As a special treat for golfers attending the District Conference, our annual District Golf Tournament will be held on the Dunes Course at La Quinta Country Club on Thursday, April 29 - and the cost is a very special $99, including golf, cart, warm-up balls, and awards. The format will be a Calloway scoring, to make it an enjoyable day for everyone.

But there's a catch: only 144 golfers can play, and chair Bob Jugan expects many more Rotarians and their guests would like to join the fun.

It's first-come that gets to play, so send your money early. Club presidents have applications, or send your check (made out to "Rotary District 5300") to the district office, 1963 South Myrtle Avenue, Monrovia, CA 91016. Bob Jugan can answer your questions: 323-726-0556.

MONTEBELLO celebrates its 75^th year of service on Tuesday, February 2, at the Quiet Cannon (901 North Via San Clemente, Montebello). It's black tie optional, with Rotary Foundation trustee Richard King and District Governor Lee Mothershead speaking. Cost is $65 per person. If you read this on-line in time and would like to join the diamond celebration, call Byron Lee at 323-728-0461.

ALTADENA holds its golden 50^th anniversary dinner-dance at Caltech's Athenaeum on Saturday evening, February 20, and you're welcome to join. Please contact Mike Zoeller at mzoeller@prodigy.net for further information.

The Presidents' Advance, held on the Queen Mary a fortnight ago, was an excellent example of how to combine just enough leisure with instruction to equal enthusiasm for the second half of the Rotary year. Our hat is off to Paul Finchamp for a fine event. The speakers were excellent, the accommodations were … well, let's call them interesting. A few presidents enjoyed cold showers, probably good for them, but at least none suffered seasickness aboard the gracious old ship. Some very good questions were asked and answered, and everyone came away more knowledgeable about Rotary. Ask your President!

February is INTERNATIONAL UNDERSTANDING MONTH. During this month, we should conclude our matching grant programs.

Our GSE team is prepping for their trip to Denmark in the spring, and our Ambassadorial Scholars are finding their assignments for next year.

Plans are under way for many from our district to attend Rotary's International Convention in Singapore, and the District 5300 goodwill trip to China is firming up. Some of you will remember that our district was the first to have a Rotary Scholar from China, when a young lady from Nankin University spent 1994-1995 at UNLV studying American Literature, her specialty. Perhaps we shall be the first district to charger a Rotary club in mainline China!

There have been more joint international projects involving two or three clubs this year, than in any other year I can remember. Truly the works of Rotary know no boundaries.

A plea for a renewal of effort in membership development! We are still down in membership, though less than one member per club. But to increase three percent overall, we need to get new members after we replace those lost to normal attrition.

Last year Rotary International experienced a decline in membership for the first time in its history. Let's help make it back and then some! Remember, although membership is everyone's business, it becomes nobody's unless someone takes it on as a special project. Please help the membership chairs make the second half of the Rotary year a time of successful growth.

Lee Mothershead

As our District Governor Lee Mothershead noted above, membership is everybody's business - and good new members are the lifeblood of our clubs. To help San Gabriel Valley clubs in their quest for strengthened membership, the district is holding a conference on "Discovering the process and strategies of Membership Development".

Saturday morning, February 6^th, is the Membership Development conference date - at South El Monte senior Center, 1556 Central Avenue, South El Monte. Cost is $10 per person; coffee and donuts will be served. Send checks to the district office, or e-mail RonBrittan@aol.com.

BARSTOW has supported its local police department with the "Cops for Kids" toy drive at Christmas time. Bill Hensley, president, reports his members continue to maintain Centennial Park, which they refurbished a number of years ago. Their annual "turkey shoot" usually garners about $1400 for their Toys for Tots program, with everyone having a lot of fun in the process.

DUARTE recognizes academic excellence in their school district, a "Renaissance" program begun by then-president John Valleroy in 1997. The club supports the students with tutoring, and John's Valleroy Construction Co. donated "A-Files" T-shirts to all 4.0 students at Duarte's first academic pep rally last November, where John received cheers from the students.

Over several years, the PAHRUMP club has had an agreement with the Nevada Department of Forestry to buy trees at cost, and plant them using various sources of Rotary and community labor. President Bob Philpot counts up some 15,000 new trees planted to date in the area! Pahrump Rotary also sponsors an immunization clinic in a "Shots for Tots" campaign, reaching most children in their corner of Nevada.

BALDWIN PARK'S president, Ken Smith, reports great enthusiasm for a new program which is a contest for amateur mariachi bands. They are considering opening it up to groups from Mexico, if they can find ways to fund travel costs for these bands. Their October "Duck Race" (you may remember president Ken as the "Duck Man" at last year's district conference) netted $8,000. They are hoping to double that amount next October, as all the startup costs have now been paid.

Most impressive was Baldwin Park's work with Home Depot and the U. S. Coast Guard, which resulted in 40,000 board feet of lumber being shipped to Guatemala to help rebuild after the incredible damage done by Tropical Storm "Mitch". Apparently the "double shuffle" necessary to get the lumber off-loaded by tenders, then transported into the rugged Guatemalan highlands to the points of need, was quite remarkable.

An interesting social note from SAN MARINO: "Mr. and Mrs. Daniel Biles of Monterey Road announce the engagement of their daughter Nicole to Bernard von Thaden, son of Mr. and Mrs. Hans-Werner von Thaden of Karlsruh, Germany." What makes a routine engagement become interesting to Rotarians is how Nicole met Bernard, while both were studying in Milan as Ambassadorial Scholars - a side benefit to our district's Foundation awards that we don't often publicize!

ALTADENA has arranged a cruise to some of the most exotic cities of the Orient aboard the Superstar Gemini as a club fundraiser immediately prior to our RI convention in Singapore. The club has reserved 30 cabins on special group rates, departing Singapore June 6 and returning the 13^th after visiting Port Klang, Pangkor, Phuket, Langkawi, Penang, and Malacca. Suites from $1500 to $2800 per person are available. Call president elect Dennis Mehringer at 626-577-9800 if you're tempted.

QUIZ ANSWERS:

1. Paul Harris started Chicago #1 in 1905.

2. Rotary clubs have been in all these cities, though there are no clubs in Havana, Saigon, or Beijing at this time.

3. A goal of $120 million was set, $219 million was announced, and the total raised is now over $400 million.

4. We hope to eradicate polio by 2000.

5. You must attend 60% of your club's meetings to be active.