Today’s meeting was called to order by President Joyce and our Patriotic song today was ‘America the Beautiful’.

Today’s inspirational message was from Larry Gray.  With the inspiration of the book, ‘The Greatest Generation’ by Tom Brokaw, and the 80th anniversary of the end of WW2 this year, Larry was inspired to give remarks of a long time Rotarian, Art Holst.  Art was a member of Rotary for a total of 61 years and was an avid golf player, poetry buff, and motivational speaker.  He grew up in Galesburg IL during the depression and joined the ROTC at Knox College before the war.  He then joined the Army in 1943 and was eventually promoted to Captain.  What fond memories of a remarkable life. 

Our musical selection today, offered by Ingrid Shelden was a parody of the ‘Good old Summertime’ tune, but with new lyrics that honored Jonas Salk and the polio vaccine.  

We were honored with a large number of guests today – too many to introduce individually, so they were asked to please stand and be acknowledged – and welcomed to Rotary!

Thank you to today’s helpers – John Juroe, Dennis Burke, Bonita Singal, Carolyn Hiatt, Bill McPherson, Don Deatrick, Fernando Leon, Pattie Katcher, Mary Avrakotos, Melissa Foster, Mary Steffek Blaske.

A moment in Rotary history – Downs Herold provided a recap of our history of recording meeting attendance and the efforts therein of “making Rotary a habit.”  Historically, Rotary collected names on each table at lunch which were then collected and attendance recorded during lunch!  Monthly attendance numbers were then reported to the District Governor, as they are now.  The Rotary newsletter, the Harpoon, used to publish attendance stats per person.  Then, as now, if you miss a meeting, you can do a make-up by attending a different club meeting and get your attendance that way.   

Leo Shedden reminded us about this weekend’s Adopt a Highway project on Saturday April 12th.  There’s still time to sign up and we’ll begin at 9am and end at 11:30am (lunch included!).

Tom Millard announced nine birthdays this week and no anniversaries. And lastly, don’t forget, Wine Women and Song – tonight at Kerrytown Concert House.

Because our club and speakers are nimble, we had to pivot today since our original guest speaker, Dusty May, the head coach of the men’s basketball team had to catch a flight overseas this morning!  In his stead: Michael Boynton, the men’s basketball assistant coach and defensive coordinator.

Mike’s talk today provided insights of his background and initial interests in basketball.  He is originally from Brooklyn

NY, and was recruited to play college basketball at the University of South Carolina where he played for 4 years.  He told us that he initially wanted to be a lawyer but after an internship one summer, he decided that career path wasn’t for him.  He was encouraged to get into coaching after an injury, and thus his coaching journey began – first as a grad assistant and then assistant coach at South Carolina.  While there he learned quite a bit about the ‘business’ of basketball, in that coaching positions can come and go quickly.  He moved to Texas for a job and after some time and a growing family, moved to Oklahoma State after being appointed the head coach there.  In general, coaching is a very rewarding career but it does take a lot of his time. After losing the head coach position at Oklahoma, he received a call from Dusty May who offered him a position at Michigan and his family moved to Ann Arbor a year ago.  

This past season, the coaching staff worked with a new team roster – and with the commitment of Dusty, they’ve been able to grow and develop this team.  Dusty is tremendously committed, he says, and has assembled a great coaching staff, one with great energy.  It’s a great time to be a Michigan basketball fan!  Don’t we know it!  

Mike stayed to answer a few questions ranging from the losing streak at the end of the season to how UM handles an ever growing issue of sports gambling to how much time do athletes spend each day/week in practice or play with their sport (~20 hrs/week).  Many thanks to Mike who, with short notice, delivered a great talk about a much-loved UM sport!  Go Blue!

After reciting the 4-way test, our meeting was adjourned.