May 16 Rotary Meeting

Pledge and Invocation:
 
President Mike Markovitz brought the meeting to order at 12:15 PM at Purkey’s Pink Apple with Dave Kuffa leading the Pledge of Allegiance and Dave Wilson giving the Invocation.
 
Guests:
 
Marcia Loughman – PDG & Incoming District Foundation Chair – guest speaker
Joe Loughman – District 7410 District Governor Nominee (DG for 2020-2021)
Andrew & John, exchange students
 
Club News:
 
Ad Buck: Terri Detrick – The Tunkhannock Business & Professional Women’s Wine Down is tonight at the Dietrich Theater.
 
HANDS Thank You
 
Thank you received from HANDS for $5,000 donation.
 
I am Rotary Photo Project – Sam Maruzzelli
 
 
Sam has been posting the first of the I am Rotary pieces on our Tunkhannock Rotary Facebook page. 
 
Schedule Change
 
Today was listed as a Club Assembly on the schedule but it will be next week after the board meeting and we will have as our speaker our Foreign Exchange Student from Brazil - Joao “John” Tonet Oldoni.
 
Membership Mixer
 
The next Membership Mixer Event will be Thursday evening May 30th from 6pm – 8pm at Bogey’s Restaurant. 
 
Please return those suggested invitees forms that Pres. Mike handed out and respond to his recent similar e-mail request, as we need people to invite.  Mike sent out invites to the folks people did recommend and to everyone in the club.  He will be reworking the current power point presentation before then.
 
Please contact Francine Kanyok with any setup questions / ideas / etc.
 
Officer Installation and Awards Banquet
 
Our Officer Installation and Awards Banquet will be Thursday evening, June 20th, starting at 5:30 PM at Shadowbrook.  There will be no noon meeting on that date, nor Flash Meeting that evening. 
 
Please contact Francine Kanyok with any setup questions / ideas / etc.
 
May Board of Director’s Meeting
 
The next Board Meeting will be Tuesday, May 21st from 7:30 – 8:30 am at the new Towne & Country Grille in Tunkhannock.
 
Flash Meeting
 
The next Flash Meeting will be tonight, May 16 at 5:30pm at Bogey’s.
 
Exchange Students:
 
Andrew – Last week was the most common week of his whole exchange.  He even got to watch cartoons with his host brother. 
 
John – John now at Track and Field Districts, sports week.  They won their game this week so at Redeemer next. The team needs everyone’s support to drown out Redeemer’s cheers and go to the state playoffs.
 
Committee Reports:
 
2019 Harvest and Wine Festival Committee:
 
Next Meeting will be Monday evening June 3 at 6pm at the Tunkhannock Library.
 
Rotary Foundation Committee – Albert Noble / Samantha Maruzzelli
 
Our RF donations are at $252 per capita.  So please, get your donation made before end of June which is the end of this Rotary year.
 
Founder’s Day 
 
This year Founder’s Day will be Sat. June 22. As we get closer to the event, George will need volunteers for 2 hr shifts at the Rotary booth and help with set up and break down of the tent.
 
Fellowship Committee – Ann Way/Francine Kanyok
 
It was noted that the day trip arrangements are on temporary hold until Ann gets stuff down for the library event on Sat.
 
July 3rd Fireworks – Harry Sharpe/Don Davis
 
The Fireworks will be Wed evening July 3rd at Memorial Stadium. Rain date is July 5th.
 
High School Scholarships Committee – Terri Detrick
 
Committee has reviewed the applications and finalizing the winners for scholarships to be presented at Senior Awards night on Thursday May 23.
 
District News:
 
See the May District newsletter for information on the various events and activities happening in District 7410. Please support our fellow Rotarians at other clubs in our District for their fun upcoming activities/events.
Our next Meeting will a Club Assembly on Thursday, May 23. Our guest speaker will be our Foreign Exchange Student from Brazil - Joao “John” Tonet Oldoni.
 
Prior to adjournment, Dave Kuffa led the recitation of the 4-Way Test by the attendees.
 
President Mike Markovitz adjourned the meeting at 1:30 PM.
Guest Speaker: 
PDG Marcia Loughman
Rotary Foundation and Rotary Rewards Programs
 
Marcia was the 2016-2017 District 7410 Governor (PDG) and is from the Rotary Club of North Scranton. She is also the incoming Chair of the District 7410 Foundation Committee.
 
Marcia thanked the club for our generous support of the Rotary Foundation (RF) and for District Grant projects. She wants to talk about the activities for her upcoming 3 years as District Foundation Chair.
 
She began with a discussion about Polio.  Nigeria has currently had zero cases.  In 2019, 9 polio cases were found in 2 countries, Afghanistan and Pakistan. We really need to get to zero or we can see reinfection through world travel.  It has been estimated that if total eradication fails, it could be back to over 250,000 cases per year in ten years.
 
Only ¼ of those infected with the polio virus will ever have health issues. Thus, we need to do surveillance and environmental testing.  For example, when they found polio in Israeli sewer systems, they immunized the children.  Brazil found polio virus in a sewer system during the Olympics with the viral origin traced to Africa.  Thus, we need to immunize to ensure no polio outbreaks even in countries where polio has been eradicated and continue to do environmental surveillance.
 
Marcia reminded everyone that the Rotary Foundation is a Charity Navigator 4-star charity. 91% of donations are used for programs. There have been over $3 billion in projects funded around the world in the last 100 years of RF.
 
Rotary has been instrumental in the 99.9% polio reduction worldwide and has funded lots of projects worldwide.
 
When you donate money to RF, make sure you put the money towards the Annual Fund, so that money comes back to the District for use locally.
 
There are many ways to give to RF:
  1. Write a check
  2. Club does it for you once the club gets your check.
  3. Go online and do it yourself. Can even do Rotary Direct from your bank account or credit card where they will take it automatically annually, quarterly or monthly.
  4. Club fundraiser funds with everyone named on the donation form to RF.
  5. Donate your minimum distribution at 70.5 years of age to RF to avoid the income tax.
  6. Rotary Direct, where they automatically deduct from your bank or credit accounts. You decide on amount and frequency of deductions.
  7. Donate securities.
  8. Participate in planned giving.
  9. Put RF in your estates and bequests documents.
  10. Participate in the Donor Advised Funds.
  11. Give personal property, but check on items not accepted.
  12. Give real estate with a minimum appraised value of $25K.
  13. Employer matched gifts.
  14. Apply for the Rotary Credit card. Rotary gets a credit when you use the card.
  15. Airmiles are also accepted, if you have miles you are not planning to use.
  16. Amazon Smiles Program gives RF a percentage of your purchase.
  17. Rotary Global Rewards business discount to Rotarians   Lowe’s, Amazon are on there.
With regards to Global Grants, a Club can find partners online for other clubs to participate.
 
The Rotary Showcase show what other clubs have done for projects and fund-raisers.
 
Rotary District 7410 Foundation Committee Highlights:
 
Deadline is May 31 for District grant proposals for 2019-2020.
 
Oct 24 is World Polio Day and the District would like clubs to participate in this world polio event. Clubs might do Pints for Polio, pizza for polio, pints & pizza for Polio. Do an event in our area.  One club doing a purple pinkie drink in their area.  Get the public involved for polio and make sure you advertise.
 
Annual Foundation event – The committee will be planning a big public event with a little PR for Rotary, but a big name concert, show  or event. Sell tickets and make money.
 
Major endowments and Paul Harris Society will be promoted within our District.
 
An annual donor recognition event needs to also happen each year.
 
Sustainable income project – Marcia would like to have a Rotary trivia or monopoly game developed and sell the game online and at conferences.  It would be a great way to educate new members, but also just be fun.  She needs volunteers to help develop this project.
 
Marcia then shared her 3 year vision for the District 7410 Foundation events. 
 
Year 1
  1. Railriders ball game with $12 tickets for bleachers seats with $6 going to polio.  Regular ticket price is $13. She wants to sell 500 tickets for Aug 11, 2019.  Purple end polio t-shirts will also be available for sale, so maybe clubs could sell combinations of a t-shirt plus ticket, so that everyone could wear the purple shirts to the game.
  2. Each club is encouraged to do something on Oct 24 for polio.
  3. Begin planning the annual foundation event
Year 2 & 3
  1. Add a large public event fund-raiser.
Year 3
  1. The big project Rotary game etc. Although she has been encouraged by RF to move that up by 1 year, so that other Districts do not take our idea before we get it done.
District 7410 subcommittees, including new Chairs:
  • Grants – Norm Kelly
  • Stewardship - Ryan Campell (Carol Ziomek is on this committee also)
  • Polio – AG Dave Palmer
  • Paul Harris and Annual Fund – Al Noble
  • Special income project – to be determined.
  • All Club Foundation Chairs will be part of a regular Zoom meeting to keep everyone informed, energized and provide an avenue for feedback to the committee in both directions.
How much could we raise for polio and the annual fund?
 
Marcia would like us to get to $100 per capita across the entire District. Since we have around 1,100 Rotarians in our District, the goal for the annual fund is $110,000. In recent years, we have been in the low to mid $90K, so we need to encourage more giving by better informing our members about the good that the RF does and have fund-raisers to also keep giving to Polio.
 

PDG Marcia Loughman (2019-2022 District 7410 Foundation Committee Chair)