Good morning Rotarians!

I hope your Monday morning is off to a good start! I'm up early this morning with a lot of "to do's" on my list this week. Alyssa and I are leaving Saturday for a couple of weeks to celebrate our 25th anniversary. We will spend a week in one of her favorite cities, San Diego and then we'll head north to wine country for the rest of the trip. So, while I'm very excited about the trip, I know what lies ahead for this week. I remember hearing Zig Ziglar in one of his talks comment on how to get twice as much done in a day - “Treat every day like it's the day before vacation, and you will get more work done!” I believe it! I wonder how much I can get done in five days?

Last week we heard from Dr. Bryan Johnson, Hamilton County Department of Education's new Superintendent. While I was struck by how young he is, I was also struck in how impressive he is. I liked that he has hit the ground running and has surpassed his "first 100 days" goal. I left our meeting last week feeling very encouraged that our students are in good hands.

We also had the honor of inducting two new Rotarians last week. Stan Hildebrand and Nick Stembridge joined our ranks and will be great members! I hope you will make them feel welcome in the upcoming weeks.

Lastly, I shared some ways to give to Rotary who is partnering with Shelter Box to aide in assistance to those impacted by our recent hurricanes and earthquakes. Here is the link to the information that was on the PowerPoint presentation on how you can give and direct your gifts. https://www.rotary.org/en/rotary-helps-disaster-victims

This week we will have a networking meeting as our program. Some have termed it our "speed dating" networking where each member around the table has opportunity to share for 5 minutes about who they are, what they do and how the other members could possibly help them in their business. Everyone will be assigned seats at tables where you hopefully don't know everyone so we can deepen our relationships and get to know more each other more personally. This meeting has always been well received by our members and we hope to do it another couple times this Rotary year. I would encourage to bring business cards and have a few things ready that you will want to share with your friends at the table.

I look forward to seeing you Wednesday,

President Todd

Announcments:

• Have you gone to the link below to help Justin know when to schedule our time at the Chattanooga Food Bank? If not, take a minute and do so and join in on this opportunity of service. 
  • https://doodle.com/poll/g7gfb9t5q759v6m7 
• Pictures for Directory - We are very appreciative that Rotarian Earl Story will have one of his Lifetouch photographers at our club meetings on October 25 and November 15 for our directory. We are wanting the directory to have a professional look to it so take advantage of one of these two days to have your photo taken by these skilled photographers.
• World Polio Day – October 24
• PETS and TRECS - October 14 in Crossville, TN
  • Register now by going to DACdb, click on calendar, and scroll down to October 14. You will see the four options and you can register for them individually. A box lunch is available for anyone who participates in a morning and an afternoon session.