The Meeting

Cudo’s all around for the Wellness Day in El Segundo, especially for Sammy and for Jack.  Great job by both of you and thank you very much for your leadership.

Guests:  Sammy introduced a local Hypnosis guy by the name of Tyrone Dawkins as a prospective member.  Steve Goldsmith from Hawthorne Club was here as the program.  Tom told a joke at my expense.  It was about me stealing chocolate bars from Whole Foods.  It was funny.  Shirley and Ken had an anniversary and she has been married 32 years.   Elyse got fined for having had a nice vacation in Italy, enjoying Rome, Tuscany, Venice.  She did not attend any Rotary Meetings.  Dave Reiman was fined for not turning in receipts for the holiday party last December.  Joe got fined by Tom.  Sheila is in charge of the July 4th celebration and needs some volunteers for the water melon eating contest.  She also needs some help with the Snack Bar. 

It is time to think of the Movie in the Park event and we need some new sponsors.  Some existing sponsors have had to cut back because of the economy and we need some new blood.  The movie is The Rise of the Guardians.  Podium Poacher Elyse had to come to the front of the room for her announcement (I’ll be darned).  Apparently the Westchester Rotary dominated the last issue of the Argonaut.  Laura promoted the Ed Foundation Golf Tournament on the 21st .This is the 25th anniversary of the Ed Foundation.  Laura (from Alabama) and Sheila (from Northern Florida) squared off making fun of each others accent, it was lively and fun.  Then our President Tom  called our newest member Daren and gave him framed membership plaques and his “pin”.  Tom (from Tennesee) can’t say the word “Pin”.  It comes out “Pen”.  That’s complicated.  Those people from the south talk funny.  It is amazing they did as well as they did in the Civil War.  

 

 

The Speaker

Then the speaker started, and he was from Kentucky, but he has been here a long time and has learned the kings English.  He did say “ya’ll” however. 

Centinella Valley Youth Program.  He spoke about a program to keep our youth out of the LA County Court System.  What that is all about is if a youth gets into some relatively minor trouble like stealing a CD from a friend, graffiti, , etc. the try to “settle” this through a system with a mediator whereby each side presents their side and do so with feeling and come up with a restitution program that makes sense.  They call upon people who either have had things stolen from them, or perhaps even stole something in the past.  They prey on empathy for both perpetrator and victim to work this out, and not get into the courts.  The statistic show that when young people go to court at an early age, there is a tendency  for this to get repeated again and again with each time the crime becomes bigger.  The speaker asked the group how many have been a victim of a crime and quite a few of us have.  I have been robbed in my Manhattan Beach apartment way back when, and I sorta caught someone trying to steal my car in El Segundo about 6 months ago.  He also asked how many of us have stolen something.  A number in the room raised their hand.  I was sitting next to Nancy and she raised her hand.  I picked up my cell phone off the table and put it in my pocket and just kept my eyes open.

Interesting program.