John Milich Demotion Dinner

 

I thought it would be nice to share a special evening with those Rotarians who were ill, injured or out of town and unable to attend the Demotion Dinner.  As Past President, Lucky Sandhu was the host for the evening.  A lavishly decorated Basketball themed dinner conceived and executed by Marie Galbo and Kathy Gailey was a great backdrop to the continuously running pictures of John’s life and Rotary tenure.  The video of the basketball extravaganza was entertaining even though we did not capture the spot on shooting prowess of our President.

 

Lucky began the evening invoking executive privilege to change John’s handle, Copy Cat, to more accurately reflect his passion and ability.  The new handle was MAGIC JOHN in reference to the Magic Johnson similarities.

Gary Sloan, the co-emcee, accused John Milich of using the Toronto Convention last year as a cover to coach up the Toronto Raptors resulting in the defeat of our beloved Warriors.  He also noted that John was the shortest tenured Rotarian to become President but was able to significantly advance the Club during his year.

Lucky announced the first award recipients of our Basketball themed dinner.  Most Injured Player went to Norbert Walz who fell on his face while setting up the wine and beer booth for the Art and Wind Festival.  Lucky noted that the fall resulting in a black eye and broken nose improved Norbert’s profile.   Mark Hornstra was also accused of facilitating the accident (aka. Tanya Harding).  Mark was undergoing extradition charges from Africa.

Jerry Marrs was also award the Most Injured Player award for the nervous breakdown he suffered during the season as he guided the club to a successful championship Auction for Education event this year.  Don Bierman accepted the award on Jerry’s behalf as he will be leading this year’s Auction.

The Best Rookie of the Year was awarded to Cathy Opila (Red Badge winner) but all new members were recognized along with the absent Dennis Harvey who as membership chairperson was rumored to be in Mammoth recruiting new members.

Dr. Bill Harlan submitted an Ode to John Herewith is the Ode in its entirety:

 

 

One of the vicarious pleasures of John Milich’s term as president has been learning about all the exotic places he has gone instead of our club on Thursday and the fanciful reasons for his absences.  Here are the Top Ten locales and his excuses:

 

10.       Teri and I had to stay an extra week in Toronto after the RI Convention.  We checked into a Motel Six which offered a “Stay Two Nights and Get an Extra Five Nights for Free” program.  We didn’t want to disappoint the owners.  They were very nice.

 

9.         I was intimidated by Geoff Disch rolling his eyes when I observed that the Rotary budget is just a suggested guideline.

 

8.         Last Thursday was my Saint’s Day.  I was named for St. John of Zagreb, patron saint of photocopiers, who was famous for turning wine into toner fluid.

 

7.         I was commanded to attend special workshop at Rotary headquarters in Evanston, Illinois.  I had to learn that making a motion and seconding it does not mean that it is approved.  You still have to count hands.

 

6.         I’m sorry I missed Thursday’s meeting.  I was over in San Mateo County and stopped by Mavrick’s to catch some waves.  Actually I was at Mavrick’s Antiques in Brisbane where they were having a sale on all their Beach Boys memorabilia. Hang Ten!

 

5.         I stayed up Wednesday night to watch the All-European volleyball finals featuring Lithuania versus Luxemborg and over slept

 

4.         My therapist says I should not go into the backroom at the club again. Mo made me look through the big gold box of memories and confront the broken dreams of all the previous presidents. (Mo says that the last person to handle this stuff owns it!) Too traumatic!

 

3.         I was down in Watsonville for the Wild Katz Daze reunion.  We raced down Hecker Pass and T.P. ‘ed the coach’s house just like the old days.

 

2.         Last Thursday was X Day for all the former Xerox employees when we drop our drawers and photocopy our butts as a religious ritual.

 

 

 

Brilliant work.

 

Lucky announced the Best Team Player from amongst the nominees of Priya, Ana, Julie, Kathy, Guy, Karen and Colette.  Colette prevailed because she is always able to get members to do whatever she wants because we are all so afraid of her.

Gary noted our Best Defensive Players of the year, guarding our club traditions and ensuring club harmony and defensive rhythm.  The nominees of Pat, Don, Ray, Brent, Edgardo and Geoff were examined.  Geoff Disch got the nod for this award

After Lucky explained that he barely knew the game of Basketball leaning more toward Cricket and pointed out the English was his fourth language, he proceeded to share what he learned about Basketball terms in preparation for the Most Assists and Rebounds award.

 

            Dribble – Marie Galbo who always advanced the ball while assisting others

Double Dribble – Stacey Litteral and Bill Harlan who led two Rotary events each during the year

Rebound – Chris Gayler for his well organized Teacher of the Year Award

Backdoor cut – Mike Thelen for orchestrating Student of the Month

Setting a Screen – Patti Hennigan for her excellent work on Scholarships.

 

And the winner was Marie Galbo who always picked up the ball, filled the lanes when others neglected to “pick and roll” or set up a “transition defense”

Most Three Point Plays (aka Splash brother award) was selected on the basis those Rotarians who gave of their time and/or financial resources generously.  The candidates were Dennis Garrison, Brent Tucker, Marv Remmich, John Tatum and Geoff Disch.  The winner was our Program Chair Marv Remmich.

Best Bench Player was selected from those Rotarians who contributed to the team in meaningful ways and who  was always willing to contribute when called off the bench.  Carolyn, Tom, Terry and Judy were in this category with Tom Port announced as the winner.

Best Assistant Coach was conceived to recognize all the “Acting Coaches” and “Coach Advisors” when John was out of town.  No less that eight candidates were selected due to the frequency of John’s absences.  It was presumed that this was a secret well-planned strategy by Coach John to engage Past Presidents to energize the club.   The winner of this award was Chris Gallagher whose advice we all take whether we want to or not.

Gary celebrated the diversity of our club that was not longer the bastion of white old men.  In recognition of this fact Gary selected more mature, Caucasian Rotarians to stand then realized that this important, contributing group of people were essential to the club and asked that they all be seated so that we could recognize Ana Dominquez for getting approval for the Bolivia Water Project after five long years.

 

 

The last award went to the Fan of the Year, Teri Milich.  She stuck by the team, encouraged the coach and has been a delight to get to know.  After receiving a bouquet of flowers to Teri, John received his Past President’s Gift and a Basketball signed by club members who were present for this lovely evening.

 

Please congratulate John for making Rotary GREAT AGAIN and remember to RSVP to Gary Sloan in anticipation of the Inauguration Party on July 20^th for Colette Lay, our new President.

 

 

(Lucky – Good Job on this demotion dinner)

 

Best,

 

Gary Sloan, Scribe