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The following membership applications have been recommended by the Executive Board and are open for member comment prior to approval:
Member:
Kwan Seo, Real Estate Management
Associate Member:
Jonathan Canter, Investment Banking
Chloe Jordan, Home Health Care
Ellen Horwitz, Nonprofit- Meals On Wheels
Your P.E., Aly Shoji, welcomed everyone to the friendly Westwood Village Rotary today b/c our President Mark Rogo was out on vacation, AGAIN! Just Kidding! He was actually home very ill so we are wishing him a speedy recovery and Aly received his messages throughout the entire lunch as he tried to run the meeting still via text from his room! ;)
Past President Mike Newman led us in the pledge and Past President Chris Bradford provided our invocation today.
Introduction of our visiting Rotarian was Calvin Chan from the Rotary Club of Los Angeles downtown (also at our head table as a speaker today) visitors included: Michelle Thompson, Mavis Yao, Paul Marone, Mike Collins and others.
Introduction of head table: Calvin Chan of the Myanmar Water Project, Janice Kamenir-Reznik of Jewish World Watch, membership chairperson Tom Barron, Youth Services Avenue of Service chair Jim Crane, Past President Peter More
Other than our dear President being ill, our only other health and welfare moment update was from VP Dr. Colby Smith sharing that his lovely wife Stacie and their yet to be born daughter (due in May!) are both doing well.
Announcements:
- P.E. Aly Shoji reminded everyone No cell phones
- VP Colby reminded everyone about the Rotary Impact Service Project sorting food at LA Food Bank on Feb 1
- Valentine's Day Luncheon Feb 16th
- Jim Crane recapped the Arts contest at Uni High. Jim has done an incredible job with our youth from the ethics committee to working with Uni High. He shared how we had a wonderful response from our club for volunteers and that some of the talent this year may take the whole thing at District!
- He also shared our Board approved monetary awards, again, to reward these students and that these kinds of competitions expose them to so many wonderful opportunities and people. Thank you Jim and everyone who volunteered.
- Phil Gabriel announced he will be flying to New York next week to participate in the Empire State Building Stair Race. This is a charity race to benefit research for multiple myeloma. Tom Barron shared with the club, our Board voted to donate $250 from the WVRC to support Phil and Tom Barron's good friend Bob Rohaley (I hope I spelled that correct) recently passed away so in his honor he pledged an additional $200 and President Mark Rogo and Past President Ed Gauld also pledged $200 matching gifts Thank you all for your support of our club member and honoring your friends.
- Past President Peter More announced 50 years ago he came to the US and in 1979 he was naturalized. He also shared the anniversary of the Rotary Club Hong Kong East and will be visiting on March 31 if anyone is interested in joining.
- Also, in honor of the Chinese New Year, club members will be gathering
at the Palace Seafood Restaurant this Friday. Space is limited and may be at capacity so please contact Peter or Mark if you would like more information. - March 5th we are meeting at Hillcrest Country Club in the evening at 6:00 for fellowship and we will NOT be meeting the following day, March 6th.
Now onto our program. Our Program Chair, Paul Aslan introduced our speaker. Janice Kamenir-Reznik received her BA and JD at UCLA and practiced environmental law for more than 20 years. When the Darfur genocide started in 2004, Janice left the practice of law and decided to dedicate herself to combatting genocide. She co-founded Jewish World Watch with Rabbi Harold Schulweis; the goal of the organization is to ensure that the world does not remain silent in the face of genocide. Janice travels to Darfuri refugee camps and to eastern Congo on behalf of Jewish World Watch; the organization develops and funds rape recovery projects, and other economic and educational development projects for survivors of rape and Genocide. Janice spoke to Westwood Rotary about the importance of not being a bystander in the face of genocide. In Darfur, hundreds of thousands of Black African Muslims have been murdered and more than a million Darfuris have been evicted from their ancestral lands and rendered homeless and stateless. In Sudan, there are two other genocides unfolding as well. If the world remains silent, hundreds of thousands of innocent people will die. In the Democratic Republic of Congo, 6 million Congolese have been murdered and 1100 women a day are raped. Children are kidnapped and forced into militias. The root of violence in Congo relates to the mineral wealth being exploited by foreign militias and corrupt internal armies. All of the digital devices we use have minerals mined in Congo. Jewish World Watch has an active advocacy agenda which has been successful in creating laws in the US which will require electronics companies to disclose the origin of the minerals they use. This advocacy will eventually lead to having fewer illicit mines so that we can purchase products which are "conflict free". JWW also builds schools, orphanages, medical clinics, rape recovery hospitals, and supports a panoply of economic development projects in Darfur, Central African Republic, and in Democratic Republic of Congo. Check out the JWW Website. Also, the Rotary Club was encouraged to form a team and walk in the Walk to End Genocide on April 27th. check it out and register at www.walktoendgenocide.org. I (your P.E.) apologize I cried my eyes out during this presentation. This is difficult information to hear and always feel so grateful to be born in this country and that we as Rotarians get involved in so many areas. Paul Aslan introduced our next speaker. Calvin Chan joined the Rotary Club of Los Angeles in 2010 and became involved with the Myanmar Water Systems Project immediately. He graduated from Cal State LA with a degree in Business Administration: Real Estate & Finance. Calvin has worked in the insurance and financial services industry for the past four years and just recently started his own agency. "I believe Rotary to be the greatest outlet of opportunities to build character and give back to the less fortunate. My mother's side of the family originates from Burma. We still have dozens of relatives that reside in Rangoon and Mandalay. Serving as Liaison to this project has been an incredible experience." The Rotary Water Management Systems Project is a mission of Rotary to build clean water systems for orphanages, orphan-caring Buddhist monasteries, and villages in the Myanmar Delta Region devastated by Cyclone Nargis. This is a multi-district, multi-national project, with LA5 as the lead club. This project began in 2005, when a then 30-year Rotarian from Anaheim Hills was leading a Rotary video documentary team in Southeast Asia following the 2004 Tsunami. In Myanmar, JT Warring spotted an opportunity to address a major public health priority in Myanmar. This project has produced 30 water systems as of June 2013. Rotary's goal is to contribute and build more than 200 more sites. More information can be found at www.myanmarwater.org. The price of a system is only $9,000 and serves 50-250+ orphanages and villagers.
YYE Aly Shoji
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