Gallipolitan for October 13th
President Bonnie McFarland welcomed members and guests to the regular meeting of the Gallipolis Rotary Club. With us today included visiting Rotarian Bill Knight from Pt. Pleasant and Andrea Gannaway. We’re so glad you could be with us today!
Club Receives District Simplified Grant—President Bonnie asked
Debbie Rhodes and Shawn Siders to come forward to be recognized for the receipt of the District 6690 Simplified Grant for 2009-2010. Our club received $375 to fund our Books For Schools Project. Instead of receiving a Rotary coffee mug from our club, our club will donate a special children’s book to one of the county’s elementary school library in their honor. Shawn will get this check deposited right away. Past President Debbie thanked her husband, Jeff Rhodes, for all the assistance provided from his experience as a grant writer. Thank you, Jeff and Debbie, for all your work you gave to our club!
Bob Evans Farms Festival Recap—President Bonnie recognized Farm Festival Chair, Paul Koch, for all his hard work this past weekend and in preparation for our major fundraiser. Paul, in turn, thanked Margaret Evans and her community service workers who really worked hard on behalf of the club. Paul appreciated the great attitudes of these workers and their dedication to work the full day. He indicated they came in a little early and made sure everything was set up for us! Paul reviewed the ‘unofficial totals’ for the weekend: Friday’s total was $1,168.95 which is perhaps a new record LOW, Saturday was $2,603.42, and Sunday, $4257 for a grand total of $8029.37. This is our gross revenue for the weekend and we still have to deduct for expenses of the ice cream, tent, and other incidentals. Thanks, Paul, for your dedication and leadership!
Upcoming Elections—President Bonnie reminded everyone that November is our traditional month when our club holds elections for club leadership positions. Past President Jim Morrison will create the ballot we use and the voting will take place on the first and second Tuesdays of November. This is for our club leadership for Rotary year 2010-2011.
New Club By-laws—Under the direction of the club’s board of directors, the new by-laws were sent out electronically to all members or hard copy provided. President Bonnie emphasized that members need to read the revised copy and let one of the board know if you find any errors or omissions. The board has designated the next two weeks as examination time and on October 27th the club will vote to accept the revised by-laws into our official club documents. Bonnie recognized the hard work of Shirley Doss and Past President Debbie Rhodes to create a set of new by-laws for the club.
Treasurer’s Report—Assistant Treasurer Shawn Siders provided a recap of September’s finances for the membership. Shawn indicated that September was a fairly light month and ran down a list of the basic expenses for the month.
Fellowship—Cleeland Willis ran club fellowship for our meeting today. Cleeland went for the fines right away and nabbed Shawn Siders for not wearing his badge. Deb Rhodes was fined for not wearing her Rotary pin in a recent picture. Cleeland checked closely with President Bonnie on another picture in the paper, but she was wearing her pin! There were no birthdays this week. There were several Happy Buck$ today—Paul Koch bragged that it is only 51 weeks until the next BEF Festival! Tammi Brabham bought a happy buck in honor of the ground breaking this week of her new truck facility at US 35 and SR 850. Margaret Evans celebrated the many connections in Rotary with the speaker at the Jackson County NAACP banquet. Jim Morrison celebrated hosting our former Rotary exchange student Arjan and his new wife, Sophie, this past weekend. PDG Mel Simon bought a happy buck to celebrate his daughter-in-law, Agnes Simon, inducted into Pt. Pleasant Rotary last week.
Thank You Received—President Bonnie announced the club had received a nice note of thanks from Paula Metzger, Librarian at Rio Grande Elementary, for the books donated last school year to the school under our Books For Schools project.
Literacy Project—Dictionary Distribution—Our meeting today was planned to center around the labeling of the dictionaries for this year’s dictionary distribution which is planned for Friday, October 16. However, the dictionaries did not come in yesterday as scheduled. They are expected to arrive any day. The signup sheet for the distribution was sent around the tables as the planned distribution will still take place on Friday. An email alert will go out when the books arrive to organize the label ‘party’ at the OVB Annex.
Split-The-Pot—Your stressed out Secretary forgets who actually ran STP for our meeting but the winning ticket holder was . . . Andrea Gannaway! Yes, visitors do count! Andrea pocketed the $6 small pot and missed the ‘Big One’ of $194 by drawing the six of hearts. The Foundation Fine was assessed against anyone who didn’t work the BEF Festival.
Program—President Bonnie introduced new member, Melissa Kimmel, who was pressed into service today to provide a vocational talk about herself and her vocation. Melissa is Director for the Serenity House
shelter for abused women in Gallia county. Melissa provided a little bio about herself and her education. Melissa decided to return to Gallia county opting to leave a PhD program.
Domestic abuse is an under reported crime and 85% is against women and children. It has at its core, the struggle for power and control by the abuser. With it comes significant use of violence and threats. Last year there were 345 deaths in Ohio attributed to domestic violence. The costs to society also go underreported and are significant.
Thank you, Melissa, for the interesting program.