Newsletter Jauary 12, 2021 (Jan 12, 2021)

Last Week's Meeting

Thanks to Mike for the news, Matt for the invocation, pledge, and 4 way test, and Charles and Dan Knight, our speaker, for leading us in Happy Birthday to our January birthday folks, Lijun, Todd, and Jamie.

Dennis used an interview format so we could learn about Dan Knight. Dan is a jazz pianist. He grew up in Ottumwa, Iowa. With perfect pitch he was able to begin his piano training at an early age. By age 7 he was transcribing the works of Dave Brubek, among others. He wanted to do opera, but after an auto accident he was no longer able to sing and started using the piano as his voice. He was a student and protege of Billy Taylor. He is recognized as one of the world's finest improvising musician/composers, as well as being a master pianist. He currently resides in North Carolina, but he spent much of his career in Iowa.

Board News

The Board met on January 7. Written minutes will be posted to our ClubRunner site.

It was discussed that we will continue with zoom meetings through March. The District Governor will be at our March 10 zoom meeting. We will evaluate if we want to try hybrid meetings starting in April. Matt and Kim are reviewing locations for our meetings in the future. With the smaller size of our club, we do not need as much room as in the past and need to keep our rental cost under $100 per week.

We will be doing teacher recognition in the coming months. We also will again award nine $500 Kirkwood scholarships in May. Thank yous go to Rhonda for handling tne teacher recognition and to Mary for organizing the scholarships.

The Rotary match program is continuing through February. Many thanks to those members who have contributed to the RI Foundation to date.

We are starting to plan for the Big Drop fundraiser. We need volunteers to help with the planning.

We have Board members that will need to be replaced in July. Let Larry know if you would be interested in serving as a Board member.

Rotary Rush

As a reminder District 5970 “ROTARY RUSH” is still on!!! For the months of January 2021 and February 2021 the District is still offering a significant incentive to all Rotarians who give to the Rotary Foundation Annual Fund. A generous Rotarian Donor has offered their points as an incentive to help Rotarians more easily reach their first or next Paul Harris Fellow level. The Donor is offering a 1 for 1 points to dollars match to reach your next Paul Harris level when you donate a minimum of $100. This match is good up to $500, for as long as the donor has points. There is a District form that needs to be completed to obtain the match.

If you have questions, please contact TJ Filip at either 319-899-4129 or tj_filip@hillsbank.com.

"Service Above Self"

Larry Kudej

President, Cedar Rapids West Rotary