ISSUE NO. 46 June 28, 2002 OUR 80th YEAR
ww.RotaryClubofSantaMonica.org
An Aloha Luau
Friday, June 28, 2002
Dinner & Entertainment 7:30 pm
Hors d’oeuvres 6:30 pm
Say “Aloha” to Tax Collector,
Hal Quigley
And “ Welcome” Enterprising Entrepreneur,
Bill Crookston
UPCOMING PROGRAMS
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DARK on July 5th |
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July 12th - Joel Kotkin, author of "The New Geography". How the digital |
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revolution is reshaping the American landscape. |
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July 19th - Jack Riley, Ph.D. Rand director, Criminal Justice. "Gun Control |
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and Violence, LA". |
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July 26th - Gil Garcetti. The need for us to reinvent ourselves in the world |
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of terrorism. |
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August 2nd - craft talks. |
NEW COMMITTEE HEADS FOR 2002-2003
Stan Fox in charge of meeting operations. Chairs: Attendance – Bill Randle, Birthdays – Rosemary Regalbuto, Fellowship – Karim Jaude and Jack Gregory, Guest introductions – Jim Reidy, Music – Phil Tirone, Spiritual emphasis – Keith McGee, Sound system and photographer – Richard Rice.
Bill Randle in charge of member services. Entertainment – Barry Bouley, Sick visitation – Joe Metoyer, Roster – Steve Litvack, Golf – Bill Aspinwall, Volleyball – Hank Walther, Hike – Jack Gregory.
Mike O’Hara in charge of club services. Membership planning and classification – Connolly Oyler and Jack Siegal, New member induction – John McIntire, First year activities – Judy Nuveau, Internet – Larry Maher, Publicity – Mike Rosenthal, Rotaract – Steve Alexis.
Jim Menzies in charge of vocational services. Four-Way Test – Dee Menzies, Public service recognition – Paul Gaulke, Craft talks – Hank Walther, Give of yourself – Carol Jackson, Host-Hostess dinners – David Bohn and Jim Westbrook, Administrative assistant’s day – Diane Margolin, Feed the Police (Thanksgiving) – Spyros Dellaportas and Allan Young.
Susan Dawson in charge of community and youth services. Mental health/aging/help-guide – Robert Segal, Functional literacy – Norma Barnes, Community and youth grants – Kent Colberg, Scholarship awards – Robert Baker, Immunization clinic – James Reidy, Environmental – Tim Shannon.
John Kemp in charge of international services. Group study exchange – Paul Gaulke, International convention – Dee Menzies, Rotary International Foundation – Marvin Levin, Student exchange – John Miller, World service – Louis Koster and Radomir Samardzin, Foundation scholarships – Monte Herring.
VISITING ROTARIANS & GUESTS
Tony and Nancy Rizzo from Australia, Jeanne Segal, Clarence Crites, Ruth Rice,
Pat Collins, Josselyn and Jennifer Gaulke, Katie Still, Sean Twersky, David Pisarra
and Anna Rogers.
OUR NEWCOMER FROM IOWA
(One of a series on our new members)
Congressmen around Cedar Rapids, Iowa often sought information from Tom Miskimen. Governors of the state sometimes did likewise. Tom wasn’t a politician. He wasn’t a television personality. He wasn’t a business mogul. But he seemed to know almost everyone in eastern Iowa who could get things done.
For 25 years, starting soon after he achieved his Masters Degree from the University of Dubuque, he worked as an executive of various non-profit organizations. He recruited, hired and trained a staff of 150 for the Hawkeye Area Community Action Program in seven counties, swelling its annual budget from $2 million to $6 million in four years. Then he ran the United Way in Cedar Rapids for three years, pulling in “Loaned Executives” from corporations, and boosting the campaign’s proceeds by eleven per cent. Then he ran clinics for a substance abuse organization that served 300 people every day. Next he spent eleven years raising $4.5 million a year, recruiting 10 board members and 600 volunteer staff, and supervising operations in seven counties for an Iowa agency’s far-flung operations for the elderly (which, among other services, provided 1,500 meals every day). Meanwhile he also took care of his aging parents.
So it wasn’t surprising when, in1992, Governor Branstad named him to attend the University of Colorado’s national institute of aging. Nor was it unexpected when, two years later,
Congressman Tom Harkins pricked up his ears at rumors that various well-known people were enriching themselves through the Medicare program. Harkins asked Miskimen, who said it was true. Fur began to fly. Through a national demonstration grant funded by the Administration on Aging, Miskimen headed an investigation that gathered information all over eastern Iowa from hundreds of Medicare workers and the elderly. A year later, when he testified, the results were astounding. It turned out that $50 million of federal and state money had disappeared into the wallets of people supposedly serving the program. A dozen sticky-fingered medical professionals were prosecuted for criminal fraud.
The exposé made Miskimen well known to service organizations. Job offers came from outside Iowa. His parents had died and he felt restless. So in 1999, he took a position managing the two campuses of the Manor Park senior community in Midland, Texas, where he supervised 250 staff members serving 500 residents.
In three years he had it running smoothly, then looked around for a different challenge. The Red Cross in Santa Monica was seeking a new chief, since Ray Corvan was retiring after 25 years. Tom applied, and was hired in February.
He left behind a fiancée in Midland who will join him here after she sells his four-bedroom house. Then they will marry and find a house hereabouts – but it will be near Santa Monica, not in it. “Nobody who works for a non-profit agency can afford to live in Santa Monica,” he explains. Most of us know this. But we’re heartily welcoming the Miskimens nevertheless.