Pres. Sue's Jan. 15 Message
Greetings Rotarians!
WELCOME RETIEF!
We are very excited that our new Exchange Student, Retief van der Lingen has arrived safely from South Africa, and we are looking forward to having him visit our club this week. Please come to the meeting and make him feel welcome. With any luck he will be at our….
BOWLING FELLOWSHIP EVENT!!!!!
Which is Saturday, Jan 26 from 7-9 pm at Hampton Lanes. Please see the info below, the flyer in Downloads, or me, Susan for more details. It is sure to be a lot of fun. I think we have at least 18 people signed up so far, and need a final count by Sunday.
4 WAY SPEECH CONTEST
Ben Tenaglia could use some help finding students to participate in the 4 Way Speech Contest. The schools are not being very cooperative. If you know a teacher with some pull or other means of getting word out to high school students, please help Ben. There is a lot of prize money available. The winning student stands to win $1,400 in total for winning all 3 levels: local, regional and district (I think?).
WEEKLY MEETING COST
Kirkland’s price to the club is officially going up from $8.50 to $10 per person this week. The club’s price to members will remain $10. (Historically, the $1.50 difference has been used to pay for speakers, plus prospective members with their 3 tickets.) The board decided that will use club funds to cover the cost of those guests for the time being. In addition, Kirkland now requires a minimum guarantee of 33 paid breakfasts every week, otherwise we have to pay $10 for each attendee under 33. So if we only have 30 people attend, we have to pay an additional $30. Please try to attend each meeting! Dee Elliott and Gary Hartney are looking at possible alternative meeting locations. If you would like to help them, please let them know. Their contact info is on our website.
Also, please plan for some change in the dues structure in the new Rotary year. We have also heard that the District may raise our District Dues this year. For those of you that missed my kick off meeting this year, the Morning Star Rotary Club has some of the lowest dues of any club in the District. We have not raised dues since I joined the club and that was 8 years ago. Of the dues that you pay, the club only retains about $35 or $45 for operating expenses. (The majority goes to Rotary International and the District.) Our only other sources of revenue for these expenses are now happy dollars and fines, since we are losing the $1.50 per member per meeting noted above. If you would ever like to take a closer look at our budgets, please see me, or our Treasurer Sue Reeps – that is Sue or Sue!
Which brings us to ... DUES!
Dues are due. If you only paid half your dues at the beginning of the year, the other half are now due. So please pay them promptly as the second half of our RI dues are due at the end of January.
Our speaker this week is Debra Lamb, Executive Director the Lehigh Valley Children's Centers – they were one of our grant recipients this year.
Sincerely, Susan