Rotary Club of Santa Monica

"COLOR YOUR LIFE WITH ROTARY"

Rota-Monica

 

ISSUE NO. 17                                NOVEMBER 3, 2000                               OUR 79th  YEAR

http://RotaryClubofSantaMonica.org

 

A BIG IDEA FOR BUILDING CHARACTER 

          Can character be built into kids? Many educators say, “character is caught, not taught”. In this club, many of us think we’ve helped a bit in building character – partly by setting examples, partly by activities we’ve caused to happen in schools, churches, youth agencies. Likewise, many parents in the club think they’ve played the key role in building their own youngsters’ characters by raising them well. 

            Michael Josephson has another big idea about building character. He formed his idea gradually during twenty years as a businessman and UCLA law professor. Then he decided to concentrate his life on promoting his theory as a public service, without pay. In 1985 he sold the legal publishing company and bar-exam preparation chain he had founded, and organized the Josephson Institute of Ethics, based in Marina del Rey. 

His idea struck fire. He and his institute have been featured on eight national TV shows for ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN and C-SPAN. He has been profiled in Time, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, the Christian Science Monitor and other national publications. He himself speaks daily on KNX news radio. “Character Counts” is his theme, by which he means basically ethics training. President Reagan presented him an award in recognition of his work in helping young people live safe and useful lives. 

Corporations have sought his advice. He has served as a consultant to Bank of America, Goodyear, State Farm, Union Pacific and even the U. S. Internal Revenue Service. 

What is Michael Josephson’s big idea about building character? What does he do to make it work? How does he help others put it into practice? He’ll tell us this Friday.

COMING ATTRACTIONS

 

November 7 – (Tuesday) Rotary Golf Tournament, Sterling Hills

November 10 – Richard D. Sawyer, Flying Fortress engineer-gunner – John Lehne, chairman

November 17 – Big Game Day, UCLA/USC – Bob Klein, chairman

November 24 – DARK (Thanksgiving)

December 1 – Janie Jones: show tunes

December 8 – club elections

December 15 – Christmas party

 

DID YOU SEE THESE? 

                Excerpts from material you’ll want to read in the current (October) issue of THE ROTARIAN magazine: 

The night Willie Jones died he was abducted from a local bowling alley, and beaten and stabbed to death in a wooded area.

… page 24                           

 “This program really helps us apply what we do in the classroom to our daily life,” says Ryan Hubbard, a high school senior. “Rotarians taught us about aspects other than what you see on TV.”

… page 45                           

 

… page 46                           

 “I have appointed a Jobs for Disabled Persons Task Force. Its goal is to encourage at least 1,000 Rotary clubs to facilitate and provide job opportunities for people with disabilities.” Message from R.I. President Frank Devlyn.

… page 47                           

 

… page 48                           

 In 1997 the Rotary Club of Norfolk, Virginia, adopted oyster restoration in Chesapeake Bay as their primary community service project. It raised funds for five oyster reef sanctuaries. Rotarians are considering a bumper sticker that reads, “I shelled out for oysters.”

… page 49                           

In the past, Rotarians were hesitant to publicize their humanitarian efforts because they did not want to be perceived as self-serving. But times have changed. R.I. President Frank lists public relations as an essential priority . . . Rotary International offers numerous tools to support your public relations efforts.  

… page 51                           

A team of 92 volunteers paid for their own airfare, and treated 2842 patients at makeshift clinics in the Philippines . . . local people began lining up hours before the clinics opened each day. Many of them walked great distances, and had not eaten for some time.                      

… page 52                            

 

… page 54                           

 R.I.’s Faxback access number has been changed to 800/510-8726. Faxback is an automatic system to request and receive Rotary information.                                                        … page 4

 

CORRECTION:  Dr. Louis Koster’s web site is WWW s-h-d.org       

               

REFUGEE FROM NEW ENGLAND

 

(One of a series on our new members) 

            Barry E. Bouley seemed set for life. He had worked up in sixteen years from trainee through manager of three smaller offices to become boss of the biggest of 26 branches of Guaranty Bank & Trust, one of New England’s larger financial institutions. He supervised 25 employees in five offices. 

            Then his career prospects darkened. Guaranty was merged into the even bigger Bank of New England. Barry became a “hub manager” instead of an “area manager”. 

            “If I wanted to be just one of twenty thousand employees I would have stayed in the Navy,” he confided to a friend. He stuck with Bank of New England for almost three years, then quit. He had no other position in sight. 

            Among cautious New Englanders, walking out on a job isn’t considered prudent. However, Barry heard from friends that he could quickly find a banking position in Southern California as soon as he was in the area. 

            In fact, there was already a good prospect that he could join Union Bank’s headquarters in downtown Los Angeles. Downtown was the place to work, he thought. In September 1989 he moved to Redondo Beach. 

            Once settled there, he drove in to Union Bank for an interview. The drive, which he’d estimated at about a half-hour, took 90 minutes. Suddenly he no longer felt eager to work in downtown L.A. He postponed committing to Union, and cast around for other possibilities. 

            He answered a blind ad from a headhunting firm. The firm was seeking someone to develop new business for Santa Monica Bank. Hearing from friends that the bank had a high reputation, he went in for an interview with the late Joe Walling in December 1989. Joe hired him as a business development officer. He went to work in the bank’s Pico office. 

            Barry proved persuasive in bringing borrowers into the bank, despite being a stranger in the area. He increased loan totals by 65%. After the reshuffling of recent years, he is now vice president of First Regional Bank at Fifth & Santa Monica.

            Among bankers he has a reputation for boldness. Years ago he caused a stir by lending to an electric contractor who was headed straight for bankruptcy, according to others in the business. “Too much competition in that field,” was the accepted wisdom. Barry knew the borrower only casually, through brief encounters for cashing checks, but an instinct told him the loan would be sound. He was right. His customer eventually became known as one of the largest in the business. 

            Although new to our club, Barry is no stranger to Rotary. He was a member of the Auburn and Worcester clubs in Massachusetts. We’re happy to welcome him to our club.