SPOKES VOL. LXIV NO. 9 September 5, 2017
President Renner opened our meeting with the Pledge of Allegiance, followed by a moment of silence for victims of hurricane Harvey and for special needs of out members. Art Ayers is in Texas helping family.
Guests:
Our guests today included Jim Sullivan from the Saugatuck Rotary Club and the District Foundation, Bob Brickman’s daughter Jill and President of the Historical Association of South Haven (HASH), Amanda Creeden.
Spotlight:
We actually had two spotlight speakers this morning! First, Jim Sullivan spoke to us about the Rotary District 6063’s Foundation. Most of the money raised for the foundations grants – which total about $30,000 a year – is raised by a District-wide raffle and a dinner, held in October. Jim left us with 25 raffle tickets and an invitation to the dinner, to be held on October 17th in Hastings.
Spotlight #2 was Amanda Creeden from HASH. HASH leases the former Hartman School and would like to provide protection for their collection of historical items and documents. She explained that plans are in place to install a fire and damage detection service in the building. Bob Straits was pleased to present Amanda with a check for $5000 towards the system, $2500 from our club and $2500 from the District 6360 Foundation in the form of a matching grant.
Music:
Bob Boerma was our song leader this morning, but initially Dottie and her electronic piano were not in sync and we nearly had to skip our musical interlude. Fortunately (?) the music started and Bob was able to lead us in singing three former (and by former, we are talking about more than a century) number one hits. We started with the 1908 Tin Pan Alley hit, “Shine On Harvest Moon” and then waxed sentimental with a 1903 hit with lyrics that were inspired "by a girl who worked at the music counter of a New York department store”, “Sweet Adeline”. We finished with one of our favorites, “Smile, Sing a Song” and even added a repeat of the last line under Bob’s outstanding direction.
Announcements:
- Don’t forget the Club Runner App for your phones, it’s a great resource! It now features member birthday and anniversaries. Hopefully consistent use of Club Runner will keep members aware of their anniversaries and save much grief.
- Many thanks to the mother of Elian Garcia for the donuts she delivered for our breakfast this morning and to Elian for his hard work at our pancake breakfast on Sunday.
- Marty Graber has arrived back in Kenya and will provide us updates as progress is made on the projects there.
- Hurricane Harvey Relief though Rotary. If you wish to make a Hurricane Harvey donation through Rotary, you can do so by writing a check to the Rotary District 6360 Foundation and mail it to the foundation Attention Nan Thompson. C/o Jansen Valk Thompson Reahm PLS, 7171 Stadium Drive, Kalamazoo, MI 49009. Please note Hurricane Harvey Relief in the check’s memo line.
- We will need a volunteer to do Spokes for January, February and March, 2018.
50/50
Dorothy Lockwood was the lucky ticket holder this morning and then proceeded to draw the “4” and win the whole darned pot! Larry Lewis had the $2 winner.
Fines:
- Bob and Jane Copping are celebrating 62 years of marriage this week!
- Bob and Kathy Straits celebrated their Las Vegas wedding, held 49 years ago this week.
- Don Hixson’s grandson celebrated Sean celebrated a birthday this week.
- Dene Hadden’s oldest daughter turned 43 today.
- Bob Brickman was pleased to announce the birthday of his guest this morning, his daughter Jill.
- We did a nice version of our Happy Anniversary/Birthday song this morning for our celebrants.
President Renner began the Club Assembly Portion of our Meeting
Bob Brickman spoke on membership, indicating several key factors.First, he suggested that we look classifications, and recruit people to fill various classifications, like car dealers, contractors or other businesses that are not currently represented in our membership.
He reminded us that we have to actively recruit members, looking for candidates, inviting them to our meetings and encouraging them to join.Once we have them, it is important that we retain them by giving them some responsibility and making them feel comfortable socially.
There are membership brochures from both the club and RI to help with the process.
He did suggest that our music selections may not entice younger folks to join.
Dorothy Lockwood and Rhonda Wendzel spoke briefly on our opportunity to manage a beer and wine tent at the Haven Harvest Festival on October 21st.It appears that we will only need to find and train volunteers for a five hour block of time that evening as all of the paperwork is being completed and the physical part of the setup is being completed by the Visitor’s Bureau.
Dene Hadden was pleased to announce that our annual Education Fundraiser has raised $10,000 so far and that money will be distributed to the LMC South Haven Scholarship Endowment fund and the South Haven Public School Foundation Endowment over the next few weeks.We also expect another $10,000 from the Albemarle Foundation this fall. Thanks to all who participated, especially Deb Davidson and Scott Mark.We would like to collect suggestions about what kind of function we want associated with this fundraiser in the future and are taking suggestions.Also discussed was the necessity for the SHPS Foundation to increase the recognition of Rotary to their endowment and how it is used.
Lastly, Don Hodgman reviewed the results of last Sunday’s pancake breakfast.We served about 490 breakfasts, including Rotarians and spouses who worked.He is not sure that it is worth the club’s efforts and members missing family time for a relatively small number of breakfasts, compared to our other breakfasts.He urged that a decision be made about the future of this breakfast soon so we don’t get caught in the situation where we are on various event calendars and can’t back out.
President Renner closed the meeting with the Four Way Test.
Next week’s program: Glenn Pietenpol will introduce Rick DeVries of Chemical Bank who will talk about changes in the banking industry.
Next week’s Greeters: Larry Lewis and Dan Liehr
Editarian: Dene Hadden