President's Message for May, 2016
President's Message
By Gary Rovelstad
Where Was the Flag, Anyway?
I'll get back to that question in a sentence or two. Before I do, I would like to thank everyone again who helped plant some 100+ trees along the Ane Keohokalole Highway last month. I think as a group we likely bought all of the Advil Long's had in stock. Even so, it was a great effort from all of the West Hawai`i clubs and I thank you for it. I also want to thank Donna and Ken for their work honoring Jerry Tracy with our 2016 Vocational Service Award at our April 26th meeting. As long as I'm thanking folks, I would like to add another thank you to your board of directors who, with the fine help of Laura's preparation and Larry's cooking, debated for some two and one-half hours at their last meeting over matters important to our club.
The first of these matters was not so much a debate as it was gathering information from Gabriella, whom we had invited to the meeting, regarding her recommendations to us and the club about how we can best continue to honor Bill Cliff's memory. Listening to her rein-forced our understanding of Bill's ongoing desire to bring the opportunity of education to as many as possible. It will take us some time and planning, but our efforts will move towards this goal. Then the board discussed, amended, and discussed again our new by-laws be-fore accepting them as our club's new set of rules. The board also heard reminders about Sharon's June 24th installation dinner, our participation in June 11’s King Kamehameha Parade, and Don's Jubilee Committee's ongoing work to identify those projects which will help us commemorate our 50th year as a Rotary Club. All of these announcements led Dan Montgomery to ask us to establish a more formal procedure to keep everyone, including the public, informed about our club's activities so they don't come as a surprise to us or the rest of our community. Finally, the board discussed our membership headcount.
Most of you know that Rotary International assesses our club a semi-annual fee based on our headcount on a specific date, in this case June 30th. So, please don't be surprised if you get a call as we prepare to submit our membership report.
What happened to the flag, then, on the 26th? There's a story told about "Bear" Bryant, the former football coach at Alabama, that speaks to his attention to detail. If a bald eagle, the story goes, swooped down onto the field and stole the football, coach Bryant would have a play ready to defend against the eagle. Well, I could take a lesson from that story. The flag was in the closet. Thanks for going along.
President's Message
By Gary Rovelstad
Where Was the Flag, Anyway?
I'll get back to that question in a sentence or two. Before I do, I would like to thank everyone again who helped plant some 100+ trees along the Ane Keohokalole Highway last month. I think as a group we likely bought all of the Advil Long's had in stock. Even so, it was a great effort from all of the West Hawai`i clubs and I thank you for it. I also want to thank Donna and Ken for their work honoring Jerry Tracy with our 2016 Vocational Service Award at our April 26th meeting. As long as I'm thanking folks, I would like to add another thank you to your board of directors who, with the fine help of Laura's preparation and Larry's cooking, debated for some two and one-half hours at their last meeting over matters important to our club.
The first of these matters was not so much a debate as it was gathering information from Gabriella, whom we had invited to the meeting, regarding her recommendations to us and the club about how we can best continue to honor Bill Cliff's memory. Listening to her rein-forced our understanding of Bill's ongoing desire to bring the opportunity of education to as many as possible. It will take us some time and planning, but our efforts will move towards this goal. Then the board discussed, amended, and discussed again our new by-laws be-fore accepting them as our club's new set of rules. The board also heard reminders about Sharon's June 24th installation dinner, our participation in June 11’s King Kamehameha Parade, and Don's Jubilee Committee's ongoing work to identify those projects which will help us commemorate our 50th year as a Rotary Club. All of these announcements led Dan Montgomery to ask us to establish a more formal procedure to keep everyone, including the public, informed about our club's activities so they don't come as a surprise to us or the rest of our community. Finally, the board discussed our membership headcount.
Most of you know that Rotary International assesses our club a semi-annual fee based on our headcount on a specific date, in this case June 30th. So, please don't be surprised if you get a call as we prepare to submit our membership report.
What happened to the flag, then, on the 26th? There's a story told about "Bear" Bryant, the former football coach at Alabama, that speaks to his attention to detail. If a bald eagle, the story goes, swooped down onto the field and stole the football, coach Bryant would have a play ready to defend against the eagle. Well, I could take a lesson from that story. The flag was in the closet. Thanks for going along.