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Home | Bulletin Who's Who Calendar | Projects Area Meetings | District 5130 Rotary International |
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Home | Bulletin Who's Who Calendar | Projects Area Meetings | District 5130 Rotary International |
Bulletin "PC PIRATES ON HIGH-TECH SEAS"
Off and Rolling President-Elect Chuck Stark opened the meeting promptly at 12:30 p.m. under cloudy skies. Chris Parr turned our direction to our flag and led us thru the Pledge. Terry Galazzo gave us a moving Rotary moment. Rich Pratt introduced visiting Rotarians, most from the notorious downtown club.
AnnouncementsThe “Guio Fund” -- Ginny Pitts brought 7 boxes of See's candies and distributed amongst the tables. Our Rotary exchange student, Guiomar Medeiro, is in the Montgomery High School chorus. They are selling the candy to pay for their choir robes. Tom Boylan donated his raffle winnings to this cause. A very big "thank you" for the generosity of our club members for buying every candy bar. This has put Guio over the top with candy sales and a free choir robe! Thanks again. Oakmont Independence -- The question has come up to share geographic territory with Oakmont. That is to perhaps start a club in the Oakmont area. The question is out there. More discussion to come later. We are dark on President's Day, February 21st. The new club roster is available. Don't forget to stop at the back table and pick up your copy. Cherkassy Flag -- Robin Marrs presented a Rotary flag from the Rotary Club of Cherkassy, Ukraine. Accompanying the flag was a letter requesting our club's partnership, which will be taken under consideration. Thanks Robin.
District Conference Update -- Our past great leader, Bill Fisher talked about the wonderful district conference coming up May 4th. That is the golf tournament, May 5th all day conference, and the May 6th cruise to Vancouver. What a trip! It's going to be a blast. There are still places available. If you are interested, please contact Bill. Our fearless leader, District Governor Mike Merrill, said there were 180 signed up from our district, but only 17 from our club. We would love to have a greater showing from our club. Again, this is an opportunity not to miss. Valentine’s Program -- Arnie Carston announced next Monday, February 14th is, of course, Valentine's Day. Please bring your "significant other." There will be a great program. Missing Auction Voucher -- Mr. "Crab Feed", Pete Lamonica, announced that a voucher for $180 was not good from someone that purchased an item at the Crab Feed. In other words, it bounced. He has no idea who bought this item. Generous Pat Sizemore volunteered to cover the $180. According to Pat it is a whole lot cheaper than 2 divorces. Way to go Pat!
Valentine’s Flower Delivery -- Next Monday, again February 14th, all the clubs in Santa Rosa will be delivering your sweetheart flowers from Grohe's Florists. It's a lot of fun, not to mention we get a sizeable amount from each delivery donated to our SOS program. If you are interested please give John Palmer a ring. The question came up: Can we get Bob Miller in a tooth fairy costume to help deliver flowers? That question is still pending according to Bob.
RecognitionBill Fisher was asked the question, What does Y2K and Culligan Water have in common? During the Super Bowl, a TV ad for Culligan indicated that sales were up 75% before Y2K. Is this true, Bill? He did not commit either way so he was fined $20. Thanks Bill (???) Janet Codding donated $10 to the birthday cause. No one asked Janet exactly how old she was the day before. Don't we have good manners? Happy Birthday, Janet.
Craft Talk: Caroline FoxCaroline Fox gave an informative and very funny craft talk today. She is married to a great guy named Steve (this writer can attest to that!) and they live in the Montgomery High School area.
Steve and Caroline have started their own business, Fox Consulting which entails Steve setting up systems management programs and Caroline designing web sites. The key factor of their business is an emphasis on solving business problems, making the right decisions for their clients, and setting up an operating system for your business. A real hands-on approach for their customers. Incidentally Caroline and Steve have been a terrific host family for Guio. Thanks Caroline for a great craft talk!
RaffleWe have $1,000 in the pot with 10 marbles left. Jim Underhill pulled the unlucky ticket. Sorry, Jim. However, Tom Boylan won the $20 and graciously and generously gave it to the "Guio Fund."
ProgramOur speakers for today, Ed Hudson and Paul Lozada spoke on high-tech crime. Ed has been formerly a member of the Child Abuse Council and Paul is in the forensics department at the Santa Rosa Police Department. They both have worked with the district attorney invesigating high-tech crime.
There is a huge amount of Internet child pornography according to Ed. It takes a tremendous amount of time investigating this horrendous crime. Three hundred billion dollars worth of commerce will be done in the year 2000 thru the Internet. Hundreds of new accounts sign on daily. These are all potential victims of high-tech fraud. Much of high-tech crime is traditional crime using high-tech means. Examples are component theft, which are shipments that are stolen. This means the price of home computers are inflated $100 to cover the loss. Surfing theft is another. Someone looking over your shoulder to acquire private information. Subscription fraud is another. Someone steals your identity. Software piracy is very easy to perpetrate. This is a very big problem in Asia. In North America the loss was 11 billion dollars last year.
There is also the problem of computer intrusion. Someone can hack into your telephone system and steal your information. This is very difficult to follow and catch the thieves. Ed talked about the steady increase in child pornography. Hewlett Packard has helped tremendously the Santa Rosa Police Department get started on tracking these individuals. What can we do to fight high-tech crime? A few suggestions would be to shred or rip up unsolicited credit card applications that come to us in the mail. Your garbage can be stolen and this information can be used by the bad guys. Big credit card companies have taken big losses. Citibank lost 10 million dollars several years ago. They are reluctant to go to the police to report these thefts. They don't want this information to get out to their stockholders so they take care of the problem themselves. This was an interesting and informative program. We should all be aware of these issues since most of us have computers and do everything from buying on-line to inquiring about rentals in Europe. Other Business Kids Street Theater purchased $999 worth of necessary technology to replace those stolen from last year's unfortunate burglary. Kids Street is extremely grateful for our club's $1,000 donation. Projects Committee Meeting on March 2nd, 11:30 at Portofino. Contact Janet Codding for more info. Terminated memberships between 7/1/1999 and 12/31/1999:
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