Here are the highlights from the September 16 joint meeting between the Board of Directors of the Lima Rotary Club, the Lima Rotary Foundation and District 6600 Governor Carolyn Huston.
Call to Order Ken Dysert
President Dysert called the meeting together at 11:03 AM with the following Rotary Club Board Members present:
Carol Buettner, Andy Farley, John Ficorilli, Jed Metzger, Catheryn Sarno, Theresa Schnipke, Anne Decker and Paul Swartz. Also Treasurer Dan Best and Secretary Rita Brown were present. Those present from the Foundation Board included: Demi Burden, Adah Ellerbrock, Linda Hamilton, Beth Seibert, Andy Wannemacher, and Secretary Heather Rutz. Guest include: District Governor Carolyn Huston, Asst DG Esther Baldridge, Tracie Sanchez, Joe Kitchen and Bob Ruehl.
Secretary’s Report Rita Brown
Farley made a motion to approve the Board Minutes from the August 13, 2019 meeting. Sarno seconded the motion. Board approved.
Attendance report
Brown shared the attendance report for the month of August. The month began with 165 members with two
members resigning so the month ended with 163 active or active corporate members. There were four meetings in August with an attendance percentage of 38.21%. That is down but so far September has shown better attendance and should bounce back.
Membership
- Resignations
- Chuck Wolfe Sarno made a motion to approve the resignation of Wolfe with regret. Buettner seconded the motion. Board approved.
- Fred Seelenbinder Metzger made a motion to approve the resignation of Fred Seelenbinder with regret and to change his Membership Status to Honorary. Seelenbinder has been a Rotarian for 44 years. Hamilton seconded the motion. Board approved.
Presidents Report Ken Dysert
Welcome District Governor and Introductions.
Dysert welcomed District Governor Carolyn Huston to the meeting and thanked the Board Members for attending the Joint Meeting.
DECA Monopoly Board- Sponsorships and levels
Limaopoly is a custom Monopoly-styled Lima based board game. Local businesses that sponsor the Lima Senior DECA Program are able to display their company logo/name on the game board as a Promotional Opportunity. Sarno made a motion to approve the sponsorship at the $250 level. Farley seconded the motion. Board approved.
Club major project – The Amphitheater
Sanchez stated the project that began over 3 years ago is leading the revitalization in downtown Lima. An entire City Block was purchased for the over $2 million project. Currently a little over $800,000 of the $1.2 million needed or 65% has been raised. Today is the beginning of the site clearing!
Rex Perry Memorial Golf Outing Andy Wannemacher
Foundation President, Andy Wannemacher, stated this year, the Golf Outing raised around $43,000 for Scholarships
for Allen County non-traditional higher education students. Since the program’s inception, over 1000 scholarships have been awarded for a total of $752,250.
District Governor – updates on the District Carolyn Huston
District Governor Carolyn Huston stated the role of DG is an amazing position to have. Currently she has visited 46 clubs and stated every club is the same but different. Membership continues to remain a huge focus as the numbers of members has remained flat internationally but the numbers in the United States has dropped. She expressed concern about maintaining Rotary International Headquarters in the US if the trend continues.
The District will be holding a membership seminar and will be sharing many ideas.
A Peace Conference for college and high school aged students will be held in November.
At this time, the process for raising money for the Bahamas has not been finalized.
She discussed the Polio Plus Globe Bank – Rotary connecting the World and stated Clubs will get recognition for the dollars they contribute. Currently the district has raised over $8,000.
She also asked the Club to consider a nomination for District Governor.
Foundation Board Member Linda Hamilton stated membership is always a concern. She asked if there has been conversation about the traditional once a week meetings not working and have different formats been discussed such as different times and places. Another option is to hold every other week meetings.
DG Huston stated three districts are working on it from different perspectives. Everyone wants to make a difference and Rotarians need to remain excited about what we are doing and to advertise the good things we do.
Interact Club Chief Joe Kitchen
The Interact Club at Bath High School was started four years ago. The first meeting at Bath High School was held this fall with 140 high school kids expressing interest in joining.The students have open hearts for community service.They just participated in the cleaning-up of the Ottawa River.
There was no further business. Dysert adjourned the meeting at 11:38 AM.The members of the meeting adjourned to the regular Monday club meeting.
Respectfully submitted
Rita M. Brown, Club Secretary