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Program for Friday April 25, 2003

Honorable Laurel Brady, Presiding Judge, CC County Superior Court.

The State of The Court in these times of tightened budgets.

Door Duty: Don Hardison and Mike Ready

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Program for Friday May 2, 2003

Don Gosney, the chair of the Reuse authority, will give us an overview of the situation at Point Molate today.

Door Duty: Ralph Hill and Charles Ramsey

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Program of April 18, 2003

Dr. Randy Sheckman

Jim Young introduced our speaker Dr. Randy Sheckman, Jim's long term friend and neighbor, and a professor of microbiology at the University of California at Berkeley. Dr. Sheckman gave an intensely interesting talk on stem cell research. He addressed the religious and philosophical issues in a non-biased manner and described the tremendous potential this research has to assist in the treatment and cure of common diseases such as Parkinson's, diabetes and heart disease. He discussed the pitfalls inherent in the concept of cloning, and the universal opposition to cloning by his collegues and professionals in general. Randy described at length the differences between cloning and stem cell research. He made it clear that successful cloning is a rare and unique event that does not produce healthy offspring. This was a superb presentation by an articulate expert in the field.

Recognitions
Prez-Elect Stoney called on David K to handle Birthdays and Anniversaries. More than a bit surprised, David K used obfuscation and circumlocution to convince Stoney that Jim Beaver would do a much better job. Jim elicited a generous donation to the Community Fund from Tom Butt, who recently celebrated another birthday.

Happy/Sad $$
Bart Wallace was happy the Junior Prom has come and gone and it was good to see kids in pants that weren't baggy and slung low.   Ted "the activist" Abreu was happy to be back from Washington D.C. where he met Ralph Nader and participated in a demonstration at the Supreme Court.   Joanne was delighted that Art could join her for Rotary. Hank Covell observed that last week at this time he was in New York City with 22 high school students enjoying great theatre AND the Hard Rock Café. Werner was happy just to see Prez-Elect Stoney's happy face at the podium. Your scribe was happy to have once lived closer to speaker Randy Sheckman in El Cerrito than Jim Young. Judy Kafka was pleased with the large number of volunteer Rotarian drivers she has lined up for the Peres Science Camp.

Then it happened. Prez-elect Stoney asked the innocuous question - how many Club members were planning to attend the District Conference? Clearly unpleased with the response, he fined everyone in the Club $1.


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Last Week
A major holiday weekend notwithstanding, we had a solid turnout for our second Spring meeting at the La Strada Restaurant. And despite the lack of dessert and coffee, there was plenty of good cheer. Prez- Elect Stoney called the meeting to order and Dr. Werner Schwarz, between cellular telephone calls, led the pledge. The Prez-Elect gave two great Thoughts for the Day that, ahem, went unrecorded. But here is a hopefully adequate substitute: "The great tragedy of science: the slaying of a beautiful hypothesis by an ugly fact" - Thomas Huxley.

Guests
Rotarians with guests were Joanne Blum, who brought Art - always good to see you Art. Charlie Wong brought the familiar John Wilson. And VP Stoney introduced his guest, local attorney Paul Washington.

Visiting Rotarians

Announcements
Paul Hodgen provided a reminder about Christmas in April - coming up soon on 26 April.

Next week's meeting - we'll be back at the Mira Vista Country

District Conference in Fairfield. 24-27 April. Go to www.rotary5160.org for more information. Make it a Rotary weekend by attending the conference and then helping with Christmas in April on Saturday.

Volunteer Needed. "Rotary Day at the A's for Polio Eradication" will be held on 21 May. We need a volunteer to organize Club participation in this event.

Rotarians are needed for Camp Royal. Rotarians are invited to stay the week and participate in the entire program. That means sleep on platforms with the campers, listen to the powerful speakers and be available to discuss the impact of the messages delivered. See if you can carve some time out on your calendars and help out this summer June 15-21. A rewarding experience. Contact Elisabeth Andreason - Direct 925-288-3741. Elisabeth.Andreason@morganstanley.com.

Rotary Foundation Chair Erle Brown provided a discourse on the amazing efficiency of the Foundation accounting process, and then presented a long-lost but well-deserved Paul Harris Award to Joanne Blum.    Joanne received a standing ovation. But the question remains - has Berkeley ever had a Breakfast Club?

Erle then presented a FOURTH Paul Harris Award to John Nicol. This award is in the name of John's son Scott. Dr. Werner had to take a cellular phone call at this point which didn't slow down the standing ovation for John. Thanks for your exemplary support of Rotary John.

Coming Speakers
May 9th - Peres School, Spirit of Excellence Kids
May 16th - Sunne Wright McPeak on the BCDC
June 13th - The Greatest and Most Deserved Demotion Ever
June 20th - Steve Seskin, Award Winning Songwriter

Raffle
Don Lau won last week's raffle, but wasn't present to pick out a ball this week. Art Blum won the chance to play this week, but drew out a blank egg. Joanne gets a free lunch.

Those who jump off a Paris bridge are in Seine.

Semper Paratus