Rotary Club of Santa Monica

"2001/2002 - A Rotary Odyssey"

Rota-Monica

USO COMES TO ROTARY

Have you ever been in a USO Canteen?  Have you ever seen a USO show?  Your answer to both questions is almost surely yes, if you served in the U.S. military forces.  If you weren’t in military service, your answers are probably no – and you may not even be sure what USO stands for, nor what it is.  Here’s a quick summary, to get you attuned for this Friday’s Rotary meeting.

In 1940, with World War II raging in Europe and the likelihood increasing that the U.S. would become part of it, our armed forces were growing fast via the draft.  They needed entertainment during their off-duty periods.  President Roosevelt challenged six private organizations – the YMCA, YWCA, and Catholic community service, the Jewish Welfare Board, the Traveler’s Aid Association and the Salvation Army – to meet this need.  They pooled their resources and formed the United Service Organizations, soon known as the USO. 

Show business professionals waived pay, and journeyed to bring live entertainment to troops at bases and USO Canteens all over the U.S.  After we entered the war, “USO Camp Shows” brought their acts to Americans fighting overseas.  Between 1941 and 1947, volunteers performed an astounding 428,521 USO shows.

The USO was dissolved after the war – then resurrected with the onset of the cold war.  As decades passed, many USO’s in big cities became autonomous, while the national

USO supported USO centers overseas.  During the 1970’s, outreach programs for military families began worldwide, while USO shows for troops stationed around the world continued.  As our military forces went to the Persian Gulf, Somalia, Haiti, and Bosnia, USO entertainers and canteens followed.  The USO is now a separate organization chartered by Congress.  It is supported by charitable donations from individuals and corporations.

Our club program this Friday will provide samples of past decades’ entertainment at USO shows for the military.  We’ll be reminded of the Pearl Harbor attack on December 7, 1941, and of the attacks on New York and Washington last September 11.  There’ll be wartime music, and entertainment with a patriotic slant.  It’s a different kind of program for our club meeting – one that should stir us all.

SINGLE-HANDED NEWSPAPER CREATOR

(One of a series on new members)

One day an idea that would change her life occurred to Diane Margolin while soaking in her bathtub.  She was glancing through a newsletter, sent by a friend in Houston for parents of children with learning disabilities.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                

She was an elementary school teacher at the time.  The thought struck her; “There should be a newspaper for parents in Los Angeles.  I’ll create one!”  She scrambled from the tub, and set to work on Southern California’s first family paper.

She wasn’t daunted by awareness that it takes money to put together and distribute a newspaper.  Single-handed, she raised enough money by selling ads in the paper-to-be, which she called The City Scene.  Parents of 20,000 youngsters around Southern California were soon reading it, because Diane got it distributed not only through school systems but also through public libraries, boy and girls clubs, and other channels.

That was in 1979.  Even since, she has been creating and circulating various newspapers, financing them by selling advertising space.  She has also handled the interviewing, writing, photographing, headlining, typesetting and other odd jobs.  By 1984, she gave up teaching to focus on publishing.

Her publications have included Watch Out, for the Santa Monica police department; community newspapers for the Miracle Mile, Brentwood and Montana Avenue business districts; publications for the Santa Monica and Venice Boys and Girls Clubs; newsletters for three chambers of commerce; a newsletter for the Bel-Air Bay Club; and The City Scene, which she published as a community newspaper for fourteen years.

In 1988, when our past president, Archie Morrison, served as district governor, he asked her to publish a newsletter for our Rotary district.  This led to her becoming a Rotarian herself.

In August 1998, Diane decided she wanted an adventure.  She noticed a help-wanted ad in the New York Times for a “community activities director” of the 4,000-tenant Waterside Apartments in Manhattan.  They needed someone not only to publish a newspaper but also to supervise a children’s summer camp, plan and run special events for tenants of all ages, arrange seven summer concerts and create other happenings.  She applied, was hired, and served for more than two years.

“I enjoyed the variety of the work,” she recalls, “and also enjoyed being a member of the Chinatown Rotary Club.  I loved the energy of Manhattan and the changing seasons.  But after two years, I came to feel that I needed a career change.”

The West Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce was looking for an executive director.  The president got in touch with her, and she returned here last February.

But after six months with the chamber she decided she preferred the ever-changing challenges of getting out her own newspaper, The Santa Monica Star.  So she came full circle again.  Now she’s back publishing a community paper for Santa Monica and loving it, she says.  Naturally we’re glad to have her back with us at Rotary.

ARE YOU THINKING ABOUT PROPOSING?

You can propose someone for membership in our club at any time.  Now is a good time, because Rotary International’s “Global Quest,” now underway, is all about membership growth.  We’ll be pushing it in our club.  So you may want to review guidelines for identifying prospective new members.  Why not clip the following:

  The prospective member should:

-         be on a management level with authority to hire and fire;

-         be regarded in the community as an outstanding member of his or her business profession;

-         be recognized and well established in the community;

-         be known to the proposer not only in business, but personally.

If the individual lives or works in the borderline community, it is recommended that he or she either be active in Santa Monica civic affairs or carry on extensive business in Santa Monica.

If someone meets these standards, your first step is to bring him or her to one or more of our Friday club meetings, and judge whether the prospect and the club would be a good fit.

As do most Rotary clubs, we have kept our standards high.  This is what makes Rotary membership desirable to outstanding people in the community.  Who will you bring to join us?

FOR YOUR CALENDAR

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