Thursday, September 16, 2010

Vol. 65 No. 12 Notes from the Podium



President's Time

This week in America, 7-year old Julie Murphy made headlines in Oregon when officials shut down her lemonade stand. Either she had to obtain a $120 temporary restaurant license or pay a $500 fine. So this little girl learned the hard way that selling something even as simple as a glass of lemonade requires government approval and a tax payment...capitalism in action?

Two Montana teenagers trying to buy some marijuana accidentally texted their request to the Sheriff's office. The Sheriff thought it was a joke when he got a text that said, "Hey Dawg, do you have a $20 I can buy right now?" Rather than arrest them, he took the teens home to their parents. He felt that punishment would be far better and swifter than the judicial system.

SPECIAL OLYMPICS BOWLING will need volunteers on Monday, Wednesday and the following Monday again. If you're free on those days, sign up to help. It's a truly fun and rewarding project.

HALLOWEEN 5TH FRIDAY is coming on October 29th. Our "shared" Exchange Student, Philip will be on hand and in costume. He's expected to come as a German boy. Also invited are the members of the Miami Sundown Rotary Club (his host family) and South Miami Rotary Club (who shares in his upkeep). It will be a great party with many people disguised as RYE students! Make plans to attend.

Drum Roll Please!!! The 7th Annual Rotary Golf Classic Sponsor's list continues to grow. Thanks to Corporate Sponsors; Brandt's Billiard Restoration & Rick Tonkinson & Associates. Tee Sponsors; Chris & Chris Tyson (third hole) and YW Associates. Golf Foursomes - Captains (they pay for one and invite three other players) Chris (himself) Morrison, Bob Schreiber & Wiley Hicks. Individual Golfers; John Wallace. In-Kind Sponsors; Hole-in-One Insurance; Williamson Cadillac; Brochure Design, Vortex Communications. If you haven't heard from Chris yet, get ready. The Golf Classic is scheduled for Thursday, November 4.

We were visited today by Milagros Bello from the Dominican Republic. She came to say a personal thank you to our club for the amazing work we did with Alfalit for literacy in her country. Due to the efforts of our International Committee and Carol Brock, our club partnered with Alfalit Int'l and raised $56,000 to support the pre-school and adult literacy programs in the Dominican Republic. Milagros was accompanied by Roberto Perez, President of Alfalit and Dr. Marcus A. Ramos also from the Dominican Republic. This is just one of the many literacy efforts our club has fostered all over Latin America. Rotary Rocks!


CORAL GABLES EMPLOYEE OF THE MONTH
September, 2010
Sponsored by EWM

Congratulations to Karla Green from the Human Resources Department at the City of Coral Gables. According to her supervisor, Karla goes above and beyond what's expected of her in every job she undertakes. She's the best employee who's worked for her in 11 years of public service. Keep up the good work Karla!



Practical, charming, flirtatious perfectionists describes those born on the cusp of Virgo and Libra. Say Happy Birthday this week to Ana Fournaris on September 18, George Corrigan on September 20 and J. Guarch on September 22.


Celebrating their Rotary Anniversaries this week are Andrew Dixon who has been a member of the club for five years and the incomparable Diva Susan Guttman who has been with us for 11 years. Service with a smile.

Happy $$$

Dr. Randy likes the fact that he can help to Groh Scholarships with Randy Dollars ... but he's a little disappointed at the comments on the blog that say he's crossed the line. He's happy that his plan is working. Maybe we should rename it Bawdy Dollars??? Yoli Woodbridge is happy that now, in addition to playing bingo she's also bowling. She really had a good time at Special Olympics. She also wanted to let us know that she will not be here to monitor our behavior for three weeks. She's off to Europe. Dick Golden commented on the lemonade stand story by saying that he couldn't make any money with his as a kid so he burned it down and collected the insurance. He said his ego is a little bruised because when he was growing up he was home schooled and the teacher kept telling him he was a stupid idiot! But no jokes! Certainly threw Randy a curve...Bill Quesenberry also had a great time at Special Olympics Bowling. It was gratifying to see the elementary school students paired with the Olympians having no problems bowling as a team. He was also not-so-happy to learn that he can't make up during his upcoming trip to Shanghai ... there's only one Rotary Club and it meets on Tuesday when he's on his way to Tibet which has NO Rotary Clubs. Terry Long is happy to be leaving next week with Dr. Randy to photo shoot Africa along with seven other women ... hmmmm. Gloria Burns has three things she was happy about today, 1) Junior Orange Bowl is having an Auction at the Miami Rowing Club next month, please come; 2) Rick Tonkinson was featured in the UM Magazine; 3) She's a Gator and is happy to see that it only took one and a half games for them to learn to play without Tibo. Bruce Kerestes started out on a very sad note with the news that 49-year old Scott Harlin, a friend from Northern Trust, passed away unexpectedly this week. He admonished us all to take advantage of every day and enjoy life to the fullest because you "never know." He was happy because he participated in a seminar recently that was led by a sex therapist and ... well ... Dick Golden was jumping up and down in the back of the room because tonight's the night. `Nuf said. Former Coral Gables Rotarian Michael Baird was visiting us today. He just came in from California, said it was great to be home for awhile, invited us to visit him in LA and said that he always thinks about Chris Morrison because his office is across the street from Stanford. Carol Brock is happy to be back from Tennessee and even happier to see Roberto Perez and the people from the Dominican Republic who were involved in our project with Alfalit. Chris Tyson forgot what he wanted to say so Randy gave him his money back. Bill Beckham invited us to the upcoming Share the Vision luncheon for Lighthouse for the Blind at LaGorce Country Club on October 5. He's got a Rotary Table. Anyone who'd like to come is welcome, just contact him. Chris Tyson returned his $5 to Randy because he remembered that he wanted to invite us to play golf on the third tee - in his backyard. Keep smiling. Happiness pays.

Working Rotarians - September 16, 2010

Greeters - Rolf Frankfurter & Rodney Langer
Registration - Debbie Swain
Collections - Abe Horowitz
Head Table - John Wallace
Special Needs - Chris Morrison
Invocation - Keith Phillips
Pledge - Pastor Perry
Singers - Bill Quesenberry & Dan Scipione
DeWitt Law Silver Dollars - Mr. Everything Scipione
Given to - Chris Morrison & Dick Golden
Pin Drawing Gift - Dan Scipione
Pin Drawing Winner - Gene Witherspoon
50/50 Raffle - Gloria Burns
50/50 Winner - Ramon Ferrer by proxy
5-Way Test - Debbie Swain

Thought for the Week
by Tom Dixon



"The greatest things in life are not things."

Stella Kugler




TODAY'S PROGRAM
Anders Gylenhaal, Executive Editor
The Miami Herald
“The Future of Print Media”

The face of the news media has changed over the last ten years. The Internet as a source has had the greatest success, while news on commercial radio has nearly disappeared. The Herald newspaper had 1.5 million readers 10 years ago. While circulation (the number of papers) has decreased significantly over the years, the number of readers decreased only slightly to 1.4 million. Except now, six million people read The Herald on the Internet, and more than 350,000 hear The Herald on WLRN radio everyday, or through mobile news. Web TV is the second largest driver on The Herald’s website. In other words, six times more people access The Herald than ever before. They have also partnered with community news sources, like Coral Gables @ Home.

Mr. Gylenhaal explained the role of newspapers when there is so much coverage on a developing story by the video media, like the earthquake in Haiti. Within hours, a Herald reporter was in Haiti, and because she had covered Haiti for years, and had established relationships, she was able to reach President PrĂ©val, determined he had survived the collapse of the Palace and broke the story. The Herald used social media to provide news updates, and to set up “Haiti Connect” to help people find their missing family members

Though it's role and focus may be different, he predicted that the printed newspaper will be around for a long time.

NEXT WEEK'S PROGRAM: District Governor Doug Maymon, "Rotary Goals for 2010-2011"

Scene Scenes












See you next week!

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