The newsletter for the active Venice Marina Rotarian August 10,2003

2003-2004 Rotary International Theme – "LEND A HAND"

The Venice Marina Rotary Club meets each Thursday at 12:15PM, at Shanghai Red’s

Restaurant, Marina del Rey, CA, except in the case of special meetings. If there are any

questions or comments, call 310 995 1228. Rotarians are asked to send changes, modifications

and additions in their addresses, telephone numbers and email information to 310 745 3502.

There will be no lunch meeting this coming Thursday. Our next meeting at Shanghai Red’s is

August 21, 2003.

Our wonderful social butterfly, Carol Williamson, has planned a gala Rotary Potluck Fellowship

Event August 14, 2003 at 6PM. Call Carol (310 823 2458) or President Maxwell (310 995

1228) now to tell them you will attend and to determine what you will bring.

The event is at the California Yacht Club, 4469 Admiralty Way, Marina del Rey, at boat slip

F2507 at Willie’s boat area. After eating, those who want will take a Harbor Sunset Cruise on

Tom’s Boat.

Attending so far are Giselle (Chicken), Duncan (Roast), Howard, (Turkey Meat Balls and potato

salad), JR (Baked Beans), Liz (Chips and Dip), Alex (2 pies), Willie (wine and beer), Gale

LeBarre (as needed and David Maxwell (as needed). Spouses and significant others are

welcome and many are attending. The Club will provide ice, plates, cups and utensils (all

nonbreakable). Let us know what we’ve missed. If anyone has a guitar, bring it..2

SEE Y’LL AT THE WATER!

I just received notice that Club Rotarian, Adiba Shaby, has undergone gallbladder surgery and is

now recuperating at her brother’s home. GET WELL SOON, Adiba!

The meeting was held at the Daniel Freemen Marina Hospital. Our newest member, Daniel

Freeman Marina Hospital Chief Operating Officer, PETER APRATO, hosted our Rotary Club.

WHAT A HOSTING IT WAS! Just ask any member who attended what the event was like.

Remember all those stories about hospital food. Well, I’m here to tell you that the meal at the

hospital was a delicious feast. Hats off to the hospital chefs. The food and atmosphere were

great, but the program and the tour of the hospital were even better. We learned a lot.

We had visitors including a special visitor, Farnaz Entezami, who lives in Marina del Rey. She

runs her own website development business. All members should meet her. She will be back at

our August 21 meeting. The Board intends to take action on her application September 4.

Howard Pollack sponsors her. Register your objections before September 4 with David Maxwell

or Duncan Elkinson.

Also visiting our club were a Westchester Rotarian, David Escobar (who works at Morgan

Stanley), Cindy Frazier (Argonaut reporter), and numerous spouses including Joanna, my lovely

bride.

Announcements were made including one about the Literacy Breakfast on 8-15 at Lawry’s

Restaurant in Beverly Hills at 8AM-9:30AM. If you want to come, call David Maxwell, 310 995

1228.

Brags included Carmen Portnoy, talking about her brother’s wedding at Lake Tahoe this

weekend ($25) and Howard Pollack for his 10 years in Rotary ($29.95 upped to $30 by

Maxwell’s contribution of a nickel in Howard’s name). The No Fine Badge auction resulted in a

winning $50 bid by JR.

The hospital presentation was made by Harris Koenig, Daniel Freeman Hospital CEO, who was

assisted by Cyndee Worlfle, Director of Business Development.

Harris’s presentation:

There are over 222,000 people available to use this community hospital. Sixty-Five and older

people are 12% of this total. Sources for payment of medical services include medicare-41%,.3

Commercial-39%, Medical-13% and other-7%. This hospital has a 12% market share. The top

5 hospitals used by people in our community include Marina Hospital-12%, SM UCLA-12%,

UCLA-11%, St. John-10% and others-10%.

The top five reasons for hospitalization are OB delivery-2781, cardiology-2081, General

Medicine-1743, Orthopedics-1527 and Pulmonary Medicine-1464. (Total: of 18,900 discharges

in 2000.)

The Hospital is going to spend $4,000,000 in capital improvements to the hospital. The money

will be spent on refurbishment including interior emergency room, exterior – roof, signage,

building paint and air conditioning. New equipment to be bought includes Spinal CT, surgical

equipment, in-patient unit equipment and lapriscopic surgical tools. The Hospital has retained

architects who should have completed their drawing for submission to the appropriate

authorities in another 30-45 days.

The hospital is also going to spend money on a broad based marketing program including ads

and PR work to emphasize the 24 Emergency Care Unit and the Premier Advantage Seniors

Program. Eighty-Five percent of the hospital admissions come through the emergency room.

As part of the marketing program, the plan is to inform the community about the hospital and its

services including the health fair, the Premier Advantage for Seniors program and a discount

program. The theme is ‘LET’S DO IT TOGETHER".

Hospital development includes these imminent tasks: RECRUIT PRIMARY CARE

PROVIDERS, WORK TO SECURE AND MAINTAIN MANAGED CARE CONTRACTS,

ASSESS SCOPE OF WOMEN’S SERVICE INCLUDING A BREAST CENTER AND

EVALUATE COMMUNITY NEEDS AND ACCESS TO NEIGHBORING CENTERS OF

EXCELLENCE.

The Marina Hospital is a Primary Care Hospital, which is tied to Daniel Freeman Memorial in

Inglewood and also to Centinela Hospital. The Oncology Services at Memorial are superb and

the Tommy Lasorda Heart Institute at Centinela is one of the best in the country. Memorial is

rebuilding its rehabilitation department.

The message to the community is that Daniel Freeman Marina Hospital is OPEN, it provides

access to quality medical care by its integration with sister hospitals. The hospital must grow its

business-it cannot live exclusively as an emergency room. It wants to become the

"COMMUNITY HOSPITAL OF CHOICE". The cost to replace the hospital with another

structure would be over $150,000,000. There is not enough volume to allow this to occur."

After a question period, Peter Aprato took about one-half of our group on a tour of the facility.

THANKS TO DANIEL FREEMAN MARINA HOSPITAL for a most informative and enjoyable.4

time.

Five members of our Club attending were Admiral Willie, Giselle, Christopher, Adiba and David

M. Here is the report.

District Foundation Chairperson Chuck Hanchett emphasized the District effort to have every

Rotarian in District 5280 make a donation to the Rotary International Foundation. The District

mantra is "EVERY MEMBER EVERY YEAR". Raffle tickets have been distributed to each

Club for further distribution to each member. Each club is also encouraged to provide five (5)

silent auction items worth $100 or more.

There will be a District Foundation Seminar featuring past Rotary International President, Rick

King, on October 11, 2003. I strongly urge new members to attend this.

The next District Breakfast is September 30, 2003 with the theme of "HONOR OUR HEROES".

The new committee of the "FAMILY OF ROTARY" was introduced and discussed. We have

Elizabeth as our Chairperson. I believe that our club does already emphasize our Family and our

Rotary Club. Thanks to many of our members and their spouses we do many things together that

serve to bond our professional, Rotarian and personal relationships.

District Governor Colville talked about the Rotarian Deep Pride in the Classification system,

which sets our service club apart from others. We are to work on the classification system in

each of our clubs.

The speaker was ALBERT CARNESALE, Chancellor at UCLA. He is an Honorary Rotarian

who saw many traits that were the same between Rotarians and Bruins. These traits are

SERVICE AND LEADERS. He was a very informative and entertaining speaker. To the best of

my ability I will summarize his presentation.

"UCLA School provides education, research and service to the community. It prepares leaders

for all segments of society. UCLA’ s annual budge is $3.1B. The school has a $6B economic

impact on LA County. It has 37,000 students and a faculty and staff of 25,000 situated on 419

acres, the smallest campus in the UC system. The UCLA Hospital was just ranked third hospital

in the country moving ahead of Mass General Hospital and Cleveland clinic. UCLA’s

excellence is faculty driven.

The Chancellor deals with leadership issues. Current issues include budget, long term activities,

competitiveness and preserving student access..5

The Budget issue is to use money to keep up with increased pressure to get and keep faculty.

There is a 30% increase in tuition now. One fifth of the cost to educate each student is covered

by tuition charges. It costs $5,000, which is one fifth of the average private school cost. The UC

system accepts the top 1/8 of high school graduates to a UC campus, which UCLA is part of.

UCLA has 43,0000 applicants for admission from which 24% are admitted. The Chancellor says

that it is unacceptable to reduce the quality of the education due to budget restraints. His task is

to maintain excellence.

Most leading universities in America are private. UCLA is competetive – it does more with less.

Enrollment will increase by 40% in the UC system in the next 10 years due to an increase in

eligible students graduating form California high schools increasing from 150,000 to 210,000.

Remember the top 1/8 of high school graduates are entitled to admission in the UC system. The

task is to preserve access to the UC system. The diversity in the student body has decreased by

the passage of Proposition 209.

What is leadership? Mission of UCLA is education, research and service. The same people do

all three (3). Remembering what the mission is is the leader’s job. "FORGETTING OUR

OBJECTIVE IS THE MOST FREQUENT ACT OF STUPIDITY." A leader’s job is to organize

to get the work done. It is a conceptual and communication role.

Who is to be lead? UCLA has large constitutes which each feels it own the university – a stake

in UCLA. It is the toughest thing and the most wonderful thing in dealing with all the segments

of UCLA– each of which thinks it owns the university.

The Chancellor acts as a CEO, fundraiser, advocate and cheerleader. It tests ones intellect,

ethics and integrity. UCLA has produced many winners of high level awards of achievement

and merit, which is not often found in a public university. Two men just won the President’s

Medal of Freedom – one for athletics and one for academics. His one guiding principal is

excellence. Leadership delivers excellence by having wonderful people fill the jobs.

A leader’s tools to manage are resources (not taking the easy way and investing in the future),

people (pick the very best) and the bully pulpit (opportunity to be heard).

Management includes following instructions. One should, however, select very carefully the

people you take instructions from.

The state of California funds 20% of the total budget at UCLA. The rest of the budget comes

from grants and fundraising.

UCLA and Rotary are both a community of leaders. Each is a stakeholder in its community."

The Chancellor was an excellent speaker..6

After the meeting, it was announced that the District Election Committee to pick the District

Governor for 2005-2206 would interview four applicants for District Governor. The four to be

interviewed are Gwen Vuchas, Carmela Raack, Chuck Hansett and Ingo Werk. Announcement

would be made later that week. (The previous MESH announced that Ingo Werk was selected).

On August 4, 2003, David Maxwell attended a District meeting in Gardena that discussed what

Rotary as a District and what individual Rotary Clubs in District 5280 can do to reduce violence,

poverty and improve urban life. This task force will meet four times a year. It is to educate

ourselves and our club members about the issues involved and devise projects which could have

a lasting impact on our communities.

The next three meetings will be October 20, January 26 and April 19. Each of our members is

invited to participate. Our club does many things already to improve our community. WE DO

MAKE A DIFFERENCE FOR THE GOOD. It is interesting to hear what others are thinking and

doing.

The MESH is being mailed to our Club Honorary Members. We asked if any of them have an

email address that we can use in place of regular US mail. Here is the answer from our former

Rotary Club President and retired Marina Bank President Alan Culliver, who now lives in Elk

City, Oklahoma:

"Dear President David,

Many thanks for sending the MESH to me. It was a pleasant surprise to start receiving it again.

I don’t have a computer or an email address. It’s a quiet life without all the electronic

equipment, machines, etc. but much less stressful.

Hope you have a great year. Venice-Marina’s an excellent club.

Cheers, A. L. Culliver"

I thought everyone would like to hear his reply. Many of our older members were sponsored

into this club by Mr. Culliver..7

The Venice Chamber had its free Breakfast Forum with City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo on

August 7, 2003 at the Venice Branch Library. Rotarians present included Mary Richert,

Chamber President, Jeffrey Solomon, Chamber Treasurer, JR Dzubak and David Maxwell.

Also attending were Los Angeles Police Department Captain Kenneth D. Hillman, Deputy City

Attorney Gita Isagholian and Deputy Chief of Staff for Congresswoman Jane Harman, Mike

Bonin.

City Attorney Rocky gave a short talk and then answered questions. He emphasized that

solutions to problems originate from neighborhoods. He gave several examples. He emphasized

Operation Bright Future to keep students in school and out of gangs. He also talked about the

importance of parenting classes.

He said "neighborhoods have amazing power" and "neighborhoods can solve problems". Rocky

has implemented the Neighborhood Prosecution Program. Gita is Venice’s designated City

Attorney. He wants to create the image to youngsters that the law does matter. He will

prosecute and look to prevent and or reduce the use of fences, bars on windows, graffiti

activities, trash dumping and poor building conditions. Pride in the neighborhood should spread

to pride in one’s self and vice versa. His idea is to change people’s attitudes and expectations in

order to make better citizens and safer neighborhoods. GROUPS CAN AND DO MAKE A

DIFFERENCE.

Remember we can go to the Venice Chamber and the Westchester LAX Marina Chamber

meetings. We are very fortunate to have Rotarians Mary Richert and David Voss as Chamber

Presidents of these two fine organizations.

Submitted by David Maxwell

Giselle has these members missing meetings in July. Please review and if you have made up a

meeting, let her know. Members have been on vacation and traveling so I’m sure that some

make ups have not reached us. Let us know immediately.

Jim Bovee-7/24 and 7/31; Jan Davis-7/16,7/24 and 7/31; JR Dzubak-7/3 and 7/16; Peter Escobar-7/

3, 7/16 and 7/31; Alex Gorby-7/24; Gwen Hughes-7/3, 7/16, 7/24 and 7/31; Gale-7/24; Kaz

Smith-7/3 and 7/24; Vince Smith-7/3, 7/16, 7/24 and 7/31; Mary Richert 7/10, 7/16 and 7/24 and

Tom Ryan 7-3.

And Now Ladies and Gentlemen (3)

Copyright © 2003 by Tony Medley

Early on in this Claude Lelouch film, there are shots of a guy who is supposed to be playing the

trumpet (backing up a woman who’s acting like she’s singing). I’ve been watching movies all

my life. I’ve seen unathletic guys like William Bendix try to be Babe Ruth, Woody Harrelson try

to look like a basketball player, Alan Alda try to look like a football player (to be fair, Alda was

trying to look like George Plimpton looking like a football player, but Plimpton was athletic, at

least). But I’ve never seen a more inept job of acting than this guy trying to look like he’s

playing the trumpet. He’s even worse than Stu Sutcliffe when he was an original member of The

Beatles without any musical talent, so he tried to hide on stage pretending to plunk the guitar he

was holding but didn’t have a clue how to play. I played the trumpet a little when I was a

teenager, so I know a little bit about it. There’s not much to it, but what there is is all in the lips.

This guy barely presses the trumpet to his lips. Sometimes, when it shows him playing the

trumpet in a band backing up the singer near the end of the movie, you can hear the trumpet, but

you can see that the trumpet isn’t anywhere near his mouth! It’s ludicrous, but it epitomizes the

sloppiness with which this movie was made.

Worse, you will never see another movie with more platitudes. They were so stomach-churningly

simplistic I can’t even remember one to quote. But if you think that something like,

"the end is just the beginning and the beginning is just the end and the middle is just something

in between," sounds inane (I made that up), what you hear in the movie makes what I just wrote

sound incredibly profound. And you read one (a lot of this is subtitled) every couple of minutes.

So, Tony, how did you like the movie?

As the legendary Los Angeles sportscaster Jim Healy used to say about former Philadelphia

Eagles owner, Leonard Tose, Writer-Director-Producer Lelouch (known mainly for his creation

of 1966’s A Man and a Woman), has, uh, lost it (if, indeed, he ever had it). The first hour is.9

interminable. Valentin Valentin (Jeremy Irons) is a jewel thief who has a problem with

blackouts. Jane Lester (Patricia Kaas) is a saloon singer who has the same problem. But the

problem with this film is that Valentin and Jane don’t meet until an hour into the film. Lelouch

should have blacked out the first hour.

Lelouch has used a bunch of hackneyed tricks to try to assemble this into what might appear to

be a thoughtful film, like time warps and the like. Alas, they don’t work. Nobody cares whether

what we’re seeing is a flashback or a dream or reality. During the first hour I kept feeling like

Elaine in the Seinfeld episode when she was watching The English Patient, and finally got so fed

up she yelled out, "Get on with it and die so we can get out of here!"

Irons gives his standardized sensitive man performance. Kaas is so one-dimensional she

sometimes appears catatonic. The credits say that it’s her voice we hear when she’s singing, but

she lip syncs to her own voice so poorly that I thought maybe it was old Marni Nixon’s voice.

One thing that might hold your interest is trying to spot ‘60s femme fatale Claudia Cardinale.

She sure doesn’t look like she did in the ‘60s, but then who does? Actually, Claudia is one

person who gives a good performance. Other than that, while the first hour of this seems

interminable, it picks up in the second hour, but you’re still wishing that they’d "get on with it."

Detracting further from this film is Michel Legrand’s dirge-like music. I had admired some of

Legrand’s music until I heard Kaas’s renditions. Unfortunately, Kaas warbles them endlessly.

Instead of being evocative, they’re mostly forgettable with pompous lyrics that contribute to the

banality of the script.

August 7, 2003

The End

While fighting with each other in a Chinese restaurant, the hostess gives them each a fortune.10