Spokes March 14, 2017

Posted by Dene Hadden on Mar 14, 2017
 
Spokes
 
SPOKES VOL. LXIII NO. 35                                                                                  March 14, 2017
 
 
We were greeted by Don Hodgman.
 
We opened the meeting with the “My Country ‘tis of Thee” and Art Ayers’ invocation.
 
Our guests this morning included Kim Wise, Kevin Dee, Parker Jenson, Sophie Goodenough, Paul Nelson and prospective member Jerry Portman.
 
Music:
Our music today was led by Bob Boerma.  We began with a nice smooth 1908 hit, “Down by the Old Mill Stream”, although there was some babbleing on a couple of the last lines.  We followed that with a 1917 standard, “For Me and My Gal” and ended with the good old “Sing a Song to Rotary”.
 
Announcements:
  • Thanks to the folks who helped with Blessings in a Backpack on Friday.
  • We received thanks you notes from the Kalamazoo Hospital Hospitality House and the Diversity Coalition for our donations to their organizations.
  • A reminder of the Chamber of Commerce’s ABH at Remax Realty this Thursday.
  • Don’t forget the District Conference on May 18th.  Our own Marty Graber will receive his national award at that time and we are hoping for a nice turnout of local Rotarians.
  • Club Hero nominations are due this month.
  • Save the Date:  The South Haven Future dinner supporting LMC Scholarships and the SHPS Foundation is set for April 29th at Lakeshore Caio.
  • Robert Herrera and Jerry Portman have applied for membership.  Anyone with concerns should contact President Ayers.  Winning the 50/50 twice in three weeks is not a legitimate concern.
50/50
For the third week in a row we had a winner!  Jerry Portman had the lucky ticket and then got lucky and drew the 4, winning the pot of $9.  Dorothy Lockwood broke the string of double winners, collecting the $2 prize.
 
Fines:
  • Bob Copping brought some Irish feeling to the meeting with a story of an Irishman who gave up drinking for lent.
  • Deb Davidson celebrated March Madness
  • Larry Lewis is in town for a couple of days as he helps with his grandson deal with a medical situation.  All wished him the best.
  • Bob Stickland wished the Blue good luck this week.
  • Larry Wittkop retaliated by wishing the Green better luck.
  • Don Kitchen celebrated his son’s birthday.
  • Dene Hadden tried to avoid a Ludington Style birthday tribute, but was unable to buy his way out of it.  One of the most memorable birthday tributes he has ever received.
  • Dorothy Lockwood celebrated her daughter’s birthday.
 
Our speakers, introduced by Tom Rummel, were the SHHS Robotics team.
 
Kim Wise introduced us to FIRST Robotics, the organization that sponsors robotics’ competitions nationwide.Michigan has the second most robotic teams in the country, second only to California.
 
The team members explained the various committees on the team, including Build, Design, Marketing, Finance and Scouting.The marketing team raised more than $11,000 for the team, exceeding their goal.The team added a flag and team jackets to the program this year.
 
The Build and Design team were very effective this year, getting a working mock up done in just three weeks and the final version done a week ahead of the first competition.They were able to go to the first competition without doing any last minute “twiddleing”.
 
The team members talked about why they were involved in the program and mentioned a desire to build things, improve their building skills and that they get to be around friends.
 
Every graduated member of previous teams is enrolled in college.
 
We watched a student produced video about Team Rammageddon and one that described how the completion would work.We also got to watch a couple of short videos of the robot in action.
 
For the first time ever, a member of the team was nominated for the Dean’s list at a competition as Joel Rummel, a fifth year member of the team received that honor.
 
Kevin Dee concluded the presentation by talking about the character building that occurs in this program and the quality of the kids on the team.
President Ayers thanked Kim, Kevin, Parker, Sophie, and Joel for their enlightening presentation and presented each of them one of our valuable speakers gifts and we wished them luck in their future competitions.
 
We closed the meeting with the Four Way Test.
 
Next week’s program: A presentation by the Sity of South Haven Public Works Department
 
Next week’s Greeters:  Steve Larsen and Dan Liehr
 
Editarian:  Dene Hadden