President Jim Nelson opened the meeting with the Pledge of Allegiance. Pastor Larry Conway led the group in signing God Bless American, accompanied by Mary O. Dougal Nelson provided the invocation.
Guests included Jennie Swanson, a potential new member; Terry Westbrook from the East Moline Club; and Rich Garrett, guest of Jim Flick
Mike Wendt shared News of the Day. One item of interest was that the Rock Island County Republican Central Committee will host Rock Island Mayor Mike Thoms, and Moline Rotarian and Moline Mayor Stephanie Acri at 6:00 p.m., on August 10, at 500 16th Street Rock Island Mayor Thoms and Mayor Acri will review their first 90 days in office and answer questions.
Moline Rotary Sports Day is Monday, September 11, 2017, at Oakwood Country Club. Everyone is asked to complete one of the yellow registration forms so there is an accurate attendance count for lunch and golf.
Gary Francque gave a brief update on Youth Exchange.
The Central States Rotary Youth Exchange conference was held at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Tenfu attended before he returned to Japan and our outbound student also attended.
Gary has been in contact with both Tenfu and his mother since his return. They are grateful for the incredible adventure made possible by the support of Moline Rotarians
Gary announced that he will be the Youth Exchange Officer, replacing Melinda Urban. Melinda will be the student counselor. Gary expressed gratitude to Melinda for the years she has acted as Youth Exchange Officer.
Our newest inbound youth exchange student is Halenka Pellichero. She arrives from Belgium on August 14. Her welcome party will be at the River Drive Happy Joe’s from 5:30 – 7:30 on August 15.
Kelly Giovanine replaced Jodie Corey Behrens as the Sargent at Arms for the day.
President Jim Nelson was today’s speaker. He discussed his goals for the 2017-2018 Rotary year and the annual conference, held in Atlanta Georgia.
Jim has lived in the Quad Cities area since 1989 and has worked at Parr Instruments since 2008. Jim has been married to Angela, his college sweetheart for about 28 years. He has two daughters. Chloe, 21, is a student at St. Louis University and will be attending St. Louis College of Pharmacy. Lauren, 17 will be a senior at Pleasant Valley High School, and is on the swim team.
His Rotary Presidential Goals for the year are as follows:
All Rotary Clubs are trending down in membership. The district governor has a goal to increase each club by one or two members. Jim would like to see the Moline Club at 115, which is about six members more than where we are at currently. He would like to see at least ten members sponsor a new member. Jim would like to get more PR for Moline Rotary through the good service projects we do. He believes this will generate interest in membership. He wants 54 members involved in service activities.
The district governor has a goal to plan one tree for each member. Jim believes this can be done, possibly through a partnership with Living Land & Waters. Jim moved into the President’s role a year earlier than expected so he didn’t have time to create a signature project. He plans to set up a signature project through the foundation for Kelly Giovanine’s presidential year.
Jim prefers to have a social once per quarter instead of monthly. The meeting will be combined with a club update. He would also like to have at least four evening socials. His thoughts are to have another ice cream social, an Augustana basketball night, and a spring social with beer or wine tasting. Prospective members would be welcome. The goal is to have one major fundraiser. He was inspired at the President’s-Elect Training Seminar (PETS) and believes little ideas can turn into signature events over time. Jim stated there was a lot of history with the Moline Rotary and many of those documents are stored at Trevor’s True Value. He would like to have a project to digitize the records for preservation.
He discussed the importance of reporting service hours and donations, and stated he would make the financial available on the website. Regarding the foundation, he has a goal for an average annual donation per member of $76. 50 to match the district governor’s goal. This should be easily attained since our average donation per member last year was $107.50. The polio plus district goal is $20 per person.
His recap on the Annual Conference, held in Atlanta, Georgia. The association of fundraising professionals rated the Rotary Foundation one of the top 10 charities changing the world in 2016.
Key Speakers included the following:
John Cena: WWE Superstar, Actor, Rotary polio ambassador. He joined Rotary’s End Polio Now campaign in 2015.
Bill Gates: Co-chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation. The foundation has given millions of dollars in their goal to eradicate polio worldwide.
Ashton Kutcher: Actor, tech investor and philanthropist. Kutcher is the co-founder of Thorn. Thorn dries technology innovation to fight child sexual exploitation.
Jack Nicklaus: Golf icon, philanthropist and Rotary ambassador for polio eradication.
The Honorable Kasim Reed: Mayor of the City of Atlanta: Since taking office, he has hired more than 900 police officers and created the largest force in the city’s history, and reopened all of the city’s recreation centers as safe havens for young people.
Final Quote:
It’s important to give a better country to your children, but it is more important to give better children to your country.
Carlos Slim
“The Warren Buffet of Mexico”
