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Bob Davis, Special Guest Editor |
August 7th, 2009
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August is Membership and Extension Month
Upcoming Programs and Events
Presented by the new Program Chairman, Leland Hammerschmitt and his crew.
August 14th-Chris Platt-Stem Cell Research PLUS New Member Short Get Acquainted Talk
August 21st-Norm Davis-Ojai Water Issues and Water Rates; Matilija Dam
August 28th-District Governor Visit-Luz Maria Ortiz
In the Beginning....
Catherine Lee, the Lois Lane of the Rotary Reminder staff found herself on another assignment on Friday which took her out of Smallville, So, unable to fine Clark Kent or anyone with a cape, she coerced yours truly to report on the celebration that occurs on a regular basis Friday, at noon, at the Soule Park Clubhouse The following is a result of settling for convenience over competence!
Scott Smith, 61st President of the Rotary Club of Ojai (an honor to be sure, but there have been more Presidents of the Ojai Rotary than there have been Presidents of the United States of America ( Franklin Pierce , eat your heart out) gaveled the group to silence as Scott Eicher led us in the Pledge to the Flag. Larry Simpson repeated the four way test ( from memory!) and Pres. Scott reflected on how the Four Way Test came to be.
After reminding us all to review the Bulletin Board for important announcements, The Pres ushered us to the food line, which, I ,for one, keep forgetting has reversed, causing a rather nasty incident by the cookies.
Visiting Rotarians and Guests
After thanks to the greeters and a nod to the Reminder Editor, a sole visiting Rotarian was introduced by Sheila Cluff. I was so taken by her presentation that I forgot to write down her name, but Sheila knows it if you need it.. Well, actually during this part of the program, I forgot I was Editor, so I don't have the names of any guests either.
Announcements. . .
Past President Bruce's Demotion Party pictures are here.
When we reconvened Scott had a daunting list of announcements which included, but may not have been limited,to the following:
1) An opportunity exists to travel to India with Deepa Willingham, to visit the pace Project at Pyali India. Time is short, but if interested check with Nic Frank
2) Recognition that Ojai made it to the top three tennis towns in the USA. Reward will be presented later this month at the US Open ( Late news is that a representative of the Tennis Community in Ojai will be present in New York , Could it be our own A.B. Thacher?)
3) Marty Pops presented past President Bruce Brockman with a spiffy wall plaque, complete with gold gavel to hang on his wall at work. Rumor has it that the gold color will be easier to spot than a wooden one so it will be used as a tool in the eye lab.
4) Marty Pops and Boyd Ford were heaped with deserved praise for their participation on the Ojai Masters Swim team . In a recent event both did swimmingly as Boyd had 4 silvers and Marty finished. This is all especially remarkable as the combined age of the Ojai Masters Team recently made an abacus become inoperative!
5)Rotary accolades to four of our finest: Roger Phelps, for the improvement in our audio and visual presentations; Tony Thacher, for his continuing donation of the speakers gifts; Andi Bloom, for her work as social maven, and Jerry Kaplan for hosting on outstanding 5th friday event.
6) Bob Skankey reported on the mini social that included viewing Theater 150's presentation of Hamlet. If the play was half as stimulating as Bob's reportage, then it had to be spectacular.
7) Thank you letters from two of our community grants recipients were read. Santa barbara Channel keeper and the Ojai Music festival bravo program both expressed extreme gratitude for our grants.
8) The monthly Board meeting of the Club will be Wednesday at it's usual time and location. Your attendance and participation is always welcome
9) Leland Hammerschmitt gave a scintillating and all encompassing promotion of our upcoming programs. (Your Editor even has a non autographed copy of his presentation. In truth it is a bit long to reproduce here, but the important thing is that all the information about future programs is located on our club runner web page. I would recommend that you do visit that site as there is good info on each and every scheduled program. Good work, Leland.).
10) President Scott participated in the Wednesday in the Park Band Performance.
Fining:
Then it was time for Rocky Kemp to fill the club coffers from fines extracted in a FUN way! Fines were recovered from , but may not have been limited to, the following:
1) Sheila Cluff for a 49th wedding anniversary and a 73rd Birthday. Sheila also exhorted us to come to an ice skating event in Oxnard where she will be competing for fame and fortune. I forgot when, but when you cal her to find out the name of the visiting Rotarian, you can kill two birds with one stone and find out what day. i think she did say 9 til noon.
2) John Lyon for a birthday, though he said he isn't as old as Sheila, even if he looks it.
3) Alan West counted the rings on his tree and celebrated his 76th Birthday
4) Marty Babayco (and Kay) recently returned from a trip abroad and Marty put in a $20 to acknowledge all the good works he saw there that could be attributed to Rotary. Thanks, Marty.
5) Our Roofer, Nic Frank was pleasured to celebrate his 48th wedding anniversary, all to the same woman!
6) The most amazing fine of the day came from Dean Vadnais (Dean supports the club big time, but usually opts not to be called on for fining-remember that fine master!!), But Dean donated a recent refund from the club to the Rotary Ed foundation
7)Allan Jacobs threw in $20 to celebrate the engagement of his son Jesse to someone totally acceptable!'
8) Bruce Brockman also put in twenty, but I cannot read my notes and tell you why, but it must have been important, because Bruce, like George Carr before him wouldn't put in a twenty just because it was staying to long in his pocket.
9) Bob Davis gave $20 to the Ed Foundation to celebrate the fact that his daughter, Miss Nan ( a Living Treasure) HAS received her contract from the school district and will again be 1st grade teacher at San Antonio School. Mainly the 20 bucks went in just because the fiasco has, one hopes, ended for this year.
10) OK,OK, I still don't know the visiting Rotarians name but she also added to our coffers, for which we are deeply grateful and hope she returns soon.
11)Jack Jacobs also contributed, but the notes I took look like my notes in prep school and you all know I never graduated from there! Sorry Jack.
12) Judy Gabriel enhanced the take in honor of the Ojai skate boarders at the X games, specifically her son Zander, who gave more than his all in the competition breaking his wrist and still coming in third. ( I thought the term was " break a leg")
13) Todd Beatty also put $20 in in honor of Zander, whom he reports is a "Fine Young man"
Stop Smoking
The Program
Leland then introduced Mike Weaver , our President Elect to introduce Paul Crabtree, which he did! Mr. Crabtree, president of Crabtree group, a civil engineering and Town Planning firm .. He is also a member of the Ojai planning commission, and he talked about "Ojai Sustainability"
Mr. Crabtree went back to Greek and Roman times to illustrate classic town planning . He showed slides of old towns to show that original plots were designed so that everything was contained within a walking distance of perhaps 5 minutes.. This design continued until about the end of the World War II, when we, as a society opted for "sprawl-defined as "must drive suburbia" which really meant one almost had to drive to get anywhere. You might live 200 yards from a school or shopping center but you had to drive all around robin hoods barn to get there and there was no direct walking paths.
Mr Crabtree's thoughts were directed to how can we, in a practical way return to the more direct paths so that we walk more and become more of a community. Slowing down traffic by changing the very nature of roadways was one area he was looking at. His talk was timely, thought provoking, and a lot more technical than this fractured precis. For more information on this subject, you might want to go to WWW.Crabtreegroup.com
After the presentation of the speaker's gift Scott concluded the meeting by reminding us that" If we quiet ourselves in our moment of need, we may find the answers within."
Next weeks program is our own Chris Platt speaking on stem cell research.
Very nice graphic promotional video
Final Thoughts
"Men often oppose a thing merely because they have had no agency in planning it, or because it may have been planned by those whom they dislike."
Alexander Hamilton
