Welcome to the 2026-27 RCAA President, Roy More as he takes over the gavel today!
Our meeting was called to order by President Roy and in advance of the July 4th holiday, we sang ‘America the Beautiful’, originally written as a poem and published on July 4, 1895. The membership then proceeded to recite the 4-way test.
For his inspirational message, Dale Ulrich reminded us of how our pets can offer lessons on living in the moment. Quotes from Mahatma Gandhi and Abe Lincoln demonstrate that over the ages, pets are valuable members of the human ‘family’ as evidenced with Dale’s dog who is an excellent listener!
Dave Keosaian provided some interesting historical background to the Battle Hymn of the Republic before we all sang along to 4 verses of the song.
Announcements:
President Roy provided thanks to all of today’s meeting helpers – from mike runners to greeters and everyone in between. Six birthdays were announced for Kennan Robins, Edward Johnson, Anna Byberg, Joe Diederich, Mike Rein and JoAnn Barrett. Two anniversaries (Club membership over 15 years) were announced for Elaine Didier and Norman Herbert, both at 37 years of membership!
‘Who Is It?’ Mary Steffek Blaske provided quite a few clues to help us guess this member and after several attempts, we finally succeeded in guessing Past-President Dawn Johnson! We all learned a few new things about Dawn, such as her penchant for ‘good’ horror films! Our fun was followed by President Roy presenting a plaque to Dawn for her service as President in 2025-26. Congratulations, Dawn!
Interested in marching in the July 4th parade? We’ll arrive at 9am for the 10am start, sign up online if you want to join in.
Kristin Giant, speaking as Executive Director and recipient of a grant from our Club to the Children’s Literacy Network, reminded us of how important and critical this type of funding is to non-profits. The Club raises funds for these types of grants by way of our largest fundraiser of the year – the annual Golf Outing. One way you can help is to donate experiences, items and goods to be used for the Silent Auction! Kristin is spearheading the Silent Auction and promoted how good she is at transforming your donation into things like food for kids or books for kids! Please consider donating to the Silent Auction and more information/instructions will be coming soon.
Today’s speaker was new President, Roy More. Roy’s presentation provided an overview and refresher on some
Rotary statistics. He recently attended the Rotary International conference in Taipei, Taiwan and thoroughly enjoyed the experience. Some current facts: Rotary International has 1.2 million members encompassing 200 countries and 42,000 clubs. Our own club, chartered in 1969, has archives that are stored at the University of Michigan’s Bentley Library. Our club is the 76th largest in the world and the 40th largest in the US! Recently, Roy was able to meet current RI President Yinka at a conference in Kalamazoo.
Roy’s goals for our club in 2026-27 include the following, and in general continuing to build on each focus area of the strategic plan with a focus on membership. 1) Grow our membership to 300, focusing on strengthening existing membership and recruiting new members. 2) Use our resources, such as Clubrunner and myrotary.org. 3) Plan new initiatives, such as Leaders for Life, develop a non-profit exposition and continue to bring together grantees at celebratory events.
Roy thanked the Club Directors who have completed their 3 year commitment: Sam Katamatsu, Dan Romanchik and Leo Shedden. He then announced the full Board for the 2026-27 year including new board members. In closing, Roy challenges our club to keep doing what we’re doing, take care of each other and let’s get the word out about Rotary!
Our meeting was then adjourned at 1:25pm.
