Hello Fellow Rotarians,
Co-President Brad Ruth opened the meeting with the Pledge of Allegiance and Andy Denton followed with the invocation.
Brad welcomed John Reyes, Past District Governor and our speaker this morning.
HAPPY BUCK: Ron Taggart pointed out that his is really an unhappy buck, acknowledging that Mayor Pribonic lost a pickle ball challenge to Mayor David Kline of Tallmadge. However, a very kind Rotarian pointed out that if it were the Olympics, Mayor Pribonic would have still received a silver medal!
CELEBRATIONS:
Rotary Anniversaries: Congratulations to Tina Gary for celebrating 9 years with us and to Jennifer Coleman who is celebrating two years as a Rotarian.
Wedding Anniversary: Bob and Jill Sweitzer are celebrating 37 years of marriage today and Bob told us it is also his 7 year anniversary with Timken.
Birthday: Today is Bruce Redmon's birthday. Carrie led us in singing to him.
CONCERN: Be sure to sign the card for Mary Dula who has been in the hospital and is still under the weather.
50/50 DRAWING: Bruce's table had the winning ticket but drew the 7 of diamonds.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Board Meeting: The board meeting will be this Friday, October 8 at 7:15 on Zoom and not on October 15 as was previously announced. The minutes of the September meeting are attached to these notes.
Reverse Raffle: Annette Oborn reminded us that we are only one week away and have amazingly sold 126 tickets as of this morning. Some are virtual and some will be in person. Because of this, we need extra help in side boards and announcing the events. How about stepping up to help by contacting Annette at
aoborn@att.net as soon as possible. Remember that this is a whole club event and not just the committee's. There will be no morning meeting next week.
If you have purchased a virtual ticket, please make sure that you let Bob Oborn know if you are willing to split the pot if you make it to the final five. It would be split $500,/$500/$500/$500/$1000. If you do not let Bob know you are willing to split, it will be assumed that you do not want to split. Contact Bob at boborn@kentelastomer.com.
Silent Auction: Tina Gary reminded us that the Silent Auction will be different this year. We have several large prizes and are selling tickets for chances to win those prizes. Tickets are $5 each or 5 for $20.00. When you return your ticket stubs, indicate on the back where you want your tickets to go either by number or the prize. One winner will be pulled for each prize. Attached to these minutes you will find a flier that shows you the prizes and the number. Both Christina and Annette have tickets for sale and they will be sold the evening of the event. Contact Christina at
christinamgary@gmail.com and Annette at
aoborn@att.net if you want tickets before the event.
Foodbank: Steve Dunton reminded everyone that tonight is our time to volunteer at the Akron-Canton Foodbank from 4:30-6:30 this evening. Masks are needed to participate.
Golf Outing: Christina said that she has a contract with Silver Lake for our Golf Outing, but that it will not be signed without a chair. Thanks to Scott Miller who stepped up to say that he will chair the June 6,2022 event. Dick Hall guarantees that he has all of the information that Scott will need as chair.
Football Pool: Chairperson Pat Messmore reports the winners for week 5. They are Gail Moseley, Dick Hall, Charles Smith, Michael Hyrnick, Lynn Hilaire, Mary Dula, Richard McMasters and Lorrie Shaffer.
Bulldog Bags: The donation items for this month are Ramen noodle packets, pudding cups and soap. Bring your donations to a meeting or drop them off at the City Hall lobby's Bulldog Bag container.
PROGRAM:
John Reyes, who was our District 6630 Governor for the interesting 2019-2020 year was our speaker this morning, speaking about the new Youth Protection Policy. He did his undergraduate work in political science at The University of Akron and received a law degree from The Vanderbilt University School of Law. He now is with the law firm of Buckingham, Doolittle and Burroughs. He has been President of the Akron Rotary Club and has held many district offices.
He began by thanking Bob Oborn, Carrie Leising and Mary Dula for their participation in this project already. Some other states have had this program for over 10 years and it is now necessary for us to join in with our policy. At this point, every Youth Exchange student is already trained in what kind of behavior they do not need to tolerate. Rotarians working with youth in any capacity need to have some level of clearance to do so. This is partially because of our insurance and the continued broad coverage that Rotary International provides to our clubs. Other organizations such as scouts and some church youth groups have been devastated by claims that have been made. Our first step is to have a policy that addresses required behavior. This is also a need required by Ohio statute through Ohio Revised Code 109.574 and 109.575. This talks about access to youth requiring fingerprinting and or background checks, depending on the level of involvement with youth. That has been in place since 2001.
The level of involvement for us basically breaks down into two categories. (See the attached Rotary Youth Protection document for more understanding. ) It describes two levels of involvement. The first is Casual Contact. That would be the type of volunteer contact like the dictionary project, where there is always more than one adult with any youth with who we are involved. People who have that limited contact would submit their e-mail to the district. They then would watch a short video, pass a quiz and they are done.
The other type of contact is Continued Contact. This would be for Rotarians who could be with any youth where there might not be another adult present or where they might have significant and continual unsupervised contact. This could happen through Youth Exchange, camps, with our new mentoring program or potentially some Interact activities. In this case the volunteer submits to a background check by IntelliCorp with their results going to the district for review. If approved the Youth Volunteer Management (YVM) system marks the volunteer's record approved and the volunteer becomes eligible to work as a Continued Contact Volunteer. This process costs the club about $18 per person for the protection that is offered.
It is necessary that every Rotarian familiarize themselves with the attached document to figure out what level of the vetting process each person needs to be a part of. When the specific district training software is completed it will be available to all members.
DATES TO REMEMBER:
Friday, October 8, 7:15 a.m. Board Meeting by Zoom
Wednesday, October 13, No morning meeting
Wednesday, October 13, 6:00-10:00 p.m. Reverse Raffle/Basket Raffle at Guys Party Center
Wednesday, October 20, In person morning meeting at Silver Lake. Speaker is Jamie Syx, Stow Law Director.
Monday, October 25, 5:00-6:00 Teacher Supply Closet, Upstairs at City Hall
Wednesday, October 27, Morning meeting by Zoom
Wednesday, November 3, 4:30-6:30 p.m. Vounteer time at Akron-Canton Foodbank
Submitted by Andy Denton
