Co-President Brad Ruth opened the meeting with the Pledge of Allegiance. Roger Cline, Program Host, followed with an invocation calling us to serve others, both at home and abroad. Brad welcomed our visitors, Wendi Polman and Juan Granda, the speakers for the morning. CELEBRATIONS Birthdays: Bob Oborn's birthday is September 10 and Marv Mills' is on September 15. Wedding Anniversary: Happy Anniversary to Sue and Matt Figler who will celebrate their 29th anniversary on September 12. HAPPY BUCKS: Annette Oborn reported that Bob got his PICC line out so some of her duties are over. Bob is now waiting for cardiac rehab to start. ANNOUNCEMENTS: Reverse Raffle: Annette Oborn announced that we still have 2/3 of the tickets to sell for the October 13 event. Text Bob at 330-801-0159 or e-mail him at boborn@kentelastomer.com or Annette at aoborn@att.net to request that they send you tickets. The $125 ticket includes two dinners and the $100 virtual ticket does not include dinner. Bob and or Annette will then mail the tickets to you and you can return the stub with your check in the self-addressed stamped envelope that will come with the ticket. If you are purchasing a virtual ticket, or in case we need to go virtual, please write on the back of your stub whether or not you are willing to split if you are among the last 5 tickets drawn. As in last years, when payment is received for the tickets, your seating assignment can be made. Silent Auction: Christina Gary announced that due to safety issues, the Silent Auction will become a Rotary Raffle. Directions will come later. There will be six or seven large items to possibly win through a drawing instead of going to the highest bidder. Christina is asking that instead of donating baskets, that members donate money comparable to what they may have spent on a basket. That way the committee will purchase cards for a Lottery Board, gift cards for a Gift Card Board, etc. There will also be a wine pull with bottles donated by members. The bottles should have a minimum value of $10 to $15. Other opportunities will be announced as they are confirmed. Interact and Homecoming Week: Mary Dula and Dinah Henderson have been in touch about the club's "Greek Paradise" float which will be in the Homecoming Parade on Friday, September 24 at the high school. Specifics need to be decided as to where the float will be located for decorations and if Rotarians can be available to help. A sign-up list will be available next week. Ronald McDonald House: Carrie Leising explained that our next opportunity to make dinner for the residents will be Wednesday, September 22. Carrie will create the menu. Jeff Film and Steve Dunton have volunteered to help but she can still use one more volunteer. Contact her at cleising23@gmail.com if you can help. Board Meeting: Our board will meet this Friday, September 10 at 7:15 by Zoom. Minutes of the August meeting are attached to these minutes. PROGRAM; Roger Cline, Program Host, introduced Wendi Polman, a former Rotarian exchange student. She had a four-year degree in Interior Design but never was employed in that field. Instead she has been very involved with IT positions and is involved with deliver of software now. She was specifically talking with us today about local boot camps in that field. When entry level programmers are being recruited, businesses may go to colleges and look for people who have been trained in programming systems and IT knowledge. Generally they recruit from the colleges twice a year. However, with local boot camps, they are likely to recruit people who have lots of world knowledge along with coding ability. Students begin with an aptitude test and enjoy a heavy emphasis on building relationships. Each camp costs about $15,000 in this area for a 10-12 week program and usually has a high level of community backing along with high earning potential. Wendi then introduced Juan Granda, now a senior software developer with Progressive, who went through boot camp. Originally from South America, he was an exchange student here. He received a BA in music from Baldwin Wallace. He then had hands on experience with a guitar amplifier company. Eventually he went to boot camp for coding and learned that skill in 12 weeks. Juan explained that 90-95% of the boot camp graduates are place in jobs right away. He had a job with Progressive before graduation. Since there is such a demand for software developers and software engineers companies are now developing their own boot camps. This is another demonstration of how college education is not necessary or the right thing for many people today. DATES TO REMEMBER: Friday, September 10, 7:15 a.m. Board Meeting on Zoom Wednesday, September 15, Morning meeting in person at Silver Lake. Judge Katarina Cook of the Domestic Relations Court will be our speaker. Wednesday, September 22. Morning meeting on Zoom Wednesday, September 22 our turn to cook for Ronald McDonald House. Monday, September 27, Teacher Supply Closet at City Hall upstairs, 5:00-6:00. Wednesday, September 29, Morning meeting on Zoom Wednesday, October 6, Volunteer at Akron-Canton Foodbank 4:30-6:30. Wednesday, October 13, 6:00-10:00 Reverse Raffle/Silent Auction at Guys Party Center. There will be no morning meeting that day. JOKE: Next week's joke will be by Bob Switzer. We had no joke today. Submitted by Andy Denton Andrea Denton |
