SPOKES VOL. LXVIII NO. 4 August 10, 2021
President Bill Roberts called our meeting to order with “America the Beautiful” We were joined by several members via ZOOM. Jeffrey Dick provided our invocation, including prayers for a successful pancake breakfast this weekend.
Our guest this morning included prospective members John Mailtland and Dana Hollinger and our speaker Deb Howe.
Songs
We held our songfest for just the second time this morning with Bob Boerma leading the way. We began with a rather shaky version of the slow tempo-ed “I Left My Heart in San Francisco”. That one will need a little practice to get up to our usual high standard of musical excellence. We had much better luck with “The Band Played On” and “The Rotary Wheel”.
Announcements:
- We should expect to set up the room each week and return it to its previous situation after our meeting.
- Our pancake breakfast with the Kiwanis Club during Blueberry Festival on August 14 and 15 is on us. A sign-up list is available and we are especially looking for help for the afternoon shifts both days. Contact Rosalie Plachaty.
- Thanks to Jerry and Julie Portman for hosting our club at the Portman Preserve this past Saturday. It was an event enjoyed by all.
- We will not be meeting on August 17th because of the above mentioned pancake breakfast.
- Thanks to Rhonda for the muffins this morning and Barry for preparing the coffee.
- We have agreed to make a$250 donation to the new Disc Golf Course and will be discussing additional grant requests at this month’s Board meeting.
- Bill spoke about the Rotary Raffle. In the past we have purchased all of the tickets we were assigned and we hope to do that again this year. Tickets are $25 and can be purchased by contacting our treasurer Mike Livovich (michaellivovich@gmail.com) .
50/50 and Fines
Art Bolt had the lucky ticket in today’s 50/50 drawing but then his luck ran out and Rhonda was unable to find either the 2 or the 4 for him.Dave Campbell had the $2 winner.
- John Maitland and his wife are celebrating their 47th anniversary this week.
- Jerry Gruber suddenly remembered that he is having a birthday tomorrow – a milestone one.
- Dan Thompson announced that Chief of Police Natalie Thompson’s birthday is Wednesday and he suggested mentioning that if she pulls you over that day.
- Dene Hadden’s granddaughter Allison just celebrated her 18th birthday and will soon be a server at 3 Blondes.
- Kaleigh Eddy’s twins are both 14 this week.
- Larry Wittkop will also be celebrating his birthday this week.
- In Honor of our birthdays and anniversaries we sang a pretty good regular version of the Happy Birthday song, lead by the birthday boy – Larry.
- There were a number of Happy Buck’s this morning, even a mention of MSU football starting soon.
Mary Sue Lyons introduced our speaker this morning, Deb Howe from the SCORE organization.
SCORE is an organization the helps entrepreneurs get started turning their dreams into a successful business.She started her own business in 1989 and ran is successfully for many years before selling it.
Score works with start-ups – businesses with between 1-35 employees navigate through the myriad forms and requirements that starting a business involves.In addition they talk to these businesses about the other needs/challenges new businesses face, including raising capital, determining appropriate starting size, education and owner motivation.
Businesses that use SCORE have a doubled survival rate, three times the revenue and are more profitable than those who go it alone.
Score is the largest organization in the country focused on business development and has 364 chapters including our own chapter in Southwest Michigan with 36 mentors.Deb mentioned a mentoring situation they are in right now with a business started by a 19 year old woman called “Smash House” where people can go and smash things to relieve any anger issues they may have.
They are looking to add more mentors to their team.If you mentor you will meet interesting people and it is very gratifying to help someone succeed in making their dream come true.
Ways you can help in addition to becoming a mentor is to help SCORE identify businesses who struggle, identify businesses that are just getting started or identifying business people who could become volunteer mentors.
Bill reminded us that our goals for the year are Membership, Fundraising and Hybrid meetings.He adjourned the meeting with the Four Way Test at 8:00 AM
- NEXT WEEK: No Meeting next week due to the Pancake Breakfast.
- Editarian: Dene Hadden