The meeting began at 12:10pm. One message from our recent survey was the desire to begin meetings promptly, to keep the meetings moving and if possible, keep them a little shorter. Our members also want social time, so please arrive a few minutes early to visit and have time to make it through the buffet line before we begin.
With Independence Day upon us, Loretta Conway shared some wisdom from our forefathers for Thought for the Day. Thank you to our team of Greeters, Tara Weaver, Chris Stillwell and Celina Taylor. We had a smaller than average group today, but it did include 3 visiting Rotarians and 2 guests. Hope this meeting update helps all you folks out enjoying the holiday!
Announcements were made from Chris Stillwell, asking members to go to our Clubrunner website and sign up to be Greeters for the next quarter, Holly, had the 1st reading for three new prospective Rotarians and Jim Moylan had some District updates.
Immediate Past President Steve Sehnert was asked to come up and present his choice for the Rotarian of the Year. This award would have been presented at the changing of the Guard, but the recipient, in her usual manner, had a commitment to help out our community in another way (running a free mountain bike clinic) that evening and was unable to attend. The award was made to Jody Corey for her involvement in our club over the past year. Among other things, she was an active member of the Barn Dance committee, the Task Force to create a new fundraiser and was the brain child of the Corn Hole Tournament, which was a huge success. She, along with Loretta, chaired the event, worked through all the pains of a first year event, raised almost $28,000 for our club and did so with a smile. Congrats to Jody, great job and she is very deserving of the award.
July birthdays were celebrated for Lisa Popovich, Rosemarie Smith, Cam Boyd, Melissa Gibson, Tiffany Leeson, Jeremy Behling, Mark Fitzgerald and Steve Hitchcock. Happy Birthday all!
Our program was about our local Foundation and was orchestrated by Scott Marr, the Chair of our Foundation Committee. Paula Cooper Black gave us her Foundation 101 course. Formed in the late 80’s and becoming a 501c3 around 1994-95, the Jack Black Endowment was named after Paula’s late husband, a former Rotarian and along with Paula, was committed to investing in our community. Karen O’Conner from the Yampa Valley Community Foundation, spoke about their mission to connect donors to non-profit groups. They currently have over $16 million in assets that they pool and invest for long term, low risk growth. Skip Curry, a visiting Rotarian from Humble, Texas (Ryan’s dad) made a short presentation on where our money was spent in their community following Hurricane Harvey. $25,000 went to the Kingwood Library for restoration and assistance in getting that open following the destruction. $4,000 to Cool Tech Refrigeration and $4,000 to Kirkwood Bagel, to assist two long time family owned businesses rebuild and open their businesses again, and smaller amounts to various individuals. A total of $40,000 was raised by our club and his pictures told the story of how that money helped rebuild lives. Steve Hitchcock then made a presentation on how our Club Endowment has grown over the years and where major expenditures have been made. We currently have over $600,000 in the Endowment, surpassing our goal of $500,000 two years ago, and have a new goal of $1,000,000 with a target date a few years out.
Scott completed the program by awarding two new Jack Black Fellows, one to Skip Curry and the second to Cindy Hayek, who was not in attendance. Several other Rotarians were recognized for Jack Black Fellows Plus; Jeff Swoyer +3, Lori Livingston +4, John Holloway +4, Suzanne Schlicht +8, Rex Brice +12, Scott Marr, Cam Boyd and Paula Cooper Black all +14. Thank you all for your support of our local Foundation.
I announced that there will be matching funds, one to one, available to all members that would like to contribute to the local Foundation throughout the month of July up to $5,000 total. So if you are close to becoming a Jack Black Fellow, this is the time to push it to your $1,000 total donation and receive that award. Please contact me or Angela and we will make it happen.
Next week’s meeting will be at Alpine Mountain Ranch with a box lunch. Weather permitting we will be outside so throw in your folding chair and sunscreen. We will get another email out later in the week with directions and details.
The meeting was adjourned at 1:15 following Good News.
Enjoy a wonderful 4th of July holiday,
Carol Johnson