At Precisely close to lunch time president Stacie Cook once again brought the unruly crowd to order. With the ever so reverent Dr. Hartman delivered a well-received prayer for the New Year and hopefully brings new beginnings for us all.
A new member was well received, Mr. Austin Green who was proposed by Mr. Colton Heinrich. Please welcome Austin. Introduce yourself and help him attain the sought after Blue Badge.
Carla Dowlen tried to catch up on the December birthdays we missed. Alex Pappas was the only one present today.
Carla then turned the January birthdays over to Alex to help celebrate. Alex wished Sheldon Wang a happy birthday and awarded him a Sports Clips gift certificate.
There were a few more dollars entered the brag bucket.
The day’s events was the Club Assembly and reports were given of goals and accomplishments that the club wishes to attain and try and get membership up to more members. Jeremy Woodward gave a report to recognize first responders that will start happening soon. Jeremy asked us to mark our calendars for Thursday, May 2nd for our first Service Excellence recipient for this Rotary year.
Alan Donaldson reported on membership. He let everyone know that the plan is to hold a membership drive in February. The Membership Committee’s motto is “More Rotarians in the Door in 2024”. Alan informed us of a meeting at Jimmy’s egg that everyone is welcome to attend and bring new ideas to attain more members. You can contact Alan Donaldson, Jake Munholland or anyone else on the Membership Committee if you’d like to get more involved. There is now a very large box at The Forum that contained available swag for potential new members.
Benay Ayers gave a very positive report on the Rotary Foundation that this club has delivered over the last 5 years. We currently have 23 of our 69 members who participate in the Every Rotarian Every Year (EREY) each quarter. A portion of our contributions comes back to us in the form of District Matching Grant money in three years. If you have any questions about donating to the Rotary Foundation or would like to become a Paul Harris Fellow, you can contact Benay or let Tina know you would like the EREY added to your quarterly invoice with your dues and meals.
Phase 1 of the Rotary Park Playground raised $63,000 in the first year (2020 – 2021). $16,000 was raised by individual Rotarians, each of the local Rotary Clubs gave $5,000, $11,557 came from our Club, $2,300 from a District Matching Grant and other generous donors made up the rest.
Some other special donors that have risen above and beyond the call of benevolence to help the playground to become more presentable and used for the community.
With Phase 2 came $2,500 from each Rotary Club, $2,381 from a District Matching Grant, $12,845 from 3 sponsors for the benches at the playground, a donation of $25,000 towards the Zip Line for the playground and other major donors donated. Benay has put forth great efforts to make all of this happen. Stay tuned to see what Phase 3 brings!
The Outstanding Citizen will be announced next week at the meeting and if you want to bring guest, please let Tina know of attendees so a head count can be forwarded to the meal preparation team so we do not run short of food that will be served.
After the updates, we all had the opportunity to make homemade cards thanking veterans for their service.