Segal vs Halvorson

The video of Canadian Steve taking down Nevada Steve in hockey at their de-bunk party. Brief glimpse of "Lefty" Brett Grant showing off his skills with a hockey stick.

Meeting of 05/17/2011 - Visit from the Interact Club of West Tech

It was a delightful meeting. We received the enthusiastic and energetic members of the Interact Club of West Tech. They gave a very well organized and designed presentation on their activities, and then told us about their personal and professional projects as well as their motivation to join this service organization. It is gratifying to meet these caring young people who want to help build better communities. Each Interactor received a pin from a member of our club. We all thank them for their work, the authorities of West Tech for their support and Ted Baker and Jerry Kops for their guidance and dedication to this project.
Slideshow and link to pictures below.

Corazón Superbuild in Tecate, Mexico

 A dedicated group of Rotarians from our Club and their spouses went to Tecate, Mexico over the weekend to work in a Corazón Superbuild project in Tecate, Mexico. The Pierces, the Novotnys, the Coxs and the Lotts (I hope I'm not leaving anybody out) were there. Some commented that it was only the ladies who worked, though this couldn't be confirmed. In the following picture, Robyn's shirt looks much dirtier than Tom's, which may taken as an evidence of the previous statement.

More pictures following the link below:

Meeting of 05/10/2011- Speaker: Randy Walker

Our speaker this week was Randy Walker, Director of Aviation of McCarran Airport. A great informative presentation on the past, present and future of the second largest-volume airport in the world and its intricate importance to our city and its economy.
President Bill Pierce honored our men and women in uniform and reminded us of the sacrifice of those who serve this country risking their lives in distant lands to keep the freedom we enjoy at home.

Follow the link below for meeting pictures

2011-05-10-Meeting

 A far better text yet to come from Tom Lott

Red Rock Cleanup – May 7, 2011

A beautiful day of service and friendship: members of the Rotary Club of Las Vegas West along with volunteer students and teachers from the West Prep Interact Club cleaned-up the Willow-Creek Area of the Red Rock State Park. Great grilling was again by Ken Cox. See some pictures following the link

2011-05-07-Red Rock Cleanup

Meeting of 04/26/2011 - John L. Smith, Las Vegas Review Journal columnist

The speaker was John L. Smith, columnist for the Review-Journal. John is highly respected and well known and read. He described the difference between a reporter and a communist, which si primarily one who reports events based on facts and one who writes topical opinions. He has plenty of those.

Recognizing a graying Rotarian audience he talked until Pres. Bill stood up, thus avoiding any questions. Brett, where were ya? He loves writing in Las Vegas because it is a circus that never leaves town. Several of his opinions follow.

2011-05-03-Meeting

Mining is making too much money with the rise in gold prices and is grandfathered into a low tax position, thus not helping to pay for education. Internet poker will be legalized because Senator Reid will push it because the casino bosses, who presumably fund Reid's elections, want it now. They too are making too much money without paying enough taxes. Internet poker, that is. John does not seem to like any enterprise that is successful without paying more taxes. He did not mention increasing taxes on gaming or taxes on small businesses. No reason to lose even more friends than he already has.

He made an excellent point about cutting funds for education by cutting the school day or year. It's an absurd solution. Also unmentioned was Nevada tax strategy which ignores property taxes that are so low they have no effect toward funding schools as in almost every state in the union. 

John was raised in Las Vegas and writes an excellent column whether one agrees with his opinions or not. He is also an avid supporter of childhood cancer, and promotes many worthwhile community projects.

I was late but arrived in time to hear Ted and Duncan complaining about the food. Ashley is home but not improving. Duncan's daughter was in the crowd at the White House chanting USA! Pretty hard to top Duncan's happy fines. There was a visitor from Germany who described his district and club. Next week is Randy Walker, Director of Aviation for Clark County, which promises to be interesting.

Tom Lott

Meeting of 04/26/2011 - Visit of Mayor Oscar Goodman

Today Mayor Oscar Goodman spoke to the best crowd we've had lately - 23 members and 8 guests, including our friends Bernie and Jennifer Hunt. In past surveys Mayor Goodman is our all-time favorite speaker, and he did not disappoint. I've sat with him before, and recently heard him speak at another luncheon, so I'll add tidbits from those occasions. The Mayor does not eat lunch. In his career as a litigator he was always preparing to go to court which resulted in a nervous stomach. So he learned to do without the mid-day meal. He was previously asked his position on legalized prostitution, to which he declared his opposition based on his constituents belief it is immoral and because of the slave trade which has resulted. But he considers it an American right to have the debate, which he supports.

He described his movie career and the permit process. Previously he mentioned that he cannot memorize lines, so the directors hated working with him. Maybe that's the reason for so many cutting room floors. This must be a learning defect of some sort because he is as sharp and quick witted as ever. The stories of his successes downtown are legendary. When I moved here 17 years ago previous mayors were trying to so the same things; Oscar Goodman is elected and presto, most of it got accomplished. Well, maybe 12 years isn't presto, but Brett Grant, slightly right-of-center Republican, complimented a liberal democrat as the best we've had, and he got a standing ovation. Are these Rotarians? Such passion!

He expressed an opinion on Neonopolis, its owner and the problems. Arson and getting whacked were solutions mentioned.

Jerry Kops and Mike Link asked two great questions. Jerry asked about his mob past and we got a terrific story about his client, Jimmy Chagra, and the murder trail in San Antonio where the sitting judge was murdered. When the cabbie picked him up to leave, he asked the future mayor if he was here for the Chagra trial, and then described how Chagra should be strung up and, well, tortured for what he had done to the the good judge. Then the cabbie asked Oscar which side he was on...Oscar replied "the FBI."

Mike then asked Oscar to join our club on July 7, when he leaves office. The Mayor did not say no! Who is going to follow up? We should have to buy tickets to sit with him each week; can you imagine? His Honor is interviewing with the Convention Authority among others for his post political career. Canyon Gate is home to the top LVCVA people, maybe we got a shot.

Apr 26, 2011 -- Oscar Goodman visits

Next week we have John L. Smith, popular Review Journal columnist. What a line up lately, don't miss it!

Tom Lott

Meeting of 04/19/2011 - Presentation by A.W. Lawrence, author of "The First 100"

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Cleo reported on the Dan Stover music finals. The performances were well done but there were not many participants, unfortunately. Duncan had yet another happy fine, bragging on his son, Richard. Pres. Bill had a sad fine as Ashley is doing worse. Tom cross-fined Duncan and Chris cross-fined Tom. Chris won't be forgotten again! Futu cross fine for Brett, who is lollygagging at La Costa with his family all week.

Duncan reported on the lively Interact club at West Prep, which wants to sponsor a Kideract club. There will be a presentation for the Interact Club at West Prep Friday, June 3rd. Time and details to follow. They plan to attend our Red Rock clean-up on May 7th. Pres. Bill reported on a good District Assembly and upcoming dates for District Conference, June 11, and Corazon Super Build, May 14.

Our speaker, A.D. Hopkins, is a long time journalist and historian - the former editor of "The Nevadan." He has edited a new book about 100 interesting Nevadans who made a difference in their community. All are deceased, but he managed interviews with several before their passing. His talk started slowly as he described the methodology of selecting the people, but came alive as he described a few colorful characters. A teacher, the only teacher to be included, confronted a powerful politician who would not support education and whacked him across the chest with her crutch. Does Harry Reid come to mind? Not about education, just needing a firm whacking by a woman of character. Or anyone, actually. Then there was the first Mayor of Las Vegas who was a promoter to the point of bending the truth to achieve his goals for the city. Remind you of anyone in recent history? Proving that history repeats itself.

Speaking of...our calendar show next weeks speaker as none other than Mayor Oscar Goodman, our all-time favorite speaker and undoubtedly the best mayor we've ever had, despite what I said up there.

There were 18 members and one guest present today. This letter is also posted to our club blog, although I am uncertain how to get there. Hoping to be able to send it to everyone as a blog in the future, or as a spiffier newsletter format.

Don't miss next week!

Tom Lott

District Assembly in Victorville, CA - 04/16/2011

 District Assembly in Victorville, CA

Several members of the Club went this year to the District Assembly in Victorville, CA. President Bill Pierce, and Ken Cox took the lead in contributing towards the purchase of wheelchairs in Mexico, Francie dragged Jorge into the president-elects training session and Jan Carlton made sure everybody behaved (sounds like an outline of a mini-series on HBO). It was a great meeting, very well organized, very educational and fun at the same time. The grand finale was a presentation and performance by Dwight Rogers (son of Western all-time stars Roy Rogers and Dale Earhart) and a fantastic barbecue. If you didn't attend, you sure missed something!
See pictures in link below.

2011-04-16-District Assembly

Meeting of 04/12/2011 - Darrel Austin with Jennifer Hansen of NV Energy

Las Vegas West Rotary Club

April 12, 2011

Winning checks of the Final Four fund raiser were distributed. Mike Link, the winner who can’t figure out how he won, received $ 400 and donated 1/2 to the charity account and 1/2 to Polio Plus. Kudos Mike! Ted Baker, traveling to Pittsburgh, won $ 200 and Brett and I got $ 100. I quickly stuck the money in my pocket, happy to break even. Oh, yes, the charity account has an extra $ 800. Yahoo!

There were numerous happy and sad fines; the only one that mattered was that Ashley went back to the hospital. If you are inclined to get on your knees, please pray for her recovery. Not going well right now.

Pres. Bill gave a pin for doing something I enjoy, the newsletter. Far more deserving, in my judgment, are Brett for his fund raising, Francie for her leadership, and Ken, Lynn , Lynn, Steve, Steve, Ted, Duncan, Jan, Ted, Jerry, Mike, Chris, Cleo, Luke. Who did I forget? A bunch of great Rotarians, please forgive me if I left you off my impromptu list. We don't have an 80 – 20 club, where 20 % do 80 % of the work. We are better, and we all know it. And we have fun! Oh, yeah, I forgot Tom and Robin, the best ever. Vegas Baby is coming and I know everyone will pull together for our only major fund raiser.

Our speaker was Darrel Austin with Jennifer Hansen of NV Energy, on the new smart meter program. The meters are already installed on 173,000 homes, including several of our members. The meters allow the consumer to monitor power usage as a car uses a dashboard to determine speed and ongoing gasoline usage. You can manage your usage on-line now, and in the future we will be able to control power usage and even manage certain appliances with a smart phone. Buck Rogers is smiling. The new meters are more accurate and safe, according to NV Energy. This is the wave of the future, clearly. There are operational savings for the company, of course. For issues call 702-402-4273.

And now, for news of the weekly golf game. Don Logan, multi-year speaker to our club and Rotarian Larry Brown, County Commissioner, joined Brett, Scott and me. Brett played 18 holes, a record for the past year or so, counting many pars on this fine day. Next week we have A.D. Hopkins on the history of Las Vegas. Every week we have great programs. Don’t miss it!

Tom Lott

Meeting of 04/05/2011 - LV Fire Chief Mike Myers

April 5, 2011 Meeting

The speaker was the Fire Chief of the Las Vegas Fire Dept. Mike Myers. He did a good job of describing the department; it’s mission and goals.  They do more that most fire depts.. Around the country with fewer people and resources.

He specifically addressed pay, sick leave and overtime.  He also answered questions about consolidation, as there are fire depts. in Henderson, North Las Vegas and Clark County. Starting fire fighters make less than $ 20 / hour and average $ 50,000 per year.  A previous decision by the city determined it is less expensive to pay overtime than hire enough personnel to do the job required. That new fire fighter earns on average $ 25,000 in overtime.  Benefits add about 50 % to the value of funded liability.  Sick leave averages 6 days per year, and OT cannot follow sick leave.  A real sticking point is accrued sick leave, which can add up to $ 100,000 at retirement.  They are working to amend that rule.  Upon questioning it seems the fraud we see reported in the media is with other fir depts. in the area, not the Las Vegas dept.

If you explore the catalog, you will find many publications that match the style of your newsletter.

Announcements

There were 13 m3mbers and 7 guests and visiting Rotarians.

Brett announced his trip to Chicago proved to him he is getting good treatment here and will stay with his present oncologist.  It was 28 degrees. No mention of a visit to Wrigley Field.

Pres. Bill said Ashley is home, still struggling but glad to be home.  Mike Link won $ 400, Ted $ 200, and Tom and Brett $ 100 each in the Final 4 board.  The charity account is now $ 800 richer, thanks to Brett and all participants.

The annual Board Retreat is April 20 at Canyon Gate from 8 am – 2 pm with lunch provided.  All members are welcome.

One visiting Rotarian was from Scotland and described his club of 40 members. Their annual fundraiser last year made $ 40,000 USD.  Time to get Vegas Baby started, as we now hang our hat on it.

Meeting of 03/29/2011 - Dr. Leslie DiMare, President of Nevada State College

What a terrific meeting!

Our speaker was Dr. Leslie DiMare, President of Nevada State College. Even though Lynn Price's husband teaches there, I realized how little I know about the institution. It fills a gap between CSN community college and UNLV and UNR as it is a four year state college with a research emphasis. Admission requires a 2.0 GPA with no SAT requirement. The tuition is less that UNLV or UNR and more than CSN. It has a 19 % graduation rate, which is considered good for that category. To illustrate how important education is toward contributions to society and the community, over a lifetime high school dropouts cost the State over $ 5,000 while a high school graduate contributes $ 287,000 and a college graduate contributed over $ 894,000.

Dr. DiMare was followed by seven RYLA (Rotary Youth Leadership Awards) participants that we sponsored. Each had a format for a short presentation: what they learned, their biggest challenge, and future planned vocation. We had a future photographer, lawyer, civil engineer and All-American football player! Each gave a collection of their thoughts on the weekend experience. Common themes were getting out of their comfort zones, not being too judgmental and learning to listen and follow. They are high school juniors that are obvious leaders and not used to following, but when surrounded by a team of leaders they had to accept others input on issues. Lynn price got a round of applause for her leadership, with Ted Baker, for putting the program together, including interviews and selection process.

Lynn Purdue summarized how pleased we are with these students and announced she is the co-chair for next year's RYLA. There are several ways to get involved as many of our club has in the past. See my RYLA team photo attached, one of my all-time favorite Rotary experiences. At the beginning none of my eight would look at me much less speak to me (or each other for that matter!), and two days later I had several asking for college and life advice, and two asked for me to write recommendations to honor societies or college programs. We left with a collection of hugs and well wishes.

I know everyone is waiting for results of the occasional Rotary golf outing, and whether Duncan Lee won all the money, but you'll have to wait until next week. Scott Ruthe and I are arranging financing to pay off the skins we lost.

Next weeks speaker is Mike Myers, Fire Chief if the Las Vegas Fire Department.

Tom Lott

Meeting of 03/22/2011 - Ambassadorial Scholar

President Bill led the meeting today, with plenty of happy, sad and cross fines, and enthusiasm too! There were 17 members and 5 guests and visiting Rotarians. Notable happy fine was for Ken Cox becoming a Texas Longhorn fan. Just took the right sales pitch, apparently.

The Interact Club at West Prep is active, reported Lynn Price, and Duncan Lee delivered books and presented pins to those who worked at a soup kitchen. They have more community activities planned and are coming to help at our next Red Rock Clean-up.

The Fremont Club celebrated its 25th anniversary at the Fremont Street Experience - where else? Mayor Goodman spoke, and the Fremont canopy show featured a finale of Rotary with photos through the past 25 years of the Fremont Club service and fellowship. It was pretty emotional for some of their members.

Prsident Bill challenged the club to match his $ 100 donation for the relief efforts in Japan. Brett Grant's radio station, KSHP-AM 1400, is running their own effort of Shelter Boxes. We decided to support that, and raised $ 350 in a matter of a few minutes.

The speaker was a returning Ambassadorial Scholar from Green Valley. He graduated from Northern Arizona Univ. in music and math and went to New Zealand to work on his masters thesis. He lived in Christ Church but visited 4 countries, 60 cities and made presentations to 49 Rotary Clubs. His presentation spoke of connections through trust, friendship, honesty and hope. He was a facilitator for RYLA, which is quite different than ours, as it is for 18-24 year olds. The hospitality of the people of New Zealand impressed him the most along with New Zealand Airways, which has a daily $ 2 ticket to a different city. That facilitated his travels greatly.

Rotary Clubs in New Zealand sponsor an Emergency Response Kit, similiar to but pre-dating the Shelter Box program, for disasters throughout the country and neighboring islands. These were important following the recent eqrthquakes, which have had 4,000 after shocks.

Rotarians there play a wine game at club meetings which he introduced to us with a bottle of new Zealand Savignon Blanc. It replaces happy bucks as a fun fundraiser, where everyone stands up and puts their hands on their head or tail, a coin is flipped, winners remain standinbg for another round until there is a winner. Guess who won! The guy next to Brett Grant, who Brett sponsored into the contest. Photo attached.

Next week are the RYLA presentations, a meeting no one wants to miss.

Tom Lott

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Meeting of 03/15/2011 - Chuck Jackson, Youth Symphony Orchestra Director

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There was a monthly Board Meeting at 10:30 today, with Pres. Bill presiding. Jan, Tom L., Duncan, Ken, Jerry and Francie were present. Luke joined us briefly. We approved the minutes and financials. There was discussion about eliminating prayer in favor of a more politically correct and RI favored “inspirational minute” to open a meeting. The continuation of the prayer was unanimously approved. Pat Fitzgibbons is smiling. We also discussed schools, Interact, Board retreat, Red Rock clean-up, Dist. Conference and PR. Francie has books for West Prep, which Duncan will deliver. Also a West Prep student was featured on page 1 of the RJ today for receiving a scholarship to the Exeter Academy. Awesome achievement. The Summerlin View will be invited to meetings with RYLA presentations and/or a 15th Anniversary historical meeting. The agenda of the latter is uncertain, and it led to a discussion of a club history being committed to hard drive, and maybe even paper. All members are welcome to attend Board Meetings, which are held the 3rd Tuesday each month at 10:30 am.

We had a lively meeting. Jerry Kops opened with a prayer for the Japanese victims and hope for our understanding of God’s plan when tragedy strikes. Visiting Rotarian Kai Wolter from Monchengladbach, Germany, related how his club led the way in his area in the eighties to admit women after the US Supreme Court ruled Rotary in the USA could not exclude women. By 2011 six of eight clubs in his area now welcome female members. Irony noted.

The March Madness board filled up - the winner will receive $ 400, but the club’s charity account is the real winner. Several happy, sad and cross fines; most notable was Brett, who is surviving his second bout with chemo and going to Chicago to meet new oncologists.

A few dates to calendar:

● April 8 - Board Retreat. All members welcome to attend

● May 7 - Red Rock Clean-up

● May 14 - Corazon Super Build

● Jule 11 - District Conference

Our speaker, Charles Jackson, was a professional musician for 35 years before becoming a high school music teacher. He gave a great speech about the value of music in education. A telling statistic was that more music majors applying to medical school are admitted that pre-med majors by a large margin. If all teachers were as dedicated and talented as Mr. Jackson our public schools would be performing at a far higher level that we currently see. He teaches that one doesn’t get a raise for showing up, it’s showing up and making a difference that counts. Every student in his music classes has graduated high school. That may not sound like much until you think about how many teachers in the Clark County School District can make that claim. (Very few, I’d guess). Pretty impressive! Thanks to Mr.Jackson for making an inspirational difference is his students and teaching us a few lessons along the way.

Last but not least, Tom Lott received a Paul Harris Fellow!. Congratulations, Tom!