Welcome to our new Rotary year!
After President, Gail Moseley opened the meeting with the Pledge of Allegiance, Program Host, Leslee Salhany gave an invocation about seeking help.
Gail thanked Steve Dunton and Maria Ferrara for getting us checked in this morning and welcomed our visitors, Gail Stawiery and Dave Henderson who were here in celebration of our float. John Nicholas was welcomed as our speaker.
CELEBRATIONS:
Wedding Anniversary: Dinah and Dave Henderson will celebrate their anniversary on Friday.
Birthday: Don Coughlin will celebrate his birthday on Friday. Maria led us in singing real well to him.
50/50 Drawing: Gail Moseley's table had the winning ticket, but John Nicholas drew the 8 of diamonds.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Fourth of July Float: Dinah shared pictures of the float preparations and the trophy so that everyone could see that the float won first place in the Youth Division. Dinah thanked the Rotarians for their involvement and help as it was a joint effort between Rotary and Club Interact. Thanks to Dinah for coordinating all of this!
Board Meeting will be this Friday, July 8 at 7:15 at City Hall. For this meeting it is requested that only the Board Members attend. The minutes of the June meeting are attached to these minutes.
Photos: Since many of the photos of our club on the website are outdated, be prepared to have you picture taken after meetings for the next couple of weeks.
Dues: Annette Oborn hopes to have our dues statements ready this week.
Foodbank: There is no Foodbank volunteer time tonight, but we are encouraged to sign up for August 3.
Stuff the Bus: Rotarians are needed to help with the Stuff the Bus project on August 5th and 6th. in two hour shifts. Be ready to sign up when you check in next week.
Clean up Stow: Dinah said that on Saturday, August 27 from 8:00-10:00 in the morning, Interact will work on cleaning up a mile of Stow. If you can help, let Dinah know.
Fifth Wednesdays: We are going to try not meeting in the morning on the days that there are five Wednesdays in the month. Instead, we would have an evening social where spouses and or family members would be included. Let Gail know if you have any suggestions for the first one which will be on Wednesday, August 31.
Bulldog Bags: Remember that our donation item for the summer is 18-24 oz, containers of lemonade mix. This can be brought to the meetings and given to Annette or dropped off at City Hall's donation box in the lobby.
Adopt-A-Spot: With the rain this week, it is a great time to spend some time weeding our spot at the corner of Graham and #91.
PROGRAM: As Program Host, Leslee Salhany gave her memorable moment in Rotary in a very unique way. When she delivered Heroes' Day Gifts to Mr. Ruggles in 2018, she asked him to tell her about his experience at the Battle of the Bulge so she could record it. She played that touching recording for us this morning.
She then introduced, Dr. John Nicholas who is the Co-Founder of the Cybersecurity degree program at the University of Akron. He also is a sports song-writer, his latest being "Go Go Guardians". He talked with us this morning about protecting our data, since there is no way to "get off the grid", even if we think we are doing so, because everything in some way is tied to the internet. He suggested that there are many things that we can do to protect our personal and business technology that are comparable to locking the doors and windows of our homes.
First of all, have good protective software like Norton that also has Lifelock included. It will warn you if there is a hint that your system has been compromised in some way. Second, be on the look-out for phishing. That occurs when someone pretends to be someone that they are not in an attempt to get your information. This will often appear when someone uses a legitimate business' logo and contacts you to gather information about you personally or to hack into your contacts. He suggest going to the website of your phone or computer company to see how best to protect your equipment. Companies rarely contact you through the computer to ask for personal information. Beware of anything like this. Dr. Nicholas suggests that if you do not recognize a caller's number that you let it go to voice mail. And, if you receive an e-mail with an attachment, he suggests that you not open it until you verify with the sender that it is legitimate.
Furthermore, keep your system up to date. When you are told that an update is available, update it as soon as possible. The update patches often are protection against a new threat of vulnerability. On the topic of passwords, Dr. Nicholas recommends using a Password Manager. It takes a while to set this up, but once you do, you only need to remember one password and the manager takes care of any changes that appear to be necessary. This greatly simplifies needing to change all of your passwords as the result of a social media or other type of hack. Where you need lengthy passwords, he suggests pulling our tools like song words or Biblical passages. We need to always be looking to keep our material safe. It may be more valuable than we realize to others since it connects us to other contacts.
DATES TO REMEMBER:
Friday, July 8, 7:15 a.m. Board Meeting at City Hall
Wednesday, July 13, 7:30 a.m. Morning meeting at Bellacinos
Wednesday, July 20, 7:30 a.m. Morning meeting at Bellacinos for Club Assembly
Wednesday, July 27, 7:30 a.m. Morning meeting at Bellacinos
Wednesday, August 3, 4:30-6:30 p.m. Akron Canton Foodbank Volunteer time
Friday August 5 and Saturday August 6, Volunteer to help with Stuff the Bus
Saturday, August 27, 8:00-10:00 a.m. help Interact with cleaning up a mile of Stow.
Wednesday, August 31. There will be no morning meeting but there will be an evening social time.
Saturday and Sunday, September 3 and 4, Summer Sunset Blast from 5:00-10:00 each day
Wednesday, October 12, Reverse Raffle/Silent Auction at Guys Party Center. No morning meeting that day
Thursday, December 15, Holiday Helping Hands
Submitted by Andy Denton