edited by
JOHN PATTERSON
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Those of you who missed hearing Dr. Otto Austel talk on his work with Polio Plus throughout the world missed a wonderful talk. It is all but stamped out but we need to make sure the job is done. Barry Shulman is our new Polio Chair and will make sure we do our part. Our thanks to Richard Shawcroft who did a superlative job and put us over the top last year. . August is membership month and we do need new members. Deepa tells me we are down to 68 now. Retention is part of the reason for the decline, not only our getting new members. If you know of someone who is not completely satisfied with the way the club runs please let me know so that we can do something about it. We handed out a "Membership Satisfaction Questionnaire" for you to express your opinions. Please, if you haven't turned one in, get one from Deepa and complete it. This is the best way for me to find out (anonymously) how to make the meetings better. At the latest board meeting the avenues of service reported on their tentative plans for the year. It will be an exciting year. Jeff Little is in the first stages of proposing and organizing a new fund raiser that has the potential to be the biggest ever for the club. He is hard at work in developing a plan for a bicycle event in the valley that would include a Century, and 50 and 25 mile rides. As you know the valley is a very popular place for bike riders, even Lance Armstrong, and the event could draw more than a thousand riders. Joe Duggan is looking at ways the Rotary Clubs in the valley could have more combined social events. He is working on a golf tournament as one of his ideas, “Beat Breakfast Rotary”. Jeff Cotter is looking in to some new international projects in addition to the support to Rick Zander (see the Aug.20th meeting announcement). David Wyatt is lining up some great speakers, which you will be able to preview on the Web calendar page. And of course, the 5th Wednesday functions will continue to be a good time and informative. Angelo Perciballi as membership chairmen is looking at ways to add an emphasis on retaining members as well as recruiting new members. Marlene Demery is adding two new projects to the already busy Community efforts. The first is helping to add a new roof to the Solvang Community Center. There are also plans to assist the SYV High School horticultural project in refurbishing the Welcome to Solvang sign at the city entrance. And as you heard at Wednesday’s meeting Betty Madsen is leading a new committee to enhance our club Rotary family. This column is written by Len Dalberg. Items about members should be sent to Len at ledahd@syv.com. Len is on vacation, so we will have to wait to the next Cogwheel to get the latest on our other distinguished members. Werner Fornos, a Rotarian and president of The Population Institute received the UN population award recently. It was presented by Mrs. Nane Annon wife of UN Secretary General Kofi Annon. In his acceptance speech he gave good news and bad news. The good news is that population in the most affluent nations will only increase by 55 million by 2050. The bad news is that population in the 49 least developed countries will morae than double from 700 million to 1.7 billion by 2050. Hans Blix: We have reason to believe there is a chicken, but we have not yet been allowed to have access to the other side of the road. Dr. Suess: Did the chicken cross the road? Did he cross it with a toad? Yes, the chicken crossed the road, but why it crossed I’ve not been told. Ronald Regan: What chicken Bill Clinton: I did not cross the road with that chicken. What is your definition of chicken. Rush Limbaugh: I don’t know why the chicken crossed the road, but I’ll bet it was getting a government grant to cross the road, and I’ll bet that somebody out there is already forming a support group to help chickens with crossing-the-road syndrome. Can you believe this? How much more of this can real Americans take? Chickens crossing the road paid for by their tax dollars. And when I say tax dollars, I’m talking about your money, money the government took from you to build a road for chickens to cross. Ralph Nader: The chicken’s habitat on the other side of the road had been polluted by unchecked industrial greed. The chicken did not reach the unspoiled habitat on the other side of the road because it was crushed by the wheels of a gas-guzzling SUV. |
