Success Through Teamwork 3/6/13

Dear fellow Rotarians and friends,

We were blessed with so many guests this week it was almost like "Bring a Friend to Rotary" came a week early or maybe the word got out that we were going to have two great craft talks. East coast Rotarian Frank Innis brought his son Sam to our meeting. Sam has just relocated to Santa Monica from New York. We hope to see Sam again next week. Recent LMU grad Art Flores came as Clarence Griffin's guest. We were happy to have him among us. Artist Ryan Schmidt attended at Alex Rosales' suggestion and he even brought one of his sculptures into the room for us to see. He is quite a talent and his work is inspiring as you can see by the attached picture. We hope to see Sam, Art and Ryan with us again next week. 

Rachel Sunday and John Marcato presented their craft talks this week. Rachel kicked off the presentations with a typically energized Rachel talk. An LA native, Rachel who never wanted to own a home, changed her mind when husband Aaron took her to see Playa Vista. Our neighbor Rachel is looking for a "store front" for her health insurance business which may end up in MDR. Mother to an 18 year old daughter who will soon be off to nursing school, Rachel is already making her mark in Rotary by chairing the collection of member donated $25 gift cards for BingoFest. Make sure that Rachel gets your card so she can check you off her spreadsheet. In thinking back upon Rachel's talk, only one thing was missing, was something for Rachel to stand on. Our munchkin Rotarian almost disappeared behind the podium.  Playa Venice's newest member, John stepped up to educate us about his personal history. Originally hailing from the Boston area John has deep Rotary roots with his Mom and Grandmother both being pioneer women in Rotary in the 1980's. They followed John's grandfather's lead in joining Rotary. John took a few detours before focusing on computers and IT work as a profession. He own his own company in MDR, so maybe he'll be neighbors with Rachel. As Katie Litsey's "better half," Mike said, our Club is now "way cool" because we have John on board. I think we can expand that and say that Rachel and John will help us stay both "way cool" and productive for years to come. We are fortunate to count them among our membership!

Katie reminded us that we will be sponsoring two students going to Japan this summer. One is from our Interact Club.

Gwen announced that the March 16th Luck O` the Irish BingoFest will feature valet parking this year. Check the website for details and make sure you get your gift card to Rachel. Tom Carson is busy organizing the 3/24 Car Rally, those who form teams early will get the benefit of extra clues. Hint, hint. Pam Wolf advised that Career Day at the hospital has been pushed back until sometime in May, more information to follow. We are also making arrangements to got back to the Midnight Mission to serve another meal to the homeless. More to come. 

Next week is Bring a Friend to Rotary, please make an extended effort to bring a potential member. Your invitee will be a guest of the Club, all you have to do is get them to the meeting. Membership is the lifeblood of Rotary, lets maintain our growth success!

Lisa Schwab advised the Club that the video she did in support of her getting the 2011 Howard Drollinger Award from the chamber of commerce has just "appeared" on You Tube, so we settled in to check out the video. If you want to take a view, go to You Tube and type in "Lisa Schwab" and you'll get great insight into what makes Lisa so very special! 

We have posted Tore Knos'pledge form in support of his up coming Appalachian Trail Hike on our website. If you  can, please help out a great Rotarian. 

Once again, no one pulled the ace of spades in the 50/50 drawing, so $875 carries over to next week.

Thanks to Judith Ciancimino for taking pictures this week.

Save the Date: 

Mar 9 Trip to Camp Pendleton Memorial Garden

Mar 9 District arts, speech, music and dance contest at LMU

Mar 12 District Breakfast

Mar 13 Bring a Friend to Rotary

Mar 16 Luck `O the Irish BingoFest

Mar 23  Ethics Forum at LMU

Mar 24 2nd Annual Car Rally (New date!)

Apr 6 Rotary Day of Service

Apr 13 Family of Rotary breakfast and tour of USS Iowa (just announced)

Apr 26  RYLA

May 2-5 District Conference

May 11 Pancake Breakfast Fire Station 63 (New date!)

May 14 Teacher Eddy Awards

June 28 Demotion Party

Be well.

Yours in Rotary service, 

Tony