President Rosemarie Rowney called our meeting to order at 12:39pm with an invitation to listen to Tom Strode play our Patriotic Song, the Star Spangled Banner. Lauren Heinonen gave us a quick introduction to Zoom etiquette and brought us up to speed on using it like pros!
An inspirational quote was offered by Phil Klintworth, referring to Roosevelt’s “The Man in the Arena” speech. He reminded us that Roosevelt was President of the USA at the time Rotary started.
We were treated to a video clip from Rotary’s World Peace Conference in which the song “Let There Be Peace on Earth was sung. You can replay this clip by clicking this link.
President Rosemarie then thanked those who served at the meeting, including Lauren Heinonen, John White and Lori Walters who managed set up, Barbara Eichmuller and Lauren Heinonen who managed attendance, Marlena Studer who served as Reporter, Fred Beutler who took photos/video.
We were reminded of the upcoming BIRTHDAYS of Club members and acknowledged esteemed Guests.
John White shared some information with us on Paul Harris’ birthday! Read more here.
Lori Walters reminded us to VOTE for our favorite NonProfit by going to the CURRENT magazine’s website here.Our Rotary Club is a favorite to win the BEST NonProfit Organization in Ann Arbor in 2020 – Please click on eCurrent and VOTE by May 15!
Dan Lewan of the Disaster Response Committee let us know that the Board has approved the Committee’s effort to begin fundraising to provide immediate relief to front-line workers in the Covid-19 Pandemic. They are grateful for any support, which will help fill in the gaps and address human service needs during this crisis.
Nishta Bhatia introduced our speaker, Jim Kosteva, reminding us that he has been a member of our Rotary Club since 1995, during the time he began to serve as Director of Community Relations at the University of Michigan.
Jim Kosteva explained the history and timeline of the process to end gerrymandering in State of Michigan through his work with Michigan’s New Citizen Redistricting Commission. At the November 2018 election, the majority of Michigan voters chose to amend the State Constitution (through Proposal 2) and to put the power in the hands of voters to define how the political map should be drawn. The Redistricting Commission, which will be made up of thirteen Michigan residents (4 Republican, 4 Democratic and 5 from neither party), will have the responsibility of representing Michigan voters in re-drawing Michigan Districts. The new Districts must follow six criteria: 1. Districts must meet federal requirements of EQUAL POPULATION specified by the Voting Rights Act, 2. Districts must be geographically contiguous, 3. Districts must include identifiable communities of interest, 4. Districts may not provide a political advantage to any political party, 5. Districts should respect existing county, city and township lines, and 6. Districts should be reasonably compact in shape. Applications for the Commission are being accepted online: https://votersnotpoliticians.com/apply/ until June 1, 2020. The Secretary of State’s office will narrow the pool of applicants down to 200 from June to July, and the final 13 will be selected by October 2020. Jim’s talk inspired all of us to volunteer in this historic citizen-led effort to shape Michigan’s future. He referred us to the website www.votersnotpoliticians.com for more information.
Notes by Marlena Studer, Photography by Fred Beutler
