President Dawn Johnson rang the bell to begin today’s Club meeting and pianist extraordinaire, Jody Tull de Salis, accompanied Club members as we sang our National Anthem. The 61 members and guests – in person and via zoom – recited the Rotary 4-Way Test.
Paul Webb delivered a passionate inspirational welcome on the importance of individual action to spread kindness that 
will counter negative and contemptuous trends. He challenged members to see how many kind words, smiles shared, and people we helped as we focused on spreading kindness and positive experiences at in our lives. As an award-winning professor, he gave us homework: to report back on our kind actions at our next meeting.
Chanteuse Ingrid Sheldon, led us in singing Smile, Sing a Song, and The Four-Way Test. Guests were introduced, and President Dawn thanked this week’s meeting team: Dennis Burke, Don Duquette, Larry Gray, Fernando Leon, Bob Mull, Dan Romanchik, Leo Shedden, Ingrid Sheldon, Mary Steffek Blaske, and Jody Tull de Salis.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Birthday greetings were cheered for Sara Maddock, Arthur Williams, Mehmet Onder, and Mary Steffek Blaske. Kat Forsythe was hailed for being a Club member for 24 years.
Today marked the first Book Swap of 2026 sponsored by the Environmental Action Group.
Club members are invited to participate in “Creating Peace through Music” on March 27. See The Rotarian for further information or contact Dave Keren with questions. Club members are also invited to attend the District Assembly and Training on April 11. See you email for more information on this important meeting. It is imperative that at least two members attend as a requirement for our grant eligibility.
President Dawn invited Club members to attend longtime Club member Sue Beutler’s memorial service at First Presbyterian Church on March 1 at 1:00 p.m.
BUSINESS
Ed Weir took the podium to invite Club members to help identify and recruit high school students for the RYLA program to take place May 15-17. The Club will pay the registration fee for the student. This important leadership and citizenship training is designed for teens ages 14-18. Adults are invited to be mentors and chaperones.
Anne Glendon, Norman Herbert, and President Dawn met with the City officials to discuss the Pollinator Garden project at Gallup Park and to continue moving the project forward with relevant partners.
Dana Fair, Dan Romanchik, Roy More, Leo Shedden, and President Dawn will meet next week to discuss alignment of the public relations/audience analysis initiative with the Club’s strategic plan and identify actionable objectives.
Dennis and Jeanne Powers came to the podium to recognize “Little Big” Don Knight for hosting the
all-important Rotaract Charter Dinner and the End-of-Year Rotaract Senior Send Off Dinner. Knight’s on Liberty opens especially for these events. Jeanne read an original limerick highlighting the Knight family and “Big Don” and “Little Big Don” Knight especially as generous community leaders. Dennis presented “Little Big” Don with two signed copies of John U. Bacon’s new book.
GPO chair Rick Jarzembowski took the podium to announce that our annual fundraiser will take place on September 14 at Barton Hills Country Club. In giving us the date and mandate to help as a volunteer, he noted that with this much advance notice we all can clear our calendar for that date. He was proud to announce that Susan Shipman has already procured the UM School of Music, Theatre & Dance’s Musical Theatre ensemble to provide entertainment again this year. Committee members include Don Deatrick, Norman Herbert, Downs Herold, Susan Shipman, and Greg Stejskal.
CLUB POLICY COMMUNICATION UPDATE/ STRATEGIC PLAN
President Dawn began this part of our Club meeting by noting the impressive progress we have already made in aligning our Club’s Strategic Plan with Rotary International’s Plan. This includes increasing our impact with the eradication of polio (pennies for polio), focusing on solid program offerings, and improving our ability to achieve and measure our impact. Second, she noted we are expanding our reach with collaborations with Rotaract and Interact and through a myriad of other social activities. Third, she noted that we have been enhancing participant engagement through our popular speaker program and accessibility through zoom meetings. Last, she noted we are already increasing our ability to adapt by reviewing and revising bylaws and policies. We increase communications through the creation of job descriptions for Board and Committee members.
The second part of our Policy Update was a breakout session to discuss our Club’s Communication Policy, most specifically to create clarity around sharing of non-Rotary information with Club Membership. In March 2009 the Board of Directors approved a policy concerning solicitations at Club meetings or otherwise Directed at Club members. Today’s breakout session focused on the details of what this policy means and how it can be made clearer for all members.
Individual tables reported to the whole Club on potential changes to the club’s communication practices. One table’s proposal was to delete the second paragraph of the current policy and allow the president discretion on outlier cases, with input from the program committee and other existing review processes. Past President Joyce proposed to use the Four-Way Test as a guideline for sharing non-Rotary information.
President Dawn concluded by asking Club members to provide feedback using the feedback form on the tables or via the shared folder for Zoom participants. She welcomes all support from members in joining the Strategic Plan Working Group.
