We started off with a lunch of salad, rolls, mashed potatoes, meatloaf and fruit. President Scott Dowds called the meeting to order at 12:30 p.m. New Member Mike Reynolds gave the invocation . Steve Schwartz (soon to be residing in Hawaii) led us in the pledge of allegiance, and Songmaster Kim Barlow had us singing God Bless America and a round of Smile.

Jim Womak then introduced the visiting Rotarians and guests: Daniel Kang’s guest, Kevin Choi ; Zoot Velasco’s guest, Alice Tokunagh, who is currently an intern at the Muck; Julie Anderson’s guest, Jermie Sulit; Marilyn Richards’ guest, Matthew Reeksin; Rick Crane’s guest, Al Zelinka; Louis Kuntz’s guest, his wife Barbara; Ray Hanson’s guest, Dwight Peterson; Bill Goetsch's guest, his wife Berta, and Visiting Rotarian, Mike Giangrande, from Brea Rotary Club.

Announcements: A Reminder about the Collage Concert March 24th, where there will be over 200 musicans providing for our enjoyment, including featured performer Bill Kunliff. There is a 6:00 p.m. reception preceding the musical performances.

Thad Sandford		Mike Reynolds
Our Newest Rotarians

President Scott then announced we have two new inductions: Mike Reynolds, inducted by his Sponsor Scott Dowds; and Thad Sanford inducted by his Sponsor Bob Muschek. Both Gentlemen made very kind comments about the Club and its members and were given a standing ovation.

Because of the program today, there was no Finemaster. However, Scott asked Bill Mathy to rise and asked about his annual Superbowl Party. A show of hands of those who attended was requested. Scott mentioned there were complaints about no monitor in the bathroom, and requested that Bill please handle that for next year. All those in attendance were fined $1. Louis Kuntz reminded us that it is his 55th anniversary and that’s why his wife Barbara was with us today. Dan Kiernan announced his 49th anniversary tomorrow. Allyn Lean commented on the eloquent dissertation regarding the concert, asked Winston Creel to identify himself to get tickets and take members money and suggested that anyone interested in being a sponsor see Bill Heaton or Allyn or Winston Creel.

Zoot Velasco came up for the Trivia question. The winner was Jim Blake. Dr. Jones was requested to assist. In the category of weird politics: Jim correctly answered that the following government decision is fake: Virginia prosecuted a minor for photoshopping the state flag on dirty picture.

Program:

Bob Muscheck introduced today’s speaker, Arnold Kunst, author of Lincoln 365, to give us a talk entitled “The Wit and Wisdom of Abe Lincoln.”

Arnold began by reminding us of the difficulty of running a business in today’s economy and how difficult it is to tell employees they have to work harder for less. He believes that we can make such conversations easier if we use Honest Abe’s techniques.

Program (continued)

Some examples of Lincoln’s famous wit:

The President and Secretary of State Seward, are out walking one day. Seward points to sign on a building and reads it out loud: “T.R. Strong” Abe says, “Well maybe, but coffee are stronger.”

Senator Sumner sees the President polishing boots in the White House, and asks, “Mr. President, You polish your own boots” Abe responds, “Well whose boots did you think I polished?”

Arnold says that wit is “brain candy,” that one gets right away. However, you need more to affect the kind of tough conversation we have to have these days. He talked about how teachers taught us the times tables using a stategy called “spaced repetition” which helps you learn something a little bit at a time.

He then focused on the Lincoln/Douglas campaign for Senate in 1858. Steven Douglas, was the Democratic party head in the Senate; and later Democratic candidate for President.

People came to the debates from far and wide. Everyone would be milling around chatting, and the time to start the debates would come and pass. Lincoln’s idea to get the crowd’s attention was to tell a joke – a fairly long joke, 3-4 minutes, and this quieted people down. He got everyone to pay attention, which is a good example of leadership versus management. You can’t just get someone’s attention, you have to sustain it. He enticed cooperation, and sustained it right to the end.

Arnold emphasized that getting the crowd to settle down was “not part of Abe’s job description,” but sometimes the big boss has to sweep the floor, or stock the shelves. André Gide said, “'Everything worth saying has already been said, but since no one was listening it is necessary to repeat it.' “That’s not my job” could cost you – everything is in your job description. You are your employee’s leader. “The price of greatness is responsibility.” Winston Churchill. How you get it across to your employees is to tell a story. Abe Lincoln is the best story teller this country has ever produced.

During one of the debates, Douglas accused Lincoln of being two-faced. Lincoln responded, “Well I’ll leave it to you my friends to decide if I had a face different to the one you see in front of you, don’t you think I’d be wearing it?” He deflected the attack, and defused its power without attacking the speaker. People don’t know how to deflect, how to use humor instead of going for the jugular. The result is that attacks cost efficiency.

At another point in the Lincoln/Douglas Debates, in response to a line of reasoning of Douglas, Lincoln said, “That is but a specious and fantastic arrangement of words by which a man proves a horse chestnut to be a chestnut horse. “ And another example, “Hasn’t it had got down about as thin as a homeopathic soup made from the shadow of a pigeon who died of starvation?” Yet another: “How many legs does a dog have if you count the tail a leg? Four, because counting the tail a leg doesn’t make it one.”

At the end of that election, the good news was Lincoln got elected by 4000 votes. The bad news is that Douglas was returned to the Senate, because at that time, one was elected to the Senate indirectly, and Douglas was selected by the Democratic Legislature.

Lincoln was disappointed of course, but his response when asked about his feeling about the election, “I felt like the boy who stubbed his toe rather badly. It hurts too much to laugh and he’s too big to cry.”

Arnold pointed out that we all lose sometimes, but that doesn’t make us a loser. If one’s mindset is validated self-pity, then one is a loser. It’s saying yes to a version of no, and this excludes every version of yes including success. Success is a form of yes. People need you to tell them stories to be effective, so spend your time at the feet of the master, Abe Lincoln.

Arnold closed with a story about the postal inspector. Lincoln was plagued with job seekers his entire presidency,and they would suddenly appear from behind a bush. One day, a man said to him, “Mr. Lincoln, the postal inspector just died. Can I take his place?” Lincoln responded: Well it’s alright with me, if it’s okay with the undertaker.”

Scott Dowds presented Arnold with the now classic ceramic pig

President Scott closed the meeting with a thanks to those who participated and acknowledgement of our guests. He closed the meeting at 1:30 with this thought for the day, from the Twelve Unbreakable Laws of Leadership. “Great business leadership is characterized by honesty, truthfulness, and straight dealings with every person under all circumstances.”