Volume XX
Number 24

Tuesday
Nov. 30, 2004

Coming Programs Every Tuesday Nov 30 Joice Beatty/Natalie Klug Rotary Festival of Brotherhood Dec 7 Greg Molloy The Magic of Rotary Dec 14 DARK - Christmas Party Dec 21 Pete Lagarias Almost Perfect - Rotaplast & Vietnam Dec 28 TBD Coming Events Dec 14, 2004 St. Helena Rotary Club Christmas Party Markham Vineyards May 19, 2005 Centennial Celebration Doubletree Hotel Rohnert Park, CA Feb 26, 2005 St. Helena Rotary Club Winter Ball St. Helena, CA Birthdays Dec 5 Hendrik Smeding Dec 9 Loren Gardner Dec 13 Dale Smith Dec 20 Frank Toller Dec 21 Roger Adams Wedding Anniversaries Dec 13 Mike Thomas (Ann) Dec 16 Rex Stults (Gillian) Dec 21 Charles Bell (Peggy) Dec 27 Jim Haslip (Alexandra) Dec 30 Dale Smith (Lillian) Club Anniversaries Dec 1, 1990 Dick Rogers Dec 12, 1995 Kathleen Patterson

COMMUNITY SERVICE OPPORTUNITIES ABOUND –
SEE JIM HASLIP
By Polly Keegan

GUESTS ON NOVEMBER 23RD:

Rex Stults introduced again Bob Graham, CFO of the CIA.   Diane Bylund introduced for the third time Linda Alioto, local realtor and attorney.   Dick Rogers (in the absence of Phil Toohey) introduced Gene Armstead who joined singers Chuck Bell, Jonathan Briano and Dave Brotemarkle for a very good acapello rendering of happy birthday/anniversary.

DICK ROGERS

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

Don Scully said the fitness committee will meet in December.   Bill Word reminded us that the Christmas Party is December 14, Tuesday, at Markham Winery.   Jim Haslip announced several opportunities for community service, including: Read-along program to first-graders, Tuesdays, 10 am. Tutoring Program to grades 3, 4, 5 once a week, from January through May, in reading or math Organ donor Program scheduled for April. Farm worker involvement since they have left their families while living in housing here, they need activity during their off times, e.g. books, games. Joice Beatty mentioned that there has been a donation to the Napa Library of 500 volumes in Spanish. Dictionary Program distributes dictionaries to all first graders. Food Pantry and Milk Donation – Jim thanked Dick Rogers for all his efforts during the summer gathering and transporting all the left-over food from the Farmers Market to the open pantry center at the Adventist Church. Also he thanked Dale Smith who has been donating milk at cost for the kids using open pantry.

Community Service Opportunities ... Continued

BELL RINGERS:

Chuck Meibeyer has returned from three weeks in Australia where he ended his tour with a Bungee jump in New Zealand worth $50. Servaas Mes also just returned from Australia where he attended and presented at a worldwide conference on back pain treatment and prevention. $50. Norm Alumbaugh opted to try the Junior Achievement program. He taught the 6th, 7th and 8th grades, loved it, took the kids for a tour of his vineyards and caves. $10. Lisa Marie Anderson will be announcing additional Junior Achievement programs in the future. Alston Hayne announced that the Spectator Magazine awarded Hayne Vineyard Zinfandel the best in California once again. $50. Jeff Whitehead wanted us to know that one son has excelled in the under 12 soccer league, and the other son achieved a 4.0 for the trimester. $30.

CHUCK MEIBEYER   JEFF WHITEHEAD

PROGRAM:  ELDER CARE ISSUES

Speaker: Edward Knutsen, District Attorney Investigator for the
Bureau of Investigations

EDWARD KNUTSEN District Attorney Investigator for the Bureau of Investigations

Edward Knutsen spoke about scams prevalent among the elderly. Mainly they are financial scams, and mainly they concern identity theft. Other scams occur such as fraudulent prize awards (one always recognizes them as fraud when they state that the receiver has won a prize, but that the winner must first send in a sum of money before he can collect), "sweetheart swindles", and foreign country lottery winners.

Identity theft is pervasive. One credit card company has indicated that 8% of its business is fraud. Once a thief obtains a credit card number, he can purchase anything at anytime online, and the average victim does not discover it for over a year. Credit cards are obtained by stealing purses and wallets, stealing mail, completing change of address forms and diverting the victim's mail to another location, getting business records at workplace, rummaging through a dumpster, and often, a home care provider can easily steal information, including checks from the victim's checkbook.

Risk can be minimized by careful management of one's personal information, shredding, paying attention to the billing cycles, ordering a credit report each year, never giving a social security number, shredding unused credit card applications, and reviewing credit card and bank statements.

GLOBALIZATION HITS HOME –
St. Helena Rotary Outsources Student Scholars!
By Donn Black
 

November 16, 2004 – Though not mentioned by either candidate during their recent presidential campaigns, reports surfacing today at St. Helena Rotary have made it clear that in a frenzy of globalization, American students are being sent overseas along with American jobs! Two notable, positive differences are, however, that an equal number of foreign students are coming to the United States in exchange, and that the outsourced students do return home within a year.

ANDY BARTLETT

By way of the program at the regular weekly meeting of the St. Helena Rotary Club, the Rotarian in charge, Anderson G. Bartlett , rose up quite high to introduce "inbound" student Murilo Thomaz, from Brazil, "rebound" student Raphael Cruz, back from France, and "outbound" student Jason Micheli, of St. Helena. Also introduced were: Regina Weinskin, Raphael's mother, Elrie and Anthony Micheli, Jason's parents, and Jill and Darrell Quirici, Murilo's St. Helena host parents.

Murilo then presented a slick multimedia tourism film about the six regions of Brazil. He recounted a successful year at St. Helena High (especially in soccer), how the transition from his big city home life in Brazil to small town life in St. Helena had been no problem, and how he had come to love his host parents.

Finally Raphael answered questions about his successful stay in France and "stuff like that." He earned a full year's academic credit, went from zip to competence in the French language, made many new friends, matured some, put together a coat crowded with international patches and pins, and had an altogether great time as a Rotary Exchange Scholar.

LISA MARIE ANDERSEN

The 11/16 Rotary day had begun with an 11:30 Winter Ball Committee meeting in the back room chaired by Lisa Marie Andersen, who seems to be doing all the work. Definite progress was reported and approved, giving strong promise to the prospect of another memorable Winter Ball February 26.

KATHLEEN PATTERSON Club President 2004-2005

Club President Patterson ceremoniously gonged the opening bell for the main meeting at 12:30 sharp.

Rob Andreae led the pledge, getting it right for a change. Carol Sobczak then stepped up for the invocation after which the weekly game of musical chairs commenced. This time it was Citizen of the Year Frank Toller who was left standing with dinner plate in hand, but no chair wherein to sit. It's the indignity of the thing, right Frank?

There was one visiting Rotarian, a repeat from two weeks ago, Bob Wandel from Denver and formerly a St. Helena member. Happily, three guests were back, realtor/attorney Linda Alioto, Star editor Doug Ernst, and former St. Helena Rotary Treasurer, Gene Armstead.

CRAIG ANDERSON

No one admitted to a birthday, but it was leaked that it was Craig Anderson's 9th anniversary in Rotary. With that the Rotary-Four and piano (the said C. Anderson) sang recognizable versions of "Come Again" and "Happy Anniversary" with extraordinary verve and snap.

Then came Pres. Patterson's, "A Rotary Day." This time the time line came down in Hawaii, some 10 hours from Greenwich mean time in England. The Rotary deal there was $18,000 worth of wheel chairs being loaded on a freighter bound for Asia and kids who need the wheels to get to school, dinner, and so forth.

LYDIA WILSON

Then, recently inducted new member Lydia Wilson (sponsored by gallants Jonathan Briano and Tony Albright) gave her self-intro talk. Turns out she was born in San Jose, raised in Cupertino, and educated at Cal Berkeley in art. She is a goldsmith and jewelry designer, skills she pursues at her St. Helena store, Marlowe & Company Jewelers, on Main Street. Lydia's father is a Rotarian, so she already knows the Four Way Test. Welcome Lydia!

Globalization Hits Home ... Continued

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

Gary Jaffe about the 11/17 golf outing (the Nairator is behind that one);

Rob Andreae regarding good progress on the Vintage Hall Centennial Project (Rob pointed out that 17 of the 35 $3000 memorial benches for the park have been bought, mostly by Rotarians, and that the remaining 18 will go fast);

President Elect Bill Word corrected the time for decorating Main Street for Christmas – Santa's helpers are to gather on Tuesday, December 14, at 6:30 pm;

Kathy Zelazny said the Holiday Home Tour will be Saturday, December 4 at 9:45 am. starting at 1320 Main Street and that the $30 ticket price will benefit St.Helena primary and elementary school children (call 967-9814 for tour details, tickets, and a map).
 

RAFFLE:

Then came the raffle with Carol Sobczak, Rob Andreae and Bill Word having winning tickets for wine, but not a black marble among the bunch.

FINEMASTER STEVE EBERSOLE:

STEVE EBERSOLE

Steve corralled Gary Jaffe, Norm Mitroff, Kathy Zelazny, Debbie Victoria-Seale, Wendel Laidley, Tim Doran, Linda Beard-Delucchi and Al Albright in a series of quizzes about etymological phrases (like, "a wolf in sheep's clothing", "fly in the ointment", etc.), wanting to know the meaning and country and century of origin of each. All finees attempted answers and were then heavily fined.

Following the aforesaid Rotary Exchange Student program, the President adjourned the meeting at 1:30.
 

POKER FELLOWSHIP —
TEXAS HOLD'EM STYLE
By Steve Yost

SAVE THE DATE—on January 13th (Thursday evening) Natalie Klug and Joice Beatty will lead an evening of learning how to play Texas Hold'em poker as it is played in one of California's many card rooms. There will be chips, prizes for the winners, dealers (Tim Coon, John Sales, and Steve Yost), and goodies to enjoy.

If you have watched poker on TV (ESPN and The Travel Channel) and would like to try it yourself this is the way to do it. For those who are beginners there will be instruction sheets, which will give you the rules and advice on how to play. For more experienced players this will be your chance to show off your skills.

More information will be available as we get closer to the date.

GOLF FELLOWSHIP OUTING
By Steve Yost

GARY JAFFE

On a bright, sunny day (November 17^th) Gary Jaffe led 8 Rotarians to San Francisco where we played a round of golf on the newly changed Harding Park—scheduled to be the site of the 2005 PGA Tour Championship. Gary's 93 was the low round of the day but Dave Brotemarkle (96) and Jerry McQuiddy (97) had respectable scores on this tough golf course. Dave was heard to comment in the car "if you keep the ball in the fairway you will do just fine"—very good Dave—it is easier said than done!

Gary and Dave did not join us for dinner but the rest of us—Franz Wartenweiler, Dale Smith, Jerry McQuiddy, John Sales, Mike Thomas, and Steve Yost—went to Don Giovanni's where we enjoyed the evening meal.

Please note all golfers or would be golfers are welcome to join the fun outings Gary is arranging.

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