Aided by "pom pom" girl Suzi Blackman, cheerleader ("Rotarians get involved!")  President Liz Gallegos, and timekeeper Dino Coppe, project leaders reminded us about some upcoming events.

Barbara Feldman: Thanksgiving meal distribution to 30 families will be made on the morning of Thanksgiving. Thirteen Rotarians have signed up to help so far, more are needed. To sign up click here and select "Attend."

Leon Davis is the contact for the Blood Drive at the YMCA on 12/2 from 1:30-5:30 PM. Plan to give a pint and shed a pound.  The drive is in partnership with the Stanford Blood Bank. All types needed!

Colleen Hudgen reminded us of the Senior Holiday Luncheon.  We will be hosting seniors at our regular meeting on Dec. 9th.   We need Rotarians to sign up to host a senior.  You can sign up on the website or sign-up sheet circulated at meetings.  We will be hosting 30 seniors from WVCS, Sunnyview, Live Oak, Chateau Cupertino, and the Cupertino Senior Center.

Also on Dec 9, is the Annual Inner Wheel Holiday Benefit: John Gatto and Pat Dowd will host a benefit under auspices of the Inner Wheel Club of Cupertino at their home on Wednesday, December 9th, 5pm to 8pm. The Inner Wheel Holiday Party will benefit the West Valley Community Services organization that so many Rotarians have been involved in. The party is $20 per person and guests are urged to bring store gift cards, money, or gifts for their WVCS donation.  RSVP to Pat.

Kids Holiday Shopping is coming up on 12/10 and Phil Quon is the contact. This event is one of the most satisfying of the year.

Operation Snowflake is 12/12 at Camp Costanoan. David Doyle is heading up this project and he needs tons of volunteers to help with 10 tons of snow

Cupertino Rotary Holiday Party -- everyone should mark their calendars for the festive holiday party at Marj Mancuso's home. Any questions, contact Leslie Hay or Barb Juhl

On Thanksgiving morning, Thursday, November 26, Cupertino Rotarian volunteers and their families can start their day by delivering complete Thanksgiving dinners to previously identified needy families in our area.

To join us in this wonderful endeavor click here and select "Attend" to sign up online.

This program was started under the leadership and guidance of former member, Rich Abdalah.

Tom Scannell continued the weekly review of updates to our website and encouraged all members to use the new features to facilitate communication about club activities.

Today he pointed out that all of our club projects and activities are on the web site and you can sign up online if you want to participate. Tom encouraged all members to make use if this new feature.

The link to our Web Site is http://www.cupertinorotary.org

If you want to login to our website your password can be obtained by responding to "forgot your password" at login. Your password will be sent to your email address.

From time to time club members want to submit information or articles to the Rotator. To do so, the information should be submitted to the Editor by 9 am Thursday.

Our editors are assigned as follows:  First Wednesday - Tom Scannell;   Second Wednesday - Helene Davis;   Third Wednesday - Peter Troop;   Fourth Wednesday - Melonie Brophy;   Fifth - Wednesday - Helene Davis.

On occasion, the editors sub for one another.  If you are unsure who the editor is, then it would be prudent to submit your information to all editors.

A thank you from Phyllis Wiener and Bob Adams to all Cupertino Rotarians for bringing in more than 500 pounds of groceries before our November 18th meeting.  The donations benefit the clients of West Valley Community Services.

In addition, Cupertino Rotarians donated cash and checks. WVCS and their clients thank you all and wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving!

This week's guest, Bonita Thompson, was introduced by Rotarian Elsie Wu. Bonita was trained in behavioral psychology earning degrees in Industrial Psychology and Statistics. She went on to earn her MBA at UC Berkeley. She has written a book called "Success Built to Last", which is a compilation of interviews with some of the most intriguing people in the world. In it, she and her two partners recite the answers that such people as John McCain, Nelson Mandela, Maya Angelou, Jimmy Carter, Dalai Lama and Jack Welch provided when asked a series of questions that pertained to their interpretation of success.

In putting the book together, Bonita used what she called the Appreciative Inquiry. The goal of the book was to...

Are you successful?

Do you have to be good at what you do?

Do you have to go to work?

Do you have to do what you love?

Do you have to have support from those that are important to you?

Based on all participants answers, she was able to statistically determine that women are more likely to say that they are successful than men. Also, the older we get, the more likely we will feel successful. After all the interviews, she and her partners were able to identify three common ways that people define success.

1. People feel success if they have had an impact on the world.
2. People feel success if they experience all their passions.
3. People feel success when they set goals and achieve them.

They were also able to identify three mindsets of success:

Thought – Meaning – Action

In closing, Bonita said that if she could do things differently while writing the book, she wouldn't have been so focused on research. She would have enjoyed the process or experience more. She also said that her definition of success is giving her success away for the benefit of others.

Barry Chang celebrated his recent city council win by joining the President's Club. He also thanked several club members for their support during the campaign and invited everyone to an appreciation dinner for volunteers and supporters on Saturday.

PP Steve Ting also joined in appreciation for his return to the club after a four month absence in China and for not getting "kicked out" permanently. He said that he missed everyone while he was gone and was saddened by the loss of his friend PP Dick Lohmiller. Steve's parting words to the club were, "I love you all!" The feeling is mutual.

Last, but not least,PP Orrin Mahoney joined the President's club in celebration of being reelected to the city council and noted that 4 out of 5 council members are Rotarians! He then presented an "End Polio Day" proclamation from the city to President Liz.

Orrin also reported that during the recent two week Cupertino Rotary trip to India the traveling Rotarians visited four Rotary clubs. Joined by fellow traveler and Club Secretary Jerra Rowland, they presented banners from the Indian clubs to President Liz along with a gift (a scarf) for "letting them (the seven India team members) be gone". He said that the club will be hearing a lot more in coming weeks about the India trip!

Opening Bell: Hugh Riddell rang the cable car bell enthusiastically (twice!!) to get the meeting started. Hugh then led us in the pledge.

Inspiration and Reflection: Aarti Shrivastava gave the inspirational message this morning. Her message was based on a quote from Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, "Treat people as if they were what they ought to be, and you help them to become what they are capable of being." She amplified this thought with the following observations:

Visiting Rotarians: We were happy to welcome PP Ron Lykins (1990-1991) who is now a member of the Rotary Club of Los Gatos Morning and Anita Grossman from the Rotary Club of Mountain View. Also in attendance, after a long stay in China, was our wonderful PP Steve Ting who was greeted with thunderous applause! Let's hope that his "visits" become more regular.

Rotarians with Guests: The following guests joined us for today's meeting: Milt Wehrman introduced his daughter Ashley who is graduating from UC Santa Cruz; Elsie Wu introduced our speaker for today, Bonita Thompson; and President Liz Gallegos hosted her guest, Lund Smith.

November Birthdays: Brad Mann led the club members in singing Happy Birthday to the November birthday members sitting at the festive table.

Vijay Prakash Live Concert: Ram Gopal apologized for the fact that the show was canceled. It will hopefully be rescheduled for March/April in 2010.

Wine Drawing: Hung Wei and Theresa Horng conducted the monthly wine drawing, and lucky Rotarian Marcia Stasi was the winner!

Padma Chari gave a very interesting vocational talk today. She has lived in the United States for 28 years after arriving from Southern India. Before that, she moved around a lot, attending nine schools before graduating from high school in addition to spending two years in Kenya. She feels that all of that change was good as she had to meet new friends and experience new cultures. It has made her very open to people, finding it easy to make new friends and to be loyal to them.

Just before coming to the U.S. Padma and her husband were wed through an arranged marriage. They moved to Los Angeles, first as part of the UCLA community, and lived there for seven years. They have two children, a daughter in a master's program at Columbia University and a son who is a senior in engineering at UC Berkeley (GO BEARS!!!).

She has worked in a number of fields, accounting, computer, and advertising. She has been a Realtor for the past 6 years, loves to travel, and also runs an event planning business. Welcome Padma!!!

PP Don Allen presented the final tally of the extraordinary efforts of our Club's members on behalf of the Rotary International Foundation -- $55,755!! We met President Liz's challenge to reach higher than ever before in honor of our Club's 55th anniversary in 2010.

Don thanked everyone in the club for their generosity. He is pleased that the fund raiser was completed quickly, and we can now concentrate on other club activities during this busy holiday season. As a side note, Don spoke about something that he called the "Three Way Test". My notes aren't too clear on the details, but I should have a further report in next month's meeting notes!

In keeping with our club's annual Thanksgiving tradition, Cupertino Rotary's program on the day before Thanksgiving will be a unique blend of expressions and self-reflections by our own members on why they are thankful. We will get to know some of our long time members better as they provide short reflections on things that mean the most to them. It will also give us a chance to get to know some of our newer members and learn what's important and makes them most thankful.

However we choose to celebrate our national holiday, Thanksgiving, we should all remember the first Thanksgivings, as well as our American ancestors, whether native born, free emigrant, slave or indentured servant. We should never forget the struggles they all endured to create this nation from which our generation and our children's will continue to greatly benefit. Let's all be thankful. See you Wednesday!

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

On Saturday, December 12th, the grounds of Via Service's outdoor education center -- Camp Costanoan -- will be covered with 10 tons of snow and filled with the happy sounds of children with special needs, many of whom will be experiencing snow for the first time. The Rotary Club of Cupertino working with its Partners in Service; Stevens Creek Quarry, Via Services, and CREF, will create a beautiful winter wonderland, just right for sledding, snowmen, and snowball fights!

You can help sponsor a child!

As a result of your generous gift, a special needs child will experience the joys of this special season. Please consider making a donation to support this worthy cause. Silver and Blue sponsors will receive a commemorative snowflake ornament to hang in their homes.

Yes, I want to help it snow in Cupertino...  it's easy to make a sponsoring donation of $50, $100, or more, by clicking on the Donate button below to go to the Cupertino Rotary Endowment Foundation's PayPal account:

$100  Silver Snowflake Sponsor

 $  50  Blue Snowflake Sponsor

CREF is a 501(c)(3) charitable organization
100% of your donation to Operation Snowflake is tax deductible.