, but you can make up at any e-club around the world, and there are 126 of them.
    4. When you are traveling outside the country for more than 14 days, you may attend meetings in another country at any time during the travel period.
  4. This year our Board of Directors meets on the 4thWednesday of the month. Board meetings are open to all members.
    1. The club's Board has between 10 and 14 members.
    2. The club elects 10 members of the board every year on or before the first Thursday in December.
    3. The president-elect may appoint 2 additional directors at large to serve during his or her year, and with the Board's approval the incoming president can select up to 2 more directors at large. This year we do have 4 directors at large.
    4. The 10 Directors selected by the club members serve as chairmen of the avenue of service committees, with the vice president covering club service.
    5. The other board members are:
      • The secretary
      • The treasurer
      • The president
      • The president-elect
      • The immediate past president
  5. The club officers are nominated by a Nominating Committeecomprised of the sitting president and the 4 immediate past presidents who remain members of the club.
    • The person whose term of office as president is most senior serves as the chairman of the nominating committee.
    • Ed Gauld will be the chairman of the nominating committee this year.
    • Informally - this does not appear in the Bylaws, but has tradition in the club - the offices of president, president-elect, vice president, and secretary have been called the "chairs." Traditionally, one would move from secretary, to vice-president, to president-elect, and on to president - or "through the chairs."
  6. Using an analogy that Gordon might like, the Club Presidentmay be compared to the conductor of an orchestra. It is his (and next year her) job to motivate, guide, and inform the club, keeping it on track to accomplish its objectives. The president will have formed his board and given direction to his year before July 1, when the Rotary year begins.
  7. We now have 5 Avenues of Service. Our bylaws refer to the "New Generations" avenue of service, but Rotary International has thankfully renamed this to Youth Service - which our club has always treated as a separate avenue with it's own chairman anyway. The other avenues are Club, Vocational, Community, and International, each with its own chairman. The work of Rotary is accomplished in its Avenue of Service committees. Here I will quote from our bylaws:
    • "Each chair shall be responsible for regular meetings and activities of the committee, shall supervise and coordinate the work of the committee, and shall report to the board on all committee activities."
    • "Each committee shall have a specific mandate, clearly defined goals, and action plans established by the beginning of each year for implementation during the course of the year. It shall be the primary responsibility of the president-elect to provide the necessary leadership to prepare a recommendation for club committees, mandates, goals, and plans for presentation to the board in advance of the commencement of the year as noted above."
History
PP Bill Goodwyn:  
 
Rotary was created 108 years ago by Paul Harris a lawyer in Chicago (mainly because he was lonely) and he and several friends would get together once a week rotating the location of their meeting thus the genesis of the name rotary.

Rotary has grown to more than 1.2 million members in 34,300 rotary clubs in 180+ countries and territories. 
(If you wanted to visit a different club each week it would take 659 years to complete your journey.) 
Rotary is the oldest service organization in the world and has a storied history.
Twenty-nine heads of state are the patriarch or matriarch of the organization; 49 members of the original united nations were Rotarians; rotary has had a key role in eliminating polio from the planet by inoculating more than two billion children today there are only a few hundred remaining cases around the world; rotary is credited in playing a key role in establishing a truce in the 1982 Falklands war; rotary has a permanent observer status at the united nations; and it created the largest and most sought-after graduate scholarship in the world.

There's a saying that the lions play in the cities, the Kiwanis manage the cities, and Rotarians own the cities. 
There's some truth to that because you have to be invited to join rotary and the qualifications require that you own, manage, or have a leadership position in your respective business or profession. 
When you consider the number of Rotarians around the world you're looking at a lot of horsepower.

To administer the world organization rotary divides all of its clubs into more than 540 districts each led by an elected governor for a one year term. There are some districts that cover four time zones and several include at least 9 countries. My counterpart in Alaska had to visit some of his clubs in a dogsled. I know of one governor in northern Africa who had to travel to three different countries to reach some of his clubs in a fourth country because of travel restrictions caused by warfare.

One of the unique things about rotary is that we fire all of our leaders on June 30th and replace them with people who've never been in the job on July 1st. All leadership positions are for a term of one year with the exception of the nineteen international directors who serve two years.

Consequently leadership development is a critical factor in training our upcoming leaders and in some instances an elected leader can't serve in their position until he/she has completed the required training.

All of this is paid for by a portion of your dues going to the district and the international organization. Currently that figure totals $137.00 annually. The RI Board keeps control of the organization through what's known as the standard club constitution and by-laws. Meaning that every one of the clubs worldwide agrees to follow the same rules of governance and are awarded their certificate as a club only after signing off on all the required agreements. If a club goes astray RI Can and will yank its license to operate.

Another unique thing about rotary is the importance it places on protocol. Considering the quality of membership the myriad of cultures and languages protocol becomes a thing of great importance.
There's a joke about attending the international convention (where president mark just returned from Portugal) that those wearing six ribbons only talk to others wearing six ribbons and those wearing five you get the picture.

The protocols even extend to the club level. The specific way we should introduce a visiting Rotarian or guest the decorum we extend to our program speakers the preparation for the governors official visit the way we vet prospective members are all examples of how rotary history influences every Rotarian.

Some might think the governors official visit is a big yawn and depending on the governor that might be an understatement. But.....let me explain what's really involved in that visit.

The governor is required to inspect every club in his/her district and submit a five page report on the visit which is on permanent file at RI Headquarters. That report includes the health of the club the performance of the president the current activities of the club and the governor's overall impression.

This report is used to identify future leaders for higher positions in rotary and to identify problems the club might be experiencing. So if you're a past president of this club 
I know you'll be thrilled to learn there is a permanent report on file at RI Headquarters regarding your performance.

Club Finances
PP Don Nelson:  
 
The Westwood Rotary Club Foundation underwrites the charitable activities of the Club's Community, International, Vocational, and Youth Avenues of Service. It was founded in 1992 as a 501(c) (3) tax exempt organization. This means that contributions to it qualify as a charitable contributions for income tax purposes. It is for this reason that we bill dues one-half from the Club and one-half from the Foundation. This is helpful to retired or other members who can deduct Foundation dues as a contribution if they do not have a business where they could otherwise deduct dues as a business expense.
 
Half of your total dues are deposited in the Foundation along with Presidential special fines and other memorial and honorarium gifts received. The dividends and interest received on the investments are reinvested in the Foundation. 
 
The Foundation consists of four separate funds that Gordon Fell will discuss shortly. But overall we have had very favorable growth over the last four years. The balances at the end of the last four years were: $760M, $811M, $803M, and $906M, respectively. The large jump this last year is mainly due to the major gift of $60,000 donated by Jim Collins in recognition his 60 years of membership in the Club. 
 
The income of the Club is mainly from the other one-half of your total dues plus a small override on the meals. This comes from prepaid meals charged to members who do not eat them or makeup at another club. 
I will be emailing all members a condensed financial statements for the Club and Foundation for the last fiscal year ended June 30, 2013 shortly after the Board approves the financials at its next meeting on July 24. If you have any questions regarding these statements, please talk with me. 
 
We use ClubRunner to process membership records, attendance, and billings to members. ClubRunner is integrated with RI records and whenever you change your address or other demographic data, that change is automatically made to the records at RI. In this respect, I sent you emails last week asking you to check the information in your profile. This is important as I will be preparing our new Club Roster next week using the information in ClubRunner. Please attend to this matter promptly as it is important that we use current information in the new Roster. 
 
Also, you can check the status of your account and attendance record at any time simply by logging in to ClubRunner. If you have any problem with this process, please call me.

Foundation
PP Gordon Fell:  
 
Gordon discussed the four funds in our WVRC Foundation, the Endowment Fund, The Phillips Fund, The Virginia Gandy Fund and the PLLUS fund.  He also told us that that there is a Foundation Board of Trustees which consists of the current officers of the club as well as others as well as a Board of Managers.  The Board of Managers consists of the current Club President, as Chair and 6 other managers elected for 3 year terms by the Board with a preference for Past Presidents of the Club.  The Trustees manage the charitable gifts made by the Foundation and the Managers determine and oversee the investment policy.  Currently the Board of Managers consists of President Mark, IPP Dwight Heikkila and Past Presidents Edwin Gauld, Ronald Lyster, Gordon Fell, Christopher Gaynor, Edward Jackson and Robert Wessling.
Great job in your FIRST meeting President, Mark!
 
Pilot Program 
PP Ed Jackson:

Rotary International's purpose for the pilot program was to develop exceptional and effective practices that would lead Rotary successfully into the next century.  Westwood Village Rotary club's purpose for the pilot program is as an enhancement to our strategic plan for the next 3 to 5 years with yearly monitoring by the club.

Terry White, Gordon Fell, Don Nelson, Peggy Bloomfield, PDG's Andy Anderson and Bill Goodwyn, Ed Jackson as well as Dr. Colby Smith, Dwight Heikkila, Pres. Mark Rogo and PE Aly Shoji helped or are helping to shape the pilot program.

Young professionals are engaging with Rotary through social media which is increasingly important for us to communicate inter-community and throughout our Universe.  The use of video and audio streaming is a must for achieving interactive and hands on support, and completing relevant projects with our friends and neighbors.

Our club is passionately doing everything we said in making the pilot program happen. I would like to see Internet streaming done well this year with the help of Dick Thompson, Peter More, and Ron Lyster and any other interested club members.

Changes have already been made because of the pilot program.  An example would be satellite clubs, which is how Beverly Hills club is incorporating their young professionals.  Another change is our Associate and Corporate Memberships, designed to increase participation in Rotary.

More info on the Pilot Program

Next Week:
 
Local Club Presidents Panel- "Keeping Up With the Joneses"
 
Head Table:
  • Susan Berk- President, Beverly Hills
  • Guity Javid- President, Rancho Park
  • Ken Chong- President, LA 5
  • Nat Trives- President, Santa Monica
YYE & PE, Aly Shoji 
 

ROTARY DISTRICT 5280 LEADERSHIP 2013-14
Westwood Village
Mailing address: P.O. Box 24114, Los Angeles, CA 90024-0114
Meets: Thursday, 12:30 PM, UCLA Faculty Center
480 Charles Young Drive, Los Angeles, CA 90095

 
 

Club President

Mark Rogo

(213) 280-6415

 

President Elect 

Aly Shoji

 (310) 592-4893  

  

Vice-President/Club Service
Colby Smith

(310) 948-9198

 

Secretary

Ann Samson 

 (310) 577-2307

 

Treasurer

Terry M. White

(310) 704-5802

  

Immediate Past President

PP Dwight Heikkila

(323) 573-3009  

 

Community Service

 Diane Good 

(818) 706-6838 

 

International Service
Marsha Hunt

(310) 500-9828   

 

Youth Service 

(310) 733-6783  
  

Interact Chair

Ann Samson

(310) 577-2307

 

RI Pilot  Program

PP Ed Jackson

(310) 836-9085 

 

Directors At-Large

Paul Aslan

 (310) 666-3925   

AG Gordon Fell

 (310) 839-0478

PP Don Nelson

 (310) 472-9488

Brian Whitney

(310) 210-8394

 

Vocational Service   (310) 408-2822  

Rotary Foundation Co-Chairs
PP Steve Day

(310) 670-5013 

AG Gordon Fell

(310) 839-0478

  

WVRC Foundation Endowments

PP Don Nelson

(310) 472-9488

 

Social Media

PP Ron Lyster

(310) 400-0678

 

Membership Co-Chairs

Tom Barron

(310) 476-3871

David Friedman

(818) 439-1669  

 

Meeting Setup

Ralph Beasom

(310) 472-8023

 

Visitor Check-in

Phil Gabriel

(310) 985-4488

 

Membership Directory

 PP Don Nelson 

(310) 472-9488

 

Songmeister

Paul Aslan

 (310) 666-3925

 

Photography

PP Peter More

 (310) 502-2933

PP Richard Thompson

(310) 408-2822 

 

WVRC Auxiliary President

 Sook Heikkila

(310) 820-6090


ROTARY INTERNATIONAL 
PRESIDENT: 
Ron Burton

    

DISTRICT 5280 GOVERNOR:   

Doug Baker

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NEARBY MAKEUP SITES: Monday, Beverly Hills: BH Hotel, 9641 Sunset /Tuesday, Inglewood: Hollywood Park Casino, 3883 W. Century Blvd, Inglewood / Wednesday, Century City: Hyatt Regency Century City, in the Breeze Cafe, Culver City: Culver City Elks Club, 11160 Washington Blvd., Culver City, or  Wilshire: The Ebell, 743 S. Lucerne Blvd, LA / Friday, Santa Monica: Riviera Country Club, 1250 Capri Dr, Pacific Palisades.  For information about on-line makeups, www.recswusa.org