Spokes April 4, 2017

Posted on Apr 04, 2017
 
 
SPOKES VOL. LXIII NO. 38                                                                                April 4, 2017
 
 
We were greeted by Dorothy Lockwood and Art Ayers.
 
We opened the meeting with the “America the Beautiful” and Art Ayers’ invocation.
 
Music:
Jim Davis was out music leader again this morning, assisted by “fingers” Gruber and Dottie.  We began with “When Irish Eyes Are Smiling”.  This standard was written in 1912 when songs in tribute to a romanticized Ireland were very numerous and popular.  We followed that with the Al Jolson 1921 hit “April Showers”, although the Spike Jones parody “When April Showers She Never Closes the Curtain” was also popular.  Somehow Aprils showers fits our weather this month.  We finished with “All Hail to Rotary”, sung to the tune of Anchors Aweigh”.
 
Announcements:
  • We are pleased to announce that our “Rotary Hero” award for this year goes to Tom Renner.  Congratulations Tom!!
  • Don’t forget the District Conference on May 12th and May 13th.  Our Club Hero, Tom Renner, will be honored on the 12th and Marty Graber will receive his national award on the 13th and we are hoping for a nice turnout of local Rotarians..  Both events are in Battle Creek.
  • We will be taking up a collection to help pay for Marty’s trip from Kenya to accept his award at the meeting next week.  If you are writing a check, please make it out to: Grand Rapids Lions-District 11-C1 and, on the memo line, write c/o Kenya Project.
  • Buy your tickets:  The South Haven Future dinner supporting LMC Scholarships and the SHPS Foundation is set for April 29th at Lakeshore Caio.
  • Welcome back more snowbirds.  We were joined today by Glenn Peitenpol!
  • Jerry Portman was inducted into our membership this morning.  Welcome Jerry – we look forward to having you as part of our club.
50/50
We went another week without a winner this week as Don Hixson was unable to find the 4 or even the 2, so the pot increases for the 2nd week in a row.
 
Fines:
  • Melinda Gruber was pleased to announce that her son was awarded a full scholarship at Indiana University for his graduate studies.
  • Bob Copping quite possibly entertained us with another of his unique stories.
  • Both Larry Wittkop and Mark Odland tried to sneak their birthdays past our ever alert group this morning, but failed to do that and were both treated to a sonorous version of Happy Birthday, Ludington style.
 
President Ayers began our Club Assembly
 
Art introduced president elect Tom Renner who passed out a survey type document that listed all of the activities of our club, from meeting time and place to the Club Facebook Page.
 
His purpose was to get the “pulse” of the club and to make sure we were all in sync with where the club is going and what we are doing.
The discussion moved to the need/desire to do the Labor Day pancake breakfast.Discussion about that topic led to concerns about the safety and condition of our grills and how they are set up, lit, and put in the trailer.Those concerns are scheduled to be addressed by a subcommittee on pancake grill storage and safety to be chaired by Tom Ruesink once he returns from Florida.
 
The other benefit of the Labor Day breakfast is the visibility it provides us in the community and if it is dropped, serious consideration needs to be given to other one-on-one public relations situations.
 
It was determined that we can meet our obligations to the organizations we donate to with just two successful breakfasts.
A non-binding straw vote was taken to determine the Pulse of the club on this matter and an overwhelming majority of members present voted to discontinue the Labor Day breakfast.
 
Tom also reminded everyone that Club Runner provides an App for your phones that hooks directly into our web page and to our membership information.This is only available to our members and you will need your password to sign in to the App.
 
Dene Hadden reminded the club that one of our most significant fund raisers is coming up soon.Our LMC/SHPS Foundation dinner is scheduled for Saturday, April 28th.It is a special event and a great social opportunity for club members, their spouses and friends.It is not limited to Rotarians.The evening will feature the South Haven High School String Quartet, the announcement of the Education – Service Award winner and the opportunity to bid on a number of silent auction items – plus DOOR PRIZES!
 
This event, originated with the leadership of Steve Larsen and Janice Varney when LMC opened its doors in South Haven, is now entering its fourteenth year and has raised more than $140,000 in endowed funds for LMC students attending the South Haven LMC Campus.With the addition of the SHPS Foundation endowment three years ago, this event has contributed about $17,000 to that fund.For the first several years – until tax rules were changed, this even also contributed several thousand dollars to the club treasury.With the creation of South Haven Rotary Charities that contribution was reinstated last year, resulting in more than $1500 going to our club.
 
The event is also one of the social events of our club calendar, this one open to the public, and provides a great opportunity to bring friends and community members in contact with our club.
 
We closed the meeting with a reminder to take a look at the list Tom has provided (he emailed an updated list Tuesday afternoon) and let him know what you think about items you care about.
 
We closed the meeting with the Four Way Test.
 
Next week’s program: Mark Odland will present Frank Cunningham who will talk about his latest book.
 
Next week’s Greeters:  Tom Renner and hopefully Korky Ingersoll
 
Editarian:  Dene Hadden