President Tom opened the meeting and invited a very patriotically attired Vern Andrews to lead us in the Flag Salute.  The Howard Wood Singers led us in the Rotary “Welcome Song” and “Smile.”  Craig Walker thanked God for the food, family, friends, Rotary and for the partisan referee who made the wonderful call for basketball that led LA to win over that cursed “Chicago” team.  Boston must no longer be in competition.

Pat Frank Introduced:
Joe Lins – Son Jeremy just graduated from Servite
Diane Masseth-Jones – Nancy Hoan Le and Stella Kim who are responsible for the screening program for YWCA.
Jim Williams – Sally Williams, co-chair of decorating committee helping to set up the celebration for the demise of Tom Meyer
Dean Stockwell – Lovely bride Jeanne
Blake Smith – Lovely wife Irene

Announcements:

• Boston Cubs will be winning world series this year per President Tom
• Finance Committee met for the club yesterday – Tom announcing in lieu of Chief Pat,(who was at the Los Angeles Angels game) that our dues will increase to $20 a week from $16.  It has been four years since we have done this and given the rising cost of food, necessary.  The increase will be effective July 1st.
• Randy McFarland has a full house for Monday on the Hosted Hospitality gathering and appreciates everyone’s help.  You may still join them on the tours of the Arboretum and Performing Arts Center though.
• July 16th is a Good Humor Day.  Those not telling jokes will be judging.
• Terri Grassi announced the demise (assassination after the dues announcement) of President Tom in two weeks.  Please sign up and see you at Wyndham hotel on the 25th.  You may email or call Terri to RSVP as well.
• Jimmy Williams gave us 3 risk management tips for parking lot

A)  Use lights
B)  Use turn signal
C)  Use horn, speed and don’t hit posts (people are okay)
He then went on to blatantly advertise Williams Insurance and somehow escaped fine free.

• Bill Peloquin honored Joyce Capelle for her work as Assistant Governor for District!
• The Foundation is averaging $136 per member in donations to date and Allyn Lean wants to get to $200.  Keep it coming!  Cycle it in by July 1st if you haven’t already paid!  Thanks.
• Mike Oates gave us a brief (for Mike) overview of special project handicapped van for our sister club in Korea with pictorial history of our visits over there.  They have asked that we become a sister club for another 4 years and indicated an interest in doing a joint project on this side of the Pacific in that time.

Randy McFarland Finemaster:

Jim Young has been so honored in past he was hit with another $70 at the privilege.  Bill Schenk was honored for being finemaster 3 times in the amount of $30.  Commodore Daybell was fined in a punitive action for his past actions against Finemaster Randy in the amount of $100.  Wolfe Knabe fined for a not practicing personally on the tower in the back of his office, and I was fined for Jim Thompson’s self inflicted wound.

Frank Kawase  - Spouse birthday for Joan
Mitch Hovey – 54th birthday
Bill Peloquin – 70th birthday
Dan Fisk – 15th of June wedding anniversary for 1 year - $2
Ray Hanson – 80th birthday

Recognitions - continued:

Ray Ashcroft – District newsletter article for $85 on the 85th anniversary.  Terri Grassi happily paid as Finemaster Randy recognized her daughter’s graduation from Graduate School!

Then he tried to waive all fines by having the injured parties take a chance on finishing thoughts and words of wisdom.  Frank Kawase, Mitch Hovey, Ray Hanson and Jim Young couldn’t sit down fast enough to get their fines waived and they also had to pick up all the fines assessed over the history of the Club, totaling $13,298,575.99.  The check will be in the mail twice as quickly as….

Wally Swatkowski had the winning raffle ticket and won!  There really was a joker in that deck!  President Tom, we all apologize for thinking you had failed the 4 Way Test!

Bill Klinghofer introduced the two craft talks today.  They were presented to us by Kimberly Nguyen and Dean Stockwell.

Kimberly Nguyen opened with a wonderful picture of her parents.  Her family is from North Vietnam and had to move to escape to the South.  They settled in Saigon.  She migrated to the US on April 29th at the age of seven.  They left on a Naval ship and luckily landed in the US.  Father’s first job was as custodian at local hospital and Mom worked in Carl’s Junior.  Her brother translated for her Mom on her first day on the job.  On their first day of school her mom said that they had to work hard and set a great example.  At 23 she graduated from USC dental school.  Parents both had their own businesses.  Older brother had a medical degree and younger was undergrad at USC.  Loves traveling and Rotary helped her see Europe.    At 25 she was in $200,000 in debt from school and starting her first business.  Now she has two facilities, one for children and one for adults.  In 2002 she returned to Vietnam for the first time to discover her roots where grandparents lived and Kimberly’s Father was born.  Kimberly loves to travel the world and it was evidenced by her wonderful slides.

Dean Stockwell, aided by Jimmy Williams introduced us to his life.  (By the way, Frank Kawase pushed his wife Joan out of a plane for her birthday.)  Dean does the signage for Ralph’s Grocers, but his most interesting job included Miller Brewing and Coca-Cola.  They designed and manufactured pub mirrors for the two international companies and he got to do the graphics for San Francisco’s trolley cars.  They were decorated by Dean to replicate hand painting.  Started while in school for Alpha Beta.  He was given a choice to join union or be fired.  He was fired as he did not want to have to pay to work!  So he went back to the main office and was hired back for their sign department.  He started freelancing for different companies an decided to incorporate into a formal business in 1987.  He was married at 20 and bought his first house in Norwalk, 1970 with a housing cost of $13,000.  First car was VW Bus which led him to develop a love of cars, planes and railroads.  Dean teaches Sunday School for 1st, 2nd and 3rd graders and also sings with his wife Jeanie at the church.  Jeanie is interesting character as well.  When you next see her ask about winning the Mullet Toss.  He was gifted with an opportunity to drive a Nascar 145 miles per hour and fly a Fighter plane over the ocean.   He has a collection including a K27 steam locomotive like found in Knott’s Berry Farm.  He met Jeanie via the internet at “Love on AOL” and he actually got a response from her.  He took her to Summit House and was about as nervous as he is today facing all of us.  They were married 8 months later, 7 years ago. 

Favorite Movie – “Emperor of the North”
Most Influential Person – Dwight Eisenhower who seems to be a real man

Next week we will be entertained by Sunrise Ballet Company.

President Tom’s closing thought:

“To be honest, I am not much of a public speaker so I will try to be this short as long as I can.”  Yogi Berra