IT HAPPENED THIS WEEK,January 25, 2012

By Dannie Cavanaugh

We had a table full of guests at this week's meeting with soon-to-be-a-Rotarian Joe Davis and our two visiting Australian guests, Ben and

Steve sitting with Cy Pierce. Seated at the same table was Richard Marcus who had brought Culver City Chief Financial Officer Jeff Muir and Chamber Chairman of the Board Goran Eriksson as his guests.

The meeting kicked off with an Invocation from Joe Davidson, the Pledge led by Phil Tangalakis, and the Patriotic Song by Allan Goldman. The Welcome Song, for all of our guests, was handled by Cartwright Sheppard with Stephen Fry on piano.

Under the heading of Health Updates it was reported that Joel Forman was in the hospital undergoing some tests - we wish you well Joel.

There were the usual announcements with Carmela mentioning that it is the goal of the District to get a donation of at least $10 from every member in the District. Carmela will be collecting the money at this week's meeting so be sure and bring your checkbook. Carmela also spoke about the Follow the Yellow Brick Road fund raiser which is scheduled for Thursday, March 15th at the Culver City Senior Citizens Center at 4095 Overland Avenue. We are still looking for nominations for Community Heroes, both individuals and businesses, that will be considered for recognition at this event. Please submit your nominees to either Linda Black or Carmela Raack by February 1st.

Next week (February 1) we will be holding the Club elections with the following slate:

President: Chris King

Treasurer: John Cluff

Secretary: Andrew Sisolak

Director: Melissa Mooney

Director: Bryon Mooney

Please attend this meeting so that we have a good showing for the election.

This coming Saturday, February 4th, we are joining with West Basin to help out in their toilet change-out program where residents of Culver City can swap their water guzzling toilets for a new water saving model. This is a fund raiser for the Club and provides a great service to the community as lower water usage is good for all of us. Please contact Tim Messmer at 310-200-7229 or messmerwest@yahoo.com to confirm your attendance.

With the Club business out of the way, our young guests from Australia, Ben Woolnough and Steve Ryan, took center stage and spoke to us about their lives and families in Australia, complete with pictures of them and their families. We are all very sorry to see them go as they have been such excellent guests.

Our speaker for the day was David Cohen from Energy Upgrade California. David gave a wonderful presentation about this energy efficiency program that is going on right now in LA County. If you missed the meeting, please go to www.EnergyUpgradeCA.org/LACounty for all the details.

Have a great week Rotarians.