Gallipolitan
President Deb Rhodes welcomed Rotarians and guests to the regular meeting of the Gallipolis Rotary Club. Our guests included James Wellington, Melissa Kimmel, and Jason Holdren. Welcome, everyone! Cleeland Willis provided the invocation. Our guest speaker for the meeting was Rotarian, Brette Booth, Gallia County Engineer.
Rotary Foundation Coin Box—The total was in for the coin box that Dave 
Smith turned in last week. Teller, Shawn Siders, reported the heavy box brought in a total of $36.20 for Dave’s contribution to the RI Foundation. President Deb reminded everyone this is a great way to make the ‘every member, every year’ contribution to the RI Foundation without breaking the bank! If you are not already using a coin box, just speak up, and we’ll get one for you!
Relays ‘Stumble’ This Year—Project Chair, Jeff Lanham, is scratching his head this year concerning the lack of interest by area junior high teams and coaches in our Rotary Relays. The deadline was Monday and only a couple of teams showed any interest. In order to have a great meet, we need support from a minimum of five schools and we prefer to have more. Maybe next year!
Rotary Scholarships—Project Chair, Bob Hood, reported the applications have gone out and are starting to be returned. His committee will be scheduling interviews and meeting to evaluate the candidates for the six $1000 scholarships this year. This is our major funding initiative for the year and the primary reason we scoop ice cream every October!
Organizational Meeting—President-Elect Bonnie McFarland held an 
organizational planning meeting yesterday with next Rotary Year’s officers and Directors. This was an excellent meeting and a great way to launch the direction for the new team. Bonnie also passed around a photo of her with RI President D.K. Lee who was at the Newark Rotary Club last week. Bonnie presented our club banner to President Lee and she was amazed how Rotarians go out of their way to make even strangers feel at home. You arrive as a stranger, but leave with many new friends!
Literacy Project—President Deb announced that Literacy Chair, Deb Saunders, is working hard on the final part of our club’s literacy project for the year, providing reference materials to the three new high school libraries in Gallia county. We are seeking additional financial support from the community for this project.
Seven Habits of Highly Effective Rotarians—President Deb organized seven Gallipolis Rotarians to present the ‘Seven Habits of Highly Effective Rotarians’ to our club authored by Dr.Jagdish Bhatt of the Rotary Club of Bombay Airport, Mumbai India.). This article was first written for Rotarians on the Internet (ROTI) and has been published in over 150 Rotary club bulletins and translated into French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, German and Thai languages after being on the ROTI site of internet. Dr. Jagdish is a charter member of ROTI. Margaret Evans read ‘Attendance’, Jodie Anderson read ‘Fellowship’, James Wellington read ‘Vocation’, Paul Koch read ‘Discipline’, Emily Dailey read ‘Time, Money & Energy’, Shirley Doss read ‘Empathy’ and Bob Hood concluded with the ‘Image of Rotary’. Click HERE, for the actual ‘Seven Habits’ from the ROTI web site.
Generation Gallia—Our two newest Rotarians, Jodie Anderson and Shawn Siders have founded a new business networking organization, Generation Gallia, which meets at the Courtside Grill, 5:30 pm–7:30 pm, this Thursday. The group is open to anyone 21-40 years of age. Good to see Rotarians taking the lead in this effort!
Book Sorting—Emily Daily announced there will be a club book sorting session on April 23rd at 3:00 PM at Jim Morrison’s office. This is the final sort of books which will be donated to area elementary schools. Since this is a club project, attendance make-up credits will be given for anyone attending!
Split-The-Pot—Jim Morrison ran STP for the meeting today. Ticket sales were good as the small pot grew to $8! The winning ticket was held by late-comer, Resty Alonzo! Resty carefully drew for the big pot which has grown to $27, but missed the ‘big one’ by drawing the Ace of Spades. So close! Resty assessed the Foundation Fine against anyone who was NOT late for Rotary today! Good one, Resty.
Fellowship—Lou Ellen Werry ran club fellowship for the meeting and immediately asked if anyone was late today, hitting up Resty for a buck. Paul Koch celebrated a birthday this week and in his honor and a small donation, a quartet was assembled including Lou Ellen, Brette Booth, Jodie Anderson, and Shawn Siders to sing Happy Birthday. Lou Ellen concluded with a few facts about piracy.
Program—Our program today was provided by new member, Brette Booth, who is the Gallia County Engineer. Brette presented an interesting history of how the County Engineer’s position was created in Ohio, as a method of dividing out the large parcels of land. Brette discussed his plans for the Engineer’s Office for the year addressing county roads, bridges, repaving, and staying within his budget. His office plans to issue a new county map this year and complete the GIS work for the county. Members enjoyed a brief Q & A after his prepared remarks. Thank you, Brette, for the interesting program.