Gallipolitan
We had an excellent attendance this morning for the regular meeting of the Gallipolis Rotary Club. President Deb Rhodes welcomed members and two guests–Evans Smalley and Dr. Grae Schuster, Radiation Oncologist and Medical Director for the Holzer Center for Cancer Care. Rotarian Bob Hood gave the invocation.
Dictionary Distribution–Our annual dictionary distribution to 5th graders was held
last Thursday and Gallipolis Rotarians were in all the elementary schools in the county. Greg Sojka visited Rio Grande Elementary, Jim Morrison and Debbie Saunders visited Washington, Chuck Clark visited Southwestern, Dan and Edna Whitely visited Vinton, Cleeland Willis visited Green, Bonnie McFarland and President Deb visited Hannan Trace, Denise Shockley and Emily Dailey visited Addaville, and Bob Hood visited Ohio Valley Christian. Matt Willis mentioned how Rotarians need to be ‘on your game’ as these kids are really sharp!
Farm Festival Update–Chair Paul Koch updated the club on the post Festival activities. We are awaiting the ice cream bill from Velvet which is our largest expense item. We had an exceptional year and Paul is already thinking about preparations for next year.
District Meeting at Cherry Valley Lodge–President Deb and Past President Jim drove up to the District meeting last Saturday and it was an excellent event. The half day event covered Membership and Foundation issues. President Deb learned we should all wear our Rotary pins everyday, not just for meeting days. This can be an excellent way to start a conversation about Rotary with a potential new member candidate.
Club Board Meeting–President Deb reminded everyone the next board meeting will be Wednesday, November 5th, at the OVB Main Office, downstairs in the board room at 1 pm. The first Wednesday of every month is the usual day for this one hour meeting. New members are reminded that attendance at a board meeting is a requirement for the blue badge. Deb announced that a one-time $3 contribution will be added to the monthly bill as a fulfillment for our club’s support of the District 6690 Kick Cancer drive for the James Center.
Happy Buck$–There were a number of Happy Buck$ today–Greg Sojka is grateful to OVB in loaning an executive to URG in the financial office. Greg also gave a buck in honor of Margaret Evans receipt of a recent award from the local NAACP chapter. Tammi Brabham gave a happy buck for the number of Gallipolis Rotarians who attended the entrepreneur meeting last evening at Rio Grande.
Fellowship–Gordon Amsbary led club fellowship for the meeting and recognized a recent birthday for John Ellison. John opted for the entire club to sing Happy Birthday. Gordon continued with some interesting history trivia and collected a tardy fine from Emily Dailey.
Split-The-Pot–Dan Whiteley ran STP for the meeting. The small pot of $9 was won by Bob Eastman! Bob missed the big pot of $80 by drawing the king of diamonds. So close! The Foundation Fine was assessed against anyone who did NOT eat breakfast before coming to the meeting today.
Program–Our program for the meeting was presented by fellow Rotarian, Kevin Petrie, who spoke to the club about his passion in helping couples and individuals get 
control over their finances. Kevin is a certified counselor through Dave Ramsey’s Lampo Group and has been conducting these sessions since 2003. Most individuals and couples receive no training in school about the dangers of debt and credit cards. A typical person who realizes he or she needs to get control of their finances are usually tens of thousands of dollars in debt and staring at bankruptcy. The instruction is a tough, no nonsense approach, and if applied seriously by the participants, can achieve dramatic results.
It is not unusual for the average person to be nearly ‘upside down’ in their personal finances. Our culture teaches instant gratification which only leads one further and 
further into debt. Credit card companies mail over 4.2 BILLION solicitation every year and 60% of credit card holders do not pay off the balance on their card statement. Credit card companies earn a sizable profit from the late charges and finance charges on their cards which in some cases, can exceed 30%. Kevin emphasized that most people live way beyond their means and after time, can bring families close to bankruptcy.
Kevin gave away five books to members with the advice to hand the book to an employee or associate who could benefit from this no nonsense advice. One book received a Rotary label and will be donated to the Bossard Library.
Thank you, Kevin, for the excellent and thought provoking program.