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Program for Friday October 18, 2002

District Governor, Mark von Hoetzendorf

President Dave says "all you folks should bathe and try to find and tie without stains on it to wear this coming Friday". The District Governor is coming for inspection and inspiration.

Door Duty: Don Lau and Bud Martin

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Program for Friday October 25, 2002

Dion Aroner, State Assembly

Door Duty: Jonathon Lawlis and Norm Lundberg

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Program of October 11, 2002

William "AKA Bill" Terry, CEO Republic Services Northwest U.S. (i.e. from LA to Seattle)
Mr. Terry is tall man of African American origin, with short white hair and looks quite a bit like Colin Powell. And that is a compliment. Mr. Terry is the president and CEO of Republic Services Northwest, the company that purchased Richmond Sanitary just over one year ago for 200 million US. He resume was too long to read out loud but included BS degrees in biology, physics, public policy and post education work at Yale and Wharton. More importantly he served his country with the US army in both Vietnam and Europe. He mentioned that he even drove a tank. Stoney also drove a tank. Some guys get all the luck. Bill was born in a town that bordered the Chesapeake Bay and has longed to return there all his life. The Chesapeake Bay is as beautiful as San Francisco Bay but contains the seeds of this great republic that he obviously identifies with.

When Bill told his mom that he was in ROTC and he was planning to enter the army, She responded "your father would turn over in his grave if he knew this". That certainly didn't stop him. After a stint in public service with the City of Dallas where he coincidently met the infamous Richmond, CA resident Ted Smith, he traveled across the country on his way to California a land he admits to having a hard time comprehending. On his way he stopped at the Grand Canyon, and being in the landfill business, immediately thought how wonderful a site this large hole would be for a landfill. Fortunately, he came to his senses before actually formalizing the idea on paper. He explained that the waste disposal industry has evolved from an era where you could identify the local landfill by the fires there at night, to a highly engineered site that is actively managed by hydrologists, civil engineers, technicians and other environmental professionals.

Republic Services is the second largest solid waste disposal company in the U.S. and its largest individual shareholder is none other than Bill Gates, who own 12% of the company. I guess Bill G. didn't buy any Cisco at the top. Republic Services is in the solid waste disposal business, whose methods include: recycling, incineration, and landfill disposal.

On a day to day basis Mr. Terry deals with standard business challenges: workmen's compensation issues, employee and community safety, Dept. of Transportation issues with regard to disposal vehicles, and the politics of managing a valuable disposal franchise with the local awarding jurisdiction - the reason he was speaking to us today.

He has now been on the job for about a year and the last part of his talk spoke to the challenges he has faced assimilating the local Richmond Sanitary Franchise.

As everyone knows Richmond Sanitary was much more than a garbage company to the Richmond Community. In many ways Richmond Sanitary, under the leadership of the charismatic Rich Granzela was larger than life itself. There are people in the community who thought that the R in RSS stood for Richy. The company has donated generously to local charities for decades. I have personally heard stories from seniors about how nice Richy was when he actually drove a garbage truck himself in the old days. Nobody doubts that Richy has a heart of gold and still does. The question today is: does Richy's old company still have a heart of gold? On this subject Mr. Terry was a bit vague. He explained, in a moment of candor, that Rich Granzela and Cheryl were driving him to drink. He complained that the company had sent out $700,000 in donations year to date and he was not convinced that all of the donations were valid or deserving. He feels that the company is being nickel and dimed to death and that this shotgun approach is not working. They are continually giving $100 here and $500 there with no real consideration for the overall benefit to the community. His employees are "golfed out". He feels that a more efficient approach to community charity would involve an annual grant request from all the organizations that RSS donates too. He wants to use this tool to concentrate RSS's donations to worthy organizations. He also said that although the method of awarding donations may change the total yearly amount would remain the same. Another point he made very clear is that he wants to de-emphasize the Richmond Sanitary name and emphasize the Republic name.

Thank You,

Mr. Bill Terry

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Last Meeting:
·President Dave explained that "You should live a good and honorable life. Then when you are old you can recall it and enjoy it a second time.

Visiting Rotarians:
Lynette Clark of the San Pablo club was a visitor today.
Ted Smith from the Rossmoor Sunrise Rotary club was also in attendance.

Sunshine Report:
·David K. had nothing to report under the sunshine heading.

Guests:

Announcements
·The Bavarian Bash was well attended and the District Governor's goal of raising $245,000 is likely to be met according to President Dave. President Dave also was impressed by a particular women playing a very long horn which no doubt got much longer after several beers.
·George Egan complained that no Richmond Rotarians won anything at the Bash, but Rotary won.
·MS Windows Operating systems are still needed by Dan E.
·Of particular interest is the Nov 22 lunch meeting where the CONSUL GENERAL OF ISRAEL WILL SPEAK - President Dave's persistence does pay.
·Pam Jones need those of us who sponsored a classroom at Peres School to put a check in the envelope along with our names on the outside of it. There are also several classrooms that still need sponsors.
·Joey Bags announced that tonight would be the last night of the Point Richmond summer music festival - please come he says.
For your board members there will be a meeting at 11:30 just prior to the regular Friday lunch meeting. And remember bored members there is also a regular Thursday meeting the day before at 12:00.

Coming Speakers
11/01/02, Isiah Turner, City Manager Richmond.
11/08/02, Richard Lopez Vessel Traffic Service
11/29/02, No Meeting
01/03/02, Michael Hingson, Guide Dogs for the Blind.

Recognitions
·Ted Smith had a B-day. He paid. He further explained that he showed up today after a long absence to support Earl who was taking heat from Stanford fans here at the club. Josh went to Stanford?
·Markku had B-day on 9/13/02 and traveled to Quebec, the only wall city in North America, in a one-engine plane. He paid.
·Guam Boy, AKA Bart Wallace celebrated his B-Day on the bay enjoying the Kayak trip from hell. Four foot swells and too much wind. Bart got wet. He will soon be leaving for Guam to help the Army reduce its electrical bill at Anderson Air Force Base. Good Luck Bart. O by the way, thanks for giving me the program directors job.
·Jim Cannon had a B-Day the day of the meeting. The club promptly sang him happy B-Day and Ted Smith was jealous.
·Ren Partritge also celebrated a B-Day.

Happy/Sad $$
·Dan E. donated a happy $5 to celebrate the SF Giants playoff hopes.
·Paul donated $5 to celebrate that his daughter was accepted to University of Arizona.
·Earl has got something on President Dave that made President Dave pay $20 to the club. It was hush hush, but if you want to know what was happening President Dave has said he will reveal the secret for another $20 to the club. Stay tuned next week.
·Paul Allen donated $ to celebrate the arrival of a cash infusion by an investor into his company and to acknowledge that he attended his first birthing class for his soon to be offspring, due on of all dates, his own B-Day.
·Dr. Herb donated a happy $5 to recognize the fact that he and Mr. Bill Terry, today's speaker, were in the service together at McClellan Alabama Army base albeit in different decades.

Raffle:
·Earl pulled a white ball and the $111 remains in the pot for next week.

Until we meet next week,
Mark R. Howe, Editor