THE GALLIPOLIS ROTARY CLUB BLOG

President Lou Ellen Werry reminded Gallipolis Rotarians that District Governor Calvin T. Gebhart will make his official visit to our club next week, July 27th.  Our attendance was rather light today due to vacations, but remember that we need everyone to be at the meeting next week to welcome DG Calvin.  We are planning on a super breakfast and a super meeting!  Club officers and directors are asked to stay for board meeting from 8 – 9 am.  Many thanks goes out to Matt and Cleeland Willis for working up a golf game for our DG!  Kurt Dailey is in charge of the weather!

President Lou Ellen welcomed the assembled club members to our meeting and Bob Hood provided our invocation after the Pledge and the 4-Way Test.

Club Board Meeting–President Lou Ellen announced the first official board meeting for the new Rotary year will be held at the Municipal Court offices at 49 Olive Street this 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.  Please make every effort to make this important meeting.

Livestock Princess Project—Jodie McCalla reminded members the Gallia Junior Fair Livestock Princesses will be chosen THIS SATURDAY, July 24th.  The interview process begins at 1 pm and the actual ceremony is scheduled for 5:30 pm in the main show arena.  This is when Jodie and Denise Shockley will be needing a few Rotarians to assist.  Denise and Jodie have done a great job organizing this event and this is our club’s only participation in the Gallia Junior Fair.  We need someone with a camera to step forward to capture pictures of the event!

Rush To Rotary—President Lou Ellen announced that our club will be holding our first annual Rotary ‘Rush’ party on Tuesday evening, September 21st.  This evening event will replace our morning meeting with a casual meet and greet designed to attract new members to Rotary.  A likely venue for the event could be the Merry Winery.  President Lou Ellen is looking for a couple of volunteers to step forward to help organize this important event.  Please email her!

Split-The-Pot—Jim Morrison ran STP for our meeting today and sold a bunch of ‘three for two’ tickets since the pot it getting large.  Today’s small pot was $6.00 and the ‘biggen’ reached $247.00.  After a small flourish the lucky ticket holder today was . . . Shirley Doss!  Shirley carefully pulled a card from the ever shrinking deck, and just missed the Queen of Hearts by pulling the King of Diamonds.  Close!  Shirley assessed the Foundation Fine against anyone who did not make arrangements to see the Open Rail concert at the Ariel.

Fellowship—Gordon Amsbary ran club fellowship for the meeting with a plague of locusts and the Riot Act.  (You just had to be there!)   Gordon spoke about the Women’s Hall of Fame and ended with his traditional words of wisdom—a poem, “Walking With Grandma.”  Well done, Gordo!

Happy Buck$—We had a couple of happy bucks today.  Cleeland Willis bought a Happy Buck in honor of his Grandson, who was recently married in Florida.  President Lou Ellen Werry bought a happy buck in honor of her  sorority’s recent reunion which was held in Pataskala.  It was organized on FaceBook and one attendee came from as far as Japan!  Amazing!

Relay For Life Auction—President Lou Ellen announced the club had received another check as a result of member items sold at the Middleport Auction to benefit our club’s Relay For Life Team.  She lauded the efforts of Dan and Edna Whiteley for their willingness to assist the club in this worthwhile project.  Dan will bring his truck and trailer, if necessary, to load up your surplus items which are then taken to the auction.  This is a great way to ‘de-junk’ your life and help fund our Relay For Life team.  Thanks, Dan and Edna!  This is the stuff that makes Dan SMILE!

Club Assembly—Today’s program was a club assembly in which President Lou Ellen helped lead open discussions on a number of topics, and our Bob Evans Festival Ice Cream fund raiser.  Thanks to all who participated.

Remember, next week is DG Calvin’s official visit to Gallipolis Rotary.  Be sure to attend.

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. Read the rest of this entry »

President Lou Ellen Werry gaveled the first meeting of the  new Rotary year to order promptly at 7:15 am at the Doctors’ Dining Room of Holzer Clinic.  Our attendance was a little light with only 20 Rotarians in attendance!  Members enjoyed an excellent breakfast complete with fresh fruit and other goodies.  Cleeland Willis provided our invocation after the Pledge and the 4-Way Test.  President Lou Ellen welcomed our only guest, Jim Allen, our program speaker for today.

Rotary Mile—Our annual Rotary Mile was held on Saturday, July 3rd with 20 runners participating this year.  We had an excellent turnout of Rotarians to help and attendance credit will be given for those helping.  Special thanks really needs to go out to Keith McGuire, and his entire family for their help as well as Jake Nolan, coach at River Valley High School, for making this annual event a great community event.  I have placed photos on our club’s Facebook page and here is a link for all the shots”: (Click the slide show!)

View Full Album Read the rest of this entry »

President Bonnie McFarland conducted her last official meeting as President of the Gallipolis Rotary Club at a special evening meeting held at the Holzer Medical Center Education Center.  The members and guests enjoyed a particularly excellent dinner and great fellowship.  And there was cake!

Outgoing President Bonnie engaged PDG Mel Simon to officiate the formal installation of our new slate of officers for Rotary year 2010-2011.  Mel conducted a meaningful ceremony of induction for our new leaders. Congratulations to President Lou Ellen and her officers.  The new Rotary year is off to a great start! Read the rest of this entry »