J U L Y 2 9 , 2 0 0 8

CAMPBELL Rotary
W W W. R O T A R Y C S J W. O R G

z
Presidential “Farewell” z

For those of you who may have missed the debunking

celebration or would simply like to have a copy of Jerry
Cummings’ speech at his debunking, it is on pages 2 and 3 this
week. Nobody could have said it any better.

GOVERNOR VISITS CAMPBELL

Governor Gary Citti, of District 5170 year. He inspired us to become active
visited our club on Tuesday, August 22 Rotarians, sharing a story from his own
and addressed our members on the personal history about the value and
“ direction of Rotary and of our District power of personal involvement. And,
for the coming he invited us to learn
Paul Harris Awardees year. Governor more about Rotary
Citti encouraged through many local
Recognized us to continue to workshops and also by
Repeat Paul Harris Donors: support The visiting the RI and
Rotary District Websites,
Warren Gilbert, Bill Highley, Neil Foundation and www.Rotary5170.org.
Reid, David Keller, Bob Yager, Marv distributed
Bamburg, Marc Wagner, Jim Finally, Governor Citti
“Double
Morelan, Alan Tanenbaum, Jerry accepted a gift from
Sustainer” pins
Cummings, our club to take to his
to just about
next meeting and
First time Paul Harris Donor: every member.
presented us with a beautiful gift in a
He also challenged us to reach out to
John Shannon Tiffany’s box which will be raffled off
new members and to increase our clubs
in the near future.
membership by 10% over the coming

Aug. 7: Community Service Seminar @

Coming Events SJ DoubleTree
July 29: Club Service Seminar @
Aug. 11: Serving @ EHC, 4:30 PM
Double Tree
Aug. 14: International Service Seminar
Aug. 5: Board Meeting, 5:30 @ TBA
@ SJ DoubleTree
Aug. 5: Youth Service Seminar @
Aug. 16: Rotary Day at the A’s
Double Tree
DEBUNKING attendance at our meetings (which always makes the
District Governor happy).
Traditionally, the outgoing president recognizes
-I’d put our weekly programs up against any club
various members for outstanding service to the club by
our size (and probably some bigger ones) and, again, this
giving a certificate or some type of gift.
is a team effort where each member has a chance to
When I reflected on this year, I thought that this
bring a speaker of their choice and thanks to the good
was a real team effort by the whole club---how can I
job of keeping everyone on schedule by our Programs
pick whom to recognize?
Chair, Dr. Sue. Just to mention 3 outstanding programs:
So I went back to one of my old philosophers,
Dr. Cadwallader, a past Rotary International Director,
Georgie Jessel, for those of you who are too young to
brought by Bettina and the Ex Chairman of Novellus,
recognize that name, he was one of the great old
brought by Delbar, these are two relatively new
comedians—like-----, oh well, you wouldn’t recognize
members who got great speakers, just by asking---and of
those names either, but anyway I once heard him say,
course Ravi’s brother, Krishnan---Ravi’s just lucky to
“My father was a practical man; he always gave a
have such a great brother!
practical gift----like a haircut”---so, I thought this is
-The new 65 inch LCD TV we presented to EMQ,
good advice so I got a practical gift for the whole
thanks to the donations by many of our members and the
club-----24 of these beautiful aprons that we can wear
leadership efforts of Marv Bamburg & Rick Davis.
when we work in our food booth or serve at the EHC or
-We made the final payment of $6,000 of our
any other projects we might get involved with.
$18,000 commitment to the Friends of the Heritage
Theater.
Let’s remember some of our accomplishments:
-We completed the project started in Derek’s year
-Well, we stared out as the Rotary Club of
of buying $19,000 worth of computers for the Rosemary
Campbell/San Jose West and ended the year as the
School and received special recognition of our club from
Rotary Club of Campbell----I know not everyone looks
the Campbell Union School District. This was a unique
at this as progress, but I think it will help us in
project (maybe the only one of it’s kind) where we had a
identifying with the Campbell community and growing
matching grant from Rotary International and, what
the club to be the premier service club in the City of
made it so unique, we had money donated by clubs in
Campbell------time will tell.
Turkey & India, probably the first time money has ever
-We had our visioning meeting— 25 members (the
come from those countries to help school kids in this
maximum allowed) spent 4 hours one evening to help
country.
define where our club was and where we want to be. ----
-We furnished video equipment for Rosemary
I doubt that any other club of our size that went through
School thanks to a joint effort by our club & the local
this process had that high a percentage of their
Porsche club, thanks to Bill Highley.
membership participate. If we gained nothing else from
-We participated in the EMQ Garden Project
the meeting, we came out with people committed to the
-Donated gift cards for some of the families served
ongoing success of our club---not only John, who has
by EMQ
already started and we can see what a great leader he is
-Sent some EMQ kids to the Day at the A’s
going to be, but Rick Davis, Ravi Chari and Dr Sue have
-Donated books for female prisoners at Elmwood.
said they are willing to make the commitment of being
-Donated a book to Rosemary School every week,
president in following years. We can’t have a great club
in honor of our guest speaker.
without consistent, committed, good leaders. I could
-Donated turkeys to Sacred Heart Community
have done a better job of keeping everyone apprised of
Center at Thanksgiving
our progress on our goals, but we’ll do a better job this
-Helped sponsor Scouts and Cub Scouts
year.
-Furnished transportation to a middle school to go
We wanted to grow our membership and it is
to science camp
growing, ---special thanks to our membership chair, Carl
-Helped sponsor Neil Jacobson’s charity bike ride,
Middione & Bob Yager, our orientation specialist.
in which he participated.
-We had great representation at the District
-Provided the lunch for the Child Advocates picnic
Conference, Avenues of Service and other special district
for the umteenth year—thanks to Marc Wagner for his
training seminars plus consistent way better than average
leadership on this project through out the many years.
 -We served some of the homeless at the EHC
Center one Monday of every month and bought
them some much needed serving trays.
-We had our 6th Annual “Remember 9-11”
Blood Drive---remember, this year’s is coming up
soon.
-Thanks to Janine’s leadership, we sent two
students to Camp RYLA, are getting close to
having an Interact Club at Westmont High, plus not
only having our own club high school speech
contest, we hosted the Area 8 contest at our Club.
---And the winner at our club level went on to win
the whole thing at the District contest!
I -We couldn’t have done any of these projects
with out the income from our food booths in
downtown Campbell and we wouldn’t be nearly as
successful at it without the business knowledge,
equipment, leadership and hard work of Bill
Ellington. Also, when it comes to fund raising we
have to give thanks to Bill Highley for all his
efforts in getting everyone to support The Rotary
Foundation.
-Thanks to John Shannon for volunteering to
do our weekly Newsletter—and then actually doing
it week after week! We were without a newsletter
for several years and it’s sure nice to have one
again.
-Thanks to Dave Keller for representing us at
the District level, with his “Yellow Pages for
Rotary” project and for developing and maintaining
our club web page.
-Thanks to Dave Crowley for also,
representing us at the District level on the Public
Relations committee and for the fine publicity he
has gotten for our club this year.
-And then there’s our Treasurer, Phil Nielsen,
who has been doing that job for so long and so well
that I just don’t know what we would do without
him.
-I bet some of you thought I was going to
forget the We Care committee, headed by Kit
Whitney---well, no chance. What a job she does—
and like Phil has done it for so long. She and Bill
and Emilie Highley did so much for George and
Ginny Miskulin, during George’s illness and then
his death that we can’t thank them enough. And she
kept in touch with Mary Arenas during her
operation and recovery---hopefully we’ll see her
back at our meetings, soon. And now, we’ve had to
do “we care” for Kit, who we all know has just
been through a serious operation herself and I’m so
happy to see her here today. ---Welcome back Kit!
-One last thing, speaking of George Miskulin,
who was a member of this club for 53 years, this
club is committed to starting a George Miskulin
Memorial Scholarship at Del Mar High School,
where George was the first principal of the school.
-Oh, by the way, I think we had a little fun
along the way, too----I know I sure did.
-And, of course, thanks to Derek and his
committee for organizing this party today.
-So, I thank you all for the honor and
privilege of being you president this past year. I’ve
certainly enjoyed it and will, hopefully, be around a
long time to enjoy the good memories.
-George Miskulin was famous for his
“George-Isms”, so I think it would be appropriate
to close with a couple of them:
-“If you are going to be in the rowboat, you
need to row”.
-And, “we do not have to love each other, but
we do need to respect one another”. ----Isn’t that
what Rotary is all about, -- “we are not out to
change everyone, just to understand each other and
understanding leads to respecting one another
which leads to peace.
Thank You.
--Jerry Cummings
.