Gallipolis Rotary Inducts New Members
Today’s meeting was an exciting time as our club inducted two new members into Gallipolis Rotary. Jodie Anderson and Shawn Siders both from the Ohio Valley Bank joined Rotary with the assistance of Kurt Dailey, who handled the Object of Rotary, and Matt Willis, who handled the 4-Way Test and the Red Badge Program to our new inductees. Jodie and Shawn were sponsored by Treasurer Katrinka Hart. President Debbie Rhodes presented the membership credentials to Jodi and Shawn and welcomed both into Gallipolis Rotary.
President Rhodes welcomed the assembled members and Bob Hood provided our invocation. “With yesterday being Presidents’ Day, today feels like Monday,” Debbie added. Our attendance was good in spite our first meeting back in our normal venue and normal time. Our club enjoyed an excellent Valentine’s Dinner meeting last week at the First Church of God Activity Center. Those in attendance enjoyed the fellowship and we had an excellent dinner provided by Katherine Brabham, Tammi’s daughter who runs “Black Tie to Barbeque” catering.
District Assembly—Debbie announced the District Assembly will be held on Saturday, April 4th at Ohio University-Lancaster. This is an excellent opportunity for new members to experience the workings of Rotary at the District level and to meet Rotarians from around our District. They usually have a special meeting for new Rotarians.
Rotary Relays—Our Spring Rotary Relays will be held on Saturday, April 25th at the University of Rio Grande track facility. This year our club is inviting 7th and 8th grade students who are interested in track and field. Our club feels it is important to have a track meeting that will attract and stimulate this age group and their families. Jeff Lanham is handling the planning and we are expecting an excellent turnout. Be sure to mark your calendars as we need everyone to help at this important event.
Blue Badge—We celebrated another important milestone at our meeting as new Rotarian, Grae Schuster, received his official Rotary blue badge. Grae fulfilled all the requirements and attended this month’s board meeting. Thanks for working on the Red Badge requirements and congratulations, Grae, and we are really glad to have you in our club!
Rotary Coin Box—Our club received a nice and HEAVY coin box from Marlin Rose today. This will go towards his Rotary Foundation contribution. Two weeks ago Chuck Clark and Margaret Evans turned in their boxes which total $38 and $34 and change respectively. Once again, this makes giving to the Rotary Foundation easy and painless. The box will hold an average of $35 or so and three boxes will easily net you the $100 annual contribution. Remember, ‘Every Rotarian, Every Year!’
Split-The-Pot—Dan Whiteley expertly ran STP for the meeting selling a load of tickets to Rotarians. Our small pot was $6 and the lucky ticket holder was Marlin Rose! In the drawing for the large pot which is nearly $220, Marlin drew the four of spades. Oh, so close! The Foundation Fine was assessed against anyone who ‘ate breakfast this morning.’
Fellowship—Gordon Amsbary led club fellowship this morning gathering some fines for a couple of tardy Rotarians (No, it wasn’t Greg!) Bonnie McFarland and Paul Koch both had the opportunity to donate to the club today. President Deb bought a Happy Buck in honor of her Dad who turned 85 recently and enjoyed a great birthday party.
Program—Our program this morning was provided by one of our own, Jim Morrison, who gave a little impromptu talk on the benefits of the Rotary Fellowship Groups. These groups interest groups include many vocational, hobby, and recreational areas which provide opportunities for Rotarians to make friends worldwide. The Rotary International web site has a searchable database of these groups at this link: http://rotary.org/en/ServiceAndFellowship/Fellowship/GlobalNetworkingGroups/Pages/gngdatabase.asp.
Jim’s interest group is the Rotary Scuba Fellowship and it has the motto of “Surface ABOVE Self.” Jim has enjoyed Scuba for many years and says it is a very safe sport. Jim has shared pictures from his dives in past programs and is now shooting digital video. He said once he masters video editing, he’ll be able to present a program with his latest dives. In conclusion, Jim emphasized that he only ’skimmed the surface’ of Rotarian interest groups and every Rotarian needs to investigate his/her own hobby or interest on the Rotary web site.
Jim also emphasized getting involved in attending District meetings like the one coming up in April. Rotary International is committed to matching the $100 Million that was donated by the Gates Foundation for Polio Plus and it’s clubs like ours that can make a difference. Rotary is able to mobilize people world wide to make polio eradication a reality. Thanks, Jim, for the great program!