This morning Co-President, Brad Ruth opened the meeting with the Pledge of Allegiance and Program Host, Ray Evans led us in a meaningful invocation about being our best.
CELEBRATIONS:
Birthdays: Tom Bahr is celebrating his birthday today and Mary Dula will be celebrated tomorrow. We gave them a Zoom Rotary wave.
Rotary Anniversary: Today is the one year mark of joining Rotary for both Sue Figler and Mike Kostyack..
HAPPY BUCKS:
Dinah Henderson is happy that they will celebrate her daughter's 21st birthday later today.
Mary Dula was happy that we could be together in-person for the board retreat on Saturday. (Minutes of that retreat are attached to these minutes.)
Linda Trevorrow was happy that Gail Moseley agreed to be our President-Elect for the Rotary year of 2021-2022.
Brad Ruth was happy that his daughter interviewed Governor DeWine yesterday.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Dave Renninger reported that November will be our month when we emphasize giving to The Rotary Foundation. Each member will receive a report of their giving so that we know how far we are toward becoming a new Paul Harris Fellow or moving to the next level.
Brad Ruth explained that we can become part of a district plan to plant 150 saplings on Nov. 20. He will explain further next week and have a sign-up sheet for the club.
We have been receiving information about the tragic fire that Jainel Terry and her son experienced last Saturday where they lost everything. She was our morning server for many years at Silver Lake. If you check your e-mail from Brad earlier today, you will see that if anyone wants to personally add to the club's donation of $1000, you can make the check out to Jainel Terry. The donations then will be given to Steve Ranney from Silver Lake who is assisting Jainel in getting reestablished. Gift cards for clothes and food would also be helpful. If you are unable to be present next Wednesday, you can mail your donations to Annette Oborn at 381 Silver Valley Blvd. Munroe Falls, OH 44262 and she will get them to Silver Lake.
Mary Dula said that people must sign up for Foodbank volunteering if they plan to do so next week. The Foodbank is limiting us to 10 participants. Interact also wants to join us in volunteering, so in order to determine how many from Interact can participate, we need to know how many Rotarians will be going. Text Mary Dula at 330-715-6358 if you plan on being there....the sooner the better.
Pat Messmore said that the Dictionary Project has a slight delay, but that the dictionaries are due to be delivered today. They will need to be labeled before they can be delivered. Stay turned for further delivery details.
Dinah Henderson, Interact Advisor reported on their activities. The usual meetings are Wednesdays from 2:30-3:30 in the high school library. They are preparing their fall activities. The Memorial area at the high school will be tended and cared for, making this their "'Adopt-A-Spot". They are making a scarecrow scene for City Hall and are planning to attend the Interact Conference at W. Geauga High School. They have developed a pin award system for recognizing those students who have volunteered for various activities to strengthen the importance of volunteering. Dinah said that she appreciated the $1000 that the board voted on at the retreat, enabling the students to have food when they are volunteering. By error I left out of previous minutes that Dinah recognized Jennifer Coleman and Mary Dula for participating in the Interact Homecoming Float as representatives of Rotary. Thank you.
Brad explained that we will not be participating in the mentoring program through the district grant process. The club will be using different routes to still achieve the same product.
At the Board Retreat last Saturday, the board voted to accept the application for honorary membership from Dinah Henderson. Her application is attached to these minutes. Over the next two weeks, give any comments to Brad Ruth or John Pribonic.
The November items for Bulldog Bags are cups or boxes of soup, protein bars, tissues and lip balm. Bring your items to an in-person meeting or drop them off at the donation box in the lobby of City Hall.
PROGRAM
In answering the question about what he did during the pandemic to make a difference, Ray Evans, Program Host, talked about how he cared for his wife who is in a nursing home, trying to monitor that she was as safe as possible. That is a whole set of real challenges that staff and families both faced.
Ray then introduced David Lariviere of Sacs Consulting and Investigative Services. He is their Senior Security Specialist and has expertise in investigative services and military intelligence. His topic for today was Cybersecurity.
Mr. Lariviere gave several examples of companies being severely damaged by people who exposed leaks in security and then demanded huge sums of money for the company to retrieve their information. In one year, our country spent over $3 billion to individuals who had infiltrated their companies. These criminals often attack large companies but are also interested in small entities because of their connections to multiple other sites. The U.S. is more exposed than many other countries to malware, viruses and phishing, (a site that looks familiar but is a trap to gather information). The hackers look for sites that are vulnerable because administrators of the site are too trusting.
To minimize our risks, we all need to keep our virus protection and firewalls up to date. We need to keep authority over the information contained and keep our passwords secure. Think of a password with 10 or ore characters and include numerals and symbols. Back-up your information in some other location. We need to make sure our payment processing is secure and be concerned about multi-use computers. Trust your instinct. Don't open something that feels strange.
He warned about turning in old cell phones or computers when we feel they have been wiped clean. They probably have not. Take the sym card out of the phone and in all cases ask for a written guarantee from the carrier that nothing left behind is used.
JOKE: We did not end with a joke this morning but Bill Choler will be responsible for next week's joke.
DATES TO REMEMBER:
Wednesday, November 3, Morning meeting in person at Silver Lake. Scott Mullaney of Amer Cunningham will speak about Probate.
Wednesday, November 3. 4:30-6:30 p.m. Volunteer time at the Akron-Canton Foodbank.
Wednesday, November 10, Morning meeting on Zoom. Dr. Barbara Kelly will speak on "The Art of Giving and Receiving Feedback"
Friday, November 12, 7:15 a.m. Board Meeting in person at City Hall.
Wednesday, December 15, Morning Meeting in person at Silver Lake will be our Holiday Party
Wednesday, December 15, 5:30-7:30 Holiday Helping Hands Wrapping Party at City Hall
Wednesday December 22 No Meeting. Merry Christmas
Wednesday, December 29 No Meeting. Happy New Year
Submitted by Andy Denton