THE GALLIPOLIS ROTARY CLUB

History has show that some of the best and most stimulating programs often come from our own club members, and today’s program was a great example!  Former Ohio Representative Clyde Evans spoke from the heart today about the state of education in Ohio.  Clyde first spoke about how meaningful Rotary has made his life over the years.  He cited the decision to admit women into Rotary as an important and beneficial attribute for Rotary!

Describing the many problems that plague  education in Ohio, Clyde identified decisions that are often made from politically expedient solutions.  “We need a system that involves the parents more which can provide a profound impact on the system,” he said. 

Clyde cited the statistical fact that nationally our educational system has fallen to 25th among industrialized countries where we used to lead the world!  “You know there is a problem when a country such as Finland leads the world and our dropout rates are staggering,” continued Clyde.  It’s a system that needs to be fixed as soon as possible.  Members enjoyed the Q & A after our speaker’s remarks.  Thanks, Clyde for the interesting talk today.

Vice President/President-Elect Jodie McCalla led our meeting today for vacationing President Shirley Doss.  Shirley will be back with us next week.  Jodie welcomed Gallipolis Rotarians to our meeting today and we had no guests or visitors.  Our attendance was excellent for the first meeting after Thanksgiving.

Special Presentation—Deb Rhodes presented a check today from WesBanco Bank to Serenity House and Melissa Kimmel, Director.  Serenity House is the only available service of its type in Gallia county providing residential housing and shelter to women involved in domestic abuse.  The shelter especially needs your help at this time and should be included in your end of year giving plans.

Fellowship—Gordon Amsbary led club fellowship this morning and immediately moved to fine Sammy Lopez for missing his birthday in September.  Sammy organized a quartet to sing a belated Happy Birthday.  Gordo conducted a spelling bee with Kevin Dennis who show the club he could spell ‘Mississippi’ backwards!  Treasurer Shawn Siders also had a birthday today and had the entire club sing to him.

Coin Box—Nayyer Hassain brought in a full Rotary coin box this morning for his Rotary Foundation giving.  Margaret Evans delivered empties to several members to use.  It’s a great program!

Christmas Dinner—VP Jodie reminded the club our annual Christmas Dinner and ornament exchange will occur on Tuesday evening, December 13th.  Rotarians will gather this year at the Quality Inn (old Holiday Inn) at 6:00 pm for a relaxed evening of fun and fellowship.  Remember to bring a tree ornament to exchange.

Rotary Reads Project—Project Chair, Emily Dailey, announced that our next reading date for the first graders in the Gallia Local Schools, will be next Wednesday December 7th.  Emily has the books for readers and need help with reading at Addison Elementary for December.  Since we read to THREE first grades at this school, we really should have two Rotarian volunteers as readers each month.  Please carefully consider this opportunity to serve and see Emily for the books.  Reminder—new members, you need to work a club project to attain your blue badge, and this is a good one to work.

Medical Mission Update—PDG Mel Simon just returned from two weeks in the Philippines where he made contact with 10 sponsoring Rotary clubs in metro Manila.  This year is the 26th year Mel and Lydia have led this medical mission and Gallipolis Rotary is proud to be one of the sponsors!

Happy Buck$—Kevin Dennis offered up a buck to the club in celebration for wrapping up and sending a 75 page grant application for clean-up at the Field of Hope project.  The successful acceptance of this grant and award of $200,000 will allow this community project to move forward after many years of planning.  Congratulations, Kevin!

Split-The-Pot—New member, Heather Crum, jumped in this morning and helped run STP for the meeting.  Heather’s quick sales helped the small pot grow to $6.00 and our lucky winner was Kevin Dennis!  Kevin just missed the ‘Big One’ of $116.00 by drawing the Six of Spades.  He assessed the Foundation Fine against anyone who did NOT wear a blue shirt today.

Here is our schedule for December:

Dec 6   Sheriff Joe Browning
Dec 13  Christmas Dinner, 6 pm, Quality Inn
Dec 20  No meeting—Merry Christmas!
Dec 27  No meeting—Happy New Year!

The Gallipolis Rotary Club did not hold a regular meeting this week to allow Rotarians a chance to take a breather and focus on family and friends during this uniquely American holiday.

Please take a few minutes this week and point your Internet browser to: http://elaineinnorthernireland.blogspot.com and read what our Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar, Elaine Householder Joy, reports from Derry.  She has a new update on her activities and impressions with living as Rotary scholar in Northern Ireland for a year.  Also, take a few minutes to drop her a note and let her know we how much we appreciate reading her posts.  Her email is: householder.34@buckeyemail.osu.edu.

Our next meeting will be Tuesday morning, November 29th, at 7:15 am.  See you then!

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

Nov 29  Clyde Evans

Dec 6   Melissa Kimmel
Dec 13  Christmas Dinner, 6 pm, Quality Inn
Dec 20  No meeting
Dec 27  No meeting

New Member Induction—Gallipolis Rotary welcomed Amber Johnson from Holzer Healthcare Division, as a new member in the club. The induction was expertly handled by ADG Matt Willis who had our ‘newbie’ recite the Rotary 4-Way Test and the Object of Rotary. Amber’s sponsor, Bonnie McFarland, presented the Rotary membership pin. Please take the time to introduce yourself to our newest member and welcome Amber to our club.

Rotary President Shirley Doss welcomed members and guests to the regular meeting of the Gallipolis Rotary Club.  Shirley welcomed visiting Rotarian, Bill Knight, from Pt. Pleasant Rotary.  Our President complimented members of the good attendance today and asked everyone if they remembered what is happening next week . . . NO MORNING MEETING!

Coin Box—John Ellison turned in a stuffed coin box for his contribution to the Rotary Foundation.  Margaret Evans distributed new boxes to members who want to make their effort to fund this worthwhile program.  It’s a great way to painlessly make your suggested annual $100.00 contribution.

Club Fellowship—Fellowship Chair, Gordon Amsbary, led club fellowship for our meeting in his own unique way.  President Shirley confessed to a birthday TODAY, and paid up to have the entire club sing an excellent rendition of Happy Birthday.  Gordo mentioned that yesterday was “Loosen-up/Lighten-up Day.”

Happy Buck$—We had a number of voluntary ‘Happy Bucks’ today.  Kevin Dennis offered a buck the recent kickoff dinner for the Field of Hope project.  New member, Amber Johnson, bought a HB for the anniversary of Holzer Hospice.  Kurt Dailey offered a buck for finally attaining good cholesterol!

Leadership Balloting—Jim Morrison distributed the initial ballot to club members to vote to select an initial nominating slate of 10 Rotarians for club leadership for the next Rotary year.  Congratulations to the new slate including: Paul Koch, Kevin Petrie, Debbie Saunders, Dave Nadler, Shana Booher, Kurt Dailey, Kevin Dennis, Melissa Kimmel, Margaret Evans, and Lee Saltzgaber.  Many thanks to Jim and Deb Rhodes who counted the ballots!

Split-The-Pot—Today’s STP was enabled through the efforts of President Shirley, Shana Booher, and Past President Lou Ellen Werry.  Lou Ellen asked Dave Nadler to draw for today’s winner of the small pot of $10.00 which was John Ellison!  John closed his eyes and drew very carefully for the ‘big one’ of $110.00 only to come up with the Ten of Clubs.  Close, though.  John assessed the Foundation Fine against anyone who did NOT wear a black or navy shirt today!

Program—Today’s program chair was Jim Morrison who introduced our speaker, Bob Hood, who spoke about the Gallia County United Way.  Bob reviewed the 12 local non-profits who receive funding from the United Way.  Our local United Way is 100% local and all funds raised locally stays locally.  Bob also gave a ‘shout out’ to President Shirley and the Gallia Senior Resource Center for their support to the United Way.  This year’s campaign goal is $100,000.00, the same as last year.  There are two special fund raisers planned for the community: Breakfast With Santa and a US Bank sponsored Golf Tournament planned for June, 2012.  Please support our Gallia County United Way and help us make the goal.

Remember, no meeting next week!

Nov 22  No Meeting–Thanksgiving
Nov 29  Clyde Evans

Dec 6   Melissa Kimmel
Dec 13  Christmas Dinner
Dec 20  No meeting
Dec 27  No meeting

We had quite a few members missing today at the regular meeting of the Gallipolis Rotary Club!  President Shirley Doss brought the meeting to order at 7:15 am with an enthusiastic group of Rotarians, but rather light in number.  The club welcomed Dr. Zac Sharif, from the University of Rio Grande.  Dr. Sharif was the guest of Ken Porada.

Fellowship—President Shirley asked fellowship chair, Gordon Amsbary, to lead off with his rendition of wearing out old tunes.  Gordon let everyone know today is ‘National Punster Day,’ ‘National Time Management Day,’ and ‘Pursuit of Happiness Day!’  We had a member birthday today—Melissa Kimmel.  Melissa paid a small fine and the club managed to sing an excellent version of Happy Birthday.  Dave Nadler was encouraged to pay a late arrival fine.  David Smith bought a happy buck in honor of the community’s Veterans’ Day observance in the Park at 11 am on Friday.  Dave’s wife, Shana, will be singing!  Be sure to be on hand!  Paul Koch also bought a happy buck, in honor of the close of all the campaigning for a little while.  Gordo concluded with a few words of wisdom.

Split-The-Pot—Jim Morrison ran our lotto this morning and our small pot grew to $7.00!  Our lucky winner today was Deb Rhodes!  Debbie very carefully selected a card from the ever-shrinking deck for the ‘big one’ of $99.00, only to pull out the Two of Clubs!  Bummer!  Debbie assessed the Foundation Fine against anyone who had NOT yet voted today!

Thanksgiving Break—President Shirley announced there will be no meeting on November 22nd, due to Thanksgiving.

Christmas Schedule—Looking ahead to December, President Shirley announced the annual Christmas dinner and ornament exchange will be held on Tuesday EVENING, December 13th, and will our last meeting of the year.  We will not meet on December 20th or December 27th.  Our first meeting of 2012 will be January 3rd at 7:15 am in the Doctors’ Dining Room.

Program—Ken Porada introduced our speaker for the morning, Dr. Zac Sharif, Dean of Applied Studies at the University of Rio Grande.  Dr. Sharif has responsibility for the schools of Business, Education, and Technology.  He enthusiastically indicated his interest in growing adult studies, and a BS in Business Management at the Meigs Center.  This will allow students to complete a degree in a adult friendly setting using a hybrid format of 8 week classes in the evenings and through the Internet.  There is a new program to be announced in 2012 which provide new interest and excitement with the University.  Thank you, Ken, and Dr. Sharif for the interesting program today.

Program schedule for the balance of the year:

Nov 8   Ken Porada
Nov 15  Jim Morrison–United Way
Nov 22  No Meeting
Nov 29  Clyde Evans

Dec 6   Melissa Kimmel
Dec 13  Christmas Dinner
Dec 20  No meeting
Dec 27  No meeting