• Guess who is turning 106?  I know that was a tough one but our very own Henry Tseng and the quite a few of our members had lunch to celebrate with him.  
• October 19th - Dinner with your "X" (PP's Goodwyn and Gaynor, and Pres. Rogo) 
• October 24th - Bring a Guest day at WVRC 
• October 25th - The first of three days in San Francisco with our sister club as our host 
• October 30th - evening "Meet and Greet" 
  October 31 - Vocational Avenue of Service Event at Jones Primary Center - 
  ***Reminder our regular lunch meeting next week on Halloween will be dark and we will be meeting at the Hillcrest Country club Wednesday NIGHT instead. Bring your spouses and meet our past merchants too.  
• November 2nd - Dinner with your "X" (PPs Heikkila and Jackson) 
• November 9th - Paul Harris Celebration at the home of Endeavor  
• November 9th - Dinner with your "X" (PP Wessling) 
• November 12th - Young Professionals (Rogo Condo) 
• November 26th - Special joint meeting with LA5 and Santa Monica in downtown to kick off the UCLA v USC Football rivalry.

Rotarian of the Month:  PDG Rick and President Mark presented Ron Lyster with the Rotarian of the month award for all that Ron has and continues to do for our club.  Congratulations, Ron!

In honor of Lenny's return, Mark insisted our songmeister, Paul Aslan and Admiral Ed Gauld lead us in a rowsing edition of, "I'm looking over my fourth leaf clover." 

PDG Bill Goodwyn introduction of Rick Mendoza:
Past District Governor Rick, Assistant Governor Linton, President Mark, 
officers and directors, past assistant governors, Rotarians, guests, friends, primates, (pause) i think I've covered everyone.

We're  pleased  to welcome Past District Governor Rick Mendoza who is standing in today for Governor Doug Baker.  The governor is required to make an official R. I. visit to every club but that becomes nearly impossible when we now have 65 clubs in our district.  

So the governor appoints a select few past officers to make some of those visits and we're delighted to welcome Rick back to the friendly Westwood Village Rotary Club.

Rick was born in San Antonio and after moving with his family to California  earned his Bachelors degree
in Microbiology from UCLA.  He served as Director of the Anatomical Pathology, Clinical and Endocrine laboratories during his 30-year career with Kaiser Permanente.  

He also became a certified SCUBA instructor has completed eight marathons and owned his own travel agency. Rick and his wife Helen a retired Pediatric Nurse Practitioner have been married 58 years and have four children and seven grandchildren.

Rick joined the Redondo Beach Rotary Club in 1986, served as club president in 1993, and later was elected District Governor for 2002/2003.  He has served as the R. I. President's Representative on three occasions has been the recipient of many Rotary awards and recognitions and has served in many district leadership positions over the past decade.

Rick and Helen are multiple Paul Harris Fellows Paul Harris Society and Bequest Society Charter Members and Major Donors.  Please join me in a warm Westwood welcome to Past District Governor Rick Mendoza.

Rick started by sharing about a group 20 years ago to discuss the motorcycle fellowship and congratulated, Ron Lyster, again especially as head of that group.

He shared Governor Doug's Goals: 

1. Increase communication & fellowships between clubs 
2. Emphasis on jocularity 
3. Building membership by raising standards 
4. Deliver the message with voice and actions - it is all about the clubs creating opportunities for service, down the street, across the sea, and back again. Membership retention comes first Strike from all use the phrase - "But we always do it this way!" 

He continued by discussing the global leaders and connections that build trust. Rick recognized the scholars program, Steve Day and our club's involvement with the Foundation.  He recognized the Newmans, Downeys, and Bloomfields to name a few of our esteemed members and sited the Japanese exchange program that was initiated by Doug Desh(?) He also mentioned the Tsengs, Collins, Steve Day  as leaders in our District. PDG Bill Willie Goodwyn and his Foundation celebration he started. Did you know it was our own Andy Anderson who asked Rick to get involved?  He called out Ron Lyster, George Dea, Ed Jackson, Gordon Fell, Don Nelson, and Peter More and Dick Thompson as his partners in photography. He commended PaulAslan on the programs and of course our fearless leader, Mark Rogo known for innovation.

What is new in RI? 1.2 million members hold strong.  There is a new logo and have a focus to run Rotary like a business from club to global level.  Main goal - concentrate on membership retention!

Polio eradication is predicted by 2018 however there was an outbreak in the horn of Africa with 197 cases and still a few cases in endemic countries - Pakistan, Afghanistan, India and we need to continue to support this effort.  Suggested we consider participating in a national vaccination day.

Rotary today has six areas of focus: 

• Child and maternal health
• Fighting disease
• Education - literacy
• Clean water
• Growing economy
• Peace and conflict resolution  

What's new in our District? The 30 new clubs from the Valley merging with ours. The new grant model and how money is used and distributed. District grants of $2K /each and global grants with Vocational training teams of $3K went to for example the most recent training which happened in Istanbul and the next one in Columbia in the area of Peace and conflict resolution.

Role of WVRC is an example of how to run a club, and encouraged our members to consider more involvement at the District and Foundation levels.  Our WVRC donated $500 to the Rotary Foundation in honor of the PDG's visit.

-YYE Aly Shoji