ISSUE NO. 13 October 5, 2001 OUR 80th YEAR
www.RotaryClubofSantaMonica.org
Do you have disagreements with people close to you? Do you feel that they sometimes misunderstand you?
In business, do you run into rough spots with customers or associates? Would you like to make transactions run more smoothly?
Help or advice with such problems is the specialty of our speaker at Rotary this Friday, Bond Wright. “Transactional analyst” is her phrase for the kind of helper she is. For the past twenty years, from her office in West Los Angeles, she has carried on a private practice as adviser to people who seek counsel in personal or professional relationships.
She trained at the Santa Monica Therapy Center, at Family Study Center in Burbank, and at Pepperdine University. To become expect in legal aspects of coping with disagreements, she took a “mediation” program offered by the county Bar Association.
The topic of her talk to us is “Using Mediation in Personal and Business Relationships.”
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Saturday, October 6 - District Paul Harris Dinner |
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Friday, October 12 - Suzanne Wilton, Architect - SM Hospital/UCLA Center |
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Friday, October 19 - Kara Knack, Communications Officer, Griffith Observatory |
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Thursday, October 25 - Rotary Golf, Tierra Rehada, Moorpark |
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Friday, October 26 - Rotary at the YMCA |
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Sunday, October 28 - New members party, Tom Loo’s home 3939 Villa Costera |
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Friday, November 2 - Rotary Governor, Len Wasserstein |
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Friday, November 9 - Veterans Day - Jack Siegal, Chairman |
Charles Christensen (one of our new Rotarians) was taxed $125 and honored as our outstanding swing dancer. His fleeting feet were all over the floor during his demonstration at our September 14 meeting. Charles, did you notice all the wallflowers studying you from the sidelines? It reminded me of my high school days. As Yogi Berra said, “You can observe a lot by watching.”
Bill Fritzsche, Lorraine Jossel and Rosemary Regalbuto were taxed $50 each for badge confusion. They might have known that an accountant like President Hal would sweat small stuff like proper identification.
Alonzo Hill was taxed $125 for doing his brotherly duty. He went to Istanbul, Turkey, to meet his newly married sister’s new family and in-laws. A fine deed for a brother. Rotarians send our best wishes to your sister and husband.
Bill Crookston was honored, recognized and taxed $50 for something so notable that I forgot what it was. So congratulations, Bill, for whatever -- maybe steering Rotaract to its expansion.
Bill Aspinwall was recognized for taking his family on a vacation to New York in August. That’s what I call “making good memories.” Keep it up Bill, it’s well worth the $125 tax.
Congratulations to Schiller and Medora Colberg on their 61st wedding anniversary. To celebrate, they cruised the Mediterranean with their family. The Colbergs truly are an inspiration, and one behalf of the club we thank them for their friendship. We suggest they have Kent pay the $125 anniversary tax.
Our vice-president in charge of programs, George Collins, was fined $125 for disturbing the peace of President Hal. George sent one e-mail too many regarding the pronunciation of our Italian speaker’s name. Like a program chairman, George always want everything to be smooth and near perfect. No kidding, George, everyone admires that job you’re doing.
Lionel Ruhman
As the official club historian (and sometime unofficial club nag) I take pen in hand again to remind members that we are a Service Club, not a group of solicitees. This past week I received in the mail a solicitation from a noted (and worthy) westside institution. The envelopes was addressed to “William B. Fritzsche P.P.” The P.P. could only stand for Past President and undoubtedly came from one of our club rosters.
We have had a policy for as long as I can remember of NOT using our club rosters for solicitations. If it were otherwise we would be inundated, and the true purpose of our club diminished. I remind all members to quietly adhere to this policy for the benefit of all.
Bill Fritzsche
We had eleven guests at our September 21 meeting. Con Oyler brought Soheila Omrani; Jim Haljun brought R.J. Smith; Harmon Sieff brought EArl Siegel and Matt Jodziewica; Jack Gregory brought Sheer Raetz; Hal Quigley brought his wife Kai-Li; George Collins brought has assistant Janet DeRose and Gina DeRose. Guests of the club were Vivian Rivas, Nick Cowan and Eva A. Brodell.
(One of a series about new members of our club)
Michael Rosenthal’s company called Instant Replay is likely to videotape you when you’re shopping at Gelson’s market, or travelling via American Airlines. It also may snap a photo if you drop in for a friendly chat at the Federal Reserve Bank in this area.
Why? Because the company is in the “video security” business, as Mike calls it. It contracts to provide pictures of visitors at its clients’ premises. Such pictures may occasionally be needed for security purposes.
Mike’s father Carl started the enterprise - America’s first of its kind, probably - in l965. He asked Mike to help run it after graduating from Cal State University at Chico in 1977. As salesman (and boss after his father retired in 1981) Mike gradually built up the business, pulling in major clients and enlarging the staff. Instant Replay now has about fifty employees, directed from its Marina del Rey office on Beach Avenue.
Selling the idea wasn’t easy in the eighties when security wasn’t a big concern. “ I read a lot of publications, to know what was gong on,” Mike recalls. “Then I’d target a company and go after it. Usually the company’s answer was no on my first couple of visits. Federal Reserve said no until my fourth try.”
In 1999, when the Evening Outlook’s demise shut off the town’s major medium for news and advertising, Mike encountered a different kind of opportunity. Peggy Clifford, Santa Monica activist and writer, wanted to start a local weekly newspaper, and invited Mike to take charge. After two weeks of investigation he agreed to create the Santa Monica Mirror.
Today each issue of the newspaper, assembled in the same office that runs Instant Reply, consists of 24 full-size pages with color as well as black-and-white photos, clusters of advertisements on almost every page, and extensive coverage of local news including school sports, movie theaters and important incidents. (It ran more than a thousand words of obituary information on the three Santa Monicans killed in the September 11 hijackings.)
Four hundred local business establishments stack Mirrors inside their entrances each week. About 15,000 people pick them up, paying nothing. “Our income is from advertisers, not readers,” Mike explains. The Mirror would appear to be thriving, for its lists a staff of about two dozen.
Mike and his wife Laurie Cohn Rosenthal expect their first son this month. They live in Pacific Palisades.