IT HAPPENED THIS WEEK, January 18, 2012

By Dannie Cavanaugh

This was our first meeting without President Ann and Linda Black and Keith Jones filled in admirably with Keith leading the way. Carmela

Raack was the first Triple Crown winner in recent CCRC history as she handled the duties of Invocation, Pledge, and Patriotic Song. I think her obligations are now satisfied for the rest of the year.

We were honored with several guests: Stu Freeman, who was the guest of Andy Weissman; Gus Mason from West Basin who was with Ed Little; Rotarian Art Rangel from Auburn, California; and Rotarian Bob Sigall from the Honolulu, Hawaii Club. Bob is a Culver City native and the son of the well known cartoonist Martha Sigall. Carmela did not want to handle the fourth chore of the meeting so the Welcome Song was handled by the person in the Club with the worst voice - yours truly.

Janet Chabola brought us up to speed on Club news reporting that Pat Cashin was making a good recovery after his recent rotator cuff surgery. On a couple of sad notes, Janet mentioned that Roger Barnes' daughter passed away recently and Bobby Matsuyama's mother also just passed away.

The main news from the District is a reminder of the District Conference on April 19^{th - 22nd at the Hilton San Diego Resort and Spa Mission Bay. Early bird registration is open until March 15th.}

There were three announcements of note the first being a reminder of the Club elections scheduled for February 1st. Please mark your calendars for the Follow the Yellow Brick Road event on March 15th that will be held at the Senior Citizen Center on Overland Avenue. We will be honoring Father Greg Boyle at this event.

The third announcement was given by Gus Mason of the West Basin Municipal Water District. West Basin is holding another toilet trade-out program were residents can get a free water saving toilet by bringing in there old water guzzler. Our Club will participate in this project and raise money for the Club at the same time. The dates are on two Saturdays - February 4th and February 18th. We did this project a few years ago and it was a great success that raised considerable money for the Club.

Our speaker for the day was Kriss Casanova, Economic Development Manager for the Culver City Redevelopment Agency. This was a very timely program in light of the California Supreme Court decision upholding the new laws designed to eliminate redevelopment agencies throughout the state. Kriss gave us an overview of potential projects in the city, which may or may not be able to proceed. Judging by the number of questions and additional comments from Andy Weissman and Art Rangel, this was a well-received presentation.

Have a great week Rotarians.