President Mark began the meeting with Ringing the Bell and Tom Strode led us in ‘America the Beautiful’ as our patriotic song of the day.
Dennis Burke provided our inspirational message today which was focused on how much as always seem to be in a rush. With some recent warmer temps, even the flowers are popping up – what’s the rush?! It’s only March! Let’s take a pause, step away from the fast-foward, lest we miss out on experiences that might be had if we just slowed down. Being ‘done’ is not the goal for value in our lives.
Our musical selection today was offered by Ingrid Sheldon – The Happy Wanderer, and we sang all 3 verses!
President Mark provided thanks to the team of today’s volunteer helpers: Leo Shedden, Rob Shiff, Steve Kesler, Bob Mull, Shelley MacMillan, Tucker Rossmaessler, Dawn Johnson, Pattie Katcher, Ugur Cetin. Two birthdays were announced but no anniversaries this week.
Don’t forget – Spring Forward is this weekend! Don’t forget to change your clock FORWARD an hour on Saturday night.
Several guests were introduced, including Collyer Smith acknowledging several Rotary leaders such as the District Secretary, the Assistant District Governor, and a Rotaract representative as well. All other guests were warmly welcomed.
Roy More provided an update on the 2023 Golf/Pickleball Outing (GPO) which was the 20th annual fundraiser for our Club. Remember, this is the one and only fundraiser that our Club offers. Because of a strong turnout and other funding support, we exceeded our goal by over 20%. This surplus will allow our Club to provide scholarships and other funding support to more recipients that we support. The net proceeds do not fund our club, but rather to support community service groups/projects.
GTO 2024! Mark your calendar for September 16, 2024 at Barton Hills CC. The Planning Committee begins meeting in April. How can you help? You could participate with the Planning Committee or perhaps volunteer on the day of the event. Stay tuned as more announcements about getting involved will be discussed in the coming weeks.
The exciting duo of Don Duquette and Paul Webb presented us with a quiz on behalf of the Environmental Action Group! Today’s topic: composting. We had a lot of fun learning about how to compost if you live in an apartment building, for example.
Barbara Eichmuller reminded us of our next Membership Committee Happy Hour, scheduled for Thursday March 14th at 5:30 at the Session Room. Please remember – Venmo or Cash only to pay your portion of the bill!
President Mark also reminded us that soon we will be receiving a message regarding the Rotary Annual Survey which will be due at the end of March.
Michelle Deatrick introduced our fellow Rotarian Featured Speaker, Greg Dill, our Washtenaw County Administrator. The title of Greg’s presentation was “Preparing to shift: demographics, investments, vision.” A focus of his work area relates to aligning their work with community values. Our county has evolved in terms of the needs of our communities; no longer are we primarily a rural county with two urban centers. To give perspective to that, Greg refreshed our memory with changes in Genesee County after the loss of a primary employer in General Motors and how that changed the landscape in that county. Years later, a somewhat similar circumstance happened in our own county with the loss of Pfizer, a large employer in our area. In more recent years, we’ve faced other challenges, namely the Covid Pandemic. During the early days of the pandemic, the County did not shut down operations. Instead, they worked hard to distribute vaccinations and to employ best practices for public health.
Greg spoke about how the University of Michigan is a critical partner to the county and state. We must be mindful of how we leverage this powerful research institution for future thought leadership. In contrast to this powerful partner, our county also has several challenges to mention: economic segregation, lower life expectancy in low opportunity zip codes, 7th highest infant mortality rates, and an affordable housing crisis. Some additional statistics that Greg mentions: our county’s population growth is down 1.6%, home prices are 55% more expensive than the rest of the region, and we have the most expensive childcare costs in the state.
What does our county’s impact look like in 2030? We must remain true to our guiding principles – those based on community values, investment in infrastructure, supporting commissioner priorities, climate change and resiliency, affordable housing and addressing homelessness which has grown every year for the past 12 years! Greg ended his talk on some positive news. During the early months of the pandemic, our county received $72 million in funds from the American Rescue Plan Act. This funding must be spent down/exhausted by December 2024 and he is happy to report that all funds will be used and we are sending no money back to the federal government of our $72 allotment!
President Mark closed our meeting with the club standing to recite the Four-Way Test: 1) Is it the TRUTH? 2) Is it FAIR to all concerned? 3) Will it build GOODWILL and BETTER FRIENDSHIPS? and 4) Will it be BENEFICIAL to all concerned?
Submitted by Pattie Katcher – Reporter
