Rotary Club of Santa Monica

Prior Meetings

May - June 2003

Back By Popular Demand! On 6/20/03 Andreas Rothe, former Director of Conservation, Getty Museum was our speaker.
	Andreas (left) shown with one of Santa Monica's finest attorneys our own George Collins.
New members were inducted!
Left to right: Pres. Elect Dee Menzies, new member Susan Hartenbaum, Monika White, new member Mary Matthews, new member Brenda Katz and PP John Bohn.

At our lunch meeting on 6/13/03 we celebrated birthdays, we celebrated Father's Day, and we were honored to have as our guest speaker world renowned comedian and "Tonight Show" host Bobby Kelton.
	President Bill (right) helps proud papa Alonzo Hill celebrate Fathers' Day with his ten month old child Hayden. (Web Master's comment " I have learned that if you take a hundred pictures or so that one or two turn out perfect, well this is the one!)
Thank You Bobby and thank you Dave!
Our guest speaker Bobby Kelton (Left) is shown with VP Dave Rimer. Bobby about brought down the house with his great sense of humor. Ask Dave to tell you the golf joke that Bobby told about the three golfers teeing off on "Riviera's" first hole.

Dr. Gerald S. Levey - Dean, School of Medicine UCLA was introduced by Dr. Dick Rice (right) on 6/6/03. Dr. Levey explained what a world class Hospital the Community has at UCLA. He also gave us sobering reasons why he feels that the U.S. Health System is broken.

Dr. Matt Dinolfo was our speaker on 5/30/03. We also honored our Paul Harris Fellows.
Matt, who is one of Santa Monica's finest Physicians, gave us an interesting talk about what it takes to run for Santa Monica City Council. He worked virtually every evening that he had in August through November on his campaign. Although Matt lost his bid for Office, he would strongly recommend the experience to anyone interested in serving the public.
	Chair Marv Levin (right) gives PP Nat Charnley special recognition for multiple Paul Harris Fellowships. (By the way our camera crew was very happy because we believe that this is the first time we got a picture of Nat to run on the Web).
Bon Gabriel (left) is shown receiving a Paul Harris Fellowship from Committee member Phil Tirone in the name of his wife.
	New member Oded Wolf (left) and Ken Mirch are shown receiving recognition for their Paul Harris Fellowships. (Another first, we finally got a picture of Ken to run on the Web)

Our speakers for lunch on May 16, 2003 were "Craft Talkers" Alan Glick and Oded Wolf. In President Bill Crookston's absence VP Tom Loo did an excellent job of running the meeting. Tom kept great control of the meeting by warning everyone that they would be fined $100 for each verse of "Home on the Range" that they sang.
Alan Glick starring as the "The Incredible Hulk"	Alan is originally from Boston. After graduating from Northwestern University, he got sick of the 18 degree weather and came to Santa Monica in about 1974. Alan is a Vice President and Assistant Manager of the Sherman Oaks office of Smith Barney. He is an Alumni and past president of the Santa Monica Jaycees. Most importantly Alan is married to Vala and has 3 children. By the way did all of next years Directors looking for "Chairs" hear that Alan is "addicted to volunteerism". Welcome Alan!
Birthdays Were Celebrated!
New member Brenda Katz shown with "Everybody has a story" Steve Alexis
	Oded and his family immigrated to the U.S. from Israel in the early 70’s. He attended Birmingham High School in the San Fernando Valley. After finishing high school he returned to Israel and served with the Israeli Army for three and one half years. Following his stint in the army, he came back to the U.S. and started to work in his family’s diamond importing business, where he now serves as President of the Company. He tells us that in this business, he must wear many hats such as marketing and sales, psychologist, and banker. Oded’s belief in Rotary is so great that he has the “4 Way Test” printed on the back of his business cards. Welcome Oded!

Cynthia Stringfield, D.V.M. - The Veterinarian for the Los Angeles Zoo was our speaker on 5/2/03.

Harmon Sieff brought his lovely daughter Julia to hear Cynthia speak. Cynthia talked about all of the new enhancements to the Los Angeles Zoo. She also told us a funny story about when "Evelyn" an LA Zoo gorilla escaped. Evelyn was finally caught after milling around with the Zoo's visitors. The funny thing was that most of the visitors thought that the escaped gorrilla was part of a show put on by the zoo.	Dr. Dave Rimer is now in charge.
	Our President Bill Crookston was nowhere to be seen for this meeting. Rumor has it that he was representing our club at the annual District conference. Anyway "You will only feel a little pressure" Dr. Dave, our V.P. in charge of Programs, led the meeting. Dave gets 5 Rotary Star rating for running a great meeting. He only lost control of the meeting 3 or 4 times when the crowd broke out with the singing of "Home on the Range".