Gallipolitan for September 8th
Countdown to Bob Evans Festival . . .
**Only 31 Days to BEF Festival!**
President Bonnie McFarland opened the regular meeting of the 
Gallipolis Rotary Club promptly at 7:15 am. PDG Mel Simon provided the invocation. Andrea Gannaway was our visitor today. We hope you enjoyed Rotary, Andrea.
Presentation—Past President Deb Rhodes asked PDG Mel Simon to come forward and receive a check for $1,000 from her employer, WESBANCO for the French 500 Free Medical Clinic. The clinic operates one Thursday afternoon each month from the Hillcrest Medical office off Jackson Pike. Congratulations, Mel!
Rotary Minute—Emily Dailey provided our Rotary Minute for the meeting and appropriately discussed Rotary’s efforts in promoting Literacy. Most everyone thinks of reading and writing when hearing the world, Literacy, but it can also apply to computer use and understanding road signs. There are over 8 million people under the age of 15 who cannot read or write and Rotary wants to change this for the better!
District 6690 Foundation/Membership Meeting—President Bonnie announced we have five members scheduled to attend the District’s Foundation and Membership Seminar at Cherry Valley Lodge, September 26th. This is a great way to learn more about the workings of Rotary and is especially important for our new members. Please let President Bonnie know if you would like to attend.
Presidents’ Council—Bonnie reported the Presidents’ Council met last Friday. This has been a goal of our club to have our recent Presidents meet and provide their knowledge and encouragement to further the progress of our club. It’s a big advantage to know where the ‘bones are buried’ when you have a coroner and a funeral director available!
Split-The-Pot—Rotarian Dan Whiteley ran STP for our club meeting announcing we had $6 in the small pot and $155 in the big pot. After suitable flourish and pomp, it was determined the winning ticket was held by Cleeland Willis! Cleeland missed the big one, however by drawing the two of hearts. He subsequently assessed the Foundation Fine against anyone who did NOT have to go to work today!
Fellowship—Emily Dailey ran club fellowship for the meeting and announced that we had no birthdays for the week in our club. We had a couple of Happy Bucks today—Margaret Evans for the great show that occurred this past weekend and Jodie Anderson for taking up the game of golf this past weekend. Emily recognized the celebrity birthdays on this day. St. Augustine, FL was founded on this day and Scotch Tape was introduced on this day in 1930. Emily concluded fellowship with some notable quotes.
Program—President Bonnie introduced our speaker for our meeting, Jodie Anderson, who spoke to the club about phenomenon of social media. Jodie engaged the club with the concept that social media is here to stay and businesses like Ohio Valley Bank are using social media to promote products and services (for instance, the Cell Teller campaign).
The technology of Facebook and My Space allows people to keep in touch with 300-400 people who can be spread all over the world. Jodie presented some statistics that show that the 35-49 age group has seen the largest growth particularly with males.
Jodie next discussed Twitter. Because of the 140 character limit of messages, the reoccurring banter of messages or ‘tweets’ can sound like the sounds that birds make when they communicate with each other. These messages are micro-blogs that basically answer the question: “What are you doing?”
Our speaker emphasized this is more than exchanging text messages, but a new type of communication is occurring that will revolutionize 
media. Many firms are starting to use Twitter to communicate—firms like Bob Evans Farms Restaurants and OVB. It’s not just babble. This could replace email sometime in the future. Our club is starting to use this technology, first with our blog page and now with a Facebook page.
A little Q & A followed Jodie’s remarks and President Bonnie honored our speaker with a Books for Schools certificate. A book with Jodie’s name will be placed in one of the county elementary school’s library.
BEF Festival Chair, Paul Koch, announced that the festival will soon be here. He has made arrangements with the Health Department to be at our September 29th meeting in three weeks to provide TB tests for our members. Passes will again be available and members will need to have a pass to get in or pay the gate admission of $5.00. This is our major fundraiser for the year and ALL MEMBERS are required to participate.