Nuclear bomb development is a regular topic these days with concerns about development by North Korea and Iran. In addition so many others are holding tightly to their arsenal but regularly speak about disarmament. Where is the world heading? We are fortunate to have Dr. Sidney Drell as our November speaker to provide us with the latest thinking regarding this on going threat. Dr. Drell will share with us his expertise in arms control and the issues associated with the control and elimination of Nuclear weapons. He is an expert in this field and has been active as an adviser to the executive and legislative branches of government on national security and defense technical issues for more than four decades. Currently Sidney is professor of theoretical physics at SLAC and served as its deputy director until retirement in 1998. Most recently he was a member of the advisory committee to the National Nuclear Security Admin., and chaired the senior review board for the Intelligence Technology Innovation Center. Drell served a chair of the Panel on Nuclear Weapons Safety for the House Armed Services Comm, Technology Review Panel of the Senate Comm. on Intelligence and UC Presidents Council overseeing Los Alamos, Lawrence Berkeley and Livermore Lab. As a renowned scientist and security expert he holds numerous awards including the Enrico Fermi Award, the National Intelligence Distinguished Service Medal and Linus Pauling medal from Stanford. He studied theoretical physics and earned his degrees from Princeton and the Univ. of Illinois.

Branch #35 member James Avedisian will speak about the mistakes intelligent people have made in preparing for the distribution of assets before and after their demise. Jim is a lawyer and a licensed CPA with early work experience as an Estate and Gift Tax Attorney for the IRS. For 27 years he was with the international accounting firm of Coopers and Lybrand, retiring as a tax partner in the San Francisco office in 1997. As you can see, Jim has experience from both the personal and the government side of the issues and will provide us with his observations and stories of good and bad planning and execution. Even if you think that you have your affairs in good shape, it makes a lot of sense to check again, for if you wait until you are gone, it is too late. He is a member of the State Bar of CA and the Amer. Institute of CPA's. Jim is a board member of the Atkinson Foundation and the CA/Nevada United Methodist Foundation. Jim has a degree in Economics from Stanford as well as a JD from Stanford Law School.

Upon learning from his MBA students that they believed Steve Jobs to be the founding father of Silicon Valley, Mr. Blank decided to document the true origins and stages leading up to todays "Valley". As most is not going to be a secret to us, it will be a nostalgic walk through a history in which most of us have participated, at least in part. Steve is a retired entrepreneur with over 28 years of experience in high technology companies as a founder and executive. He was at Zilog, MIPS Computers, Convergent Technologies to name a few and the latest was E.piphany, a successful dot.com. Steve now teaches at the UC Haas and Columbia Business schools. He is the author of the text "The Four Steps to the Epiphany" for a course he created entitled "Customer Development In High Tech Enterprise". Steve is on the Board of Audubon National and California Chair as well as on the Calif. Coastal Commission.

In 1998, while teaching in the San Jose school district, Jennifer Andaluz and another teacher came up with a mission to help underachieving, low-income family, minority youth to achieve a goal that was thought to be impossible. Their goal was to prepare these youths not only to attend but to thrive at four-year colleges and universities. After raising some funds and supporters, Downtown College Preparatory was established in 2000 as a charter school, on a limited budget, with 104 ninth graders and 6 teachers. In 2004, 54 students graduated and entered college. Since that time the school has flourished and today is located on a site that was once Hester Elementary school on Willow Street in San Jose. A second school will be opening this year. There are currently over 400 students, primarily Latino, 33% learning English and to date has graduated 173 with 85% on track to earn their 4 year degree. These will be the first in their family to graduate from college.

As the co-founder and now Executive Director of the school, Jennifer is responsible for organizational leadership and management, strategic planning, resource development, community partnerships and meeting the mission. She began her career as a history and English teacher in the San Jose Unified School District. Working with the Bay Area School Reform Collaborative and other administrators and teachers, Jennifer participated in school-wide initiatives to improve the academic performance of underachieving students. A recipient of several awards for her accomplishments, she is a graduate of UC Santa Cruz and SJ State University, and is nationally recognized as a true pioneer in advancing the education of minority students.

In 1998, while teaching in the San Jose school district, Jennifer Andaluz and another teacher came up with a mission to help underachieving, low-income family, minority youth to achieve a goal that was thought to be impossible. Their goal was to prepare these youths not only to attend but to thrive at four-year colleges and universities. After raising some funds and supporters, Downtown College Preparatory was established in 2000 as a charter school, on a limited budget, with 104 ninth graders and 6 teachers. In 2004, 54 students graduated and entered college. Since that time the school has flourished and today is located on a site that was once Hester Elementary school on Willow Street in San Jose. A second school will be opening this year. There are currently over 400 students, primarily Latino, 33% learning English and to date has graduated 173 with 85% on track to earn their 4 year degree. These will be the first in their family to graduate from college.

As the co-founder and now Executive Director of the school, Jennifer is responsible for organizational leadership and management, strategic planning, resource development, community partnerships and meeting the mission. She began her career as a history and English teacher in the San Jose Unified School District. Working with the Bay Area School Reform Collaborative and other administrators and teachers, Jennifer participated in school-wide initiatives to improve the academic performance of underachieving students. A recipient of several awards for her accomplishments, she is a graduate of UC Santa Cruz and SJ State University, and is nationally recognized as a true pioneer in advancing the education of minority students.

Some of you know Bonnie Bollwinkel and are likely aware of her profound interest in the health and welfare for all. Like many of us, she has first hand experience in dealing with a parent with Alzheimer’s disease and has dedicated a good deal of her recent years to helping others cope with understanding and dealing with the disease. She brings over 20 years in social work with much of her experience in home health, hospice, adult day care and community outreach settings. Bonnie is currently a consultant with the Alzheimer’s Association of Northern California, working as a trainer for the Training for Dignity, Late Stage Dementia Care, Alzheimer’s Care Academy and Savvy Caregiver Programs.

Bonnie has presented at many professional workshops and conferences, provides in-service training for health care professionals, and facilitates Family Support Groups in Residential Care Facilities for the Elderly and skilled nursing facilities in the San Francisco Bay Area. Her talk will include normal vs. abnormal brain aging, risk factors and warning signs of Alzheimer’s disease, research behind reducing risk, and ways to adjust lifestyle to reduce risk. Bonnie and husband reside in Los Altos, received her BA from University of the Pacific, postgraduate studies at Claremont School of Theology, and completed her MSW at Cal State, Fresno. I am sure that all will agree that she is well qualified in the subject matter and this will be a talk not to be missed.

We all hear and read more every day about the on-set of global warming and continuing concerns related to the energy crisis. What can we do about it and what is role of Nuclear Power in the solution. Our speaker, Robert Woehl, is an expert in the the Nuclear field and will speak to us about the current status and prospects for nuclear plants in the US and discuss potential timing. We all have asked questions as to why nuclear plants should be considered and what are the important considerations and controlling factors in discussing the alternatives. Obviously cost and safety are key issues and the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) continues to study all of the issues. Much has changed since the 1960's and 70's when we heard much about the plant failures and environmental disasters and continuing threat of contamination. Bob will bring us up to date and provide some prospective for a nuclear plant in California as well as the rest of the country. You can download a PDF copy of his talk.

Bob is an Electrical Engineering graduate from the University of Notre Dame and resides in Palo Alto. He began a 24 year career in the United States Navy spending most of his career as a submarine officer. Upon retiring, he joined Pacific Gas and Electric for 13 years in Nuclear Power Generation and was responsible for operations and maintenance activities at Diablo Canyon Power Plant in San Luis Obispo. Bob truly brings a wealth of information on the subject and will let us know if there is truly a Nuclear renascence.

As children, we all have enjoyed playing with and in some cases building small gauge rail road trains. March's speaker goes us one better. He and a neighbor in 1989 decided to build a one inch to one foot scale railroad in their backyard. In 1995 they decided to upgrade and constructed a two and a half inch per foot scale, seven and a half inch gauge track system. At about one fifth the size of a normal train, now they have a train and cars upon which they can ride. The total system contains approximately 1,300 feet of track and includes a wide variety of cars and even a large trestle. They call their system "The Flintridge and Portola Valley RR". The railroad features four live steam coal fired locomotives. Peter is a retired mechanical engineer with experience in manufacturing and says he likes to build things. His talk will be about the journey.

Our speaker for February is Dr. Richard Smallwood, Founder and CEO of Market Insight. In today’s world of consumer electronics, it is extremely difficult for us to find the right product for our particular needs and often we must settle for a product that is not the best one for us. Dick will discuss the role of the Internet in helping consumers find the right product, with particular attention to his companies development of a special class of product web based advisors to assist us. Interestingly, the data from these advisors can, in turn, help manufacturers develop and market products more effectively. He will share some examples of the market intelligence that can be gleaned from the operation of these advisors. With an efficient free enterprise economy, good products will ultimately prevail over inferior ones and consumers will find products that better meet their needs. At the same time, manufacturers will be reworded with higher demand.
He is an expert in mathematical modeling and managed the Analysis Research Group at Xerox PARC from 1971 to 1979, served on the Stanford University faculty in various roles from 1964 to 2000. For 20 years he was President of Applied Decision Analysis Inc which led to the founding of his current company. Dick did his undergraduate and graduate work at M.I.T.

As California will hold its Primary early for the first time, we sought a speaker with insight as to our States’ new role nationally. Branch 35’s meeting follows Iowa and New Hampshire primarys and immediately precedes California’s, so timing is perfect. Bill Whalen will give his analyses of the other states’ first elections, an analysis of what role California will play nationally and what we might expect over ensuing months.

Considered one of the top political reporters, he regularly writes for the San Francisco Chronicle and Los Angeles Times and has been guest political analyst on all major and local news channels. A native of Washington DC, Bill was honored as one of the top 10 political analysts for his profiles and analyses of candidate’s campaigns, for Congress and the White House.

He has served as a media consultant for California political hopefuls, including Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, former California secretary of state Bill Jones, former congressman Tom Campbell and former Los Angeles mayor Richard J. Riordan. He served as chief speechwriter and director of public affairs for former California governor Pete Wilson. He currently resides in Palo Alto.

We expect interesting questions and discussion.