Queen Patsy wielded her authoritative gavel in bringing her unruly subjects to order, and proceeded to "hold court."  Basketball center Dan Wylie, who stands as tall as the flag, led us in the pledge.   Recently installed member Susan Nowacki gave us a thoughtful and humorous inspirational thought from "Mom".

Tom Laengle earned more points toward his blue badge by introducing 11 visiting Rotarians, mostly from the Downtown Club.  Dennis Wilkinson introduced his guest, Rick McLea.

Karen Murad & Chris Parr

Chris Parr introduced guest Karen Murad who will be going to India with the GSE team in January.  She is with the Sonoma County Probation Department where she sees a lot of Mike Mullins’ "clients".  A bon voyage reception is scheduled for January 2nd at the Farm House Restaurant – see next week’s bulletin for details.

Carl Vallejos set a new record for delivering a comprehensive craft talk, and even left a little time at the end for something about his personal life.   (Guest speaker Keith Woods thought he was hearing the program.)

Carl Vallejos

After taking early retirement from Allstate in 1991 to avoid a transfer to Chicago, he decided to test his entrepreneurial skills and go into the temporary employment services business.  His wife had worked at Kelly Services, and together they now have about 40 years combined human resources management background.  After considerable research, they decided that the best way to enter this already crowded field was to join a large established organization.

Carl and his wife selected a regional firm, Remedy Intelligent Staffing, and acquired the only two franchises available in California.  The other 95 offices in California are company-owned.  They have an office in Santa Rosa (707-528-8367), one in San Rafael (415-472-8811), and plan to open a satellite office in Petaluma (707-792-9888) in early 2000.  He cited staffing as a growth industry, and echoed the sentiments of many local employers that good people are hard to find.  They differentiate their business from the competition in several ways:

1. sole owners and operators
2. direct computer link with clients
3. on-line applications
4. proprietary behavioral science testing
5. free risk management consultation

Their firm specializes in office support, sales/marketing, technical, and light industrial skills.  Their on-line application processing and unique testing services are credited with time-saving screening and selection.  They are planning to utilize the Internet and opportunities available through the rapidly growing "cutting edge" field of E-commerce.

Carl has also made time for community service.  He chairs the United Way New Business Development Committee, is Past Chair of the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, and serves on the Business and Education Roundtable.  He is also active in various youth oriented programs dealing with Alcohol and Drug Abuse Alternatives, mentoring, and "job shadowing".  They have three grandchildren, and are very committed to services that benefit youths.

Carl is a welcome addition to Rotary.  We look forward to his active involvement in our worthy programs.  Carl’s craft talk yielded immediate interest that may have resulted in new business.  I received a call from one of our members this morning asking for his phone number.  Great job with that articulate presentation, even though you had Keith Woods worried that you might take away some of his program time.

By the way, Carl, you owe me and the Club BIG TIME for this detailed write-up!

Our outspoken and beloved Chief Aide to the Governor, Bob Marigo, stepped us efficiently through the announcements.  He handled the impromptu "roast" from the meeting inception through the program very well.  Yes Bob, you have a lot of friends out there who enjoy "recognizing" you.  You can take it as well as you dish it out.

Bob Marigo

Janet Codding announced again the Holiday Social on January 20th at 6:00 p.m. at her home, 3362 Miraloma Drive, Santa Rosa.  There is no charge, but this is a BYOB event; everyone is asked to bring a bottle of wine or other beverage and your favorite hors d’Oeurves.  Ray Mattison circulated more sign-up sheets.  The latest count as of this writing is about 90 people, if everyone who signed up actually shows up.  This should be a very successful event.  Please remember that this is a social event. We will still have our regular meeting at noon on December 20th at Los Robles, and Arnie has arranged another interesting program by two Ukrainian exchange students.

Ray Mattison

Crab Feed – Louie Capuano reminded everyone to turn in any tickets that may not be used, because there is a growing waiting list.  The last ticket was sold this date.  Pete Lamonica requested additional donations of airline tickets and air miles.  We have a lot of destinations already signed up, but need to package those with some donated or inexpensive forms of transportation.  Pete recognized Teri Evans for her donation of dinner and tickets in San Francisco, Ken Dansie for a Bermuda vacation, and Jim Valinoti for a barrel tasting at Rodney Strong Vineyards.   (Sorry, I may have missed someone else since the decibel level at our table was very high.)

The pleasure of recognition is brought to you by Fein Meister and President-Elect "Attila-the-Hun" Chuck Stark, with a sample of things to come in 2000-2001.  He led off with a clean "E-joke" about digging a big hole for a goldfish.  Why?  Because it was found inside a cat.

President-Elect Chuck Stark

Carl Vallejos was recognized for to the tune of $5 for his third grandchild.  He was not fined for going over the 5-minute time limit for the craft talk.  He really got off easy!  Just wait until he opens the new Petaluma office or reads the write-up that follows.

Dan Wylie talked his way to a $20 fine (started with $10) for an article misrepresenting his lengthy experience in the securities brokerage business since 1871.  He is very well preserved for his age.  He takes formaldehyde tablets instead of Viagra.

Phil Talamantes was nailed for $10 – something about an empty folder given to an attorney.  Jim Sullivan forked over $10 for being mentioned in an article about sustained market growth.

Phil Talamantes & Jim Sullivan

Chuck's own Rotarian Quiz: Bob Marigo partially passed a memory test about the President Carlo Ravizza’s theme, and escaped a fine.  He passed one of the four-way tests by admitting that he did not remember all the slogans.  Teri Evans paid $10 for not getting the right answer on a Membership quiz.  President-Elect Nominee (2001-2002), Brian Herndon, was nearly fined for not fully explaining a Rotary term, "Quantity of Quality".  He was actually thinking about his own business at the time, and contemplating hiring some temps from today’s Craft Talk presenter.

Rich Pratt delivered on his $10 message from former member Rene Ocaņa who now operates a B&B in Mexico.  Rich stayed there for a week; he bought that at last year’s Crab Feed, which kept the fine low.

Dale Sipe paid $20 for the new "family member".  Yep, you guessed it – a horse!

Chuck Olson, CPA, got the largest fine for being the alleged "ring leader" of a motley group that went to Hawaii.  It also seems that Chuck won some bets playing golf.  Mike Moore quickly noted that he saved on lodging costs since he spent all his time on the golf course.  (You had to be there!)

Visiting Rotarian Tom Farrell from Sebastopol drew the wrong color marble for the $880 prize.  Janet Codding donated her $20 consolation prize to the Crab Feed.

Keith Woods

Keith offered to yield his time to Carl Vallejos to finish his Craft Talk, but Carl politely declined.  Keith then proceeded with a rapid fire roast of several of our "deserving" members, including Bob Marigo, Chuck Stark, and Jim Benoit.  (He likes to pick on attorneys and certain people he knows well.)

Audience participation expanded with a "Quickie Quiz" on our community.   From each of the 12 questions on the blue sheet, Keith heard many different answers – some derived from perception rather than actual knowledge.  Santa Rosa’s population is about 138,000 or 31st in the state; the county has 444,000 people which is 16th in the state. The median age is 34.7 years – add about 10 years if you include Bob Marigo in the data.  About 82% of the people in the county are Anglo, 14% Latino, the rest are Asian, African/American and other.  Sorry Bob, they don’t have a special demographic category for Sicilian. By 2020, the mix will shift significantly; Anglos will be 65% and Latinos about 30% of the county population.   Nearly one out of every eight Americans is Californian now; this will change to one of seven by 2020.  The population growth rate was actually faster in the 1970s (40+%), and has gradually slowed down in the 1990s (13-14%).  The largest sector of our economy in terms of employment is services at 31%; retail/wholesale trade is second at about 25%, then followed by manufacturing and government and agriculture.   Unemployment is down to 2.8%.  Some companies will hire anyone who can fog a mirror.  Wineries are classified under mfg/processing.  Average household income is $58,000 based on 2.5 people per household.  Santa Rosa contains about 41 square miles with recent annexations.  Sonoma County has about 1,604 square miles, or about double the size of Orange County.  Down there, Highway 101 and I/S-5 are 18 lanes, while Sonoma County has a four-lane partially divided boulevard that masquerades as a "freeway" – similar to the old Santa Ana freeway which used to be the world’s longest and narrowest parking lot.  Sorry Keith, I could not resist doing a little editorializing here.  It’s your fault!

Keith retrieved an old PD article (10/12/72) which cited the results of a study by a Community Congress.  The key issues at that time were growth/open space, water, streets/roads, buses/transportation, and low cost housing (people were frightened that houses cost about $38,000).  Today’s issues? You guessed it!  SAME OLD PROBLEMS.  Keith surmised that we cannot solve the problems, we can only keep them from getting worse.

The key issues according to Keith are:

• Education has been a key issue with the Chamber, and the drop-out rate has actually lowered.
• Transportation problems are serious.  We have more gridlock with extended commute hours.  The Chamber supports the two March ballot issues that would raise sales taxes slightly to pay for road improvements, and the environmentalists are opposed – just as they were 30 years ago.
• Housing is getting worse and could affect future job growth.  Sonoma County is the fourth least affordable in the U.S.  How long will workers be willing to commute from Mendocino and Lake Counties?  The $1,000 per mile rule applies – for each additional mile from the job centers housing is $1,000 less.  This has been validated in Santa Clara County and other major Bay Area job centers.  Workers now commute from as far away as Sacramento, Stockton, Tracy, Modesto, and Merced to jobs in the "Golden Triangle" in Silicon Valley and the I-580 and I-680 corridors.  We could find the same happening in Telecom Valley and the Santa Rosa area.  (Again, some editorial comments added; I do some of my work in the East Bay and South Bay.)
• Water is again becoming more of an issue with the Eel River diversion and other pending changes.  Expect voluntary or mandatory water rationing in summer 2000.

Other issues such as crime and affordable child care were briefly addressed.

Keith wrapped up with Q&A on a high note with more humor and mild roasting – not all "doom and gloom".  He would just like for all of us to be aware of the issues and keep involved in the community.

* * * * * * * * *