Gallipolitan
President Lou Ellen Werry welcomed assembled Gallipolis Rotarians to the regular morning meeting. Once again, we had a rather light turnout. Cleeland Willis offered our invocation.
PDG Ram—President Lou Ellen gave a brief update on PDG Ram Gawande’s recovery from his earlier surgery. It was a delicate procedure and PDG Ram’s recovery is progressing and he is home! You can follow his progress on his blog page: http://ramgawande.wordpress.com. Please take the time to visit his blog and leave a message for him as well.
Club Board Meeting—President Lou Ellen announced the club board meeting for July will be held at the Municipal Court offices at 49 Olive Street on Thursday, July 22nd at 4:00 pm . This year’s board includes our President Lou Ellen, VP/President Elect Shirley Doss, Treasurer Shawn Siders, Secretary Chuck Clark, Debbie Saunders, Jodie McCalla, Kevin Petrie, and James Wellington. Past President Bonnie McFarland serves as an exofficio member of the board.
Livestock Princesses–Jodie McCalla announced our club’s next project will be sponsoring the Gallia County Junior Fair Livestock Princesses. Jodie confirmed the event is scheduled for Saturday, July 24th, and she and Denise Shockley will be needing your help. Judging is scheduled for 1:00 pm and the Queen ceremony will be at 4:00 pm. We will need some pictures of the event for our club.
District Governor’s Visit—Our new District Governor, 
Calvin Gebhart, will be visiting with our club on July 27th, two weeks from today. President Werry has asked PDG Mel Simon introduce our new District Governor to our club. Please make every effort to attend this meeting so we can have a full house for our District Governor. Calvin will be meeting with our board and officers after the meeting for approximately one hour.
Relay For Life Auction—President Lou reminded members that items donated for auction are still being processed by Dan Whiteley and the funds will go for our 2011 Relay Team. So, clean out your basement, attic, or garage and give Dan a call! He will come by with his truck and trailer and pick up your stuff!
Split-The-Pot—Jodie McCalla ran STP for our meeting
today and our small pot was $5.00. Jodie asked Chuck Clark to draw for the winning ticket which was held by John Ellison! John drew very carefully for the large pot which has increased to $240.00, but pulled the king of clubs! Oh, so close! John assessed the Foundation Fine against anyone who did not visit the Biltmore Estate last week. Good one, John!
Fellowship—Gordon Amsbary ran club fellowship today saying that ‘timing IS everything.’ Gordo ran through several famous birthdays among which included Debbie Rhodes! Debbie selected the option for the entire club to sing ‘Happy Birthday’ however due to a poor vocal showing by the club, Deb received a slight discount on her fine. We really needed Margaret today! Gordon concluded mentioning that today is ‘National Embrace Your Geekness Day’ as well as ‘National Gruntled Employee Day.’
Happy Buck$—Chuck Clark bought a Happy Buck in honor of his daughter’s last year of residency in Plastic Surgery in Oklahoma City and Jodie McCalla bought two—one in honor of completing her move into her house and another for the upcoming Second Annual Generation Gallia Corn Hole Tournament to be held at the City Park on July 17th, 5:00 – 10:00 pm.
Program—President Lou Ellen introduced new Rotarian Zac Fosler to the club to present his vocational talk as one of the requirements for new members. Zac spoke of his growing up in his native state of Michigan and enjoying the outdoors and particularly winter snow skiing. He confessed his college decision was determined by skiing and attended Northern Michigan University in Marquette, which is located in the Upper Peninsula of the state. Zac completed a degree in entrepreneurship and economics and worked for a short time in Michigan before relocating to New Mexico.
Zac started with a social service agency north o
f Albuquerque and fine tuned his skills under the tutorage of a gentleman who continues to be his mentor. He has brought his skills in management to the Gallia Metropolitan Housing Authority where he has been able to turn around a floundering agency. Zac has had to wield a strong financial sense and bring the agency under a new budget and implement new policies. The future looks much brighter now and a major renovation campaign is underway to upgrade the apartment units in Rio Grande and Spring Valley. President Lou Ellen strongly commended Zac for his efforts to improve the conditions on the ‘Ridge.’
Thanks for your talk today, Zac! You are a great asset to Gallia county and Gallipolis Rotary!