Kee-Notes

Weekly Newsletter of the Kiwanis Club of Bethesda, Maryland

Serving the Community Since 1945

Meeting Date: January 14, 2010

President John Ratnavale presided and opened the meeting with the Pledge, God Bless America and George Patterson gave the prayer.  It was great to see Elinor Stoler, and Stephanie McCabe from the BCC Chamber of Commerce joined us. 

Announcements:

·          January 19, Tuesday, - Miracle League Meeting  6:30 pm at Jim Leder’s  at  5301 Westbard Circle,

·          January 21, Thursday – Meeting - Dinner 6:30 pm– Kickoff for Fundraiser. Christ Church

·          January 25, Monday - Foundation Meeting  6:30 pm @ Ron Spratt’s Home

·          January 28, Thursday – Lunch Meeting @ Tragara

·          January 30, #3 Leadership Training- Mitchellville 9 am AND  Jeannette Stabler’s Memorial Service 12 noon

It is important for those who cannot attend lunch meetings to try to make the dinner meeting on Thursday, January 21 at Christ Church.  The Division 17 Fundraiser will be on April 25 and every club will be involved.  The recipient of funds will be  The Miracle League of Montgomery County.  At our next meeting you will find out how you can help by purchasing tickets for the play at Olney Theater, contributing an ad for the program, and donating something to the Silent Auction which will be held before and after the play.  Directions from Tragara to Christ Church:  2.9 miles - 9 min

1. Depart Cordell Ave   0.2 miles
2. Turn left onto Woodmont Ave 0.3 miles DOUBLETREE on the corner
3. Turn left onto SR-355 / Rockville Pike  0.8 miles
4. Turn right onto Cedar Ln  1.1 miles
5. Turn right onto Franklin St  0.4 miles

6. Arrive at 4001 Franklin St, Kensington, MD 20895- The last intersection is Summit Ave.

        If you reach SR-185 South / Connecticut Ave, you've gone too far  

Past member Bob Vigderhouse is now recuperating at home.

Happy Dollars: 

Stephanie McCabe HD glad to be back, also for son-in law who was back for leave from Afghanistan.  He will be returning soon.   Pat Norry HD happy to see everyone.  Elinor Stoler HD for being back, Pat Tiede HD for seeing the return of Elinor Stoler and John Ratnavale who is finishing up his term as President the end of this month. 

Speaker:

John Ratnavale introduced our speaker, attorney Paul Samakow who spoke on Identity Theft (IT). He related a story of a 16 year old relative who went to the DMV to obtain his first drivers license.  After filling out his paperwork and continuing the process he was approached by several policeman, handcuffed and told he was wanted for several counts of DWI! You can imagine his shock and disbelief.  Of course he protested that the police must have the wrong. person.  Mr. Samakow, who is an experienced trial lawyer with lots of time in the courtroom, noted that  the first words said to a judge by every single defendant is “You’ve got the wrong person."  Some how his personal information had been obtained and the real perpetrator had used a false name. This happens all too often today.  Mr. Samakow listed five types of  (IT), including financial/credit card, driver's license, social security, professional licensing and medical records.  Over 9 million Americans a year are victims of IT.  On-line theft is a small percentage of the cases. He also noted that the thieves are constantly changing and improving their methods to steal information and he brought a magazine called Haking (which is displayed  in the checkout of Barnes and Noble) describing to anyone  how to get into computers and steal personal data.  If you are the victim of IT is often takes three to six months before you are ever aware of the theft and even longer to resolve the problem. There are ways to reduce chance of theft such at not leaving magazines (with your name and address) or other pieces of paper in your car, shredding papers with that information, and using passwords at least 15 characters long (this last one seems impractical). He also  noted there are several companies that offer mitigation of IT but in his opinion most are not worth the cost and some of the services they provide are free from the FTC.  Only one company  will help with the legal aspects of IT as well as the administrative issues. A very informative talk. Fpr further information on IT go to : www.ftc.gov for general information and the other is www.ftc.gov/idtheft.  During the talk his assistant videotaped the entire session.

 Tracy Miller won the 50/50 and donated it back to the club.

 George Patterson,  Editor

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Editor - GEORGE PATTERSON (301-652-7061, geopatersn@aol.com)
Website Editor - PAT TIEDE (301-493-6937, patriciatiede@comcast.net)