ISSUE NO. 3
JULY 21, 2000
OUR 79th YEAR
LOOK WHO’S COMING THIS FRIDAY –
From Seven Years
at Las Vegas Night Clubs
Ronnie Jayne
singer/pianist/comic/songwriter
Making up songs
about us
For two weeks Ronnie Jayne has
been asking around about our club. And
she may ask more questions as soon as she arrives for lunch.
Why? Because she’s getting ready to sing – about us as well as
for us. She needs facts to weave
into her tunes.
Ronnie has built a unique
reputation by improvising rhymes and music while she stands in front of an
audience or tickles a piano. “A
Song For You,” is her slogan. “I
can create a new melody just for you.” Or,
if asked, she’ll quickly provide new words to a favorite tune of the group
she’s entertaining.
Her quick wit and inventiveness made her a star at
resorts in the Catskills. Bob Hope
heard of her and invited her to appear with him.
Jerry Lewis put her on his telethon.
She played seven years in Las Vegas.
Now she makes once-only appearances for corporations such as Star Kist,
Xerox, Kaiser Permanente, the B’nai B’rith.
Nobody knows what she’ll think of when she puts us into her songs.
But it will be special, just for us.
Coming Club
Meetings
 |
July
28
Dr. Larry Hornbacker, executive vice chancellor, Pepperdine
University |
|
August
4 Craft talks |
|
August
11 Panel discussion: Living
Wage Proposals |
|
August
18 Tom
Donner, executive vice president, Santa Monica
College |
|
August
25 Mike O’Hara:
An Inside Look at Olympic Games |
|
September
1 Dark – Labor Day |
Have you ever been on a vacation and wondered what
our club is doing? Ever wondered
where your fines are spent? Ever
misplaced your Rota-Monica and wondered about dates and coming club events?
Wonder no more!
The Rotary Club of Santa Monica is now on-line at its own web site.
The site offers loads of information including copies of past and present
Rota-Monicas, information on coming guest speakers and meetings, information on
our committees, information on how Rotary helps our youth and community – and
much more.
Check it out! Click on to http://rotaryclubofsantamonica.org
Larry
Maher,
Chairman
Media
Relations/Internet
Good works are not all there is in Rotary; good works are expressions only of something beneath. Beneath the good works of Rotary there is an invisible power; it is the power of goodwill. Some of the most powerful forces in the world are invisible. Even the air is invisible and yet it sustains life. Beneath the good works of Rotary there is an invisible power; it is the power of goodwill and by virtue of the power of goodwill Rotary exists.
The doctrine of
“Service Not Self” has at times been said to be “too idealistic” to be
practicable. For the sake of
argument, concede that to be the case. But
it still cannot be “too idealistic” to constitute our ideal.
If we aim at the high mark, we may acquit ourselves creditably even if we
fall short of our full expectation.
Paul Harris
THE ROTARIAN, September 1912
NORMA LOOKS OUT FOR ALL THOSE COMMITTEES
(One of a series on the club’s officers)
One day years ago Norma Barnes checked in at a London hotel.
She set her purse down to sign the register, turned to make sure her
luggage had arrived, then turned back and saw that her purse had vanished.
It contained
her passport, money, credit cards and tickets.
This was on a Sunday. She is
due to fly home to Los Angeles next day.
Most
travelers in such a predicament would be aghast. Not Norma. She’d
traveled so often that she knew just what to do.
She explained her problem to the hotel manager.
Then she enlisted help from the U.S. consulate and from American
Airlines, which had issued her tickets. Replacements
for all needed documents (and money) were swiftly provided.
She flew home on schedule.
Norma knew what
to do because she is a career travel agent.
She began her career when she signed on – temporarily, she thought –
for office work with TWA. “I
liked TWA so much I stayed,” she recalls.
From the office
she was chosen to become a flight hostess.
Foreseeing that this might not last forever, she earned certificates from
the Institute of Certified Travel Counselors. This qualified her for agency work. When TWA transferred her to Los Angeles she married, and
settled down to raise two daughters in Pacific Palisades. She also served as president of the Westside Guild of
Children’s Hospital, as a deacon and elder for the Presbyterian Church, and in
various posts for local PTAs.
When her
daughters left for college (Karen now lives in San Francisco, Sandra in Santa
Clarita) Norma went back to work with a travel agency in Pacific Palisades.
In 1983 she joined Bay Area Travel to manage the office it was opening in
Century City. Later she became the
agency’s vice president of operations of
all four of its offices. Then
in 1995 she moved to Connoisseur Travel Service as managing director.
The adventurous
part of travel agency work is the opportunity to travel often to unique
destinations. Such jaunts have
taken Norma to many parts of the world. It
was on one of these expeditions that her purse was stolen.
A few weeks ago she took an African trip that included a safari in Kenya
and Tanzania.
Norma is widely
acquainted in our club, through her years in Pacific Palisades and her activity
in the Santa Monica chamber of commerce.
She joined
Rotary in 1989, was elected secretary in 1992, then became a director in 1998
and a vice president this year.
As a director she was the link between the board and seven committees that function every week, arranging details of our Friday proceedings. This year, as vice president, she works with the six directors who keep tab on 38 committees that run the club’s widespread activities outside of the Friday meetings.