Posted by Dene Hadden on Apr 10, 2018
SPOKES VOL. LXIV NO. 38                                                                              April 10, 2018
 
 
A special thanks to Art Ayers for his outstanding job as editarian the past three months.  Job well done!!
We were greeted by Larry Wittkop this November-like morning.  Larry was using this as practice for his real greeting assignment next week.
 
President Renner opened our meeting with “America the Beautiful” and Art Ayers offered our invocation. 
 
Guests:
We had no guests this morning.
 
Spotlight:
We were also without a spotlight this morning but are going to have two next week.
 
Music:
Larry Wittkop was our song leader this morning and he lead us off with his favorite “Stodola Pumpa”.  After checking it has been discovered this song is NOT the fight song for ND, Michigan of MSU.  It might be the fight song for Ohio State, however, here is what Wikipedia has to say: Stodola Pumpa is a Slovakian folk song that is about a young man dreaming about his sweetheart when he is supposed to be working a pump.  His boss/father sees he is not working and yells at him to get back to his pumping, which is where the chorus comes in.  Because the song lends itself to a good time feeling, it has been adopted as a drinking song throughout Europe and in some parts of the US (Columbus Ohio?)  We finished with “School Days” and “On Rotary On”.
 
Announcements:
  • Blessings in a Backpack 1:30 PM Friday at Lincoln School
  • Please send in your RSVP’s for our educational fundraiser as soon as possible.  The event is designed to be mostly a social evening with entertainment and door prizes galore, along with a few silent auction items.  Please invite your friends so this becomes a community social event where we can showcase our commitment to education in our community.
  • The first of this year’s Speakers Series will occur on Thursday, April 19 at LMC.
  •  
50/50
Once again, Ted Weber had the correct ticket.  He proceeded to draw the “2”, winning half of the pot.  This will allow him to win the rest of the pot next week.
 
Fines:
  • Bob Copping talked about a cold day in Washington DC and a rare event that occurred on that day.
  • Nick Tuit celebrated a birthday
  • Bill Roberts celebrated a birthday, an anniversary and the birth of a brand new granddaughter!
  • Deb Davidson celebrated a birthday also and all of our birthday celebrants were seranded with a rather nice version of our birthday song.
  • Glenn Pietenpol celebrated one national championship and almost a second for his beloved Notre Dame this week.
  • Tom Rummel was excited to announce that the South Haven High School Robotics team will be going to the state competition.  Their strong finish at two recent competitions qualified them for this first ever trip.  Congratulations!
  • Jerry Gruber read us a story forwarded to us from Tony Martorano about an elderly gentleman who gave away his possessions to his ungrateful family.
 
 
Mark Odland was our speaker today and presented a history and plans for the future of the South Haven Speakers Series.
 
Mark indicated that the Speakers Series began in 2015 with Peter Annan as the first speaker, speaking about Great Lakes Diversion.175 folks showed up, way more than anticipated.There were four speakers that year and five were included in 2016.2017 saw five speakers again, with one of the most interesting, Dr. Ibriham Moussa from Notre Dame talking about the Muslim religion.
 
Average attendance has been about 120 people.The cost of attending a session is just $10 and includes a wine and cheese reception prior to the program.Preachers, teachers and students are free.
 
The organization is run by volunteers, including several Rotarians.
 
The focus has always been on finding speakers based on three concepts: Ideas, Innovations and Issues shaping our lives.They work on finding speakers who can talk to these concepts, not on finding speakers first.They have never paid more than $2,000 for a speaker and often less.The series has developed the reputation of being one of the best and most community connected speaker’s series in western Michigan.
 
The biggest challenges of the series is expanding its base in the South Haven community while expanding its market area to nearby communities and on keeping its focus on finding topics and speakers that meet their objectives.
 
They are especially pleased to have Denis Archer as one of the speakers this year and the first event will be on April 17th when Fred Johnson, an award winning professor from Hope College will talk.
 
President Renner thanked Mark for his informative presentation and provided him with our speaker’s gift.
 
We closed our meeting with the Four Way Test.
 
Next week’s program: Wings of Mercy
 
Next week’s Greeters:  Stu Comiskey and Larry Wittkop
 
Editarian:  Dene Hadden