President Cheree opened the meeting by welcoming us all to the best Rotary club she knows. Diedre Daly lead the flag salute. Mike Weaver’s invocation reminded us that we are committed to Service Above Self to fellow citizens, our community and our country. She thanked everyone involved including Fred Coleman for setting up the room, Suzanne Scar for desk duty, our photographer Carl Gross and Ginger for serving us.
Visiting Rotarians and Guests
Visiting the club were former member Bob Skankey who lives in Tropic, Utah now, where the snow sent him to warmer weather, Jennifer Barry, ED of the C.R.E.W., Sue Gilbreth and Shannon Kelly.
Coming Up...
Bill Gilbreth shared upcoming meeting topics including Club Assembly January 31, Jamie Fletcher of the Chamber of Commerce on February 7, Dr. Jonathan Swift talking astronomy in the valley on Valentine’s Day and our own Marty Babyco and the Nordhoff High School musical February 21.
President Cheree didn’t think Bill quite sold our next meeting which “will be fun!” There will be box lunches, balloons, goodie bags and a raffle good for one year of paid dues. Everyone attending will get a raffle ticket – you must be present to win.
She brought some Christmas ornaments left over from our holiday meeting at the Farmhouse, available in the front.
Announcements
Judy Gabriel briefly discussed attending, with Brian and Lisa Berman, the Rotary Peace Conference in Ontario, which was great. Rotary has put a number of activities we are already doing under the banner of Peace, which makes perfect sense.
Betsy Watson thanked the Taste of Ojai committee for raising more money for her committee to award through community grants. Information has gone out to former awardees and is available on our website now. Watch for it in the OV News too. And spread the word.
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Mike Weaver announced there is one space available, at no charge, to attend the Rotary International Foundation and Cal Lutheran Non Profit Leadership program on Thursday. Let him know if you are interested.
Rotary Humor
Fining or Golden grabs the gold...
Christine Golden stepped up to the mike for fining and confessions.gif)
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First up, Wendy Barker announced the birth of her granddaughter Lili.
Al West did a little well deserved bragging about sharing resources with Australia during his time at the National Park Service which required getting a bill passed.
Andy Gilman urged us to attend the next Chautauqua about the valley’s declining school enrollment on February 16.
Bill Prather confessed to vacationing in Palm Springs.
And Bill Weirick is amazed his six year old granddaughter can send him emails with attachments.
Then Christine got to the fining portion, with Greg Webster as her bagman. With questions about January’s many crazy national holidays. She managed to stump Larry Beckett, Janet Campbell and Ren Adam. But Kay Bliss and Bryant Huber were up to the task and got away fine-free.
Program: Craft Talks with Brian Berman and Bill Gilbreth
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Two Craft Talks were next. We started off with “The Life of Brian, 2nd edition” by Brian Berman. He was born in Spring Valley, NY. Traumatized as a boy after viewing images of the horrors of the holocaust, along with a near death experience at age 21, convinced him peace is essential.
Searching for inner peace through yoga and meditation lead him to teaching both subjects in the 1970s. He married and had two children. In the 1980s he worked for Brent Wheels manufacturing pottery wheels, and then BB Productions where the Snoopy Fan Club was his biggest client. He was involved with World Runners and the 1988 World Peace marathon. Citizen Diplomacy, Global Family worked for peace beyond politicians.
In mid-life he discovered sculpture. After 9/11 he was involved with Compassionate Listening Circles. He met Lisa in 2002 and they married the next year. The Jewish / German Reconciliation Project they both worked on had a presentation at the Louvre in Paris during 2007.
The couple moved to Ojai in 2011. Brian and others worked to have Ojai declared the 99th International City of Peace. This year there will be Peace Poles dedicated at our local schools. We are starting a Peace Scholarship. Matt purchased a book of Brian’s artwork for $100 with the proceeds going toward the scholarship.
Bill Gilbreth and his wife Sue moved to Ojai in 2004 from New York. They were attracted by the people and the pace of life here. They were especially impressed by Monica Ros school which their son attended.
Bill was born in Denver, the 2nd of 7th children. He spent summers with his grandparents and cousins on a ranch in Evergreen, CO. His family moved when he was in high school to Fresno.
He was truant a lot and had adventures including trying to join Castro’s army. At 17 he briefly attended Fresno State College but he dropped out and hitchhiked to Birmingham, AL. He earned money driving beer into dry counties there. Eventually, he went back to college at San Jose State where he discovered he was a good student and enjoyed physics.
He worked at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and then decided to go to law school. He got a scholarship to Harvard. After graduation he worked as a litigator. Then got a job as an Assistant US Attorney. His career took him from investigating the Gambino crime family to prosecuting corruption in government offices. He worked many long trials and traveled a lot for work. Bill was one of 37 prosecutors for Watergate. Bill became a partner in a Boston law firm, one of the largest in the country. He worked with very large corporate clients but he was a court appointed attorney assigned to various cases.
He ended his talk with a story about a memorable and amusing case he was assigned regarding stolen beach balls.
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