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Program for Friday February 28, 2003

Dr. Gloria Johnston

Dr. Gloria Johnston, Superintendent, WCCUSD, will speak on the status and outlook for public education in West Contra Costa County.

Door Duty: George Egan and Stoney Stonework

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Program for Friday March 7, 2003

TBA

Door Duty: Dan Ercolini and Ted Smith

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Program of February 21, 2003

Scott Donahue

Mark Howe introduced his friend and public artist Scott Donahue. Mark said Scott made the sculpture in front of his building and volunteered the thought that sculpture might be the club's Rotary Centennial project for next year. Scott's sculpture might be used.

A public artist competes for public sculpture commissions that are often required in new projects &/or developments, like Scott's recent sculpture commission for the Millbrae BART station. Locally, Scott's best know sculpture is a 13' "composite woman" in front of the Oakland City Hall, commemorating all women who have contributed to building Oakland. The sculpture is "composite" because it is made of pieces representing many different individual women from different eras and ethnic groups, i.e. Olone Indians, Spanish California, etc. Scott then launched into a slide presentation and discussion of his work.

Scott's program was a highly visual presentation that works against verbal description. Rather than bore you with the writers simplistic and incomplete representation of Scott's work, you can revisit the entire presentation, virtually, by visiting Scott's web site listed below.

ENJOY! http://www.sdonahue.com

Coming Speakers
03/14/2003 Chief Joseph Samuels, RPD

Recognitions

Happy/Sad $$
Josh G. had Happy Dollars for being able to use Richie B's. Sierra house because of the holiday auction. A good time was had by all even though Elaina dislocated her finger getting of a ski lift.
David K. had Happy & Sad $5. $2.50 for sad dollars because he was sturgeon fishing last week with his brother from Idaho and all he caught was a 30" shaker. $2.50 for Happy Dollars because he was lobbying for and anxiously awaiting an invitation from Jon Lawlis to go sturgeon fishing on the trip he just bought.
Richie B. remembering the club's long tradition of recognizing member's successes, noting the incredibly huge black limousine type new vehicle illegally parked in front of the clubhouse, and wanted the members to recognize what must be huge success, given the probable cost of the vehicle. The writer notes at this point pandemonium broke out and it was impossible to determine exactly what kind of recognition was exacted from the new vehicle owner, one Prez Dave. The writer also notes that at no point in the pandemonium did the word "excess" stand out as part of the descriptive adjectives used to describe Dave's new car.
Joe N. with Happy/Sad Dollars said that Epic Plastics, the company that bought his factory is moving from Richmond to Lodi. There is a very talented bi-lingual (Spanish/English) bookkeeper working for Epic that won't be moving to Lodi. Joe said anyone interested in interviewing a very talented individual for employment should see him for this lady's references.

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Last Week
President David Brown rang the bell and asked "The Flywheel" scribe, yours truly, to lead the members in the Pledge of Allegiance.

Prez Dave's quote for the day, "Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read."--Groucho Marx (1890 - 1977)

Prez Dave then asked loyal scribe Jim Young why he isn't wearing his Rotary badge? Dave was told that a nefarious badge stealer absconded with it right before the meeting began. Dave, noting the coincidence that Jim Young had also discharged all the duties required to receive a Blue Badge said that for the mere sum of $5 he had a Blue replacement Badge with Jim's name on it. Jim said he was lucky the bar wasn't open or he wouldn't be able to "afford" the badge. Prez Dave welcomed Jim to full club membership, as did the members with a round of applause.

Guests:

Visiting Rotarians
Prez Dave then started the meeting by, "Visiting welcoming Rotarians." Andy Stewart of Raleigh (pronounced Raw-lah) Missouri, introduced himself and his bride of 25 years, who are in the area on a vacation and business trip. Raleigh bills itself as the Heart of the Ozarks. Prez Dave and Andy performed the traditional exchange of club banners. (After the meeting several members apologized to Andy for the poor weather and hoped he might return when it is nice. We think he believed us.)

Prez Dave asked the club Secretary if, "Yah all remember the big boards with the club's banner display that got put away during the MVCC renovation?" Sec. Joe did remember them with the idea of locating and displaying them in the near future. (We were all impressed with the affect of the word "Ozark" on Prez Dave's speech.)

Announcements
Keith Davis, the gentlemen the club helped last year during Xmas in April passed away last week.

Prez Dave noted that he'd asked "yah all" (us all actually) to sign up for the Rotary Ad in the West County Times. The ad insert will come out next week (Feb. 26th). It will be a very nice ad and should be kept out of the recycling bin.

Xmas in April is coming April 26th, Saturday. Save the date, it's a lot of fun and a chance to do some "hands on good work". That does conflict with the district conference, oh well!
istrict 5160 will have its Conference, "Festival in Fairfield", in Fairfield April 24th-27th complete conference details can be found @ http://www.rotary5160.org./conference.htm.

The Rotary License Plate program has until March 15th to get 2,500 new sign-ups. You have more time if you thought about getting a Rotary License Plate but did not act. Prez. Dave reminded the members that a good reason to participate in the program is because our club gets 50% +/- of the fee collected by the State. More information is available @ http://www.ca-rotarylicenseplates.org.

Prez Dave encouraged the members to nominate qualified young people for a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholarship. The application deadline is March 31st. For more information contact Richard Flanders @ srednalf@pacbell.net or 925-469-9155.

The RI Convention for 2003 will be held in Brisbane Australia
Registrants from our District are eligible for the Visa known as Electronic Travel Authority (ETA) provided they hold a US Passport. They can apply online or through a travel agent. To apply online have them visit: http://www.eta.immi.gov.au/index.html.
Both a Passport and Visa are required, and you don't want to be "stopped at the gate" because a Visa has not been ordered early enough for travel to Australia.

Raffle
There was $174 at risk. Sculptor Scott picked Secretary Joe N. as the rafflee. Joe picked a white ball.

Prez. Dave rang the bell and adjourned the meeting.

Jim Young,
Editor