Good afternoon. Welcome to the Bloomington Rotary Club's weekly celebration of service. I'm Steve Wicks,
and I'm dumbfounded as to why you picked me as your president this year. What in the world were you thinking?
Yes, as Rex says, not too late to change your minds. No. All these people, you're all here for a club
assembly, so you must have a death wish.
But we're two months in, you're here, I'm here, we're doing fine. So on a more serious note, I'm honored
to serve as your president this year. Please silence your electronic devices. This day in history,
on this day, September 2nd, Labor Day 1935, a Category 5 hurricane made landfall in Florida, the strongest
and most intense hurricane ever to make landfall in the U.S.
432 people died from this hurricane. Hurricanes were not named until 1953. So in honor of the Labor
Day holiday, please stand if you are able and we'll recite the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance
to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God,
indivisible,
with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. So Sally Gaskell and Connie Chicales will provide us with
special music to celebrate Labor Day. Come on, Connie. We are having a sing-along. Does anybody else
need a copy of the words? I have two left. There's a couple on your...
No one's raising your hands? Connie wants it. OK. So Steve, in fact, asked us to provide some special
music today to celebrate Labor Day. As you probably know, Labor Day became a federal holiday in 1894
to honor the nation's workers and their contributions to the well-being of our country.
One of the routes dates back to the 1886 Haymarket riot in Chicago, which was in fact a demonstration
for the eight hour workday. Yesterday, I was at the demonstration at the courthouse square and I saw
Sylvia McNair carrying a sign that said, unions, the folks that brought you weekends. So in honor of
Labor Day, please join Connie and me in singing
If I had a hammer, this is a Pete Seeger song from 1949. Tyler's going to cue up a very fast version
of this piece. So I hope you all sing along. Feel free to stand if you feel like it. Keep up the tempo,
because it's going to be really fast. OK. And we want to hear you on Zoom, so unmute yourselves. OK.
Jim Harvey will share a reflection about service today. Steve asked me last week when I came in if I
were willing to do the reflection today, and he said, would you please talk about service? What is service?
Service above self.
is a familiar phrase for us Rotarians. It was maybe providential that Steve asked me to do this,
but it also was somewhat ironic, be given our speaker last week talked about gratitude. Is gratitude
another word for kindness? Is kindness another word for service?
Like kindness, service costs you nothing. I joined some other Rotarians, some in this room, at Hoosier
Hills Food Bank this summer to pack boxes. And it was one of those bloody hot days. And I asked myself,
what in the hell am I doing here? But I looked across the room and realized that Winston and Sue
were there. And because of our coffee group, I know Winston is older than I am. And I said, so if they
can do this, I can do this. And I'm glad I did. I have belonged to the Methodist Church on and off most
of my life. And one of the ministers that I got to know is a person that many of you know, Joe Emerson.
And at the time,
I was involved in the schools and I didn't have the time. And Joe said, well, what are you doing on
Wednesday mornings? What do you mean Wednesday mornings? And he said, at six o'clock. It turns out Joe
managed to collect all the goodings, ingredients for scrambled eggs at Shalom Center. So,
As I said yes to Steve, I said yes to Joe. And so that started two years worth of cooking breakfast
every once a month on Wednesday mornings at Shalom. And when I finished what I was doing with the schools,
Joe said, well, now it's time for you to come on the board. And so I spent several years. Tracy,
you need to pay attention so that you learn to say no sometimes.
In reality, all you're doing is postponing saying yes. Service is humbling and it should be just like
gratitude. Service reminds you that other people need your help. And Sally has encouraged me to be kinder.
Some of you've known me a long time know that
I may not be kind now, but I was worse when I was younger. Kindness comes from saying yes. Saying yes
to opportunities that present themselves, whether it's cooking at Shalom or volunteering at Hoosier
Hills Food Bank or ringing a bell at Salvation Army.
Service is gratitude. So maybe, just maybe, kindness is happiness. Maybe the saying for us Rotarians
should be, instead of saying, see something, say something, maybe for us it should be, see something,
do something. Thank you, Jim.
We have these wonderful weekly programs, but at our core, we are a service club. And so it's always
good to remind ourselves, you know, service, service, service. Jim Shea will introduce our guests today. Well,
hello, everybody. I am delighted to introduce four guests. And if you could stand or wave so we can
acknowledge you.
Our first guest is Ellen Stroman, who is a guest of Ruth Boschkoff. Welcome. Next, we have Jen Eugenia,
who is a Rotaract student from the Philippines, and he's a guest of Katie Cernik. Welcome.
Next, we have Krishna Pillani, who is a guest of Sarah Laughlin, also a RotorX student. Welcome.
And last but not least, we have Luke Lubring, who is a guest of Peyton Flynn, and he is a chemical engineer.
Welcome. And we're delighted to have you all here. If you have questions about Rotary, just ask anybody
at your table.
Welcome. Thank you, Jim. Leslie, do we have any guests online today? We do not. Lots of birthdays to
celebrate today. Today, Laurie Garrity has a birthday. Tomorrow, Don Hossler, Marilyn Wood on the 5th,
Jim Shea on the 6th, John Diltz, Aaron Davis on the 7th, Andrea
De La Rosa D on the seventh, and John Weichart on the eighth. Lots of birthdays. Two anniversaries tomorrow.
Diana Hoffman and Leanne Radcliffe, both celebrating their first anniversary with a club. Both of them
have become very active.
Announcements. I'll start. We had Tim Jessen brought a guest last week, a birch, and I can't remember
his last name, who was looking for a job. I want to remind the group that Tyler here is also looking
for employment. So if you have anything, please seek him out. He's very interested. There's a sign-up
sheet in yellow right there, an old-fashioned sign-up sheet, the things we used to use before Sign Up Genius.
And our club has accepted the law school's invitation to co-sponsor their Constitution Day luncheon
program on Wednesday, September 17th. And this will be a separate event from our weekly meeting on the 16th.
And our obligation as a sponsor will be for up to 50 of us to show up and eat pizza and listen to the
program on the Constitution. Parking will be half a block away at the Henderson Street Garage.
You'll need to pay for that.
Those of our members who have drivers, if you go around to the north side of the law school,
you'll be able to be dropped off and you can get down the hall up an elevator and to the event.
So it is handicapped accessible. So sign up sheet is in yellow right there. If we don't think that our
club can get 50, then we probably will reach out to the other rotary clubs in town to see if they have
an interest. So if you plan to attend, please sign up immediately.
I mentioned this last week. I'll say it again. The Pillar Arts Alliance will celebrate the grand opening
from 68 PM on Saturday, September 6. They'd like to know how many planned to attend. So see Tracy, see me.
There are other people associated with the event in the audience if you want more details. And like I said,
we have a lot of club members who are involved with this organization. The IU Rotor Act
has invited members of our club to join them for their meeting on September 9th in Woodburn Hall, 7 p.m.
Parking. We haven't experienced big time problems yet this year, but on weeks when the lots fill up
here at the IMU, the two lots, you can also park at the Atwater or Henderson garage
And we have special tickets, so go ahead and go in the garage, take your ticket there, and then come here,
and we'll give you a special ticket. And there's kind of an involved process to get out. Sally Gaskell
said she probably did it 12 times and badly, but she's got it now. So anyway, just so you know,
there are options where parking is concerned. Special treat today, we have a new member induction ceremony. Tracy?
I am not the new member, but I'd like to invite Peyton Flynn to come up and Erin and Martha to come up.
Join us. This is a special day. We love to get new members. And Peyton, hopefully you've met quite a
few people because I know you've been to at least three or four meetings and she's coming in permanently.
So we're excited.
And while you're coming up, I'll tell you all a little bit about Peyton. She is in her final year of
law school at IU Maher School of Law and set to graduate in May next year. Fun fact, since her sophomore
year of college, Peyton has always had at least one job during her studies and has often worked two
jobs during her classes. She and her partner, Lucas Lovering, are both Bloomington area natives and
will be celebrating their second anniversary this Labor Day. Luke is a chemical engineer at SMPDRA and
Peyton's an intern at the
Elmer Entrepreneurship Law Clinic and a Senior Transactional Law Clerk at Glendening, Johnson & Bohr, PC.
Peyton and Luke have no children but have rescued Simey's cat named Toothbrush. I have no idea where
that name came from.
But I suspect she's clean, the cat. Peyton went to study epidemiology at IU Purdue University, Indianapolis,
back when it was actually called that, and graduated with honors on the dean's list and as a chancellor's
scholar. She worked at the Indiana Department of Health for two years, tracking outbreaks of enteric disease.
She was frustrated with tracking outbreaks on tedious PDF interview forms, so she taught herself how
to program on RedCap and built a patient interview interface with over 1,000 custom entries and conditional
formatting throughout.
in a month that the state Department of Health still uses to track outbreaks to this day and it has
been dubbed a game changer by the current outbreak investigation team. You really have a broad skill
broad set of skills you hope Peyton hopes to stay in Bloomington area upon graduation and get more involved
in Rotary service opportunities when possible. So we love that. So with that for the formal induction Peyton.
On behalf of the board and membership of the Bloomington Rotary Club, it is a great pleasure to welcome
you as the newest, oops, sorry, I started on the wrong side. You have been chosen. No, I was right.
I'm not used to printing it this way, because Lori, for those of you who know, I didn't do membership
committee for like a year, because I was doing president and Lori changed the formatting and it threw me.
So let's just try again. Sometimes we make mistakes.
We look forward to the fellowship that we will share as well as your participation in the club projects
that make our club, community, country, and world a better place. Though Rotary is not a political
organization, Rotarians are vitally concerned with good citizenship and the election of effective leaders
to public office. While Rotary is not a religious organization, it is built on those highest principles
that have served as a moral compass for people throughout the ages. Rotary is an organization of business,
professional and community leaders pledge to uphold the highest ethical and moral standards. Rotarians
believe that worldwide fellowship and peace can be achieved when people work together and uphold the
Rotary motto of Service Above Self. Rotary activities exemplify the partnership, respect, and generosity
that one would expect from people who believe they have a responsibility to help others.
Peyton, you've been chosen for membership in the Bloomington Club because your fellow members believe
you to be a leader in our community and because you possess the qualities to champion the message and
principles of Rotary. You are representative of your vocation and talents within our club and community.
You are now becoming an ambassador of Bloomington Rotary and will be carrying the ideals of service
to all within your sphere of influence.
Our community will know and judge Rotary by your character and service. We will also look to you for
inspiration as we strive to become better Rotarians. We will now pin you with your distinguishing badge
of a Rotarian, your Rotary pin. Oh, they're magnets now. Oh, that's so much better.
All right, we ask that you wear your rotary pin with pride in your many endeavors and as a symbol of
our recognition of your contribution towards a better world through rotary membership. Fellow Rotarians,
please rise if you are able and welcome our newest Rotarian, Peyton Flynn.
Well, that was a feel-good moment. Tyler, can you put up the mystery rotarian? OK, first clue. Remember,
if you know the answer, put up your hand. Don't shout it out. Those of you online, if you know the answer,
raise your electronic hand.
Don't type it in so that everybody can see it. All right, first clue. This Rotarian is a dedicated basketball
fan who spent 25 years keeping the score book for Shelbyville High School and today is a regular attendee
at IU Women's Basketball Games. Okay, I see three or four, okay. All right. Second clue.
a retired educator. This Rotarian taught physics, chemistry, and math, starting at Connorsville High School,
Rushville High School, Shelbyville High School, and Franklin College. Put up your hands if you know. OK,
a few more. Third clue, a Rotarian for 46 years. This club member is a Paul Harris Fellow, a past
treasure and past president of the Shelbyville club. All right put up your hands if you know.
We've quite a few. And the answer is Bill Murphy. And bill is online there.
So as a member of our club, for almost 20 years, he's attended several district conventions,
served on the scholarship and membership committees. And as it worked out, the two of us were paired
together to ring Salvation Army bells here about two years ago. And that's really one of the nice things
about service projects. You get to know people that you might not know otherwise. Bill and his wife, Vera,
they retired here about almost 20 years ago.
Steve Moberly was his sponsor in this club. Bill taught calculus at Shelbyville High School and Franklin
College for 37 years. An interesting fact, Bill's great-grandmother was a first cousin to aviators Wilbur
and Orville Wright. I will say for those of you who do go to women's basketball games, Bill sits typically
at the level when you enter through the north
entrance. There's an area above the north basket stands. People with walkers and wheelchairs are there.
If you try to say hello to them before the game, the ushers won't let you go in. But if you go at halftime,
you can usually get in there and say hello to Bill. So anyway, Bill Murphy, congratulations.
Oh, and I saw Jim Bright, Steve Moberly, who is a sponsor. I saw Steve. And maybe one more knew it right away.
Leslie, did anyone online get it right, besides Bill? I was going to say Bill. We have no. OK. All right.
I think Bill was our first Zoomer for the Mystery Rotarian. OK, not a lot on Rotary International today,
but I will say we've turned the calendar. We're in a new month. So September is Basic Education and
Literacy Month. And besides our club and lots of other clubs, there are all sorts of special interest
groups in Rotary. There's one Literacy Rotary Action Group.
Worldwide network of Rotarians with a special interest in alleviating illiteracy. Excuse me.
And then there's the, yeah. There are efforts in the world to take down literacy rates. OK.
I think I've spoken enough, so we're ready for our first speaker.
Christopher MG from the Chamber of Commerce will take a few minutes and explain the relationship between
our club and the Chamber and what this relationship means to all of you. Thank you, Steve. I only had
a hammer here. I don't know if anybody else butchered it as badly as I did today, but the Natalie Merchant
version I was familiar with was a lot slower.
I am, as Steve mentioned, Chris Turnergy from the Greater Bloomington Chamber of Commerce.
We're a 110-year-old civic organization. We are mutual members. So what we've long held is an event
in November, what she's used to call Business Outlook, which is now called Futurecast that we have at
the convention center, where we have
what the economy is doing, what to look forward to, and how much lower your 401K is going to be.
So has anybody been to that event? Very good event. Phil Powell's a big fan of his from the Kelly School.
So I was asking around at the offices, what does the Rotarian membership to these fellow Rotarians mean?
And they were like, we haven't really
talked about that yet, which was very interesting here. But one of the things I'm going to encourage
all of you to do is our business after hours, which is on the third Wednesday of every month.
I want everyone to at least come to one before the end of the year. I said third Thursday. Excuse me.
I said Wednesday. Third Thursday of every month. So it'll be at Old National Bank downtown on the 18th.
So write down that calendar. And let me know if you want to get on our other events. If you need to
get on our mailing list, we do a lot of different things. We do have our annual meeting on the 11th
of this month, but it is sold out as of today. But we also do, I do the success school, which works
for financial and career literacy. I see Marcy back there, a fine success school volunteer with the
reality store and a bunch of other things we do, which is a lot of fun. We have a women's in leadership.
We have a young professionals group. So there's a lot we do in the chamber that we want to get the Rotarians
more involved in. You have any more questions? But we do want to see you at a business after hours,
third Thursday of the month we were at, Hard Truth, I guess two weeks ago, and that was a lot of fun.
So I want to thank Steve for giving me five minutes here. But any questions, I'll be here a little bit
after on the Greater Bloomington Chamber of Commerce. Thank you.
Thank you. Alan Barker is this year's Bloomington Rotary Foundation president. Don't forget, there are
two foundations that are important in our Rotary lives. Many of us get them confused. I occasionally
get them confused. The Rotary International Foundation fights polio, engages in other causes around the world,
and funds our district grant. Then there's the Bloomington Rotary Foundation,
which provides the bulk of funds for our club scholarships and focuses on local issues. And remember,
as a member of this club, you are also a member of the Bloomington Rotary Foundation. And then Elan
wears multiple hats. He also serves as our communications committee chairperson. And after he brings
us up to date regarding the Bloomington Rotary Foundation, he'll inform us about developments in the
world of club communications. Elan?
Thanks very much, President Steve. And before I get in, hi everybody. It's great to see you all.
And everybody online, it's wonderful to see you, especially happy to see Charlotte Zietlow is with us today.
So Charlotte, it's great to have you. And even more wonderful to know that you're back in home. So that's
good to see. She's not, oh, she isn't. Okay, well, it's great to have you with us, Charlotte. So let's see.
Yes, I'm gonna start talking to you about the,
The Bloomington Rotary Foundation and thanks to Sally who put these slides together and I've adjusted them.
We're going to use a slide deck that Sally presented to us in the general meeting a few weeks ago,
but I want to make I want to suggest that it's actually really easy to remember that the Bloomington
Rotary Foundation.
provides funding for scholarships and community engagement. Those are the two things that are really
the most important things that we do. And it's wonderful to know that the Bloomington Rotary Club itself
has a foundation to support its good work. So that's what I'm going to be talking to you about right now.
It is what we call a 501C3, which means that the funds that it receives are eligible for tax
tax savings, tax savings and tax deductions as we go along. As I said, its purpose is specifically to
support the charitable work of the Bloomington Rotary Club, but we also serve, as I will be mentioning,
the other two clubs in Bloomington in fiscal sponsorship of their activities. We have a board of directors
made up of you, and the board of directors is made up of Ron Barnes, who's gonna be president next year,
Sally Gaskell, thank you for your support
and your leadership last year. Sarah Laughlin, who's our secretary. John Zodi, treasurer, who's been
doing a fabulous amount of work just recently to get things up to speed. Amy Osojima.
So those are the individuals involved in steering the organization through the year. If you have any
questions or thoughts about the Bloomington Rotary Foundation, please make sure that you speak to one of them.
OK, so as Sally mentioned a few weeks ago, I just wanted to remind us all, we were founded in 1986.
So that's a good while ago. And luckily, that was when women were, it must be something about women
taking charge and doing something meaningful in our organization. We've been working on this for a long time.
We've been super active all the way through helping establish Teachers' Warehouse. In 1998, we decided
that we had enough funds to invest in an endowment, which over time gives us funding to be able to do
what we want to do. And we began receiving toast funds 10 years ago now in 2015. It's amazing,
10 years of extraordinary toast work. Thanks to Jim Bright, who's the visionary behind it all,
Jim is with us today, so congratulations, Jim. And then we have the Fountain of Youth campaign that
I'm going to be talking to you about as well. And that was something that Lauren Snyder had in his vision
for what we could be doing. So that's basically what we are. The 80-20 Fund, it's a little obtuse.
What is an 80-20 Fund? Does anybody know what the 80-20 Fund is? Hold up your hands if you know what it is.
Basically, it's an opportunity to give money to the foundation four times a year in $20 amounts. So
it's basically a commitment of giving the foundation $80 a year
$20 each quarter. And so what I would love to see honestly from all of us as a sort of a foundational part of,
as a basic part of what we do as individuals in our club, is to make a commitment to supporting the
foundation through the 80-20 program. So if you're not part of it, please go ahead and join up and we
can talk to you about how to make that happen.
Yes, you can give all the money at once. You can give $80 at the beginning of the year if you'd prefer.
That would be great, or more. OK, so here's some good news. Our endowment has been growing over time.
And currently, our endowment is around $152,000, which is really quite extraordinary. So congratulations
to you all. That's really fantastic. OK, yes, yes, give yourselves an applaud. So the endowment.
The endowment distributions only support scholarships. So that's something that I want you to remember
is that the endowment really is a program to be able to support indefinitely scholarship work of the
Bloomington Rotary Club.
The Fountain of Youth program is a visionary program. It's an aspiration for us to get to 200,000 by 2030.
I honestly think that we could do it sooner, and maybe we'd even be able to do it by the end of this year.
Our current amount that we've raised, as I mentioned, is around 150,000. Outstanding pledges that we
have from members of this club are about 26, which means that we have about $176,000 towards that $200,000
goal, which is
Totally fantastic. 100% of the distributions from the endowment go to scholarships.
So I just wanted to mention that. So our annual scholarships, as you all know, high school scholarships
to Bloomington students who are preparing for their university training. And then we also have scholarships
for Ivy Tech students. So those are the two that we currently run. And more about that will be shared
with you as we go through the year. OK, so the next thing that we do is we are basically the receiving
organization for support of community
engaged activity, community grants. And through the toast and through individual contributions,
we've been able to accumulate a certain amount of money, which we're very grateful for. And this year,
we are launching a new project called the Community Grant through the Community Services Committee.
And it's a $10,000 amount that we're offering to the Community Services Committee to run their granting
program. In addition to that, we provide matching funds for the district
grant. So the district grant is received and as an agreement with the district we put in $3,000 a year
or however much it is and the foundation provides those funds.
We also provide financial services to the Bloomington North Rotary. They have money with us in cash.
The Bloomington Sunrise Rotary likewise. We are the fiscal agent for the Bloomington Rotary Toast.
And then we hold separate funds for the international projects that we run as a club and also the refugee
program. So if you have ideas of what you would like to do in support of any of these programs,
please let us know. We'd love to be able to hear from you.
Okay, so how to support in general? There's the 80-20 fund that I was talking to you about, $80 a year
that you can sign up for and just do every year as a way of helping the organization. Supporting scholarships
in the form of cash donations as well as money towards the endowment, the Fountain of Youth campaign.
you can make a bequest to the Bloomington Rotary Foundation as you prepare your finances. And then also
we have an opportunity for honoring members of our club through memorial funds. So those basically are
the four ways that you can contribute to the Bloomington Rotary Foundation. Any questions while I move? Yeah,
go ahead. That's correct. I'm sorry. I should have mentioned that. Yeah.
So the Bloomington Monroe County Foundation is our investing entity that enables us to do what we do. Yeah.
Thank you very much. Good. Any other comments?
Okay, so there's a new invoice system that was established last year where we're all getting a much
better read on exactly what our expenses are in the club. And if you are doing this 80-20 program,
you will actually see that on your invoice. And if you don't see it on your invoice and you would like
to be involved, please let us know. So thank you. Okay, so moving along now, I'm going to move to
How many minutes do I have? Like three minutes or something? Two minutes. OK. That's OK. We are all
great communicators. I just want to mention that there's going to be a PowerPoint presentation here.
Caleb Poore designed this for us a while back. Really, really beautiful. Please go ahead and use these.
There are many of them at the table here as a way of spreading the word about our wonderful club. OK, good.
So we have our communications. These are the members of the communications committee. Myself, Charles Pierce,
Lexi Walters, Mark Peterson, Caleb Poor, Jim Bright, Wilson Chetandi, Joy Harder, Greer Carson,
and Charlotte Zietlow. We invite you to get more and more involved in communicating about our club.
Familiarize yourself with the website. If you want to know how to get to DACDB, for instance,
you can simply go to BloomingtonRotary.org, which is a very easy thing to remember, and we
and right at the top of the page there's a link to your DACDB profile. So that's something to remember
is bloomingtonrotary.org. You also have access to your Rotary International pathway as well.
We have the printed brochure and over the past few years we've become a lot more active on social media.
We have a very vibrant Facebook page which is a public page. We also have a Facebook
group. And it's important that you know about both of them. And we invite all of you to like both.
If you would like to simply send a message to members of the club on Facebook about something that interests
you or some messaging that you would like to share from Rotary International or what's happening in
the community, you can always go to the Rotary
Facebook group and just share that with anybody, okay? So you don't have to worry about somebody else
putting up those messages for you. You can go to the Facebook group and share that yourself. We're also
on Instagram and then LinkedIn. How many of you have a LinkedIn profile? Okay, if you have a LinkedIn profile,
please join the Bloomington Rotary LinkedIn page and then share our messages with your friends.
And I think that's it. Thank you. Thank you very much.
Thank you, Alan. Tracy Yovanovich will take a few minutes to bring us up to date regarding this year's
Rotary Toast. All right. And I just want to compliment Sally and Connie, because if I had a hammer,
works with the toast. Does anybody know why? Why does that work? Anyone? Habitat, bingo.
Our sponsor this year, our charity of choice, as you all know, hopefully, Pat Wilson is who our honoree
is going to be. And her charity of choice is Habitat for Humanity Bloomington High School North Club.
And so a hammer is a good thing to have when that is the case. So I wanted to give you guys an update.
We're super, super excited. We have some awesome speakers. We have Shelly Yoder is going to be emceeing.
We have Mayor Thompson as a toaster. These are toasters, not roasters, just to be clear. We have Pat's
daughter, Kelly Wallace will be toasting, Dr. Brant Ludlow will be toasting, and then Tri-North's principal,
Taji Gibson. So it's going to be a great, great group. In addition, we will have the Bloomington High
School North Jazz Quartet playing, and they are fantastic. So we're including students, rotary, and youth.
Then we will also have the students from the Habitat
Club at North helping to facilitate the event. So it's really going to be a great celebration for all
the things that Rotary stands for and a person who absolutely exemplifies all that Rotary stands for.
Just some quick numbers. And the reason this is important, I think everyone is aware, Alon talked about
it with the Bloomington Rotary Foundation. The funds, the proceeds, we split from the toast.
We split 50% goes to the charity of choice, which in this case is the Habitat. The other 50% is split
three ways between the three clubs. And then each of the three clubs leverages those funds to do charitable
service above self works throughout. And so far,
Our goal is to sell 350 tickets. November 7th is the date of the event at Shreve Hall, again, leveraging
Ivy Tech, one of our Rotary members. We have currently 190 tickets that have been purchased of the 350.
We have another 54 on top of that that are verbal commitments, just waiting for them to come in. So,
so far we've got about 244. We need another roughly 100. And I will just say thank you to
First Insurance, Jim Breik, Gar Properties, Sarah, our family, and then MCCSC with Dr. Winston for buying
tables. There's quite a few out there. And Andrea for the tables. And then we have 35 Bloomington Rotarians
who have already signed up with family members. So the more we can get, the more support and love that
we show to Pat, who has influenced. Personally, my brother was very positively influenced, and that was
I'm 63. So that was a long time ago. So she's influenced a lot of people. Um, and I know we've all been
touched by her in some ways. So the more support we can give her, that would be great. Thank you. Thank you,
Tracy. Tyler, could you put the slides up? So now it's my turn to share a little bit about club finances
and Natalie's departure.
This is a simplified view of cash flow. $125,000 a year goes through our books each year. $38,000 roughly,
the club budget. Meals come in, come out. We lose a little bit of money on meals, and I'll talk about
that another slide. The money that goes to Rotary International goes through our books. Same with the
district. Rotary International Foundation.
Loomington Rotary Foundation, district grant, different events, and then happy dollars. So this is money
that comes in and goes out. Here's what we have, very simple, just assets. And this is from our statements
last three months, July, August, and September. And you can see it varies a little bit, but somewhere between
12,000 and 22,000. And so roughly, we're keeping about a month, two months of cash. So we're not cash rich.
Receivables. We have a few members who have actually paid for the entire year. God bless them.
That's wonderful. Had I printed this on the 31st of August,
all these past two, 31 to 60, would have been current. So unfortunately, I printed it on the 1st. But we have,
yeah. The one thing that I will mention, we're about a year into the new software system, and we still
have a few members who are having difficulty getting their invoices and statements. And we're kind of
working through those one at a time. And so over time,
The past you 91 plus I expect that to go down I will say that if you are struggling and there are people
in this community people in this club who are struggling to pay your club bill Please see me or see
our treasurer John Zoti Okay, the club itself simplified budget talked about 38,000 you know money coming
in is almost overwhelming me through club dues and
We have budgeted a little bit of a profit from the holiday party. And then you can see, once again,
these are broad categories, the money going out with the biggie being salaries and consulting fees.
So this is the budget that we have for this year. The one thing that really represents a program is
the last item, RILA, that's us sending
for students to the Rotary Youth Leadership Academy. But everything else is very much administrative
in nature. The meeting room, 3,000 last year was closer to five or six, and so we made the change to
move to the Georgian room most of the time with an occasional solarium or frangipani. The meals,
remember that we have speakers who eat meals every week.
Members who are under the age of 35 get a discount. We love to have our rotor actors join us, but we're
losing money on every meal that they eat. But that's part of our duty. I see it. So when all is said and done,
we lose a little bit of meals. So anyway, very lean budget, a doable budget, but not much room to maneuver.
So Natalie's departure.
came as a surprise when after her daughter and son-in-law and grandchildren moved to Nashville, Tennessee,
I expected that Natalie would start to think about opportunities there, but it happened much faster
than I expected. But it gives us an opportunity to take a deep dive regarding on what we can do more
efficiently, an opportunity to review what we do ourselves and what we pay someone to do,
And if we do more ourselves, that translates into more money for charity and or lower or no club dues
increases. But if we hire someone to handle certain club tasks, but it may translate into,
so if we hire someone to do things, then maybe we have more time to do service work. So these are decisions
that we have to make.
But with Natalie's departure, now is the perfect time to look at those things and say, OK, what do we
want to pay someone to do? We all make choices. Some of us cut our own grass. Others hire someone to
cut the lawn. Some of us prepare meals at home. Others go out to eat. We all make those decisions,
and they're fine. So anyway, so it's an opportunity, not an opportunity that, frankly, I wanted to have.
But here it is.
And so roughly at this point, I mean, Natalie was roughly working 20 hours a week. About half of that
consisted of being here for the club meetings and going to the monthly board meeting. So we've actually,
she's at this point, she's helping us for about 10 hours a week now. And we have an agreement
of understanding that she'll continue to do that. Hopefully it'll go down over time and then
When we actually hire someone, then she'll spend time helping train that person. So we're all good with
Natalie. So now interactive part. And I'm going to switch gears. Well, actually, I'll stay with Natalie.
So I'd like people to raise your hand. You're not making a lifetime commitment. But just for us thinking, OK,
what do we have the new Natalie do?
So once again, I talked about the staffing the front desk is a big part of what Natalie did. Do we have
people here who would be interested in being part of a group of volunteers who would staff the front
desk before, during, and shortly after meetings? Okay. All right. And I'm not gonna remember your
hands but please let me know or send me an email okay okay go ahead and put up your hands again if you
would and John Zoddy will take notes the front desk yep ah and Alan is actually taking a video good for him
Oh, and yes. And Sarah Lofton, who else? Jim, I got Jim. Sally. Hi, Sarah Lofton. I got Sarah. Connie, Marcy,
Andrea, Sam, Judy, Jim, Shay, Sarah. Julie Trotter.
All right. Okay. And I want to thank Diane. I have two online. And we have more online. Gerono. Okay.
I want to mention that also that Sarah
Glenda, Amy have stepped up. Judy and Sally are signed up to help for September. So that's good to know.
The second, and this, and I don't think we'll have very many, but this, but does anyone have an interest
in keeping our books using the Bloomington, the Rotary DAC DB software program? Do we have any bookkeepers
in the group? Okay. Anyone online?
OK, that's what I expected. That's fine. OK, then we'll switch gears a little bit. Hoosiers Outrun Cancer
10-4. The Bloomington North Club is doing a fundraiser to celebrate the life of the recently deceased
Mark Dayton. Bloomington Sunrise has signed up to staff a water station. The Bloomington Rotorack Club
is signed up, they're going to actually be doing childcare at the event. And I'd love to see our club
do something. But it shouldn't fall on the leadership of our community services group. I mean,
they're doing project after project after project. We really need people to step up, to volunteer,
to coordinate,
specific projects. So is anyone willing to be the foreman or the supervisor or whatever, the volunteer
coordinator for our club for Hoosiers Outrun Cancer? October the 4th. Anyone interested either in the
room or online?
Okay, last idea. And Tracy might need your help for this one. Club fundraising. You know, we talked
about the Rotary Toast. Any other ideas on things we should be doing as a club to raise funds?
And so just to kind of check on, so this year I'm doing the Toast because typically,
Jean Dayton and Jody Hoagland have done the toast for the last 10 years. And this year, and sorry for
positing, it's just such an awkward situation with Mark. But this year, Jean and Mark's son is getting
married November 1st. So they needed to step down. So I stepped in to fill. We do not have anyone that
I know of to do the toast next year.
That's not to say one of the other clubs may not have somebody who's going to run it, but that is a
big question mark out there. And as I said earlier, that is our big fundraising effort that we have out there.
So in talking to some of the other clubs, I know Franklin certainly does a pig roast and they make,
I want to say it was $80,000, which is shocking to me. And they have a really good time.
I don't want to, the toast is fantastic. I'd like to keep it going. I hope we keep it going, but should
we also be considering other, and maybe we do both, maybe you do the toast and with the other clubs
continue and then do something different. So we thought it'd be a good idea to just bounce and we may
not have answers now, but it's good for discussion as a team because it is an important part.
The fundraising, it's a, we need a big project. Does that help Steve? Yeah. So do you want,
Do you want anyone to answer now, Tracy? Tom Gallagher had his hand up. This is something I've been
thinking about, and my sister's involved with the Bedford Rotary, and they're doing their Mums right now.
Mums is a very common thing that people do to raise money. But I was noticing another group that sells
bags of pecans and usually
You know, you go out to your friends, your family, and then their friends and their family, and it kind
of mushrooms out like that. And I even went so far as to look at it online. I mean, it's a very, I mean,
they taste good and people use them and you sell them in time for the holidays. And I think it would
be very well received. OK, thank you.
Those of you who are interested in the Constitution program at the law school on the 17th, if you haven't
done so already, really old-fashioned sign-up sheet. So please sign that on the way out. I want to thank
today's volunteers, Katie Cerniak, Jim Shea. We had Sally Gaskell, Connie Schakalis, Leslie Kutsenko,
Jim Harvey,
Glenda Murray, Tracy Ivanovich, Elan Barker, Sarah Laughlin, Michael Shermus, and then our Zoom and
audio producer, Tyler Martin Nichols. Also like to thank today's speakers, Christopher M.G., Elan Barker,
Tracy Ivanovich. Our next meeting, back to a regular type meeting, September 9th in the French panty room,
Lola Nichols from the Raptorize Rehabilitation Center will talk about the work they do at their center.
Okay, Bloomington Rotary Foundation Board meeting right after this at one o'clock. Art? Okay. Okay,
so there may be Raptors present next week. I do want to make mention of those of your concern. We inducted
a new member. Some of you may have noticed her hitting the door at 1255. That's not a bad omen.
She's a law student. She has a class at one.
So Tyler, if you would please share. What's that? Then she signed. Yeah, she signed. She's going to
Constitution Day. Tyler, please share the graphic for the four-way test. And please rise if you're able.
Of the things we think, say, or do, first, is it the truth? Second, is it fair to all concern? Third,
will it build goodwill and better friendships?
Fourth will be beneficial to all concerned. And fifth, is it fun?