Today’s meeting was called to order by President Dawn and Kurt Waugh (visiting husband of Kathy) led us in singing our national anthem. The membership then proceeded to recite the 4-way test.
We held a moment of silence for our longtime member, Wayne Colquitt who passed away recently. We will have a tribute to Wayne at a later date.
Joanne Pierson provided our inspirational message today, from ordinary to extraordinary, in which she reminded us of how our club is engaged in all of the areas of the 7 pillars of Rotary: Peace, Fight disease, Clean water/sanitation, Saving mothers and children, Support education, Grow local economies, and the Environment. Together, we will have an extraordinary year!
Our musical inspiration was provided by Joe Diederich and Kurt Waugh (guitar) leading us in the Simon & Garfunkel classic, ‘Homeward Bound.’
President Dawn thanked all the Rotarians helping with today’s meeting: Melissa Foster, Susan Froelich, Mark Foster, Carolyn Hiatt, Linda Kentes, Mary Steffek Blaske, Jody Tull, and Pattie Katcher. A couple of announcements were made including 1) the GPO still needs volunteers!, 2) don’t forget that our August 20 meeting will be at Cobblestone Farms and you have to register, please do so soon, 3) thanks to Norman Herbert, the club budgets will be posted on our website shortly, 4) please sign the cards available for Wayne Colquitt and a get well card for Agnes R.
We welcomed two new members today! Norman Herbert introduced us to Dana Fair, who is a communications specialist working in Marketing & Communications at UM. Joanne Pierson introduced us to Rona Hu, who recently completed her masters degree at UM in Data Science. Rona recently attended the 4th of July parade, saw our Club marching in the parade and made contact there!
Collyer Smith and Marlena Studer promoted the GPO Raffle Kickoff (50/50 raffle). Tickets will be available at our upcoming meetings, so stay tuned for more details how you can get your raffle tickets.
After a short history of Polio Plus, John White announced Pennies for Polio. The campaign runs from September 24 – October 22. Bring in your pennies to a meeting! The amount that we submit to Rotary will be matched by a 2:1 from the Gates Foundation.
We then welcomed several guests, including Scott Nelson, our Assistant DG from A2 North. He also brought a guest, a staff member from Meals on Wheels, and two possible future new members.
Dawn Johnson then introduced our current District Governor, Wendy Jones. Wendy, a real estate professional, hails from the Anchor Bay, MI Rotary Club for which she was the Club President two times! She then progressed to the Assistant Governor and now the District Governor.
Wendy started with a question to the club: What project fills your heart? One of our members, Rosemarie Rowney, stood and spoke about how her involvement with the End Polio Now project has inspired her from the beginning of her membership. When we love what we do, it inspires a passion that hopefully allows us to share that with others and give it back.
Wendy suggested that we harness this passion, whatever our passion about Rotary, and tell our friends, etc. in an effort to promote our clubs and what amazing things we do. Share your passion…your ‘why’! We should also try and visit other clubs, especially if we are traveling – it’s a great way to get ideas to bring back to our own club. She encouraged us to check out the District calendar for various events that we can get involved with. Some upcoming events include the Paws for Polio on September 27th, the reverse raffle coming in January, and later, the District conference which will be in Canada this coming year.
After a few questions, Wendy spoke about how exciting it was to attend the Rotary International Assembly and the Rotary International Conference which was held in Calgary, Canada this year. Both proved to be exciting and engaging events where one can meet members from all over the world and feel connected to the inspiring work that Rotarians engage in, worldwide, every day!
