ISSUE NO. 1 JULY 7, 2000 OUR 79th YEAR
HAPPY NEW FISCAL YEAR!
This week Rotary starts its new year. It has a new budget, new calendar of events, new officers and committees at all levels -- international, district, local. For our club, incoming president John Lehne will preside at the Friday lunch meeting for the first time. Thus it becomes our first chance to observe and react to him at the podium.
John has been getting ready for a full year, sitting in on the monthly meetings of the board of directors. He attended District 5280’s training sessions for incoming presidents, as well as the Rotary International convention in Buenos Aires June 4-7. Recently he and his new board have met several times to work on the plans for our 2000-2001 year.
His team includes Hal Quigley, president-elect 2001-2002; Norma Barnes, vice president for committees; Paul Gaulke, vice president for programs; Karen Baker, secretary; Hugh Travis, treasurer; George Collins, and Monte Herring, holdover directors; Harris Levey, and Philip Tirone, one-year directors; Erik Jorgensborg and Tom Loo, two-year directors.
In recent years our first program of each new year has been slanted toward humor. This time our own Bill Hunt will be the featured speaker. He has chosen “Intimacy” as his topic, and is said to have consulted several new joke books in preparation.
On Friday July 14 our speaker will be the dynamic new district governor, Victoria Radel. On the 21st we’ll hear the noted singer-comic-songwriter Ronnie Jayne, who starred for seven years at night clubs in Las Vegas. On July 28th Dr. Larry Hornbacker, executive vice chancellor of Pepperdine University, will talk about his university’s past and future without waxing too academic. He is noted as a humorous and entertaining speaker.
Programs for August are also set, according to Paul Gaulke. They include
craft talks, a lively debate on local controversy over minimum wages, and an
inside look at the next Olympic Games through the eyes of our own Mike O’Hara.
A
Message From Jack As He Finished Term
We are all
indebted to an outstanding board of directors, and to each of you who took part
in the activities of our fine committees and produced another great year for
this wonderful club of ours.
Last year
saw the club successfully move its records onto computer, and we began to move
our club operations into the computer-communications age by having 100% board of
directors use of E-mail for our memos and notices.
For those of you who have not yet started to use E-mail, I have only
three words: DO IT NOW! E-mail is
now essential for business, and is fast becoming essential for our daily lives
as well. If you don’t become computer-literate quickly, you run the
risk of being left behind.
Remember the old adage, “You get out of something what you put into
it.” It certainly applies to our
Rotary Club. If you take part in
committee work, and participate in club activities, you’ll find unbelievable
reward in new friendships, in the learning of new things, and in the great
satisfaction of knowing that you’re doing good for your community.
“Service above self” is what Rotary is all about.
It makes our world a better place, and makes us better individuals.
Jack
L. Siegal,
Retiring President
 |
We
Will Make Difference, Says New President John
“Service
Above Self” -- the theme that best defines Rotary -- is our goal for
2000-2001. We are asking our
members to rededicate themselves to participating in the club’s community
projects. We will be responsive to
your suggestions and input, encouraging teamwork among our committees and our
members. We are a club composed of
proven leaders whose expertise we value.
Our members are realistic people who can measure themselves to the
resources we have to work with, chiefly their committees and chairpersons.
If all of us put our talents together and work to our full potential,
together we will make a difference in our Santa Monica community and Rotary as a
whole.
John
Lehne,
Incoming President
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Reporter
Enthused By 78th Annual Festivity
About 160 Rotarians and guests enjoyed our annual dethroning party at the
elegant Riviera Country Club on June 23.
“The Judge “ Bob Thomas mastered the ceremonies as only he can do.
Msgr. Lloyd
Torgerson blessed us with an invocation.
President Elect Hal Quigley
lurked unnoticeably, having made all plans and arrangement in accordance with
the traditional duties of his position. As
the evening unfolded, we could see that he planned well.
Outgoing President Jack presented small gifts (contents unknown but
doubtless very nice) to his board and vice presidents.
Then for special awards on outstanding service during the year, he called
forward Hugh Travis, Bill Crookston, Clyde Smith, Barbara Hopper
and Jim Dyer. He announced
that a special retirement party was being planned for our executive secretary Esther
Johnson, and the throng rose to
their feet to applaud the news.
For meritoriously carrying out special duties during the year, Jack
bestowed certificates of merit on Bill
Randle, Steve Litvack, Jim Reidy, Ron Bawden, and (to the two vice
presidents with special thanks) Larry
Maher and Graham Pope.
Jack’s officers and directors gave him, as a parting gift, a Palm
organizer. Perhaps there were
unspoken regrets that he did not have this at the beginning of his Rotary year.
It might have abated the floods of E-mail he sent.
“The Rayne Man” Bill Fritzsche, in his own grand style, discharged the outgoing
officers and inducted the incoming ones. It
was a nice tough that Bill should be the one to induct John
Lehne, whom he sponsored into Rotary in 1982.
As always, a skit was part of the entertainment.
To paraphrase the Judge, each year we work hard to make our skits come
out the same. This skit wove a
summary of Jack’s career into a fantasy reenactment of Orson Welles’ famous
fake broadcast of a Martian invasion. This
time Jack repelled the invaders by flooding their communications with E-mail.
The skit was written and enacted by a committee who Hal had recruited,
consisting of Bill Crookston, Stephanie Droker, Harris Levey, Phil Tirone, Connolly
Oyler, George Collins, Spyros
Dellaportas, Paul Gaulke and Henry Alcantar.
The memorable evening concluded with dancing to the music of DJ Blair
Silver.
Lionel
Ruhman
 |
Looking
Back
It was thought impossible to fluster Judge Ed
Rafeedie when he took office as club president in July 1977.
He had been a carnival barker on the Ocean Park Pier, could have made al
living as a standup comedian, but put his valuable experience to work as a law
student. Eventually becoming a
stony-faced Superior Court judge, at the time he took office with us he was
hearing the palimony suit of a young woman who claimed that the aged Groucho
Marx had promised to marry her. Her
plea gained wide attention, and deserved no less from our club.
How could we use it to disconcert our incoming president?
Jack Michel, himself a past
president, came up with an idea.
He purchased 100 Groucho nose-and-glasses masks, which he hid under the
tables in our meeting room. Everyone
present wore a Groucho face. Ed
couldn’t identify anyone. No
introductions, no announcements, no fines.
For once he was unnerved. The
meeting broke up in disaster, as
the conspirators had planned.
Bill Fritzsche, Club Historian