Gallipolitan
President Deborah Rhodes brought the morning meeting of the Gallipolis Rotary Club to order promptly at 7:15am. Special guests today included Meagan Barnes of the OSU South Centers, who is our program speaker. Also attending this morning is visiting Rotarian and District Governor-Elect, Ram Gawande, from the Athens Rotary Club.
There is much more below the fold so keep reading!
Great News–President Deb announced that our club has received news of the award of the District Simplified Grant for our Literacy Project to award books to the nine elementary schools in the county. Instead of ‘mugging’ our speaker, the club will donate a new hardbound book to one of the county’s elementary schools. We plan to kick off this project next week with the District Governor’s visit! Be sure to be with us.
Attendance Awards–Several Gallipolis Rotarians were recognized with PERFECT ATTENDANCE pins for the past year. Both President Deb and Past President Jim Morrison received a ONE year pin. Margaret Evans was awarded a TWO year perfect attendance pin. Matt Willis was awarded a FOUR year perfect attendance pin. Next came a special recognition to PDG Mel Simon for 21 YEARS of perfect attendance and finally, Gordon Amsbary received his pin for 36 YEARS of perfect attendance! Congratulations to these six Rotarians!
It was great to see Marlin Rose in attendance this morning!
Fellowship–Lou Ellen Werry ran club fellowship for the morning and provided a brief history of the Ohio State Fair. We had a number of Rotarian pictures in the paper this past week and the ‘Greg Sojka edition’ may now have to be renamed the ‘President Deborah Rhodes edition’ as Greg has been eclipsed this week by President Deb’s collection of photos. Deb Saunders also had a nice photo as well, but we have to wait to collect on that one!
Happy Buck$–Matt Willis offered a happy buck in honor of his mom, Wanda Willis, and her recent book publishing. DG-Elect Ram offered a happy buck for meeting everyone at this morning’s meeting.
Split-The-Pot–Rotarian Dan Whiteley ran STP for the meeting and collected a good pot for the lucky winner. Dan asked our speaker, Meagan, to draw the winning ticket which belonged to Tammi! Tammi pocketed the $8 pot and drew for the ‘big one’ missing every so slightly by drawing the two of hearts. The Foundation Fine was assessed against anyone who did NOT receive a perfect attendance pin this morning. Good one!
Program–President Deb introduced Meagan Barnes of the OSU South Centers in Piketon who presented our program for the meeting. In reference to the recent announcement of the loss of nearly 10,000 jobs at the Wilmington, Ohio DHL facility, Meagan turned her talk toward the importance of developing new businesses and jobs in southern Ohio.
‘Pitch Your Plan’ is a new effort of the OSU Centers Business Development Center and is an effort to create business in the 10 county southern region. The competition seeks to encourage participants to develop winning business plans for innovation or new technology or a business with a new product to develop. Top prize in this competition is a $10,000 award and rent free business incubator space for three months. A number of local business have chipped in support to help get this program started. Meagan urged Rotarians to step up and assist new startups or innovators to apply.
Rotarians enjoyed a good round of questions and answers at the conclusion of our speaker’s remarks. President Deb ‘mugged’ Meagan with a Gallipolis Rotary mug and an invitation to join us again.
Reminder–DG Tom here next week–Our District Governor, Tom Kokensparger, will make his official visit to Gallipolis Rotary next week, August 5th. We would like to have a good attendance on hand for Tom, so please plan on making this important meeting.
Have a great week, and feel free to leave some comments! That is what this format is all about!