El Cerrito Rotary: The Wheel April 22, 2010

Editors:  Gary Buffon & Michael Dougherty

Week of April 22, 2010     

(www.rotary5160.org)

President Tracy welcomed everyone to the Friendly El Cerrito Rotary Club.  Tracy led the flag salute and Marty provided the thought for the day.

Secretary John:   Asked Mark S to introduce his guest Phil Philbrook.  Then Kathleen introduced her guest Linda Schneider.  Interact members Cynthia Fong (President), Stephanie Wong (VP), and Luke Twombly (Rotary Coordinator/webmaster) were in attendance.  Gary B had a special guest Kevin Tse who was Interact VP in 2005 came to share what he is doing now that he graduated from USC’s School of Film Making.

4-Way Test Presentation:    Paul led the recital of the 4-Way Test

Announcements:

Þ    Pres Tracy reminded us we need one more person for May 23^rd GGF work.  Remember this is a $1000 for our club so help out if you can.

Þ    Sil reminded us of a golf tournament that is coming up.  Check with Sil if you want to participate.

Þ    Karen reminded us that we need to update our personal information on the District Website.  The link is http://www.directory-online.com/Rotary/Login.cfm.  You can click on this link if you want to go directly to the site and do your update.

Kevin Tse shared with us what he is doing after graduating from USC’s School of Cinematic Arts.  He is putting together a movie entitled BARDO.  If you want to learn more about his project please go to the following link:  www.indiegogo.com/BARDO and you will see what is going on.

Kevin Tse - Interact VP 2005 - Now a film maker 

Cynthia, Luke and Stephanie:  passed out the thanks you certificates to our club and the individuals who helped with sponsorship of the Black and White dance.   The Dance raised $10K for the Pace International project.  The 10K is 1/5^th of the $50000 goal for the district.  VERY IMPRESSIVE.  Many Rotarians indicated we need to consider joining with the Interact club so we can raise more money.

Cyntia, Tracy, Luke and Stephanie passing out sponsore recognitions

Happy dollars:   Mark S is happy about the weather clearing up and the mixer that will be next Tuesday at the Chamber office in El Cerrito.   Nancy saw Will Chun (a former Rotarian who had the UPS store) and found out he was lucky to be alive after experiencing a heart stoppage and then heart surgery.  Nancy is also happy about her Mom’s 80^th birthday.  Marty is happy his business did so well he was able to donate $1600 to the humane society.  Kathleen is happy about being busy at work and that she could make it today to host guest Linda Schneider.  Lee is happy about the grand opening of the new El Cerrito Dog Park and his participation in the event.  Ilhami is happy about a new grandchild and another on the way.  Sonja is $5 happy for the new dog park opening and her role in providing hot dogs for the people who came. Tracy is also happy for the dog park.    I think the dogs are probably happy as well but they are not Rotarians so can’t swear to it.

Sgt at Arms Nancy:   Did a combo Birthday  (standing in for Leeza) and other recognition.  Those in the mix included Mark F. Steve, Gary A, Paul and Frank.  Don and Mark S got caught up in the celebration just because Nancy felt like it and Don is always a lot of fun with recognitions.

Today’s Program: 

Mark F introduced Josh Pane, lobbyist for the CRRC, to share with us the insiders view of dealing with the state bureaucracy and politician situation.   The CRRC is the organization of recyclers and refuse haulers that Mark’s company belongs to. 

Josh opened his presentation by sharing with us the way his lobbying firm deals with some 3000 pieces of legislation (no wonder our state is in trouble with so many laws and regulations) to identify the ones that will impact his clients and the steps they must take in order to get everything sorted out by the August time frame when most of the voting takes place.

Josh then used the Rotary 4-Way Test  to evaluate how well the state’s politicians practice the 4-Way Test.  The short answer is they fail the test miserably.   The number one problem in our state is the elected leaders in the state that populates the legislature known as the senators and assembly members.  That makes the problem ours for electing them.  Time to change that!

Thanks Josh for a stimulating presentation which helped us deal with the reality of what has happened.

Josh Pane

Today’s Lottery Winner:   Don had his ticket pulled and won the bottle of wine.  Gary A had his ticket drawn and then drew a cats-eye marble.   At our next meeting the jackpot is $100. 

Thought for the Week:

Liberty doesn't work as well in practice as it does in speeches.

--Will Rogers