THE GALLIPOLIS ROTARY CLUB

Rotary President, Shirley Doss, welcomed assembled Rotarians to the weekly meeting of the Gallipolis Rotary Club.  We had an excellent representation today of club members, but still missing a few of our regulars.  It was good to see Heather Crum in attendance today!

Fellowship—Gordon Amsbary led our fellowship today and called for birthdays zeroing in on Debbie Saunders who celebrated hers on February 24th.  Debbie contributed and built a quartet of Rotarians John Ellison, Kevin Dennis, Lee Saltzgaber, and Resty Alonzo, who together crooned an excellent rendition of Happy Birthday!  Gordo covered some celebrity birthdays, some comic relief, and concluded with a few words of wisdom.  Gordo did find time to assess a late fine against VP/President-Elect Jodie McCalla for a late arrival.

Split-The-Pot—Shanna Booher jumped in and ran our STP for the meeting selling a bunch of tickets to raise our small pot to $9.00!  Our lucky ticket holder today was John Ellison who graciously donated the winnings to the club’s foundation.  Thank you, John!  Next, our winner carefully drew from a fairly new deck for the large pot of $16.00, only to come up with the Five of Diamonds.  John assessed the Foundation Fine against anyone who ‘doesn’t have their current medical license!’  VP-Elect Lee Saltzgaber was fortunately exempt, as he now holds his Ohio license!  Congrat’s, Lee!

Happy Buck—Margaret Evans bought a Happy Buck in honor of the great medicine that is prescribed for allergic reactions, as they are a blessing to anyone who experiences such a reaction.  Amen, to that, Margaret!

Program—March is Rotary Literacy Month which coincides with our last Rotary Reading Project to the first grades in the Gallia County Local Schools.  Project Chair, Emily Dailey, spoke briefly about this highly successful club project and the impact it has had over the past few years with those first graders.  We have had kids remark to Rotarians about how much they appreciated the monthly visits and appearances by Rotarians in their schools.  We usually have 2-3 every year tell us similar stories when they buy ice cream from us at the Bob Evans Farm Festival!  Members spoke about their experiences with the reading project.  Past President Lou Ellen spoke on her experiences at Vinton Elementary, Kevin Dennis updated the club about Addaville, Chuck Clark spoke about Southwestern Elementary and President Shirley about Hannan Trace.

Today (February 28th), Rotary International is holding a series of webinars for clubs providing advice on how to build a stronger literacy effort in local communities.  Our club has joined with a number of clubs in the Philippines through PDG Mel Simon’s Operation We Care in providing nutrition assistance to indigent school children.  We will have the opportunity to expand our club’s reach through the Rotary’s Guatemala Literacy Project to aid children and adults.  Members can travel to Guatemala to experience first-hand in an international project and the distribution of textbooks and setting up computer labs.  Chuck Clark will be heading up our club’s efforts in Guatemala.

Thank you, Emily, for directing our club’s reading project to benefit our local children!

Here are the upcoming member program responsibilities for the next eight weeks:

Mar 6        Dave Nadler
Mar 13      Debbie Rhodes
Mar 20      David Smith
Mar 27      Margaret Evans
Apr 3        Dan Whiteley
Apr 10      Kurt Dailey
Apr 17      John Ellison
Apr 24      Jeff Lanham

Have a great week and see you next Tuesday!

Rotarian Lee Bauman was our featured speaker today to the Gallipolis Rotary Club.  Lee and his wife, Carol, established the Gallia county non-profit a number of years ago to provide a unique and restorative experience for victims of abuse.  Today, the mission of Wing Haven continues, focusing on providing counseling and empowerment for families.

Lee described a new program developed by Wing Haven called Recovery and Empowerment for Families.  The unique program works with families and fills a gap between drug treatment and family counseling.  Wing Haven has developed a licensed counseling center and plans to develop the campus to host retreats and outdoor functions on its beautiful campus in Vinton.  A number of Rotarians emphasized to the club the importance of Wing Haven’s presence for our county.  Thank you, Lee, for the interesting program.

Club President, Shirley Doss, welcomed Rotarians and guests to our meeting today.  Visiting from Pt. Pleasant Rotary were Bill Knight and Frank Capehart.  Shana Booher introduced her guest, Juan Alexander, Director of Provider Recruitment, for Holzer Clinic.  We made sure Juan left with a membership application!    We had a fairly good attendance today and it was great to see Marlin Rose today!  Kevin Petrie has made four meeting in a row!  Welcome everyone!

If you missed today’s meeting—Don’t get in the habit of missing Rotary—when you miss a meeting, the rest of us miss you!

Celebrate Rotary—President Shirley reminded Rotarians this year marks the 107th birthday of Rotary on February 23!  Happy Birthday, Rotary!

Fellowship—Gordon ‘clothes-pin’ Amsbary ran our club fellowship this morning covering a wide range of topics.  Kevin Dennis bought a Happy Buck in honor of his recent ‘appearance’ as Abe Lincoln.  (Now I know why you look so familiar!)  Gordon concluded with a few words of wisdom.

Split-‘Der’-Pot—Kevin Dennis jumped in and ran our STP for us this morning.  He did well with the ticket sales and our small pot was $7.00.  Our large pot was also $7.00 as Cleeland Willis pulled the Queen of Hearts last time.  Our lucky winner today was no other than Lee Saltzgaber!  Lee worked over the brand new deck of cards but only managed to pull the seven of spades, missing the big one.  He did fine assess the Foundation Fine against anyone who has NOT donated to the Red Cross!  Good one!

Here are the program assignments for the next few weeks:

Feb 28        Cleeland Willis
Mar 6          Dave Nadler
Mar 13        Debbie Rhodes
Mar 20        David Smith
Mar 27        Margaret Evans

Apr 3          Dan Whiteley
Apr 10        Kurt Dailey
Apr 17        John Ellison
Apr 24        Jeff Lanham

Have a great week, and see you next week!

What if we scheduled a weekly Rotary club meeting and no one came?

Well, that’s what nearly occurred today, February 14, 2012.  President Shirley Doss opened our meeting with a total of 12 Rotarians in attendance.  We had a great time.  We enjoyed a few stories and heard a few jokes, but we missed seeing all the members who were absent. 

Fellowship—Gordon Amsbary ran our club fellowship citing some real life drama to start things off.  Next, Gordo provided some words of wisdom from Mario Andretti.  Gordon fined Shana Booher for not having her Rotary pin displayed in a recent picture in the paper.  The club learned a few things about raccoons that today is ‘Congenital Heart Defects Day.’  Zac Fosler was also fined for entering after the bell.  Chuck Clark bought a Happy Buck to brag about daughter, Dr. Meredith Workman, who will be traveling to Mongolia in April.

Split-The-Pot—Kevin Dennis was drafted into working STP duties today.  Our small pot managed $4.00 today in spite of our small number and our large pot grew to $26.00.  Our lucky winner today was Cleeland Willis!  Cleeland worked the deck carefully to pull out a winning card, only to draw the QUEEN OF HEARTS!  Cleeland donated his entire winnings today to our club’s foundation!  Thank you, Cleeland.  He assessed the Foundation Fine against anyone who did NOT win the pot today!

Here are the assigned program dates for the next few weeks:

Feb 21        Lee Bauman
Feb 28        Cleeland Willis
Mar 6          Dave Nadler
Mar 13        Jeff Lanham
Mar 20        David Smith
Mar 27        Margaret Evans

Members attending included President Shirley Doss, VP/President-Elect Jodie McCalla (via phone), Treasurer Shawn Siders, Secretary Chuck Clark, Lee Saltzgaber, Kevin Dennis, and Resty Alonzo.

President Shirley recommended we have a club representative to attend the District Conference in May with PDD Mel and Lydia.

Some discussion was held regarding the District’s Ethics Seminar which we have not supported in the past.

Treasurer’s Report—Shawn Siders distributed  and explained the monthly treasurer’s report regarding club expenditures.  The Board discussed the month’s expenditures and account balances.

Secretary Chuck Clark reported the club’s average attendance for January, 2012 was 70.7% which is down from past months.

Spaghetti Dinner—President Shirley announced the club has fulfilled its obligation in holding spaghetti dinner fundraisers for the past three years.  The event has created awareness, but the club lost money on the events.  There will be no dinner this year, but the club may cook up and sell jars of sauce to raise funds.

Relay For Life—Some discussion was held on the feasibility of supporting the Relay this year with a ‘Lip-Sync’ benefit to be held at the Ariel Theatre.  Through Shirley’s position on the Ariel board we can obtain the venue for little cost making this fundraiser possible.

Rotary Scholarships—VP Jodie McCalla has released the scholarship information to all area high schools for this year’s candidates. Information is on our web site as well as the club blog page.  Deadline for scholarship applications is March 16th.

Lee Saltzgaber made a recommendation that the videos at the Silver Screen VII be additionally tagged with a phone number as well as the club meeting time.  While these are short 30 second videos, Chuck Clark will make this addition to the videos and provide these to the theater.

There being no further business before the board, the meeting was adjourned.