This page was created to depict some noteworthy postings on the ROTI listserv within the past month. May you enjoy and appreciate them as much as we do in a truly Rotarian spirit..

Message: 1
Interact to Rotaract to Rotary
Posted by: "Ron" yamahajazz@yahoo.com yamahajazz
Sun Sep 23, 2007 5:09 am (PST)

Dear ROTIans,

I was at the Commercial Section of the US Embassy in Manila last week for a business showcase. One of the staff noticed my Rotary pin and said, "stay right here, there is someone I want you to meet." I always do what I'm told in a Embassy, and was soon introduced to one of the Commercial Assistants named Tess.

Tess proceeded to tell me she recognized my name from some of the Philippine Rotary listservs, and excitedly began to tell me of her background. She had joined an Interact club in high school and after graduation, and followed the Rotary path into a Rotaract club in college. She continued with one of the many very active Rotaract clubs in Manila after graduation for a few years, until being asked to join Rotary three years ago. Since that time she has become the director of both their YEP and RYLA programs.

We had a great visit and when I told her about the good work being done by ROTIans in the areas in which she was involved, she became very interested. She had seen some of the ROTI post reproduced on Rotary Phils, so was already familiar some of our work.

I left her with a ROTI brochure, always carry some with me, and hope to add another ROTIan to our folk soon.

Ron Nethercutt
Clark Centennial D 3790, Angeles City, Philippines

Message: 2
How to overcome membership decline
Posted by: "THRAP-OLSEN" ethrap@club-internet.fr ethrap2003
Wed Oct 3, 2007 6:22 am (PST)

(an article for THE ROTARIAN)

An interesting discovery has been made by EUROTARY87 the association of 115 clubs chartered 1987 in Europe. They had their annual meeting last year in Denmark, this year in England and 2008 in Germany. End September 200 participants met in OXFORD. Development during 20 years of the 115 clubs from 1987 to 2007 has been very different. Number of members per club is double in northern Europe compared to the Mediterranean countries. Rotary density (number of Rotarians per 1000 population) is five times higher in Scandinavia compared to France as shown in http://www.rotary.org/newsroom/downloadcenter/pdfs/trf_topgiving04- 05.pdf. The reason of these differences is Rotary image. In the Mediterranean countries Rotary means "old men at table" whereas the image in Scandinavia is young and dynamic as was demonstrated at "image workshop" under CONVENTION 2006 in Copenhagen. Change of image is not a matter of publicity – the only way is to have clubs adapted to modern living as shown by some odd exceptions in Italy, France and Spain.

Einar Thrap-Olsen
Charter President, RC Gordes, D-1760

Message: 3
You get what you pay for...
Posted by: "Patrick Coleman" pcoleman@zamnet.zm colemanpg
Tue Oct 9, 2007 7:22 am (PST)

I often wondered how an organization that has copied Rotary in so many ways can out-number us. The Lions Clubs here in Zambia attempt far less than Rotary Clubs. While we invest hundreds of thousands of US$ in water, education and health, the Lions pass out used clothes and have occasional eye clinics. So, why are they larger in number?

A Rotarian told me they had heard of a "family plan" in Lions. Well, I visited their web site and, sure enough, I found an interesting concept: A Family Plan for membership! They have more people because the charge less per member and each Lion can invite up to four members of their family to join "at half price."

While, as I said, this looks interesting, it is also making a financial hole that "someone" will have to fill in later years. Administration costs per member are not going down by 50% when you have more members. There might be a slight difference, but it will not be half as expensive to cover the cost of the second, third or fourth member in a household.

It is, however, very tempting. In Africa most families have extended family members living with them. Uncles, aunts, in-laws and older nephews and nieces are commonly staying with family members who happen to live "in town" and have jobs with larger incomes. This would be a gold mine of new members for Rotary here.

Then I remember what my father always said about cheap products at cheap prices: You get what you pay for.

Patrick Coleman
Luanshya, Zambia, D9210 IPDG

From the Lions' Web Site

Family Program Information

Who Qualifies? - This program applies to existing or new Lions in and/or joining the same club and living in the same household related by birth, marriage and other legal means - such as parents, children, spouses, aunts/uncles, cousins, grandparents and in-laws of spouses.

How long will my family receive reduced dues? The Family Membership Dues rate began on January 1, 2007. This is a permanent program that was ratified as part of the Lions Clubs International Constitution.

How Does The Family Membership Dues Program Work? - The first family member (Head of Household - HH) is required to pay the full International Dues (US$39.00) and any applicable entrance fee. Up to four more subsequent qualifying family members over the age of majority in the same household and the same club shall pay one-half of the standard annual dues (US$19.50) and no association entrance fees.(Emphasis mine)

Can a life member be part of a family unit? Yes. When completing the Family Unit Certification Form the Life Member should be listed as the head of household. Subsequent qualifying family members shall pay one half of the standard annual dues.

Does the age one can become a Lion change? No. Per the association's constitution, formal membership is limited to individuals who are above the age of majority. Therefore, adolescents and minor children shall not be entitled to formal membership and not be added to the membership roster. However, in such cases, clubs encourages clubs are encouraged to allow children to volunteer in age appropriate activities or to sponsor Leo Clubs for these younger family members as desired.

What sort of voting rights do family members get? Dues paying family members who are above the age of majority each have a vote on club matters and are counted as individual active Lions toward delegate voting formulas for district and international convention votes.

Is Family Unit Member eligible to seek club, district or international office? Lions that are a member of a Family unit are Active Lions with all rights and privileges of an Active Lion. Active Lions are eligible to seek a position as a club, district or international officer.

Message: 4
My earlier concern with Clubs still dominates me
Posted by: "narindar13" narindar13@yahoo.co.in narindar13
Tue Oct 9, 2007 7:23 am (PST)

I do believe we need to decrease our fee structure to seek members of different background. Such members would probably have wide variety of objectives, rather than our present declining membership.We also need members who can give time to handel activities rather than be big donors. Our costs of weekly meetings be reduced and fellowships in variety be payable if used.

I also hold funds be raised rather donated by members. Many a fund raising activities ought to be done. Most clubs I am familiar with never undertake fund raising.

Message: 5
Men's Sheds and Friends Of Rotary
Posted by: "John Glassford" jacksflat@gmail.com huffnpuff2003
Sun Oct 14, 2007 12:02 am (PST)

G ' day

Having some brain storming sessions with myself prior to 08/09 and how to get new members and helpers. I need your sage advice please.

• BACKGROUND.

  We live in a small town (the first Rotary Peace Village in the World), population 1,200. Active community with Lions, Country Women's Association and football. (Aussie Rules). Currently going through the worst drought since white settlement 220 years. Farming community: canola, wheat, sheep and cattle. 6 years of below average rainfall with the last year the killer blow! Banks are circling the farmers and the owners of the shops that support farmers here. There are suicides. We have 25 members in our Rotary club.

• MEN'S SHEDS

  We want to establish a Men's Shed in Coolamon to serve the area some 12,000 in the Shire mostly farmers and their families. It seems that the men are having the main problems coping with this drought.

  Men's Sheds Australia is an active group and there are many such sheds around Australia:

  http://www.mensheds.com.au

• THE ROTARY CLUB OF COOLAMON

  I want our members to adopt the Club Leadership Plan CLP:

  http://www.rotary.org/en/AboutUs/SiteTools/Search/Pages/ridefault.aspx?k=club%20leadership%20plan

  This will give every member a job if we have the committees as listed.

  We have 25 members of which 15 would be active and of which 5 are very active.

• THE PROBLEM

  If we continue with all the projects and the 4 avenues of service that we do, we will be very short in people power. We need new members BUT the town is well above average when it comes to the community involvement. Recruiting new members is tough in our town and keeping them is even tougher.

• THE NEED

  The need is great for a place for the men off the land and the men in the towns around us (5 smaller than Coolamon) to go to meet other men and have a chat. They also make things in Men's Sheds and are self sufficient. They also talk a lot about their health. It is a great success now around Australia.

• THE SOLUTION?

  Rotary Coolamon will facilitate the Coolamon and District Men's Shed. In doing so we will involve any man in the Shire who wants to help.

  Now my question can I start a new class of "member" of our club?

  Call them a Friend Of Rotary:

  • NO joining fees no annual fees only pay for dinner.
  • Meetings 10 in the year and AS PART of a normal club meeting.
  • Supply them with a dinner badge:

    Name

    FOR (the O being the Rotary Wheel)

    Friend of Rotary (very small print)

    COOLAMON

    So the badge will read as e.g.: John Smith FOR COOLAMON.

  Hope you are still with me.

  First any problems with the ideas?

• BENEFITS

  More people men and women from our area will get exposed to Rotary ten times a year.

  This will result in some of these Friends Of Rotary becoming full members.

  We get more hands on helpers.

  The process will motivate the current members . So my hope is that we will have 15 very active members and 10 active members and NO one without a job.

  Bottom line if we can provide the men with a place to go; a place where they can have genuine mateship; a place to discuss their intimate health problems with their mates then we may just be able to save a marriage or three and maybe even a life or two.

  We are in a race against time and I heard very recently of a sheep farmer from these parts, who took all his sheep to the markets and did not get a bid, took them all home again shot the lot............. then shot himself.

Thank you

{PS Still working hard on RFFA and Africa.}

Yours in Rotary

John Glassford
Rotary Club of Coolamon, District 9700, New South Wales, Australia

Message: 6
What do you expect from your Rotaract Club?
Posted by: "'Rotaract Club of Bombay North Island'" mail@bni.in puruonline
Mon Oct 15, 2007 11:52 pm (PST)

Hi all,

Rotaract Clubs has been around since 1968. Often they are in shadows of the Rotary and often a "bunch of youngsters" who don't know anything about community service and just wants to have fun.

In RI District 3140, we pride ourselves for "partnering" with Rotary Clubs for projects and ideas. Many Rotary Clubs have realized that we can be trusted with project management and execution as much as planning and crisis management. We are involved from the planning stage itself and not called only for making an event look crowded enough and successful. Probably, the only area we are trying hard to stabilize and improve are finances. Certainly, it has taken us more than a decade to change a mindset and a string of successful partnerships. Rotaract, in that sense, is quite big here with about 2500 members.

So what do you expect from your Rotaract Clubs?

• To come as volunteers for Rotary projects?

• To be the beneficiaries of any youth related programs that you may have? For example - IYE programs etc

• To be the project partners in the true sense and not just "fill the hall with more people"

It will help us build a perspective and probably make our movement better.

We are in the process of helping our own Rotary with their regular news bulletin. As we have techies who are inclined to designing, it will really mutually benefit both. We might develop Rotary website as well. We would want to help our Rotary as much as possible so they can concentrate on core projects and ideas and possibly not get bogged down by administrative tasks. We are doing our bit for the same.

PS: Do check out our website, www.bni.in.

Thanks & Regards

Rtr Purshottam Killa
Rotaract Club of Bombay North Island, RI District 3140

Message: 7
ROTI Booth at RI Convention in Los Angeles
Posted by: "Ron" yamahajazz@yahoo.com yamahajazz
Tue Oct 16, 2007 9:17 pm (PST)

Hope many of you ROTIans will be in Los Angeles for the RI Convention. I received the following re our application for a booth in the Fellowship Hall. Each Fellowship, or Global Group, may request one booth but I requested two...hoping for the extra. We will not know the status of our request until later. If anyone has "extra pull" with those in power and can assure a second booth, let me know. It is a delicate issue, since many others would also enjoy a second booth.

Ron Nethercutt
ROTI Chair 07-09
RC Clark Centennial D 3790, Angeles City, Philippines

Dear ROTI Chair,

This e-mail is to confirm that Rotary International has received your application to exhibit at the 2008 RI Convention in Los Angeles, California, USA.

Please be aware that Rotary International will notify all applicants regarding the success of their proposed exhibit after the exhibit booth space application deadline of Thursday, 31 January.

Thank you for your patience.

Kimberly Dunton
Supervisor, Exhibits & Shipping, International Meetings, RI

Message: 8
This is Rotary
Posted by: "SUDHINDRA MOHAN SHARMA" hydroexplore@yahoo.co.in
Thu Oct 18, 2007 12:10 am (PST)

This is Rotary.

As rotarians, we often do social service. Sometimes with the club project, sometimes, on our own. We donate school furnitures, we go to every corner of the world to administer polio drops.

We also often hear stories about the service to the society, by rotarians.

What I am going to narrate just now, may seem ordinary to some people.

I have a friend in Indore, India whose maternal uncle fell ill in Goa, a place 900 Km from Indore, and was to be shifted from Goa to Indore for getting medical treatment.

He was visiting Goa, and he suffered a spinal chord injury, and he could not even move.

He had to travel on a stretcher.

Air lifting the patient is too costly in India.

The direct train from Goa was available up to Khandawa only ( about 130 Km from Indore), and the patient and the attendants had to get down at Khandawa railway station, which is a very small railway station with not much of facilities.

Khandawa was an unknown place for them, and they did not know anybody in Khandawa, who could help them at the station, and were worried.

They were worried because, the stoppage for the train at Khandawa is just two minutes. And the movement of the stretcher inside the train, is not very fast. It would be very difficult for them to even get down from the train at Khandawa.

My friend phoned me and asked me " Do you have any contact in Khandawa, who could help them on the station, since the patient is in a delicate situation".

Immediately I thought of my rotarian friends there. I phoned Rtn. Atul Shah, a past president of R.C. Khandawa. He was away from his town, when he recieved my call on his mobile phone. He immediately assured me, saying " Sudhindra bhai, sab ho jayega, aap bilkul fikar naa kariye". ( In English it means, Do not worry, everything will be taken care of)

I told the same thing to my friend, and gave him the cell number of Rtn. Atul Shah. But my friend was still very much worried, and asked me whether he should remind Mr. Atul Shah in the morning, I assured him once again, that it was not needed, Atulbhai is a dedicated Rotarian.

Rtn. Atul Shah, even being out of station, and even being busy with a family ceremony, arranged everything. He spoke to Rtn. Susheel Mandloi, and other members of his club.

And believe me, when the train arrived , Rtn. Susheel Mandloi, with a team of Rotarians from the Khandawa club, was at the Khandawa Railway station, along with the Railway staff, and coollies ( Porters) , to recieve the patient, and the family.

They not only helped them to comfortably get down from the train but saw to it that the patient was alighted from the train with excellent care, and precaution, looking to his serious and delicate condition. They helped them to shift the patient, and the luggage right up to the car outside the station.

• The patient , or even any distant relative of the patient, was not known to these Rotarians.

• The patient was not a VIP, nor an influential person, nor some big shot.

• These Rotarians, probably, would never meet the patient, or any of his relative, again in life,

• Still, the Rotarians were there to help them.

I do not have the words to thank the Rotarians of Khandawa club, for their excellent help, and for their care and concern.

But all this is also important to me because my friend whose uncle was the patient, said this to me :

"Hats off to Rotary, and to Rotarians like them. I always considered that Rotary is just a group of individuals, who meet to gossip, eat, and chit chat. Now I have changed my mind, and now I know, what real Rotary is. I am very happy for you, Sudhindra, that you belong to such a wonderful organisation"

And the family of the patient, and my friend were in tears when they narrated this whole incidence to me.

I am sure, each one of us rotarians are like these dedicated Rotarians, who lend a hand, to those in need, sowing the seeds of love, and sharing Rotary with everyone who needs us.

At the beginning , I wrote that this may seem ordinary incidence to some people, but for me, this is an extra ordinary happening, because it has further uplifted the image of Rotary , and the respect for Rotarians has been enhanced, in the society.

Thankyou, Rtn. Atul Shah, Rtn. Susheel Mandloi, and all the Rotarians of R.C. Khandawa.

Rtn. Sudhindra Mohan Sharma, Distt. Chair- PERG- Water, RID 3040, INDIA

Message: 9
ROTI; GSE team interviews
Posted by: "Sam Chapman" scchapman1@sbcglobal.net sccquicken2
Mon Oct 22, 2007 2:46 am (PST)

Several years ago D6040 was exchanging with a district when women in Rotary were relatively new. The other team chairman responded to the question "Will you welcome a female team member?," He said "We have never had a woman team member, but I can't think why it would be a problem." It was not a problem, she was warmly welcomed.

During the interview before a mostly male committee the female prospect made a most wonderful impression. Because she was being interviewed at a special meeting because she had other obligations and she needed to know that very day if she would be a team member she was asked to leave the room while she would be discussed. As she stood to leave the elastic holding her underslip suddenly broke and the slip fell to the floor. With only an instant of hesitation she bent over, picked it up and shoved it into her purse as she walked out of the room.

I told her later, "You did that on purpose just to demonstrate how cool you could be in an embarrassing situation." She denied that of course, but she became the most outstanding team member after a unanimous vote by the committee. smile

Sam
D6040 Liberty, Missouri USA

Message: 10
Fires in Southern California
Posted by: "Dr. Todd Lindley" rotary6060.tl@gmail.com lindleydds
Mon Oct 22, 2007 9:31 am (PST)

Art,

We hope you stay safe. Two of our cousins in the San Diego area have been evacuated and don't know if their homes are intact or not. One of their daughters has had to leave her college there as a safety precaution as well. They are telling us the Santa Ana winds are now hurricane force and spreading the fires faster than they've ever seen before.

May God bless

Todd Lindley DDS, FAGD
Rotary District 6060 Foundation Chairman
Overland Missouri 63114-3640

Message: 11
Re: Fires in Southern California
Posted by: "Art McCullough" artmccullough@cox.net
Mon Oct 22, 2007 12:13 pm (PST)

Dr. Todd and ROTI Group,

This is Greg McCullough, son of Art. My parents are safe. They were evacuated last night. We are not sure if their house remains - we hope so.

While we are safe at this time, we are looking at the next steps and may be evacuating again to find better quality air for my mother.

Thank you for your hopes and prayers.

Greg

Message: 12
Re: update on our situation and the fire
Posted by: "Art McCullough" artmccullough@cox.net
Tue Oct 23, 2007 11:14 pm (PST)

Hi all

We were evacuated from our Home Sunday night at 10 PM and have bee out ever since.

Just got my computer set up and running thanks to my Son Greg.

The good news : Averill and I are safe and in Palm Desert about 100 miles east and over the mountains in the desert near Palm Springs CA , Because of the road closes we had to drive to Orange County and back to the Desert for a total of 200 miles in 5 hours We are staying at a Marriott Time share for this week or longer until the fires and smoke are gone, We came her because it is out of the smoke and fires and is save for Averill who has COPD and could not breath in San Diego area.

Over 500 thousand to 1 million are evacuated from their homes .

Bad news : Our home for the last 27 years and all of the things and memories are gone .

This includes all of the checks everyone sent to me for your reservation for the hotel so we will have to start this over again.

I would suggest the tomorrow morning that you all start putting together your inventory of everything in your homes and have that outside the home. Now we know.

But it is going to be a clean start for everything, our Ins company is going to help us find a replacement home until we rebuild or buy another one ,over 1000 homes are gone also in San Diego area.

For anyone who wish to contact our cell number is 760-317-0334 ,and My e-mail is running and I have 150 to catch up tonight.

Remember we are fine and just need to buy all new clothes as I have 1 pair of socks ands 2 pair of unders.

Our temp address next week will be at our Son Greg's home at 11912 Willow Dr. Vista ,CA 92081

Arthur (Art ) McCullough
Escondido Sunrise RC, Escondido, CA. USA
District 5340

Message: 13
Photos of Art's former home
Posted by: "Art McCullough" artmccullough@cox.net
Sat Oct 27, 2007 10:14 pm (PST)

HI all, My Son Jeff was at our property Friday with members of my Rotary club Picking up what ever was left after the fire destroyed our home in the Witch fire early Sunday morning ,Please go to his web site at www.jeffmccullough.com/fire

Not much we can save. Total of 1700 homes are gone and over 500,000 acres burned total and some fires are still burning , My advice is for everyone to start doing your inventory of your home .

Averill and I would love to have a stone from everyone from all over the world (NOT YOU THOUGH ) so we can build a friendship and peace wall. We will rebuild and design it newer and better.

We are out in Palm Desert near Palm Springs so are safe although the smoke has moved here over 100 miles away over 12000 high mountains. They tell me that the fire was blowing up our hill at 100 miles per hour and got up to 200 degrees Fahrenheit so it blew over walls and .melted everything .

Arthur (Art ) McCullough
Escondido Sunrise RC, Escondido, CA. USA
District 5340

Message: 14
Personal - Senior Citizens Club
Posted by: "sanj_1965" sanj_1965@yahoo.co.in sanj_1965
Tue Oct 30, 2007 5:20 am (PST)

Dear friends,

Our Club, Rotary Club of Thane Hills (RID 3140), is sponsoring a Senior Citizens Association and the inauguration program is scheduled for this Sunday, 4th November 2007.

I would like to know about senior citizens club in Rotary. How many Senior Citizens Clubs have been sponsored by Rotary Clubs worldwide and what is the membership figure.

Is it beneficial to have a PROBUS club or just sponsoring a senior citizens association is good enough. I have gone through the PROBUS manual and feel it offers something very similar to RI in terms of global membership. But not many people around here are familiar with the PROBUS Club concept and the trend is to go ahead and sponsor the association. So I would like your opinion on this matter.

Warm Regards,

Sanjiv Seth
Rotary Club of Thane Hills, RID 3140 (India)

Message: 15
RYLA
Posted by: "Eugene Beil" kiwimate@msn.com genebeil
Tue Oct 30, 2007 10:43 am (PST)

Fellow ROTIans,

I may have discussed this once before, but perhaps there are new members with opinions. I think several of you may be involved in RYLA programs. Are your programs a week long residential program? At what time of year do they usually occur?

We have a fantastic multi-district RYLA program in Florida. Unfortunately, it usually conflicts with the Rotary International Convention. I find that unfortunate for two reasons:

1. there are international RYLA workshops at the Conventions, which our young leaders cannot attend.

2. good Rotarian leaders may be precluded from attending Conventions also due to committments to the RYLA program

YIR,

Eugene L. Beil, PDG
District 6950 Foundation Chair
Hudson, FL

Message: 16
Choice of the proper CMS
Posted by: "Thomas DeVilbiss" tom@devilbiss.name boudin43
Sun Nov 4, 2007 5:11 pm (PST)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sfrfuCLH9sg

Reference is a Google Tech Talk video concerning Drupal that covers a lot of Techie type stuff but has some very good information for us to consider. The first 11 minutes provide a general introduction. At 24 minutes, the commentators discuss the "killer applications" contained in Drupal that are not in the other leading CMSs. The last 10 minutes are dedicated to discussing how Drupal differs from the other leaders in the field (including Joomla).

Now, if anybody listens to this whole presentation and understands all that is said, you earn your place as the honorary Chair of the CMS Working Group. I certainly didn't. But, it's all about learning and this taught me a lot.

Message: 17
Re: Choice of the proper CMS
Posted by: "Simone Collins" organist@iinet.net.au sim_dragon
Sun Nov 4, 2007 8:31 pm (PST)

I'm a professional web developer (a programmer, not graphic designer) and I've used Drupal at my workplace. We also use 2 other CMSes. In my experience, while Drupal has some services that the others don't (hence the reason why we offer multiple CMSes rather than just one), it is by far the hardest of the ones we have to use.

As a programmer I find it rather clunky and a bit confusing to use (compared to the others we use - MySource Classic and MySource Matrix), and I've found the content editors (who aren't web developers, usually just admin staff) have found it almost impossible to work out. The only section of my workplace which moved into Drupal have since moved their site out of it again!

Kind regards,

PDRR Simone Carot Collins
Rotaract Club of South Perth
District 9470, Western Australia

Message: 18
Re: The School of St Jude Latest News
Posted by: "John Glassford" jacksflat@gmail.com huffnpuff2003
Wed Nov 7, 2007 5:10 pm (PST)

G ' day

Here is the latest from Gemma Sisia at the School of St Jude. I am sure fellow ROTIan Bill Pavey will already have it on his website by now. We visited St Jude's just after the Kili 28/8 Climb. It is amazing what this one Aussie lass has accomplished in just three short years starting with 3 students.

Enjoy the good news here:

http://www.schoolofstjude.co.tz/News/BoardingSchoolatMoshonoCampusOpens/tabid/314/Default.aspx

BTW we will be supplying Gemma with two electricity generators for this boarding school from part of the proceeds of the KIli 28/8 Climb.

Two good examples of what people can do, would be the School of St Jude done on a shoe string by Gemma, and the Oprah Winfrey school for girls in South Africa. Both deserve our attention as eduction is the key in Africa for their success in the future. May there be many more Gemmas and Oprahs.

http://www.oprah.com/presents/2007/academy/academy_main.jhtml

Yours in Rotary

John Glassford
Rotary Club of Coolamon District 9700
New South Wales, Australia

Message: 19
Re: Hi! again from the homeless duo of Escondido.
Posted by: "Art McCullough" artmccullough@cox.net
Sat Nov 10, 2007 9:00 pm (PST)

June and Carl and friends,

June this was going to be just to you guys but I added a few more people who might want to know how we are doing. Overall I would say we are doing better than we thought we would.

We are back in the Escondido area. Still do not have your current phone number. I tried to get from information but you hide out so were not there. PLEASE SEND THE NUMBER SO WE CAN TALK AGAIN.

Cox cable set it up so you can call our old number at 760-743-5315 and it comes to my Cell or you can call the cell at 760-317-0333 .

We finally came back Last Wed to North San Diego County .

The first Sunday night we left our home at stayed at our Son Greg's home in Vista and had to get out due to the smoke and a general evacuation order for 500 thousands people. On our way out that first Monday afternoon we had to drive up the 5 to Orange county then to the 55 to the 91 to the 10 to Palm Desert 7 hard hours (over 200 miles ) as the 15 north of us was already closed as both sides of the 15 in Fallbrook were on fire.

We were at the Marriott Springs on Cook , with our Son and family ,it was nice but a bit boring and we spent most of the time doing inventory , no did you do your as you unpacked this time ? if not get going no not after the fact.

We got out with out computers but left our monitors and keyboards. Greg got us working again. Thank god I have us ,I got out with 2 socks 1 pr. Of shoes a few shirts and pants .

We got out of our home that first Sunday night at 11:00 and the house went up at 4:30 or so and the winds were up to 80 miles per hour ,it went from the Wild Animal Park just 3 miles east of us all the ay to the 15 2 lies west in 15 minutes .

Only our house was lost as the people next to us and the people down below did not cut a fire brake as we had and it went up their hill and bounced off their wall and hit our house directly .

So far Fema has been good (they learned from the fire last time. Allstate is doing us right so far and we have up to 24 months rent paid with electricity paid. They are paying us for Averill's car plus about enough to rebuild our home and more for belongings , It is all gone BUT just think we get all new stuff that we really need and do not have to fight about what to throw away when we move ( you know that game hehe).

MY Sons and their wives have been doing so much for us it is wonderful .

I just saw a home today that will work just north in Escondido 3 bedrooms plus office 3200 SF so lots of room ,just need to modify a few doors and a potty .

We are in a 600 SF Guest house right now in San Marcos ,tight but very nice.

We have thought of this as starting over and are not sad about it , Also tomorrow we are going to see a straw bale house so we can see the construction being built and we are thinking that we will go in this direction as it is more fire proof, it sounds strange but with plaster it will hold up to 1900 degrees where a wood wall with plaster burns at 500 degrees.

It also has wall R rating of 34 .

When we got married we had everything we had fitting in our car, then when we moved the first time it fit in a small trailer ,next took a 30 ft. van, then the next move took a 40 Ft Van plus a 30 ft. van, now we are back to everything in 1 car.

That is about it for now.

My Rotary club has already helped modify the Guest house for me and are ready to do what ever is needed.

The Rotary clubs from here are all getting together to help the fire victims (over 200 homes and 500 thousand acres were on fire all at the same time with 15 separate fires burning, the Firemen and women were trying hard but until the winds stopped about the 4th. day they were up to 100 miles and hour an they could not fly water dropping helicopters or planes so it was had to hand and house by house fire fighting.

Some of the areas near us in Rancho Bernardo there are hundreds of homes all together that went up, in our case it was just our house on our block. Yesterday were going to buy shoes so we had a change after 2 week and if front of the store were the Escondido Firefighters selling special t-shirts to raise money for the fires victims so I said we are also, they signed us up and we also bought a shirt so I guess we will get the money back eventually.

Every one has been wonderful and caring and helpful and respectful sort of like the old days during the 2nd World war

So some good is coming out of this and the Insurance companies are all working with us and the Governments local, regional and FEMA (national ) are working to help everyone quickly , A Big change since the last fire here 5 years ago and what happened in New Orleans after Katrina.

Arthur (Art ) McCullough
Escondido Sunrise RC, Escondido, CA. USA
District 5340

Message: 20
We will remember then...
Posted by: "John HUDSON" john.jrh@btopenworld.com parlousuk
Sun Nov 11, 2007 12:25 am (PST)

For The Fallen

"They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them".

The Soldier

If I should die, think only this of me:
That there's some corner of a foreign field
That is for ever England. There shall be
In that rich earth a richer dust concealed;
A dust whom England bore, shaped, made aware,
Gave, once, her flowers to love, her ways to roam,
A body of England's, breathing English air,
Washed by the rivers, blest by suns of home.

And think, this heart, all evil shed away,
A pulse in the eternal mind, no less
Gives somewhere back the thoughts by England given;
Her sights and sounds; dreams happy as her day;
And laughter, learnt of friends; and gentleness,
In hearts at peace, under an English heaven.

Rupert Brooke