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Club Information
Welcome to The Rotary Club of Johns Creek - Serving the Greater Johns Creek Community

Service Above Self Since 2000
Johns Creek Baptist Church
The Heritage Room
Johns Creek, GA 30005
United States
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District Site
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Venue Map
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2016 Everett Bennett - Rotarian of the Year Award
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![]() Congratulations to Pam Boles who was named 2016 Everett Bennett Rotarian of the Year.
Presenting the award was Teresa Bennett, Everett's wife.
Everett was a charter member of our club and the epitome of all that Rotary stands for. Great job Pam, and to the entire club; in a year we reached Gold Level, added several new members and raised the bar in serving our community and the world. Michael
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NO, IT'S ARCH KLUMPH!

Monday, April 18 features our GRSP student.
Friday April 29 is the 'Hooch River Clean Up led by Render.
Sue will be in the Dominican Republic May 12-16 representing us on a joint JCBC-JC Rotary School Build Project.
Rotary Club of Johns Creek...sailing ships out of the harbor and planting trees for someone else's shade!
I sent in our points to District today for annual awards. Pam will represent us at District Conference in Savannah as my travel is now restricted and I won't be able to attend. Pam is also up for a District leadership award so fingers crossed we pick up something as a club and she does as well. There's 70+ clubs in our District so winning anything is tough, but we have had an excellent year and I'm told we have had the best overall year of the Forsyth County clubs.
Blessings,
Coming up in just a few weeks, La Dolce Vita. February 27, 2016.
Join the Rotary Club of Johns Creek for a magnificent evening and a taste of the sweet life at the Standard Club. Saturday February 27th. 6:30-11:00 PM.
The evening will include a fantastic Italian buffet, wine with dinner, live music, dancing, scotch tasting, silent auction, and a wall of wine raffle.
Click below for tickets and RSVP.
ROTARY BUILDS A SCHOOL (AND DOES SO

Rotary International does an amazing amount of work around the world, from clean water projects to eradicating polio to repairing cleft palates across the Third World. Our little ole club is also amazingly active for our size with several small projects month-to-month and in 2016 two (count 'em two) substantial international projects in the Dominican Republic.
May 12-16 we will be working on a school build in La Romana, but also offering basic medical check-up's. We will partner with Johns Creek Baptist Church on both fronts as the school is really big and the medical needs are large as well. The La La Chosa Barrio is one of La Romano's largest.
In October we will return to that general area to work on a clean water project. The exact location is still being worked out, but it will be a place of great need. Those dates are 6-10.
If you plan to be part of either trip please, please let me know.
Rotary, rockin' the world!
Michael


![]() So I'm minding my own business in a pub in Oxford one evening as I head downstairs for a break and I see this door. Actually it's the first door I encounter. I stop dead in my tracks, Narnia, really? I'd read all of Lewis' books and seen two of the movies on the mystical place that had to be near England since all of the Narninians spoke with British accents. But wasn't the entrance through an old wardrobe in the bedroom of a country estate? Maybe there were multiple entrances, like Yellowstone, but without the buffalo as I've never seen a bison in the Narnia movies. I stepped closer to the door after making sure no one else was nearby and came close to turning the doorknob, but didn't.
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I'm guessing it was a broom closet but who knows? What if I had walked into a different world where evil ran amok in the form of the White Witch and everywhere she walked ice was left in her wake. What if the world I encountered was filled with talking beavers with cockney accents who were seeking the most powerful Lion in all of Narnia, the only true hope for the people and the land, but all they had was faith that the powerful Lion still existed as he hadn't been seen in ages. What if the land was growing darker and colder every day as evil was spreading faster than the forces of compassion of good?
It was a tough choice but since all I was really trying to do was find the Loo I walked on to the men's room. Later, however, I exited the pub into a world quite similar to the Narnia one that sadly isn't fictional. Evil and dark deeds seem to growing and are more pervasive than goodness and virtue. Narnia was allegorical to the larger fight of good versus evil. Outside in the streets of modern day "anywhere" that fight is anything but allegorical. The world needs good deeds and positive words and since we are short of talking beavers and Lions that are all powerful the remedy may fall on Rotary. I'll go through a door marked ROTARY any day. Will you join me?
Michael (a big C.S. Lewis fan)
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In studying various religions I've determined it would be difficult to find one with a more succinct and easy to follow ethical framework than that of Rotary. Obviously I'm a big fan of religion and faith so I am not slighting that side of life, or suggesting Rotary is a "faith-substitute." which it is not. I am stressing that our Four-Way Test is an excellent ethical guide to daily life in addition to one's personal faith choice. And staying solely in the secular world, modern ethics promotes specific codes of conduct that when followed are viewed as good for the individual and for society as a whole. There are multiple schools of thought and libraries literally filled with texts on modern and ethical theory. Rotary nailed it in 24 words!
Our society is riding a unique wave of self-absorption and taking selfies all along the way. It's hard to fathom but we may become even more narcissistic as a people. As Rotarians we must rise above the eager-average and stand for truth, fairness, goodwill, better friendships and making our world a better place. Someone has to do it... and it might as well be us!
"There, there," said Piglet. "I'll bring you tea and honey until you do."
"Do your little bit of good where you are; it's those little bits of good put together that overwhelm the world."
Michael McCullar

SECOND, IS IT FAIR TO ALL CONCERNED?
First, is it the Truth
This is the first installment of a four-part series on Rotary's Four-Way Test as a path for living life and interacting with others. The inspiration for this unusual series came from a Bible study I was leading as a guest facilitator for a Saturday morning men's group. Their discussion centered on why it seems that modern-day people of faith do not seem to be as righteous and faithful as they profess to be. I explained that righteous literally means right-living, and properly defined it is both straightforward and easy to understand. "Righteous" may seem to be more theological than practical, but it isn't at all. Faith as a noun-lived out as a verb, equals the state of righteousness. At this point in the discussion I said, "Gentlemen, I have decided that the Rotary Four-Way Test is a quick and easy template for embracing and impacting the world in a positive way and, despite the fact I have years of theological training in me and teach theology for a living, this simplified four-liner helps me live a positive life."
Rotarians are wise to see the first test as always telling the truth, being truthful, and acting in truthful ways. In each and every situation if we pull up and ask ourselves, "Is my response, my action, my next move the truth," we will be exemplifying right living. Rotary is a civic, secular organization but this doesn't mean it can't have the same type of positive impact faith groups can have. It can be the same while being different can't it?
When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love have won

Our GRSP student this term is from Sweden and her name is Mikaela Hornfeldt. She is living and studying in North Georgia and will be with our club on Monday to tell her story. This will be a treat. Don's miss it!
We welcome new member Hannah Henry of Emory Johns Creek Hospital.
If you are interested in an early May, long weekend trip to the Dominican to assist on a project I need to gauge interest. Fly on Thursday - work Friday-Sunday - fly home Monday. Our Rotary Club is making a difference in that portion of the country and it would be great if more and more of us were able to make a short trip over the next 2-3 years. Let me know please.
Michael McCullar
Michael
BACKPACKS OF LOVE: These are the "needs" for filling the backpacks. Small mac & cheese bowls, candy that won't melt, granola bars, packaged fruit, small peanut butter, pop-top beef stew, toothbrush, toothpaste, soap, disinfectant wipes, Goldfish crackers, Oreos, deodorant, crayons. (As you can see this is heavy on emergency feeding of the kids over school supplies).
I will get the backpacks and deliver them. Bring items and we will fill them.
INSTALLATION of NEW ROTARIANS: Monday we will install Beth and Richard. Soon we will install Jim as well.
LA DOLCE VITA UPDATE: Mark and his team have set Saturday evening February 27, 2016 at The Standard Club for our annual fundraiser/party/dress up/swag night. Calendar it please. This event pays the bills for just about everything we do all year.
Michael







We are the Ray Caldwells’ of the Rotary World.
PEOPLE OF THE WHEEL
Michael McCullar
Our club is small, using Rotary calculus we are very small, but small is not a handicap when one has a large vision and drive. The whole David and Goliath the Giant story suggests the little guy can win against great odds, but what if Rocky Balboa had been a member of a Philly Rotary group in the 1970's? "Hey, Yo, I'm Rocky and I'm leadin' the pledge today...so, yo, yeah, stand up yous guys. Hey, you too Mick." The proverbial "little guy" can indeed win against enormous odds. A small Rotary club can bring clean water to an entire village in the Third World and save lives. Amazing isn't it? And so very Rotary-like.
District Governor Alan Smith will be with us Monday and he too works in the area of clean water (Haiti). He leads our district and will share his vision for his year in office and he will want to hear from our board about our goals. Make sure you're in our meeting to represent your club and to support your District on Monday!
GGGOOOOOAAAAALLLLLLLLLL!!!!!
The two biggest items for our focus this Rotary Year will be increasing membership and service opportunities. We are well on our way on the service needs and in September we will unveil a new strategy for membership growth. A third area of need will be fundraising as two straight years of water purification systems will have significantly lowered our bank account. La Dolce Vita will need to be a Home Run for sure next February. Challenges? Yes, but won't it be fun to be screaming GGOOOAAALLL! this time next year?
FAMOUS ROTARIANS WERE ONCE MERELY ROTARIANS
Did you know Admiral Byrd, Sir Edmund Hillary and Charles Lindbergh were Rotarians? This means Rotarians are natural explorers and risk-takers.
Did you know U.S. Presidents Eisenhower, Kennedy, Ford and Carter, and Sir Winston Churchill were Rotarians? This means Rotarians are natural leaders.
Did you know Cecil B. DeMille was a Rotarian? This means Rotarians are artistic, gifted and tend to be visionaries.
Did you know Dr. Charles Mayo, co-founder of the Mayo Clinic, was a Rotarian? This means Rotarians are people of compassion?
Did you know Norman Vincent Peale was a Rotarian? This means Rotarians have excellent attitudes.
Did you know "Colonel" Harlan Sanders was a Rotarian? This means, well, uh, it means we can sell chicken in a pinch.
Can you imagine the happy bucks moment at any of their meetings? "Here's a pound sterling, we finally won the war against Germany!" Or, "here's my dollar, my latest movie just wrapped up production. I'm calling it The Ten Commandments." Or, Welcome back Charles! "Thanks, here's my happy buck, my transatlantic flight was rough, but I made it.
Before they were famous and historically remarkable, they were Rotarians. Even if they hadn't led countries, created masterpieces, saved lives, explored new territories or walked on the moon, all of the famous Rotarians in our history would have left a mark... just as each of you do. By simply pinning on the Rotary symbol you stand for something larger than yourself. By living out the Rotary pledge you will alter the world in a positive way. You may not become famous... but you are remarkable!
DO YOU HAVE A PERSONAL MISSION STATEMENT?
Laurie Beth Jones is a business consultant, author and motivational speaker who believes one's success is tied to having and living out a purpose statement. In her book
The Path she states, "Having a clearly defined reason for being is the beginning of fulfillment." Jones suggests a personal statement should be short, understandable by a child and reciteable under great duress. Simply put, it shouldn't be wordy or contain the words juxtapose or existential. As Rotarians, professionals and people we should have a personal purpose statement that we seek to live into each day. If we don't have one it's a worthy goal.
EXISTING TO SERVE
If Moses had been a Rotarian the Ten Commandments might have read differently (yes, I know God wrote them and gave them to Moses, but work with me here). All ten are excellent but other excellent additions would include the Rotary Four-Way Test, especially the fourth and final line: Will it be beneficial to all concerned? The Ten Commandments gave instruction to Israel in many areas but the intent was singular: so they could be
salt and light to the world.
This is an apt description for Rotary as well. We exist for many reasons but distilled down it would be to
make a difference in the world. We exist to be
beneficial. Polio is no match for Rotary. Impure water and water-borne illnesses? Gotta go. Hungry children? We will feed them.
Think on these musings over the following days. Together we can affect change and make a difference by living into our calling as Rotarians!
So what's your Rotary Job? If you don't know the answer to that question, please talk to a club officer and see how you can do your share. Having lunch and listening to speakers is great, but the real rewards of Rotary come from working to serve your community. Contributing to the success of our club is something you'll look back on with great satisfaction!
For members, the cost is $100 a year and the ad appears on every page of the website and in the E-Bulletins. For non-member, the cost is $150. This is a great way to support our club and promote your business at the same time. Keep in mind that the E-Bulletin goes out to our membership and "Club Friends" once a week.
Please join us today at noon for a joint meeting of all the Forsyth County Rotary Clubs to honor William Everett Bennett. The luncheon will be held at Lanier Conference Center @ Lanier Tech, behind 'The Collection' shopping center....formerly known as 'The Avenues'.
Our meeting will be a commemorative luncheon as the interchange at Ga 400 and exit 13 is named in his memory.
Everett passed away last year but was a long term member of Rotary, most recently the Johns Creek club. He truly exemplified The Five Avenues of Service. He was a leader of his club service, vocational service, community service, international service and youth service. He was especially proud of the number of International Rotary Conventions he had attended.
We will reflect on some of his contributions to Rotary, the community, his business and to his family.
It should be a wonderful tribute to his widow Teresa and their family as we honor his service.
The Rotary Club of Johns Creek was thrilled to award the Rotarian of the Year award to William Everett Bennett for his incredible contribution to Rotary over the years. Rotary lost a wonderful man last year (2012).
The inscription reads:
William Everett Bennett
Rotarian of the Year Award
2012-2013
This Award is presented in memory of one of Forsyth County’s most passionate Rotarians.
It is presented to a Forsyth County Rotarian who exhibits high ethical standards while promoting Rotary International’s motto of
“Service Above Self”
Below, photos of Teresa Bennett accepting the award honoring her husband, Everett. The award was presented by Luke Haymond.
Johns Creek Mayor Bodker updated the club on the work being done regionally to coordinate and maximize transportation dollars. We appreciate the Mayor taking time out of his busy schedule to meet with the club. Thank you for your public service to the city of Johns Creek.
Atlanta's Fox 5 television's Russ Spencer to speak to the club on October 24th.
Russ Spencer anchors the 5 p.m., 6 p.m. and 10 p.m. news on FOX 5 News. A veteran journalist, Russ has worked in the TV News business since 1983.
Russ has received 11 Regional Emmy awards during his time in Atlanta, including seven for Best Newscast and two for Best Anchor.
The club looks forward to hearing tales from his journalism career.
Matthew Quinn wrote a wonderful, detailed article about the Rotary GRSP program and our currently hosted student, Louise Homøe.
On October 4th, our club participated in the Literacy Forsyth Spell Check Live spelling bee. While we did not win the event, we came in tied for a respectable 4th place finish out of 12 teams. Not bad for our first time out.
JC Rotary Team Members: Robert Funk, Kendra Gerlach, Wiley Messick
One of our club members, Luke Haymond, played for The United Way of Forsyth County's team.
United Way Team Members: Skip Putnam, Penny Penn, Luke Haymond
The United Way team finished in second place.
Congratulations to all the competitors and thank you Literacy Forsyth for all you do for our community.
We got some great press on the golf tournament thanks to the Appen Newspapers Johns Creek Herald. Thank you to Kendra for arranging it.
While the final numbers are being tallied as to how much was actually raised, there is no doubt that the event was a fun and successful day.
The Golf Tournament was wonderful on many fronts. Here is a quick (albeit not complete) list of some of the things that made it so great :
1. Wonderful early fall weather and, better yet, no rain!
2. Wonderful hospitality by The Standard Club staff. Beautiful course and attentive staff made for a wonderful exerience. Thank you to Malcolm and staff!
3. Wonderful planning by Render Freeman. You make it look effortless and the event went off without a hitch. Thank you for our time and effort!
4. Many thanks to the team captains (Luke Haymond, Render Freeman, and Steve Gornall) for helping to make this fundraiser a successful one!
5. Thanks to all those people that volunteered to help make the event run smoothly, our sponsors, and the players who made it fun and competitive.
6. Raising money for a great cause in The United Way of Forsyth County.
Further updates will be forthcoming but thanks again.
Robert
Okay, so the picture does not have anything to do with this posting--but I got your attention, didn't I? As you can see from our calendar, our club has some great speakers lined up over the next couple of months. We have a great variety of speakers--some names you recognize and some you don't. That variety is what makes coming every Monday an exciting and interesting part of your week.
While we have Jack and Render taking care of the heavy lifting scheduling speakers on a regular basis, every member should be on the look out for a speaker that would add value to our speaker calendar.
It is a myth that this is a hard process. So to debunk it, I will give you the three simple steps to the process:
Step one: go to our website and look at the calendar for an open date.
Step two: log on to the website and click "edit speakers" on the list.
Step three: enter the speaker information including the meeting date.
Could it be any easier? I say not. However, if you contact Robert, Render or Jack with the information, we can enter the information into the website calendar for you.
Now, you have two easy ways to help the club book speakers that you want to have on the calendar.
The Rotary Club of Johns Creek has gone version 2.0. Our web site is updated with a new look but more importantly, it is easier for us to use as a club.
The first person to shoot Robert an email noting they saw this article on the web site wins a prize. I have to disqualify Luke and Render as they are already web site ninjas--you two will have to shoot for winning the golf tournament prize :)
Some have suggested that our economic problems have hit our charities the hardest. Donations are way down and those in need are still in need. Please help us help The United Way of Forsyth to provide critically important services to our community.
It couldn't be easier to register for this year's Johns Creek Rotary Golf Tournament - just click here and you'll be taken to our club's customized Golf Digest tournament page where you can choose your level of sponsorship and pay by credit card. Or, if you'd like to print the tournament flyer with all the registration information and sponsorship levels, just click here.
Tournament details: Monday September 19, 2011 at The Standard Club in Johns Creek Georgia
9:30 am Registration; 11:00 Shotgun Start
There's a wide variety of sponsorship levels from individual golfer at $200 to Platinum at $5,000.
We're all going to the Rotary International Convention in 2017 because it's coming to Atlanta! Just today, Atlanta won the right to host the 2017 Rotary International convention.
The convention June 10-14, 2017 at the Georgia World Congress Center will attract between 20,000 to 30,000 Rotarians from around the world. Their average length of stay is estimated to be 10 days, which means a big economic jolt for the city's tourism and hospitality industry.
Atlanta beat Cleveland; Detroit; Edmonton, Alberta; and Toronto, Ontario to win the convention.
Atlanta's bid was helped by the fact 2017 will be the 100th anniversary of the Rotary Foundation, which was started in Atlanta in 1917.
Among the committee that put together Atlanta's bid were: Spurgeon Richardson, retired president of the Atlanta Convention and Visitors Bureau, and Dick Stormont, who has worked in the hotel industry for decades.
Atlanta leaders also have pledged to raise $2 million to help defray the costs of hosting the convention. Top business leaders from Atlanta and around the state signed on to support Atlanta's bid.