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NOTE: REGULAR MEETING PLACE IS A LULU'S RESTAURANT NOW
GVN Rotary Bulletin 2-5-15
Flag: Ken Worthen Invocation: Marina Martinez God Bless America: Elaine Bern
Pres. Wynne opened the meeting downstairs only to find a water leak just above his head.
GUESTS OF THE CLUB:
Bill Parks brought Gina Risken, the director of Human Resources at Birmingham. Rich introduced Chuck Perlman who is visiting from the Marina del Rey Rotary.
GUESTS:
Elaine is accompanied today by her husband, Shelly Bern. Marina introduced Mr. Mike Hayes who will be speaking later.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
All but 8 spots of the Super Bowl lottery were sold. A Mr. Castro who is painting Wynne’s home won the first quarter. Dave Friedman, whose luck never seems to run out, picked up the half time and the third quarter for a win of $400.00 and Rich’s niece, Gabriel Incranona, won the game for another $400.00 that she will use for school expenses.
Jim announced that next week all of us are to bring our sweethearts – or at least find some significant “other”, as we celebrate Valentine’s Day with a very special program.
The Track Meet is still scheduled for April 25th. The post Cards have been sent out and Scott has held a meeting of the various school coaches. This event encompasses now the San Fernando Valley High Schools and several schools come from the L.A. area to participate. Last year a record was set at Birmingham when one of the athletes vaulted over 17 feet high on the Pole Vault. We have professional s running the events so these students get official recognition from their participation. Wynne pointed out the bleachers were comfortably filled with family members watching and $350.00 was earned from the drawing last year.
April 2nd is our big fund raiser. Wynne has already gotten $10,000.00 in commitments from organizations that have bought tables, so we will break even. He requests each member bring an Auction Item to donate so that we will be making money on those items as well as the ticket sales. The Labor union, Tommy Galinas’ Relics’ Museum, the YMCA, the Boy Scouts, Children’s Hospital, the Salvation Army and Birmingham High all have requested tables.
Because of the Mega-Million Saturday on the 7th, club members each put in $2.00 expecting that our club will win the state lottery.
HAPPY BUCKS:
Jim Tanner had brought in an article about Birmingham High and its outstanding principal. So Bill Parks paid his publicity “happy bucks.” Rich offered his for missing the meeting last week. Your editor missed who celebrated that 41 years ago his daughter was born, and Alice reported her son, Alex, is 48 years old.
PROGRAM:
Jim introduced our speaker, Mike Cane, who is a volunteer with Plug-InAmerica.org who has driving his electric vehicle up from Newport Beach to speak with us today. He is one of the advocates to move the U.S. from petroleum to electric vehicles.
People go to electric for different reasons, often because of the concern for global warming and to lower the cost of fuel and maintenance of the cars. They may like to use solar panels to produce their own fuel. They plug the car in when they get home, and unplug it to leave. The driving experience is quiet and the cars drive smoothly; they even have to put some noise to the car to alert pedestrians. Federal Express, Office Depot and UPS have gone electric, often with hybrids so petroleum takes over if electricity runs out. The Volt has gas as the batteries only go 40 miles.
Charging stations have different levels of provision of electricity. Level 1 is 120 volts and takes about hours to charge, but you can go 60-70 miles. Level 2 is 240 volts, and the “fast charge” only takes 3-4 hours. Tesla has a super-charge station where the car is charged in only ½ hour; there stations are along all major interstates. Each different charger has a different hook-up so drivers learn to plan trips by where they charge. There is an AP for phones that gives the locations of the charging stations: Plug Share.
There is a $7,500.00 tax credit or 1,000.00- 1,500.00 credit for a hybrid. Mike pays $200.00 to lease an electric car. Even if one lives where coal (the biggest polluter) is producing electricity, the electric car is causing 30% less pollution. To maintain roads, there are proposals of a tax by the miles driven, rather than a gasoline tax.
Rechargeable batteries are expensive. Some are $1,000.00, but Nissan is $5,000.00 but it runs 100,000 to 150,000 miles. New technologies for batteries will increase the mileage in the future. The Japanese has a head-start on the fast charges. One can get more miles by driving more slowly. The Prius is now the best-selling of the cars.
He does NOT feel the fuel cell car by Hyundai will be successful as global warming will be worse trying to produce the hydrogen they run on.
RAFFLE: Tom Harris took home the $32.00 for the 50/50.
Writen by Barbara Pampalone,
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