Monday Noon, Los Robles Lodge
925 Edwards Ave., Santa Rosa, California

Bulletin
June 4, 2001
By Jim Hinton

In The Beginning-- Kushnir Speaks Out:

President Chuck Stark arrived early (Chuck? Early?? I’m gonna have to go with an oxymoron here--Ed) and opened the meeting early with a clang of the bell at 12:20 pm. Rich Pratt led the Pledge of Allegiance and John Withers gave the invocation.

Susan Nowacki introduced eight visiting Rotarians (six from Santa Rosa Downtown, one from Oakmont, and one from Napa Sunrise) and a half-dozen guests were introduced, all of whom were warmly welcomed.

Somewhere in the midst of these opening ceremonies Ken Kushnir complained that his table was 3.4 feet closer to the podium than usual. (Marriage will do that to you Ken—Ed)

In The Middle—  Outstanding Scholarship Rewarded:

Bob Zeni introduced the two Santa Rosa West Rotary Club Scholarship Winners from Piner High School, each of whom was awarded a $1,000 scholarship from the club. They were selected by an impartial non-Rotary panel on the basis of their academic records, community involvement, and school activities from an outstanding group of 16 monthly winners. 

They were: 

Cassandra Wayman	Cassandra Wayman, who graduated with a 4.12 GPA, was very active in her church groups, taught Spanish to elementary students, sang in the school choir, performed in school theater, will attend Seattle Pacific College in the fall, and hopes to become a secondary education teacher; and	Antonio Owen
Antonio Owen, who graduated with a 4.18 GPA, enrolled in the Upward Bound pre-college program at Sonoma State University for three years, taught Spanish to elementary students, won the 2000 Good Citizenship Award and the 1999 Humanitarian Award from Upward Bound, attended RYLA camp in 2000, will attend Boston University in the fall, and hopes to become a mechanical engineer.

Ken Dansie then introduced the four Santa Rosa West Rotary Club Scholarship Winners from Ridgeway High School, each of whom receives a $500 scholarship from the club for their continuing education at Santa Rosa Junior College. They were: Mark Williamson, Jose Cruz, Claudia Ochoa, and Emily Gwynn.

Their counselor, Brian Cox, spoke highly of each of them and described them as role models for the entire student body.

Ridgeway Principal Brock Falconberg then spoke about the exciting rebuilding project that begins next week at Ridgeway.

Congratulations to all of these scholarship winners. They worked very hard to achieve their high school successes, and the Santa Rosa West Rotary Club is very proud to assist them in their higher education.

Raffle
In The End Of The Middle--Raffles Won And Lost:

Chuck Olson lost his bid to win $578 when he failed to pick out the red marble from the bag in the first raffle, but he was a winner with the dice cup earlier in the day. Lou Capuano won the second raffle and took home a bottle of wine.

Take a Membership Minute

We'll soon report final membership committee productivity numbers for 2000-2001. I'd like to thank all members of the club who helped us bring in members during this year emphasizing membership growth. Not every prospect resulted in a new member, but thanks is also due to anyone who proposed a new member, flipped through their Rolodex file to call colleagues, and who brought visitors to lunch in the hopes of sparking their interest in joining.

We have added some top quality individuals who I believe will be committed contributors, but our job is not done. We can't let up in our efforts to identify and recruit quality members of the business community to support our club's award-winning reputation.

We currently have a couple more people "in the works", but I'm hoping you will invite business associates to lunch in the next month so Janet Codding, our new membership chairperson, will have plenty to work with in her new post. Our programs are so full the next few weeks, it is unlikely I will have a chance to make this request verbally, but please feel free to call me or catch me at meetings with the names of individuals you want to attend our final information/orientation session later this month.

Thanks for your support,

Paula Wrenn

The Program

In The End--There Was Laughter And Lots Of It:

Larry Wilde, renowned comic, prolific author of 53 books on humor, and Director of the Carmel Institute of Humor, was our guest speaker today. No matter that he talked for almost 45 minutes! He had us laughing, and thereby improving our mental and physical health, the entire time. One really good belly laugh burns off 35 calories, and daily doses of laughter help us to better cope with stress, increase our productivity, inspire loyalty and respect from employees, and actually produce positive therapeutic benefits, according to Mr. Wilde.

He outlined his Five Point Stress Reduction Through Laughter program:

1. Get in the habit of laughing out loud.

2. Learn to laugh at yourself.

3. Develop a light-hearted attitude.

4. Expose yourself to something funny every day.

5. Try to see the funny side of life, even if you're up to your eyeballs in alligators.

Incidentally, Larry's latest best-seller book is entitled "When You're Up To Your Eyeballs In Alligators," an entertaining must-read book on how to live life to its fullest.

* * * * * * *

This Bulletin was written by Jim Hinton.

Edited by Jim Valinoti

STANDBY BULLETIN WRITERS ARE:
John PALMER & Tom LAENGLE

Changes or comments?

Contact Jim Valinoti at valinoti@sonic.net or (707) 829-2300.