President Jan rang us to order at 6:05 and called for the introduction of our numerous guests and visiting Rotarians. Guests today were Dr. Laura Shwaluk, guest of Jerry Kezhaya, Lori Roberts, guest of Ken Roberts and Donna Davis, guest of David Rogers. Visiting Rotarians were George and Marianne Elwell from the North Texas Pioneers Rotary Club and Bill Neukranz from the Plano Sunrise Rotary club. The full house was likely due to the presence of another visiting Rotarian, Plano Police Chief Greg Rushin who presented the program.
Jan gave out officer Rotary pins that she got at LoneStar PETS last weekend. LB got two pins – one for Secretary and one for Treasurer. Will he were both or change pins depending on the hat he is wearing at the time? Only time will tell. For some Freudian reason Jan did not initially pass out the Past President Pin she bought. After public shaming, she reluctantly gave the Past President pin to yours truly.
Jan announced that our club’s strategic planning session will be held on Saturday, April 27th and will likely take about ½ day.
Our next Escape Room fund raiser will be a fun afternoon/evening on Sunday April 22nd. Jan challenged the other clubs present to send a team to compete. For those not aware of how an Escape Room works, here is what Escape Expert says –
Escape Expert is the FUN place to be!! For all ages
Whether you are seeking a corporate team building activity or you are a single person looking for fun at the weekend, Escape Expert has something for everyone. Our escape rooms have been expertly crafted by the owners to make the most hardcore escape artist sweat, yet easy enough that children from the age of 12 upwards can complete them (With some adult help).
Chris Henry presented a short rendition of the program announced at his church last Sunday where they gave out checks of $250, $500 or $1,000 to everyone present totaling $125,000. They were asked to use the money how they saw fit but encouraged to put the money to work and magnify the impact. Chris opted to use the money for the Rotary Polio Plus campaign. Every contribution received is matched 2 for 1 by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. He expects his $250 check to magnified to at least $10,000. Any one wanting to participate just needs to send us your check payable to The Rotary Foundation and we will send it in to be credited to your account. You will get the tax deduction and we will get credit for a successful fund raiser. Everyone WINS!
The program presented by Chief Rushin was enlightening, informative and fun. Plano has the best police department in the area but in light of recent events he pointed out that Plano has the lowest number of school resource officers of any city in the Metroplex. He is working with the City of Plano and Plano PISD to rectify the situation He made no special attempt to hide his feelings about the prospect of arming teachers. In a humorous anecdote, Greg relayed that there are more guns lost in bathrooms than any where else. It seems that when you sit down and do what you came to do your gun may fall to the floor unnoticed. Therefore if you notice a police officer running toward the bathroom, don’t worry, they may just be going to retrieve their gun. Comforting thought. Greg told us that the Plano Police CSI team is lead by an individual with a PhD in forensics. He was offered double the pay to work in Boston but he and his wife didn’t want to leave Plano. Greg acknowledged that there are a few bad apples in law enforcement but they are always working to weed them out. As a part of this process, Plano has started equipping officers with body cams but that the roll out has pointed out a number of issues including privacy concerns, data storage, open records issues, etc. Even with the issues, body cams are a positive tool in keeping the department the best. With regard to traffic enforcement, Chief Rushin emphasized that the goal of issuing tickets is driver behavior modification and not fund generation.
Greg thanked the club for the Flags of Honor program and vowed to continue to help us make the program successful. After a lively round of questions the club thanked Greg for the program with a rousing round of applause.
There was no winner in the raffle drawing so the Queen of Spades remains elusive and the pot continues to grow. Good luck next time.
