Gallipolitan
President Deb Rhodes welcomed Rotarians and our special guest, Assistant District Governor, Lee Hubbard,to this morning’s meeting. We had an excellent attendance today,as we were only missing six Rotarians! Our MIA’s included Lynne Crow, Bob Eastman, Margaret Evans, Jeff Lanham, JR Sauer, and David Smith. Hope to see you all soon!
President Deb reminded the club of the District Governor’s visit to Gallipolis Rotary on August 5th. We want as many members present that day for DG Tom
Kokensparger, and to show our spirit and enthusiasm for Rotary!
Please mark your calendars and plan to attend.
New Gallia Jr. Fair Project–Denise Shockley briefed the club on the results of our newest community project, Jr. Fair Livestock Princesses selection. Denise particularly acknowledged the help she received from Kurt and Emily Dailey on Saturday evening. There were a total of 59 participants and the event was well organized. This is a great new project for Rotary and one which will extend our visibility in the community. Thanks, Denise, for your leadership!
Club Fellowship–Lou Ellen Werry led fellowship for the meeting announcing that we had missed the President’s recent birthday. Greg Sojka’s pictures in the local paper may cause the paper to have a special edition! Naturally, all this good natured ribbing cost a few bucks. Past President Jim offered a Happy Buck for the great Chautauqua last week. Tammi Brabham also offered a Happy Buck in honor of a new granddaughter. Lou Ellen reminded club members of the great articles in this month’s Rotarian magazine.
Split-Zee-Pot–Dan Whiteley ran STP for the meeting and sold a bunch of tickets. Dan had ADG Lee draw the winning ticket which was held by . . . Resty Alonzo. Resty thought that his dry spell of 25 years was finally rewarded only to draw the two of spades, missing the big one! Resty declared the Foundation Fine against ‘anyone who did NOT attend the Chautauqua programs last week.
Today’s program was a club assembly, an important planning event in the life of our Rotary club. The club first heard from Debbie Saunders who chairs the club’s Public Relations committee. Deb emphasized a number of goals for the committee to keep our name out in the public view–regular newspaper articles, radio interviews, update our club brochure, and promote our newsletter and club website.
Tammi Brabham heads up our Administrative Committee and spoke of the importance of getting new members involved in the activities and workings of the club. Our programs will be focused on Rotary events in the RI calendar.
John Ellison is Membership Chair and emphasized the importance to get the word out in the community about Rotary. Our ’soft-sell’ has to work in tandem with the club’s PR and community image. We all need to invite those whom we meet to a club meeting.
Dan Whiteley is serving as the club’s Community Service Chair. Dan expressed the strengths our club possesses with the number of great projects that we conduct. We want to continue to impact the community with our Literacy program and new projects like the Relay For Life team.
PDG Mel Simon serves as our club’s Foundation Chair. This is our club’s fourth avenue of service and Rotarians serve as a ‘global network of volunteers.’ Operation We Care medical mission is our club’s most visible project and is supported by three different matching grants. There is a possibility of an education exchange program between a university in Manila and the University of Rio Grande to further our goal of international peace and understanding. Mel will be assisted by Resty Alonzo and Greg Sojka during the year.
After the regular meeting, club officers, directors, and committee chairs met with Assistant District Governor Lee Hubbard in preparation for the District Governor’s official visit in August. ADG Lee congratulated Gallipolis Rotary on it’s energy, enthusiasm, and variety of projects that hallmark our Rotary year.