ISSUE NO. 11 SEPTEMBER 21, 2001 OUR 80th YEAR
www.RotaryClubofSantaMonica.org
WE WELCOME A DIPLOMAT
It’s been a long time, if ever, since a career diplomat has been the guest speaker at our club. This Friday we’ll entertain an Italian with a background of twenty years’ service in his country’s foreign affairs: Massimo Roscigno, consul general of Italy in Los Angeles.
A consulate is an office maintained by a foreign government at important ports and trade centers of another country. It’s the place we go to get a visa on our passport. Italian citizens in Los Angeles go to the Honorable Massimo Roscigno’s office (on Wilshire in West Los Angeles) if they have any kind of problem – including criminal – with our federal, state, or local government. For example, if an Italian citizen dies intestate here, the consulate must arrange what to do with his estate. Or if he’s sued or arrested, he can call the consul for help.
The consular service used to be separate from diplomatic service in our government, but the two were joined in 1924. Mussolini did likewise for the Italian services in 1939. An ordinary consul, Italian or American or whatever, is likely just to be a well-connected person with knowledge of the government he represents. But a consul general works on a higher plane, and is sent directly by his country’s ministry of foreign affairs.
He is the boss of all the consulates in his district. He can’t be arrested or even given a parking ticket. He takes orders only from his country’s ambassador in Washington or from the foreign office in his capital. Usually he has a fairly crowded calendar of meetings and social events, and has spent a couple of decades climbing the diplomatic ladder to his position.
Massimo Roscigno, for example, went to work for the ministry of foreign affairs in Rome in 1981. Later he served four years in Italy’s consulate general in New York City -- then moved on to hotter spots, including four years in Manila and four years in Beirut. He has been consul general here since October 1999.
When he speaks this Friday, will he tell us about travel in Italy? Or about the peculiar problems of Italians here? Or about the sometimes delicate work of a consul general with movie people and importers and assorted big shots? We’re not sure, because he and his office have been too busy to tell us. Whatever he talks about, we’re sure he’ll have an unusual slant on it.
TWELVE ROTARIANS AKA ONE DOZEN ROSES = $835
Taxes collected through September 7: $4,685
Dr. Frank Lavac (my two Labs’ favorite physician) demonstrated his chivalry when he presented his handkerchief to Patricia Shipp, our speaker from National Enquirer magazine, to dry her eyes. She later returned the handkerchief with a beautiful imprint of her lips. Frank’s face nearly matched the lipstick. Altogether a taxing experience for him, because he was assessed $125.
Monika White contributed $75 to our treasury for a combination trip, teaching a class in Vancouver and vacationing in Alaska. We will collect from wedding anniversary celebrants: $75 from Rosemary and Joe Regalbuto for their thirtieth, $85 from Jim and Virginia Reidy for their fiftieth.
Dr. Piedad Robertson, CEO of Santa Monica College, was taxed $75 for her husband Bill’s wandering. He vacationed in Spain – as had two other officials of the college earlier this year. Marvin Martinez went there with a lady friend, and later Judy Neveau. Is the college angling for a friendly takeover of Spain?
For being members of the Santa Monica Chamber of Commerce, the following were honored and taxed as follows: Dan Eliot (president-elect) $100; Carol Jackson, CFO, $75; Bob Gabriel $75; Bashir Kadri $75; Graham Pope $75; Nat Trives and Bill Crookston, no fines, reprieved for good behavior.
THE FINE GREAT EIGHT: $525
At our August 24 meeting Lorraine Jossel, chairman of the immunization clinic, was recognized for her usual spectacular performance. No fine. However, she was taxed $100 for the newspaper coverage.
For his thoughtfulness in sending an e-mail congratulating John Lehne on his retirement as club president, Jim Dyer was assessed $75.
For a news article about his wife Jean, and also for their trip to Canada, Robert Segal paid us $100 tax.
For newspaper pictorial notoriety, the following elite Rotarians paid $50 apiece: PP John Bohn, PP Dick Lawrence, Rev. Keith Magee, Rev. Joe Metoyer and our honorable former mayor, Nat Trives.
-- Lionel Ruhman
BARBARA A. HOPPER – SLIGHTLY SURPRISING
Jim Cayton was somewhat astonished at one of our meetings in 1999. Barbara Hopper, the club’s new executive secretary, greeted him by name although he hadn’t yet pinned on his badge. How could she know him? He hadn’t been to a meeting for months (he travels a lot) and he’d never seen Barbara before, to the best of his memory.
“Do you know everybody in the club?” he asked. She smiled and said, “Almost everybody.” She didn’t explain that she kept a club roster book at home and spent evenings memorizing, as best she could, the names that went with the photos on the hundred-plus pages. As replacement for our retiring executive director Esther Johnson, she assumed that part of her job was knowing all members by name.
At her first meeting she already knew dozens of members because she’d worked nineteen years at Santa Monica Bank, where many of us banked. She had started there as a temporary secretary for two weeks, then was asked to stay. After six months she found herself secretary to Aubrey L. Austin. As a Rotary officer he spent considerable time on club affairs (his father had been our president in 1968-69, and he himself would be president later) so many Rotary matters moved across her desk.
In 1987 bank president Joe Walling tapped her as his administrative assistant, and she became something of a key insider at the bank. She remembers her four years with Joe as notably pleasant. Then, in the early 90’s the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation placed the bank under a Cease & Desist Order and the bank was told to tighten certain loan procedures. One step toward efficiently accomplishing this was by putting computers on the desks of many employees who had never used them. Barbara was assigned to work for the new officer in charge of working out the problems. In the ensuing flurry Barbara was ordered to become expert with the WordPerfect computer program. There was no one to teach her. She taught herself, then wrote a training manual and was put in charge of training other employees.
She was still training them when Santa Monica Bank became part of Western Bancorp in 1997. Her new employer put her to work learning to use the Microsoft program, then writing another training manual and teaching the new system to employees. By the end of 1998 she’d completed this. Western looked around and couldn’t find any suitable place for her, so she opted for retirement. After about a month’s retirement, Barbara began working part-time for our own George Collins and on a Rotary project for Jack Siegal, then was offered the Rotary position.
The story of her earlier career may stay untold, because she insists she’ll never give a Rotary craft talk. All we can reveal is that she worked for four companies in Pittsburgh and has two grown sons aged 40 and 36.
After all, every lady is entitled to a bit of mystery, don’t you think?