THE GALLIPOLIS ROTARY CLUB

District Governor-Elect Michael R. Brown visited Gallipolis Rotary Club today.  Here is Mike with Club President, Shirley Doss.  Mike is a member of the Olentangy Rotary Club and will be our DG for years 2012-2013.

Busy Club Meeting—It was a busy meeting venue today and we had an excellent attendance by members!  Some of our special guests included Melissa Conkle and two student nurses from Marshall representing the Gallia County Health Department who were on hand today to provide members with TB Tests and flu shots.  Pictured here is Dave Smith, who was first in line to get his TB Test!  Melissa will be with us again next week and members are urged to get a TB Test prior to working the Bob Evans Festival!

Guests—Our guests today also included Amber Johnson from Holzer Home Care and our program speaker, Bryna Butler from Ohio Valley Bank.  We also had a visiting Rotarian with us today—Frank Capehart, from Pt. Pleasant Rotary! Welcome everyone!

Rotary Reading—Project Chair, Emily Dailey, reminded members that next Wednesday, October 5th, is our kickoff for our Rotary Reading to First Graders in the county elementary schools.  If you signed up for this month, you need to make arrangements to arrive at your school at approximately 8:00 am and check in with the office.  Emily distributed two books which we will leave with the schools: “I Love School” and “One Halloween Night.”  This has been an on-going Literacy Project for our club for a number of years and the students enjoy Rotarians read to their class.

Fellowship—Gordon Amsbary provided an abbreviated version of club fellowship today to allow enough time for other club business.  He managed to collect a ‘late fine’ from late comer, Deb Rhodes.  Gordo announced this was “Try To Understand Your Fellow Man (or Woman)” day as well as “National Ancestor Appreciation Day.”  He concluded with his traditional words of wisdom.

Split-The-Pot—Rotarian Shana Booher jumped in and ran our STP for our meeting today selling a bunch of tickets to raise our small pot up to a respectable $9.00!  Shana asked our speaker, Bryna Butler to draw our winning ticket which was held by Nayyer Hassain.  In the draw for the ‘Big One’ of $53.00, Nayyer came up a bit short with the Ace of Spades, but it was close!  Nayyer assessed the Foundation Fine against anyone who ‘drove through fog to get to today’s meeting.’  Excellent fine!

Rotary Coin Box—Rotarian Marlin Rose turned in a packed coin box for his contribution to the Foundation.  Margaret Evans was quick to provide Marlin an empty replacement coin box and reminded members to take advantage of this little program to help our Rotary Foundation.  By dropping your excess change in the box, you will average $35 per box and three of these per year will completely fund your annual $100 suggested giving to the Foundation.  Be sure to use the Rotary Coin Box!

District Membership/Foundation Meeting—President Shirley and Secretary Chuck both voiced appreciation to the District for last weekend’s great Membership and Foundation Seminar.  It was a great meeting.

Program—VP and President-Elect Jodie McCalla introduced our program speaker Bryna Butler VP of Ohio Valley Bank.  Bryna spoke about the bank’s efforts in promoting financial literacy with school children from the elementary grades through high school.  Our speaker cited recent surveys that show over half of high school students are deemed to be financially illiterate when it comes to personal finance.  The bank has hired a full time educator to work with area schools to help educate students in the basics of saving and using money wisely.  Very interesting program, Bryna, and thanks for the update!

DGE Mike Brown spoke a few minutes about the district’s efforts this year in supporting the local club.  The recent seminar was an example of the commitment from DG Brent Rosenthal and the district leadership.  DGE Mile reviewed some of the basics of the new DAC/db database which is the repository for member data from the club to the district.  Thanks for the update, Mike!

Board Meeting—President Shirley reminded members that next week will be our monthly club board meeting to be held directly after our club meeting.  Red Badge holders are reminded that attendance at one board meeting is required in order to move to the permanent blue badge!

Here are the program responsibilities for the next few weeks:

Oct 4          Paul Koch  (Oct 14-16 Bob Evans Farm Festival)

Oct 11         Debbie Saunders   (Dictionary Distribution)

Oct 18        Denise Shockley

Oct 25        Nayyer Hassain

Nov 1          Mel Simon         Rotary Foundation Month

Club President, Shirley Doss, gaveled the meeting of the Gallipolis Rotary Club to order promptly at 7:15 am praising the club for the great fellowship.  President Shirley welcomed everyone to our meeting and ADG Matt Willis provided our invocation.

Club Fellowship—Gordon Amsbary led our club fellowship fining a couple of late comers—Emily Davidson and John Ellison.  We had a birthday this week—Lee Bauman, who picked a quartet of Gordon, Shirley, Kevin Dennis, and Chuck Clark to sing Happy Birthday.  Our foursome proved they were up to the task with their rendition of Happy Birthday.  Lee enthusiastically applauded their efforts!

The ‘great Gordini’ went on to cite some historical facts that occurred on this day in history.  This is ‘National Love Your Files Week,’ ‘National Family Day,’ and most importantly, yesterday was ‘International Talk Like A Pirate Day.’

Happy Buck$—Several members offered a buck or two to offer a brag or two.  John Ellison announced his son, Daniel, recently finished his basic training in the Army is will be going on to advance artillery training in Ft. Lewis, Washington.  Thank you, Daniel, for your service!  New member, Heather Crum, offered several bucks for a recent good report from a recent hospitalization.  That is good news!

Split-The-Pot—Jim Morrison ran our STP for the meeting today.  Our small pot grew to $8.00 today and our lucky ticket holder was Bonnie McFarland!  Bonnie carefully drew for the ‘big one’ which has grown to $44.00, but came up a bit short by pulling the Nine of Diamonds.  Our Foundation Fine was assessed against anyone who was NOT wearing a ‘shoe boot for a broken toe’ today!  Good one, Bonnie!

Recent Make-Up’s—Chuck Clark and Lee Bauman recently visited the Jackson Rotary Club.  They were amazed at the preparation their club makes in anticipation of the yearly Apple Festival.

Rotary Reading—Emily Dailey announced to the club that reading to the First Grades in the county elementary schools will begin next month on Wednesday, October 5th.  We need members to sign up to take a few minutes from their schedule to volunteer to read to these first graders.  Emily has the sign up sheets so be sure to sign up next week!  This is an important literacy project we do each year!

Rotary Ambassador Scholar Update– Secretary Chuck Clark announced to the club that Elaine Householder Joy and her husband, Ben, recently visited the Limvady Rotary Club in Northern Ireland.  Pictured here are Elaine and Ben with club President, Darren Mornin, presenting a Gallipolis Rotary banner to the Limvady Rotary Club.

BEF Festival Countdown—Our important fundraising event is only FOUR WEEKS away!  This is an important, ‘all hands on deck’ event.  It is extremely important to have full staff of members EACH DAY from 11 am – 3:00 pm as this is our busy time.  This single event provides our club with the working capital to perform our community service projects each year.  Be sure to mark your calendars and prepare to work October 14, 15, 16.

Program—Our program chair today was Kevin Dennis who presented an interesting program about the Field Of Hope project.

The Field of Hope Community Campus is a 501 (c)3 non-profit and holds the 47 acre tract at the former North Gallia High School.  The organization currently operates a number of faith-based services and is actively seeking community partners to help in the creation of a full service community center  offering life skills training, youth mentoring, food pantry, and substance abuse counseling.  The center currently operates a monthly free vehicle maintenance service, which is a part of the ‘neighbor helping neighbors’ purpose.  The long term vision for FOHCC is for the creation of a residential treatment center with dormitories.  Thank you, Kevin, for the interesting program!

Here are the program responsibilities for the next six weeks:

Sep 27  Jodie McCalla

Oct 4   Paul Koch

Oct 11  Debbie Saunders

Oct  18  Denise Shockley

Oct  25  Nayyer Hassain

Nov 1  Mel Simon   (Rotary Foundation Month)

Gallipolis Rotarians hosted Brent A. Saunders, President and CEO of Holzer Consolidated Health Systems as the featured program today.  Our speaker was introduced by Holzer Medical Center President, Jim Phillippe.  Brent quizzed the group about a significant fact that occurred in 1986 and Resty Alonzo was quick to add, “You were President of Gallipolis Rotary and the year I joined the club!”  Brent provided the club an interesting PowerPoint on the on-going consolidation of Holzer Clinic and Holzer Medical Center.  He indicated that final accounting issues are now being worked out and the merger is expected to be completed sometime this fall.  The name of the newly combined organization will be Holzer Health System.  Our speaker announced a new relationship has been fostered with the Baptist Leadership Group a division of Baptist Health Systems to assist in focusing the new organization on patient care.  A diverse structure of seven ‘teams’ have been organized to help build a new culture of excellence.  This single Holzer organization will continue to provide excellent care to residents of southern Ohio and West Virginia.  Thank you, Brent, for the great program and Gallipolis Rotary wishes the best of success to you in leading the new Holzer Health System in this great undertaking.

President Shirley Doss called our meeting to order promptly at 7:15 am and ADG Matt Willis gave our invocation.  President Doss welcomed our guests today, Brent Saunders from Holzer Health System and Amber Johnson, from Holzer Home Health.  Amber has submitted a membership application to join the club and will be visiting with us over the next few weeks.

Fellowship—Gordon Amsbary slid into our club fellowship moment with a quiz on vegetable trivia as well as his predictable history highlights.  Gordo quickly asked for any Happy Bucks from members, specifically Margaret Evans, who indicated she was ‘happy to be at Rotary today!’  He concluded with a few words of wisdom.

Split-The-Pot—Our STP was run by both Shana Booher, who sold a bunch of tickets today, and Jim Morrison, who MC’d the drawing and asked our speaker, Brent Saunders to draw for today’s winner.  Our  lucky winner was Lee Saltzgaber, who designated the $7.00 small pot be donated back to the club.  In the draw for the ‘big one’ of $36.00, Lee was not as lucky and came up with the Queen of Spades.  Lee assessed the Foundation Fine against anyone who did not donate to the Red Cross TODAY!

Morning Breakfast—President Shirley announced the board is still looking into the food costs and our food arrangements.  We will continue to monitor the food situation and take any suggestions under consideration.

Rotary Ambassador Scholar—Gallipolis Rotary recently heard from Rotary Ambassador Scholar, Elaine Joy, who is now residing in Ireland with her new husband, Ben.  Elaine and Ben were recently married and the next day journeyed to Ireland for their one year of study in Derry, Northern Ireland.  Elaine is keeping a blog of her experiences which makes for interesting reading!  You can check out her blog, Elaine in Northern Ireland, at http://elaineinnorthernireland.blogspot.com/.

District Membership & Foundation Seminar—This annual conference will be held Saturday, September 24th, at the OU-Lancaster Branch.  This is a great meeting for new members to attend along with our club officers.  We usually take a carload or two and we are back in town by 3 pm.  Please consider attending this meeting!

Sep 20      Kevin Dennis
Sep 27       Jodie McCalla

Oct 4          Paul Koch  Oct 14-16 BEF Festival
Oct 11        Debbie Saunders    Oct 16 Webster’s Birthday
Oct 18        Denise Shockley
Oct 25        Nayyer Hassain

Attending included President Shirley Doss, VP/President Elect Jodie McCalla, Treasurer Shawn Siders, Secretary Chuck Clark, Shana Booher, Lee Saltzgaber, Paul Koch, and Margaret Evans.

Treasurer’s Report—Treasurer Shawn Siders distributed copies of the financial report of the club as of 9/2/11.  The financial picture of the club looks good except for the impact of the down markets on our funds in our Foundation.  Members reviewed the report and it was accepted  into the club records.

Membership—Our club now has 44 active members and our attendance average for last month was 68.9%.

Youth Initiative Project—Some discussion was held on the continuing youth initiative.  Project Leader, Lee Saltzgaber, indicated no firms plans exist as yet, as we are not certain the club is behind such a project.  There is some interest in the community and further discussions with organizations such as the fair board need to take place.

Club Meal Changes—The board has requested that Secretary Chuck investigate the possibility of our club offering an a la carte breakfast or beverage only service instead of our traditional full breakfast.  This will save on waste and also save money for members.  He will report at the next club meeting.

There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned.