President Mark called our friendly Westwood Village Rotary to order and invited PP Ed Jackson to lead our pledge and Mark Block to provide the invocation. He added some humor, by welcoming AG Morgan to Westwood as his new "home Club"; a reference to the frequent visits of our favorite AG!

YYE walked in a bit late as were singing "Miles and Miles of Texas" from DG Doug Baker's favorite group, Asleep at the Wheel. All of us followed the very able leadership of our songmeister, Paul Aslan.

Visiting Rotarians today included: David Berg from Beverly Hills, AG Linton Morgan, Executive Aide to District Governor Jamie Suh Cantrell, and our esteemed DG himself, Doug Baker. Jim Crane introduced University High students and winners from the music, speech, art, dance contest and their teacher, Mr. Sabbagh, Hunter Mee-Lee (Piano) and Eddie Escalante (music). Guests today were Mike Collins, lovely members from our Auxiliary, Shirley More, Kathie Gauld, Sook Heikkila, and Pat Anderson.

Our Merchant Minute was brought to us today by Paul Yang from Grace Jewelers. Paul came to the U.S. in 1974 and went to UCLA. Founded his company in 1979 and has been part of the Westwood Village community ever since. In honor of the Chinese New Year he gave each of our members a gift in a lucky red envelope. In addition to sales, Grace Jewelers provides appraisals, repairs, and other services.

Announcements:

• Past President Peter More announced our Club will be celebrating Chinese New Year @the Seafood Palace in honor of Brian Whitney! ;)
• Ann Samson announced the Club's Valentine's lunch on Feb 16th at Lawry's starting at 11:30a.m.
• Mark Block shared our Rotary moment and how the first meeting of the UN was hosted by Rotary in London.
• Jonathan Canter spoke about the Rotary Impact event on Feb 1st at the  LA Food Bank. Feb 18th is the next Impact meeting and on Feb 13th we will have TWO craft talks from our Impact members Marcie Rogo and Jonathan!
• Dwight Heikkila and Hank Heuer raised their hands when our club was asked for ROTC volunteeers - thank you, gentlemen!

Jim Crane announced prizes for 1st, 2nd, 3rd Place winners in each of four categories in the WVRC Art/Music/Dance/Speech Competition.

In Art:

• 1st Place Rebecca Hirsch "Kids in Class"
• 2nd Place Rebecca Lim "Beautiful Words"
• 3rd Place Monte Ho "A Frog at Center Stage"

In Dance:

• 1st Place Maya Hall "A dance for girls to show their power"
• 2nd Place Armani Reed "Hip-hop/Cultural"

In Music:

• 1st Place Hunter Mee-Lee "Jazz Piano Solo"
• 2nd Place Eddie Escalante "Original piece"
• 3rd Evyn Mirsol "The Climb"

In Speech:

• 1st Place Evyn Mirsol "4 Way Test applied to Church Attendance"
• Hunter Mee-Lee, a junior and 16 years old, played/wowed us with a jazz arrangement. He started playing at age 9 and 10 and only learned jazz a couple of years ago.

We had a very special moment today to induct our newest honorary member - Pat Anderson! Our District Governor, Doug Baker and Membership Chair Tom Barron presented Pat with her pin and congratulated her along with a standing ovation from the Westwood Village Rotary Club. Pat is the widow of Marshall "Andy" Anderson, a past president of Westwood Village and a past District Governor.

Now onto our Program:

President Mark Rogo introduced DG Doug Baker by simply playing another song by DG Doug's favorite group, Asleep at the Wheel. The song was "Route 66". DG Doug Baker let us know he does not come with prepared talks because he was already out of time that he was allotted, so he started by acknowledging the good works of past presidents such as Gordon Fell. The DG also asked who is the Largest Service Club in the world? The Lions claim more members but Rotary has more clubs. In North America Lions do not have much presence but globally they are the go to club. What are we the WVRC doing right? DG Baker praised our club for continuing to be professional;) He shared with us that the Manhattan Beach Rotary Club has a waiting list and is returning to "the good days" when prospective members hoped to have their applications approved, instead of assuming approval. He also praised our Club for the active Auxiliary noting the rich layer it gives our Club.

Our DG reminded us that Jocularity is the purpose of Rotary or to have fun! And then a Rotary joke: Lions vs Rotary - a short story how one Rotarian regretted his membership when he learned that lions can have sex numerous times a day!

His main point is people join because of our meetings and programs and encouraged our Club to keep up our good work and then welcomed questions. Someone asked why Bill Gates doesn't acknowledge Rotary more? DG Doug's response - Gates he gave $350M for polio plus and Rotary is grateful for that

assistance, and is happy to simply be a part of the goal to eradicate polio from the face of Earth! India is now polio free, still in two countries and we need to remain focused on the goal. Paul Aslan shared how two years ago his wife liked Doug's Rotary pin and he took it off and gave it to her - that's just the kind of guy he is :) In addition to the speaker gifts/books - our President gave a signed CD from the DG's favorite band, Asleep at the Wheel.

Thank you for joining us today.