Rotary Club meetings start at 11:45. All members are encouraged to be at our meetings by 11:45. Meals will be served at 11:45, and our program will begin by 12:20 in order to leave sufficient time for a business meeting after the program.
After August 23, our weekly club meetings will resume on September 6.
Rotarian Ken Buchele arranged to have Honorable G. Joseph Pierron, Jr., Judge of the Kansas Court of Appeals join us for lunch and provide us with an inspiring program on the U.S. Constitution. Complete with a cast of characters taken on by several Rotary members, we all learned about the U.S. Constitution and the role it plays in defining our laws. Judge Pierron himself joined Rotary in 1971, and served as President of the Olathe Rotary Club. He is a Paul Harris Fellow.
Rotarians Barbara Wry, Clint Stephens and Teresa Maley represented our club at the Rotary Foundation, Membership, Leadership training seminar in Topeka.
Thanks to the Boy Scouts from Troop 165 at Grace United Methodist Church, the third Little Library provided by the Rotary Club and United Way was completed. The final library is located next to the church parking lot close to South Ave. The church was excited to have the library, as they used to have a library before, and have agreed to help keep the library filled with books. The church librarian and the Scoutmaster Tony Leek have already provided books to fill the library.
We welcome Ed Bashaw as a new Rotary Club member. Ed was inducted by District Governor Chris Ford. Don Miller and Ken Weaver proposed Ed for membership. Thanks for joining us, Ed!
Our club was honored to have District Governor Chris Ford as our guest. He said that our club is the 9th club in our district that he has visited, and he has 36 more. He keeps a busy schedule!
Chris quoted from Paul Harris: Rotary has to be evolutionary, and think outside of the box...meaning that times change, and we must do things differently and not fall back on doing the same things all the time.
Other things brought up by District Governor Ford:
Rotary is the largest service organization in the world.
1.2 million members
Located in 217 countries
We are located in Zone 27 out of 34 zones
35,362 Rotary Clubs
$115 million raised annually by Rotary with a low 6.8% administration expense.
District 5710 matching grants:
$80,012 in 2013-2014
$48,394 in 2014-2015
$62,115 in 2015-2016
$151,604 in Global Grant Funds available for 2016-2017
Three keys for Rotary Clubs are:
Growth
Retention
Attendance
Our District's growth goal for July through June is growing from 2,467 member to 3,000 (+20%)
A 20% increase for our club would be 15 members.
A big push for attendance at our next District Leadership Conference on May 5-6, 2017 at the Overland Park Sheraton.
Our Rotary Club raised money for several years and reached our goal of donating $25,000 toward a new Lemur exhibit at the David Traylor Zoo. This fantastic new exhibit opened to the public with a "vine cutting" on July 23 with our club members among the large attendance. Our club is displayed as one of the major donors to the exhibit.
If you have not yet seen this exhibit, it is a "must see".
We can be proud of our work toward a significant addition to our community's zoo.
Barbara Wry was recently recognized by the Rotary Foundation as a Paul Harris Fellow + 4. District Governor Chris Ford presented the recognition to Barbara. Thanks, Barbara, for your generosity to the Rotary Foundation!
Sam Purohit was recently recognized by the Rotary Foundation as a Paul Harris Fellow + 3. District Governor Chris Ford presented the recognition to Sam. Thanks, Sam, for your ongoing contributions to the Rotary Foundation.
Rotarian Richard Duncan presented a video showing the priorities of the Rotary Foundation, which emphasized the importance of continuing Rotary's number one goal of ending polio in the world. Initiated by Rotary, the goal of eradicating polio in the world has been joined by several other organizations. Unfortunately due to technical difficulties, the video was not able to be viewed in it's entirety at our club meeting. Anyone wishing to see the video can view it by clicking HERE.
It was reported by Richard Duncan that a total of $11,438.72 was given to the Rotary Foundation by our Rotary Club membership during the last Rotary year. This giving is equal to $136.94 per member and 120% of our $8,200 giving goal. Great job everyone!