THE GALLIPOLIS ROTARY CLUB

VP Jodie Leads—Our resident ‘rocket scientist,’ Jodie McCalla, took over the helm today subbing for President Shirley.  Jodie welcomed everyone to our meeting.  Our guests included Amber Johnson and Thomas Mansperger, our speaker for today.  Our attendance was a bit light but the fellowship was lively!

Fellowship—Gordon Amsbary led club fellowship today and quoted from the book, Success Is A Choice, by Rick Patino.  Gordo let us know yesterday was “National Sourpuss Day” and this week is “International Peace, Friendship and Goodwill Week.”  We did have one late arrival today—Zac Fosler, who was fined accordingly.

Happy Buck—We had one Happy Buck today as Bonnie McFarland contributed a dollar for a successful completion to the food drive for Make A Difference Day.  Gordon concluded club fellowship with a few words of wisdom.

Split-The-Pot—Rotarian Shana Booher jumped in this morning and ran our STP drawing.  Shana asked our speaker, Tom Mansperger, to draw for our lucky winner which was . . . SHANA BOOHER!  Shana pocketed the small pot of $8.00, but missed out on the big one of $86.00 by drawing the Three of Spades.  Our Foundation Fine was assessed against anyone NOT wearing pink today!

BEF Festival Report—Club Treasurer Shawn Siders reported that our club’s gross receipts for this year’s festival is not final, but looks to be in the range of $8,500.00.  We are still waiting for all the bills to be paid out and Shawn will provide a more detailed report at November’s board meeting.

Program—Our program chair for today was Nayyer Hassain who introduced our speaker, Thomas Mansperger, Director of Admissions, for the University of Rio Grande.   Tom is the new Admissions Director, recently coming to URG from Ashland University.  Our speaker provided an interesting look into the competitive world of college admissions.  It is particularly competitive in the state of Ohio, which is the home of 193 institutions of higher education.  He indicated that URG is well positioned to compete with its rural location and diverse course offering.  The community college status is not that well known outside of our local area and should be attractive to students from Ohio’s northern counties who are looking for a smaller school in a rural setting.  This particularly important to the student’s parents!  Thank you, Tom and Nayyer, for this interesting program.

Nov 1   Mel Simon–Foundation Month
Nov 8   Ken Porada
Nov 15  Jim Morrison–United Way
Nov 22  Melissa Kimmel
Nov 29  Clyde Evans

Club President, Shirley Doss, welcomed Rotarians and guests to our regular morning meeting.  Shirley gave a ‘shout out’ to everyone who worked this past weekend’s Bob Evans Festival ice cream booth.  Our prez led the club in a big round of applause for project chair, Paul Koch, and all his hard work!  Paul expressed his thanks to all despite the weather, new location, and lack of record crowds.  Just wait until next year!

Coin Box—Margaret Evans turned in a heavy, full coin box as part of her contribution to Rotary.  Thanks, Margaret!  This is a good way to make that annual giving without too much work!

Fellowship—Our club fellowship was led by Gordon Amsbary who rallied up all the members who were late arrivals today.  Their contribution today was a good subsidy to the club’s earnings from the festival.

Happy Buck$—We had a record number of Happy Bucks today from members.  PDG Mel announced his daughter in Chicago is now a new Rotarian!  Chuck Clark bragged on his daughter, Meredith, who just completed her Plastic Surgery board exams yesterday.  Kevin Dennis offered two bucks—one for a granddaughter who was recently baptized and another for an upcoming organizational meeting for the Field of Hope project.  Heather Crum offered a buck for her experience with a zip line off the New River gorge bridge last weekend.  Paul Koch for the end of the festival.  And finally, Margaret Evans bought a Happy Buck for the groundbreaking of the new Justice Center.

Gordo concluded with fellowship letting us know this this ‘National Business Week’ and ‘National Forest Day.’

Split-The-Pot—Rotarian Jim Morrison ran STP this morning and ran our small pot up to a respectable $10.00!  Shawn Siders drew for our winner today who was Nayyer Hassain.  Jim took a moment to confirm the presence of the important Queen of Heart in the deck before our winner carefully drew for the large pot of $78.00, only to be disappointed by pulling the jack of spades!  Nayyer assessed the Foundation Fine against anyone who did not hear about an embarrassing moment at the Festival.

Dictionary Day—Monday, October 17th was our annual Dictionary Distribution to the fifth graders in Gallia county.  President Shirley asked a members who participated to speak briefly of the experience.  Jim Morrison said he had a great time up at Vinton Elementary and the kids were great.  Debbie Rhodes who took dictionaries to Hannan Trace Elementary said the room was quite cold due to their HVAC system not working properly, but still had a good time.  Resty Alonzo and Chuck Clark took care of four fifth grades at Washington School, and another at South Western Elementary.  We have only a few pictures from Washington, so if you have shots from your schools, please contact Chuck Clark.

Program—Our program chair today was Denise Shockley who provided a program from the Educational Service Center about a number of programs the ESC has arranged in our local schools.  Our speaker, Connie Bradbury, talked firsthand about her experiences with an after school program called ROCKS and a new program called PILOT—Putting Instruction and Learning On Track, which seeks to help deficient students make up missing credits so they can graduate.  This is a new grant from the ESC under the 21st Century Community Learning Grant for the Gallia County Local Schools.  Thank you, Connie and Denise, for the interesting program.

Emily, we will miss you!—We learned today that Emily Davidson will be leaving Gallipolis Rotary to move to Jackson (and Jackson Rotary) with her new position with Holzer Health Systems there.  We will miss you and wish you all the best in your new position, Emily!

Ambassadorial Scholar Elaine–Be sure to take a few minutes to read Elaine’s blog about life in Ireland: http://elaineinnorthernireland.blogspot.com

Here are the upcoming program assignments for the next few weeks:

Oct 25  Nayyer Hassain
Nov 1   Mel Simon–Foundation Month
Nov 8   Ken Porada
Nov 15  Jim Morrison–United Way
Nov 22  Melissa Kimmel
Nov 29  Clyde Evans

Literacy Projects were on the top of the agenda this week for the Gallipolis Rotary Club.  Last Wednesday was the kickoff for Rotary Reading to the First Graders in Gallia County Local elementary schools.  Rotarians read to first graders in the start of a seven month literacy campaign to impact local schools.  At our meeting this week Rotarians prepared some 400 dictionaries for distribution to all county fifth graders set for Monday, October 17th.

Gallipolis Rotarians spent the meeting attaching labels to the dictionaries and boxing up the quantities for distribution to the specific schools.  This annual literacy project is timed to coincide with Noah Webster’s birthday, which falls on Sunday, October 16th, this year.

President Shirley Doss welcomed Rotarians to our meeting and ADG Matt Willis offered our invocation.

BEF Festival—Project Chair, Paul Koch, briefed members on the final plans for our annual fundraiser.  Our tent this year is 50% larger than in the past and has a great location facing the new restaurant.  The tables and some of the freezers have been moved in and the plumbing still needs to be connected.  We’re not sure about the traffic flow as yet, but our location should be a big plus to our sales!  Remember—we need EVERYONE available this weekend, especially at the busy times between 11 am to 4 pm.

Fellowship—Gordon Amsbary waxed eloquently into fellowship talking about money.  Gordo asked Heather Crum and Lee Saltzgaber to ‘volunteer’ and assembled the pair into a Rotarian Gothic pose as today is the birthday of painter, Grant Wood, who painted the iconic scene in 1930.

Happy Buck$—We had a number of ‘happy’s’ today with Dave Smith offering a buck to brag about the GAHS golf team.  Margaret Evans paid a buck on behalf of the GAHS Band going to State, and Jim Morrison paid a buck for his recent trip to Italy.  Jim Morrison recently celebrated a birthday so he paid a few buck to have the entire club celebrate in song.  Before Gordon concluded he reminded Rotarians that this is “National Kick-Butt Day” as well as “National Pet Peeve Day.”

Split-The-Pot—Lee Saltzgaber ran our STP for the meeting running our small pot up to $8.00!  Our lucky ticket holder today was Margaret Evans.  Unfortunately, Margaret drew the Ten of Hearts and missed out on the large pot of $68.00  She assessed the Foundation Fine against anyone who did NOT attend this past weekend’s Symphony concert.

Program—Rotarian Debbie Saunders briefed the club on the club’s Dictionary Project.  She involved the entire club in the labeling of 400 dictionaries and the custom packing by count for each elementary school in Gallia county.  The custom label depicts Rotary as the sponsor and has a full color logo of this RI President Banerjee’s theme, “Reach Within To Embrace Humanity.”  Our Project Chair provided detailed instructions for Rotarians and an activity prepared for teacher’s to involve their students in word search.

See you at the Bob Evans Festival!

Here are the Program Assignments for the next few weeks:

Oct 18  Denise Shockley
Oct 25  Nayyer Hassain
Nov 1   Mel Simon–Foundation Month
Nov 8   Ken Porada
Nov 15  Jim Morrison–United Way
Nov 22  Melissa Kimmel
Nov 29  Clyde Evans

The regular monthly meeting of the Board of Directors of the Gallipolis Rotary Club was held on October 4th, at 8 am, directly after the weekly club meeting.  Attending included President Shirley Doss, VP/President-elect Jodie McCalla, Treasurer Shawn Siders, Secretary Chuck Clark, Shana Booher, Lee Saltzgaber, Margaret Evans, Deb Rhodes, Bonnie McFarland, and PDG Mel Simon.

Financial Report—Treasurer Shawn Siders gave the club financial report.  The Foundation accounts have taken a hit from the downturn in the markets.  The club remains in a positive financial position overall.  Member outstanding dues totals $1,625.72.

Fair Board Meeting—VP Jodie McCalla reported on a recent fair board meeting which mostly concerned the development of a new fair site above the current flood plane.

Old Business—President Shirley announced the current dues structure will remain the same at $5.00 per week which includes breakfast.  The amount of food has been reduced to avoid waste and a survey of members will take place in a few weeks.  Secretary Chuck had asked VP Jodie to develop an alternative ‘new generations’ model for the club, but the club is not currently interested in any changes.

New Member—The membership of Amber Johnson was approved by the board and Secretary Chuck will contact Amber to arrange for an orientation meeting.

The meeting was adjourned.