Rotary Club of Santa Monica

"2001/2002 - A Rotary Odyssey"

Rota-Monica

HE SWITCHED FROM CRIME TO CARTOONS 

            Joshua C. Needle of Santa Monica was a well-known criminal lawyer for 23 years.  Television stations KCOP and KCAL put him on the air to discuss his views on the O.J. Simpson murder trial and other big courtroom fights. 

            But then in 1999 he decided to become an art dealer instead.  He opened a retail art gallery at 2665 Main Street in Santa Monica. 

            His gallery is the only one of its kind.  It specializes in collectible art by newspaper and magazine cartoonists.  Needle gave his enterprise a provocative name, Impolitic, and advertised it as “a gallery of opinionated art.”  It features rare, museum-quality originals of published drawings by 20 Pulitzer Prize winners (including such names as Paul Conrad, Rollin Kirby, Jules Feiffer and “Herblock.”) 

            Needle is now the chair of the Main Street Merchants Association, which would suggest that his gallery is thriving.  No doubt there are plenty of customers who want an original drawing by a big-name cartoonist, either to hang in their home or give to a friend.  As our speaker this Friday, Needle may tell us the answer to a question that isn’t even mentioned in the promotion material he provides: How does he induce all those artists in New York, Washington and elsewhere to send him the originals of so many of their published drawings? 

            We may also expect that he’ll tell inside stories from his years of battling in the courts – not only in criminal cases but also medical malpractice, government misconduct and others down to a defense of one client charged with “Riding a bicycle under the influence.”  It should be an entertaining talk.  Bring friends!

THESE CLUBS MADE BIG GAINS IN MEMBERSHIP

            According to the December issue of The Rotarian, Rotary lost a net 42,000 members, or four percent of its total, from 1997 to July 2001.  Europe and Africa were the only regions to gain members during that time mainly because new clubs formed there.  The national and international leaders of Rotary have been keenly aware of the problem, and are working to solve it through our Global Quest for new members.  One of the Quest’s actions has been to start a three-year pilot project called New Models for Rotary Clubs, in which 191 clubs in nine countries experiment with “substantially different” ways of operating.  Thirty-five specially trained Rotarians are monitoring this experiment for the RI board of directors.   

            One example is “Greensburg Cocktail Club,” as it’s called, which meets at a discotheque in Greensburg, Pennsylvania.  Meetings begin when people drift in after work, usually around 5:30, and end just as informally soon after 6.

             This club is planned to appeal to younger professionals who may not be attuned to “traditional” Rotary ways.  Yet, the members are enthused about the Rotary ideal of “Service Above Self.”  The club’s first project is to enroll low-income families into the state’s public health insurance for children. 

            The club was organized early in 2001 as a “provisional” club with a dozen participants.  But within three months it had 16 active members, and soon reached the 20-member minimum required for a charter.  You can read about in on pages 26-27 of the current issue of our magazine. 

            On page 28 you can read about 24-year old Ton Litvinchyk, who joined Rotary three years ago when she moved to the small community of Bar Harbor, Maine.  At a Chamber of Commerce meeting, someone asked if she’d like to go to a Rotary meeting.  She did, and learned that the average age of Bar Harbor Rotarians was 67.  “Some members said I wouldn’t last – that I would stay for only three or four months,” she recalls.  “But when I found out what Rotary did, I was amazed.  Then I learned that was much more to do on the district level.”  She took on membership development as a special project, and has brought in numerous young members.  “Don’t just ask them to come to your weekly meeting,” she advises.  “Invite them to help with a project.” 

            Other pages of the magazine feature Andrei Danilenko, age 34, past president of the Rotary Club of Moscow-Rossica, Russia; Angela Samse, who joined Rotary at 29 in Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin, became club president nine years later, and district governor after another four years, meanwhile helping recruit dozens of new members; and Richard Flanders, born and raised in Indonesia, who moved to San Ramon Valley, California and joined Rotary there when he was 29 and became club president at 36. 

            On page 10 of the magazine you can read how a Louisiana club added 60 new members in one Rotary year; one page 11, how a small club started a high school mentoring program.  Four years later, every Rotarian in the club is a mentor, and the club has more than doubled in size.  The same page tells of a club that has grown steadily since each member agreed to host a homeless person for a four-day Thanksgiving weekend, and how another club tripled in membership after it organized teams of Rotarians who “adopted” nursing home residents. 

            The combined effect of the new activities has been to increase Rotary International’s total membership by 20,000 during the first two months of the current Rotary year.

             Obviously our organization is mounting widespread campaigns for younger members, and seeing the results in local membership figures.  The magazine will be telling us about more such efforts in the months ahead.

ROTARIANS HONORED AND TAXED $1205

             Taxes assessed through December 14:  $14,716

             Evidently our “Tax Man” Hal has done his financial planning for our club.  It’s the end of the calendar year, so why shouldn’t he?  No one could have assembled a “finer” group of Rotarians to recognize at our festive final meeting of 2001.  Here they are:

             John Bohn, Spyros Dellaportas, Allan Young, Steve Litvack: $100 each.  They attended and supported the Lions Club pancake breakfast, but didn’t wear their Rotary pins.

             Larry Maher, our web site master, paid a well deserved $125 as the “All-Around Good Guy” at our golf tournament.

             Paul Gaulke $100 because he lit up and provided Christmas joy with his electronic and musical socks.  Thanks again, Paul, for the “fine” programs last year.

             Carol Jackson $100 for representing our club in Hawaii on December 7.

             Reverend Bill Wood was thanked by President Hal for conducting a peace vigil, with 600 people attending, on September 16.  As Hal suggested, Bill made an offering of $100 to Rotary. 

            Con Oyler’s daughter Caitlin scored a league-high total of nine goals in her soccer league.  Congratulations, Caitlin, for bringing such honor to your dad.  A tax of $180 was just “fine”. 

            Dick Lawrence, one of Santa Monica’s noted spark plugs, was taxed $100 more or less on general principles, because of his continuing community service through his bank and elsewhere. 

            Bob Klein also paid $100 for noble deeds that somehow went unrecorded.

                                                                                                      -- Lionel Ruhman 

 THREE BIG FRIDAYS AHEAD

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