- Good afternoon. Good afternoon. Welcome. Welcome to Rotary Club, Rotary Club Assembly, annual meeting.
- I'm Steve Wicks. I'm honored to serve as the president this year. Steve, we're getting made. I'm electronic
- devices. Major Echo. Major Echo. Is that what I'm hearing? Yes. Yes.
- Joyce, Joyce, Joyce, you hear it, you hear it. Stop, stop. Joyce, do you want to ask all of your attendees
- for their mics? Yeah, we're on mute. Oh, wait, wait, wait, wait.
- Now we're all alone. Am I still echoing? No, you are not. Thank you. OK. Hallelujah. Thanks, Joy. Yes.
- Please silence your electronic devices. This month, March, is Women's History Month. On this day in
- history, March 17, 1910, the Campfire Girls organization was established as the first interracial,
- non-sectarian American organization for girls.
- Judy Schroeder will deliver today's reflection. And Judy, thank you for stepping up on short notice
- when I asked for someone to do the reflection today. Thank you. Hello, everybody.
- Three years ago, on St. Patrick's Day, down in the frangipani room, thanks to Hank Walters, we had a
- wake for my favorite Irishman. I'd like to share with you some of the, reflect on the lessons I learned
- from Edmond Govan. Right off the bat, I learned
- about the danger of stereotypes. I was sure that a good Catholic like Ed would not be interested in
- a divorced Protestant. And I was sure he would not accept, without reservation, my son, who is gay.
- Fortunately, I was wrong on both scores.
- Soon after we were married, I noticed that his children called him to ask for his advice. I realized
- that he didn't offer advice unless it was asked. What a concept! Whenever a workman came to the house,
- he was always interested in what he was doing. He appreciated a job well done, whether that was fixing a pipe,
- or performing cataract surgery. He was courteous to everyone. Sometimes I cringed when he called a young
- person sir or ma'am, but that was his way. And he didn't, he expected other people to treat him with
- courtesy as well. We walked out of a French restaurant because he thought a waiter was rude.
- Once my daughter was telling me about a problem she was having at work with a colleague, she said, Mom,
- I've tried everything and nothing seems to be working. I said, well, this is something I never would
- have said before I married Ed. And you're going to have to excuse my language here, because his vocabulary
- was far softer than mine. Maybe the guy's just an asshole.
- A few weeks later, I asked how things were going, and she said, oh, he left. I think it was either that
- or get fired. Ed taught me that not everything was my fault and not all problems were mine to fix. He
- was very much about living in the present. The time to do it is now, he said.
- but he also respected the past. He had this vast Irish family with 22 nieces and nephews, and he kept
- a calendar on the wall with all their birthdays so he wouldn't forget. And he would call up old friends
- from decades past just because he hadn't talked to them for a while, especially if he thought they might
- be lonesome.
- but he also prepared for the future. Even though I didn't want to hear it, he told me exactly what I
- was to do when he died. I knew where all the files were. He sat my son and daughter-in-law down one
- Christmas and said, you're busy, but as the parents of two young children, you need to have wills
- and powers of attorney. They did. Ed's motto was, there's only one way out of here. The important thing
- to do is to live each day respectfully, honorably, and joyfully. Never forget the joy.
- Happy St. Patrick's Day, everybody. Thank you, Judy. Dave Meyer will introduce our guests today. I think
- this will be quite easy. We have no guests.
- present with us today, do we have any guests online? Dave, the answer is no, we do not have any guests
- online either. Okay. Please bring some guests to the next meeting. And Joy, how many members do we have
- online today? Steve, we just had Charlie Osborne join us, so that puts us at nine. Nine today.
- Thank you, Joy. You bet.
- And now, as I've done the other two assemblies in which I've been president, we have special music.
- Hi, Zoom people. OK.
- recruited only yesterday. I sang this song in high school, so I already knew it. It's complicated. Mark
- just got the music yesterday and was kind enough to do the tenor role. So here we are in these delightful
- pleasant groves by Purcell.
- Let us celebrate, let us celebrate, let us celebrate our happy, happy loves. In these delightful plants
- and flowers, in these delightful plants and flowers, let us celebrate, let us celebrate, let us celebrate
- our happy, happy loves. Let's pipe, pipe and dance, let's pipe, pipe and dance, let's celebrate.
- Laugh and sing about the lost and every happy, happy living thing in the cheerful spring. Rumbles in
- the cheerful spring. Let's pipe, pipe and dance. Let's pipe, pipe and dance. Dance and laugh.
- in our cheerful spring.
- Thank you very much. Rotary birthdays. Hannah Hirsch has a birthday today. And on the 20th, Monica Kroner.
- One anniversary to celebrate. Sandy Keller, who's here with us today. Total of nine years as a Rotarian.
- And on the 19th, our state Senator Shelley Yoder will celebrate 13 years with the club. Announcements.
- Don't forget the Rotary District Conference, May 8th and 9th at the Gold House in Louisville.
- We have several of us registered so far. We'd love to see more. Lots of fun things to do Friday night.
- Saturday will be a business session, lots of things to learn, lots of interesting things. So see me
- if you want to know more or you can register at rotaryallstars.com. Chamber business after hours this
- month, March 25th, 530 to 730 at One World Catering.
- see Chris MG with the Chamber or me for more information. District Grant Cycle, we've started the new
- cycle and right now the applications, you'll see copies on your tables. We're coming down to the deadline
- in terms of applications. If you're interested or if you have any questions, Sarah Loughlin is sitting
- at the back table there. Also, Diana Hoffman might be able to help you as well, but we'd love to see
- Organizations apply for what we hope will be a $6,000 district grant. So our master agreement with the
- IMU allows them to bump us when their large meetings are fully booked. So April 14th is one of those
- days. And so our gathering that day will include lunch and a speaker during the Heading Home Regional
- Housing Summit at the Convention Center. And we'll share more details on the weeks ahead
- More logistics to work out, but just start thinking on your calendars. At April 14th, we will not be
- meeting here in the Union. Rotary Book Club saved the date. It's the 22nd of April, 7 p.m. at the home
- of Judy Schroeder. The book this time is Audrey McCluskey's Girl Child. We heard from Audrey as a speaker
- several weeks ago. If she's as good a writer as she was a speaker, it's definitely worth the read.
- So see Sally Gaskell or Judy Schroeder if you have questions. Community service. We need two club members
- to work Meals on Wheels for a couple of hours the morning on Friday, March 27th. See Diana Hoffman if
- you want to help or you want to learn more. And then finally, I sent out a P-mail about the death of
- John Poling, husband of one of our longtime members.
- If you have any questions about that, see me. The visitation is tomorrow. Tyler, if you want to queue
- up my PowerPoint. So I'm going to start with a celebration of service. This goes back to March 4th,
- Wheels on Wheels Phase 3. So Marilyn Wood and Diana Hoffman worked at Meals on Wheels, and they filled
- five carts with groceries.
- You can see the picture on the right with one of the carts. So they did a lot of groceries in two hours.
- So thank you, Diana in Maryland. So now I'm going to turn to kind of recapping nine months year to date
- of my presidency. So here are the club service projects that we've done so far, starting with the Rotary
- Toast fundraising dinner. And I'll come back to that in a minute or two.
- the Teachers Warehouse Supply Drive, Salvation Army Bell Ringing, Hoosier Hills Food Bank, several phases
- of Meals on Wheels, RYLA 2025 at Bradford Woods, Joyce Harder carried the ball for us there, with several
- of us at Hoosiers Outrun Cancer, and then FutureCast, which is an economic and community development
- endeavor. So we've done lots of things. You know, when I spoke in July, I had the phrase, service, service, service,
- And so far, we've done a lot, and I think we can do more. So here's what's on deck. So we have the Meals
- on Wheels on the 27th, which is a relatively small project. May 21st is the Wonder Lab summer blast
- off. Spring and probably in its summer, there'll be multiple My Sister's Closet opportunities as they
- get ready for their move. I don't know the dates yet, but as part of the recent Bloomington Rotary Foundation grant,
- Lake Monroe Water Fund, there'll be a native tree planting for club members. And Michelle has her hand
- up. Good. Okay, so for those online, April 18th, as long as the area is not underwater.
- The area is underwater. It'll be a Saturday at a later date. And then finally, early July, we start
- the next cycle. Teachers' Warehouse Annual Supply Drive, and we need lots of rotarians for that. So
- now dollars. My wife is in a sorority that they run the Bloomington Thrift Shop. Cindy Neidhart's in
- that same sorority. Ron, I think your wife Cheryl is a member.
- But their grants this year, they recently announced they're $60,000 in grants, which is, whoa. And then
- when Peter Schultz from Little 500 was here a couple of weeks ago, he talked about, and I can't remember
- if their number was 60,000 or 70,000. And I was overwhelmed. I thought, gosh, what are we doing in Rotary?
- And we're doing a whole lot more than I even realized. So here's just an impact.
- And this includes, in the case of the Rotary Toast, which is the first entry, the charity of choice
- for Pat Wilson, the recipient, was the Habitat for Humanity Club at the Bloomington High School North.
- And the three clubs and Bloomington Rotary Foundation raised $25,000. OK, so far, this year to date,
- The club and donor members of the club have already given 18,000 to the Rotary Foundation, which is
- used to eradicate polio and do lots of projects around the world. Refugee expenses. So far, Bloomington
- Rotary Foundation and club and foundation donors, 12,500, most of which was to ensure justice for a
- member of the refugee family that we sponsored.
- 6,000 Meals on Wheels, that was the district grant project. Wonder Lab, $6,000 grant from the Bloomington
- Rotary Foundation. Lake Monroe Water Fund, 4,000. So far this year, the club has given 1,900 to Teachers
- Warehouse. That's a subtotal of 73,400. Jeff Richardson is gonna speak to us here in a little bit about
- scholarships, but the number
- that I heard was anywhere between 11,500 to 13,000. So you total it all up, and we're in the range of
- 85,000. And that's very impressive. And remember, you're all members of this club. You're all members
- of the Bloomington Rotary Foundation. Two separate organizations, but we work very closely together.
- And together, we make a big impact.
- So staying with money, here's where we stand as of yesterday. We have roughly about $12,000 in between
- checking, money market, and a small CD. We have almost $7,000 of member receivables, which is higher
- than I'd like. Total assets, about $20,000. Drilling down the receivables, $4,800 over 90 days. Most
- of this should be collectible. Some will need to be written off.
- This time of year, we have some members that go away for the winter. Oftentimes, they'll pay us when
- they come back in town. We have had some glitches on members not receiving invoices. So if you haven't
- paid Rotary for a while, you might want to ask Mandy on your way out if you owe anything. In terms of
- payables, we're current on our payables, except we owe $750 to the district, which we'll pay in April for RILA.
- Year-to-date income is $7,000. We budgeted our break even. We've saved money in a lot of little ways,
- but the big savings has been in personnel costs. When Natalie left, she continued to work from Tennessee,
- but much fewer hours. And so many of us stepped up and did the work. And on the board, Mark Peterson
- and John Zote did a lot.
- And then here at the club level, a small group of you helped cover the front desk during weekly meetings.
- That made a big difference. So we're in good shape. Now we're fully staffed, and we'll probably be operating
- at kind of a break even for the rest of the year, unless we have some surprises. Programs, one of our
- club's strong points. We have a really great mix of diverse, interesting speakers.
- I have very little to do this. This is Michael Shermas and his committee. And week in, week out, we
- have great programs. Our speakers for the next quarter are booked. And as I mentioned, we'll have some
- alternate locations in the months ahead as we get kicked out of the union. Programs, something for you
- to think about and give me feedback.
- So I've been starting right at noon, because I want to squeeze in time for membership, like quizzes
- and mystery rotarian. And I like to remind members as often as possible about Rotary International.
- We're part of a larger group. But then I'm thinking, particularly for working members who roll in right
- at noon and then have to leave shortly after 1, do they get that informal social networking time sitting
- at the table getting to know their fellow rotarians?
- So I guess I have that concern because I will notice from the front someone coming in, you know, they
- get their food as I'm starting the program. Sometimes they're sitting at a table by themselves. Well,
- you know, they're not meeting new people. If they're in business, they're not making other Rotarians
- familiar about their business or the not-for-profit for which they work. So something to think about.
- So maybe I should cut down on announcements and rely on the roundabout.
- Some of us read the roundabout, others do not. Reflection, I budget three minutes. We ask for three
- minutes. We've had really interesting reflections. Sometimes they go much longer than three minutes.
- I've had some people tell me it's really hard to do a reflection in three minutes. So I'm looking for
- feedback both from people who like to give reflections and people who listen to reflections. So tell
- me what you think.
- Roundabout, another strong area for the club in which I have little involvement. I really love things
- that run well without my active involvement. Well written, distributed on time each week. Mandy is getting
- up to speed. There's a fair amount of technology involved. So she's doing more and more communications.
- We're frequently releasing high quality posts on social media.
- I'm still on Facebook, so I'm usually seeing them and liking them, but there aren't very many others.
- So you wonder in social media, are we reaching the readers that we wanna reach? And that's a challenge.
- Committees, I won't go down through all the committees, but the level of engagement varies by committee,
- really driven by the time that the chairperson has, the level of committee member involvement,
- and the opportunities in the world around us. I'll give an example here late last summer, Alain and
- the peace building committee did a lot of work on a statement for Gaza. And something like that has
- to be crafted very carefully. And about the time they were ready to roll something, the situation in
- Gaza changed overnight to where what we were going to say really didn't make sense anymore. And it's
- changed a number of times since then.
- To be a committee chair, you're not asked to do all the work. So if our committees are going to run
- well, there have to be committee members who are willing to step up and do a lot. So areas for improvement.
- And I'm starting with myself. Membership. So Lori Garrity is our membership chair. She let me know early
- in the summer that due to a surprise diagnosis involving her husband's health,
- and she asked for and was granted a leave of absence just from her board member role and also her role
- as membership chair. And so no surprise, Tracy stepped up and did a really good job and then she left
- in December. So we've fallen behind a little bit on new member orientation. We've fallen behind a little
- bit on prospective member processing. I haven't made the cold sales calls that I'd hoped to make
- So right now, you know, Lori and I trying to get organized and get going. And we'll probably need a
- revamp membership committee to kind of help us catch back up. While we're on membership, we're in pretty
- good shape. We're down two from when I spoke in November. And you can see the breakdown. In the honorary
- category, we went from five to six as Steve Moberly chose to move to an honorary status.
- We have leave of absence, we've gone from two to three. John Armstrong has for a leave of absence and
- was granted that. Organizational members, we have 44, and that is for 14 different organizations. Here's
- who we've lost since November 18th, all organizational members, Stacia Briggs, Stamber of Commerce,
- Jeff Jackson, Chaz Mottinger with the City of Bloomington, Betsy Trotsky with the Community Foundation,
- and then we've added organizational member Jeremy Graham with NAACP, and then we've added Daniel Schlegel
- as an individual member, Daniel's with the Monroe County History Center. So anyway, we're holding our
- own, but we can do more. So social.
- Lots of big ideas and then Natalie resigned and I got pulled in different directions. But we've had
- a really good holiday party. I really liked our Constitution Day partnership with the law school. Club
- Picnic is coming up for June 23rd. Still up in the air are some possible outings to the Lillie Library,
- Brown County Playhouse. Love to see us get to the Boys and Girls Club. And we have some people working
- on some of those and so hopefully
- At least one and maybe two or three of these will still happen. Areas for improvement, parking. I have
- been spectacularly unsuccessful in dealing with parking. Typically on rainy days when you see students
- coming in and parking their cars so they don't have to get wet walking the class. And they'll pay their
- 20 bucks at the end of the day. And then on days with numerous campus visitors.
- The Atwater and Henderson garages are too far for some members to walk. It works for others. We did
- create a guide for the Henderson garage. There's a little bit of technology involved in getting out
- of the Henderson garage. So Mandy has some printouts. You want to hold those up Mandy? That has six
- easy steps getting out of the Henderson garage. And I can send you an electronic copy and I'll do one
- for Atwater if you need me to.
- But the thing, you know, I'd hate for someone to come to our meeting, get to the Henderson garage, and
- then be unable to leave or pay 30 bucks for the right to leave. So let's try to avoid that. One member
- did suggest, you know, chartering transport from an accessible parking area off campus to and from the
- IMU. If there's any interest in that, Tyler has his hand up. Oh, okay.
- If there's any interest in that, let me know. It'd be a lot of logistics involved. Now I can speak.
- One upside, if you do get stuck in the Henderson garage, is that the office for parking operations is
- in there and you can go and get some help from them. Not so much without water. Very true. Thank you.
- couple of housekeeping items. First of all, remind people about what we do for happy dollars. So it's
- really the opportunity that members and sometimes guests to share if you have any personal good news,
- anything with your organizational announcements. It's also a vehicle for us to raise money for good
- causes. There's no minimum pledge, but please give something. Even if it's only a dollar, we're having
- more and more
- people announcing how happy they are, and there's no money behind it. So if you can give more than a
- dollar, please go for it. But at least give something. Make an headway on the attendance sheet. Remember,
- sign in regardless. And if you're not going to eat, put a circle around your name or write on there,
- not eating. And that way, we'll make sure we don't charge you for a meal. Yes.
- Yes. Yes, if you make a pledge and then you reach in your wallet, you don't have anything. Or certainly
- for those online, they have to do it by pledge. And you can always come back and talk to Mandy at the
- end of the meeting and say, hey, I thought I had cash. I don't. $5 or whatever the number is.
- So, Manny started mid-January. We're feeding her tasks at a measured pace. About the time she gets her
- head above water, we're putting more water in the bucket. Doing a whole lot more today than she did
- a month ago, and she'll be doing more a month from now than she does today. There is a lot of technology
- to learn. MyRotary, DACDB, Stripe, PayPal, SurveyMonkey, SignUpGenius, Benivity, Mailchip, Zoom, and
- many more. So, it's daunting.
- Natalie is still helping from afar. She's training men in some areas and she continues to weigh in when
- needed. She's really done a good job for us since she moved to Tennessee. So I'll pivot to Rotary, seven
- areas of focus. You've seen this slide before. Reminder that March is Water Sanitation and Hygiene Month.
- We hopefully will have, yeah, we'll have time for happy dollars today. Proceeds will be going to the
- Bloomington Rotary Foundation. And Tyler, we have a very short Rotary International water video.
- for happy dollars. Is anyone happy that I am done with my presentation? No, this is not for that. This
- is for five happy dollars. Get it ready on because I was I was so moved by Judy's reflection. I always
- liked and I just thought he was the
- just the nicest guy and now I know why. So I would like to give five happy dollars for my favorite American
- Greek Cypriot guts.
- Here's $20. I just learned last evening that my 16-year-old granddaughter has been selected to participate
- in a US Congress Deutsche Bundestag exchange program. She will spend her senior year with a host family
- in Germany. And I'm so thrilled.
- Put in a quick five dollars here in memory of my grandmother Mary Mary McGarry who was Irish one of
- the immigrants to South Africa that set the stage for my family and led to everything else that went
- and Happened with us. I have five siblings and oldest brother is named Patrick And beyond that my mother
- said no, they were all going to be French But we have Irish in my family for which I'm very grateful. I
- Anybody online? Not yet, Michael. I'm happy. My grandson got a direct admit at IU School of Business.
- But he's a California boy, so I don't know if he's going to show up. I will honor my Irish ancestors
- and Patrick's
- Two of his grandparents came directly from Ireland 150 years ago. You get that. I think we're all set.
- Oh wait, Sarah. Well, I guess I should say something about the Loughlin family too, or Loughlin as maybe it was,
- O'Loughlin or Muck Loughlin, we're not really sure. But Tim's grandfather, who emigrated from Ireland
- in 1847, right early in the potato famine, had 15 children, of which my father-in-law was number 14.
- I guess this is five happy dollars for myself. I managed on Sunday afternoon to help Amina and Jawad
- file their federal and state taxes. And I learned that Jawad is holding three gig economy jobs outside
- of his regular full-time job. And if anyone has ever filed taxes for gig work,
- I recommend an accountant and budgeting buddy to me. Okay, we have time for one more. Steve Engle, did
- you have your hand up? I'm happy, yeah, because it's St. Patrick's Day and my father's name was Samuel
- Mulligan and his parents immigrated from Ireland after potato famine.
- So when you're golfing, you can claim a mulligan? All right, that's enough. Jeff Richardson is going
- to bring us up to date with scholarships. I'm going to give a kind of a quick update on some of the
- changes and then
- bring us to where we are right now. So after some robust discussion with the scholarship committee,
- we discussed and then made a few changes for our 2026 applicants. We added need as one of the factors
- for consideration. Grades and services in school and community are still paramount. Let me give you
- one quick example of need and how it impacts. Sometimes we see kids that have, let's say, Judy,
- has 10 activities, and Susie has 20. But with a little digging, we find out that the reason Judy has
- 10 is she's also working 20 hours a week. And Susie is not working. And God bless those that don't have
- to work through high school and college. That's great. But people that do, we feel, should be acknowledged.
- And there is a certain stigma, surprisingly,
- to kids acknowledging they have to work. Still, it certainly was true when I was in high school. And
- so that is why we want to factor that in. So these are not need-based, but they're need-informed. We
- want to know if people are working, and we want to know how that impacts their ability to do all the
- things that they do. All of these kids, I might add, somehow work or no work. They have amazing grades.
- You know, 4.7, 4.3. Occasionally there'll be a 3.9, but amazing. The next addition is that we've added
- a new scholarship from Monroe County student going to IU. This is a standalone scholarship. If we don't
- have someone who's qualified, as in last year, we just don't fill it. That money is redirected or carried
- over. We also have raised our scholarship from
- I'm sorry, from $2,000 to $2,500. Sally Gaskell reminds me back in the day, and it was 2012,
- we were at $500. So we've moved up slowly, and this makes it more appealing for young people to apply.
- And a number of them in their
- essays, which I've read most of them so far. We've got a few more waiting for reference letters, but
- many of them reference how this is going to really help them financially. What we did not do, and this
- was a very robust discussion, there are some people within the club and certainly on the committee who
- wanted the scholarships to be only for kids going to Indiana schools. That was part of the discussion.
- And after a very lengthy discussion, it was decided that we would not do that. We are letting kids go
- to Harvard or Yale or Stanford or Purdue or Indiana, wherever they want to go, that's the decision.
- And so that debate, I wouldn't say is over forever, but that's where we are right now. Just as an FYI,
- interestingly, last year we had four scholarships.
- three went to Purdue and one went to Ball State. But that is unusual. We usually have some out-of-state
- people in the mix. This year, we have several applicants that are applying to both in-state and out-of-state
- schools, mostly in-state. The next steps, we have the initial review of all applicants this week. This
- is ongoing. We're right now evenly split between
- young women and young men. All local schools are represented. Plus, we have, as we did last year, some
- homeschool applicants. On April 2nd, we review the applicants, the scholarship committee, on April 2nd.
- On April 17th, we do the final interviews. Last year, we had nine people. All of them could have
- won. I mean, without exception. They were amazing. So in fact, we had a tie for third. And so we just,
- one of the members said, I'll cover that. And so we gave out four scholarships again last year, as I
- mentioned earlier. And then we have the celebration on May 12th of the winners right here at our luncheon,
- which often makes me weep. They're just amazing kids.
- I'm just, I'm in awe of all of these young people. I want to give a special thanks to Hank Walter who's
- been, Hank over there has been on our committee for several years. He is not able to continue. And so
- I want to thank him especially because he's been very engaged on this committee. I mean, not just a
- member, but
- fully engaged. And I mention it also because I welcome any of you that might be interested in being
- on this committee to please see me afterwards. It's really, I'm on a lot of boards and commissions and
- committees. This is by far the most uplifting committee I'm on. I often weep. That's the only downside.
- You might end up weeping during the interviews with these kids or as soon as they get out, start weeping.
- So that's the risk.
- I want to also thank Amy Osojima, who has been amazing. She's the former chair, but she has been so
- helpful, especially on the technology side. I am the least tech savvy person on the planet, and she's
- been so helpful with that, as has Jonas Scheng, our new co-chair, and he's been extremely helpful. I
- had a few health issues that some of you know about, and he stepped up and has done an amazing job.
- So I want to thank both Jonas and
- and Amy for carrying this process forward. And again, I just want to underscore every one of these kids,
- every application you read, every essay you read, every time you listen to them, it just gives you hope.
- We can move forward in this country, in this nation, in this county, in this state. And I am so uplifted
- by this and so honored to be a part of this
- particular committee, please consider joining us and thank those of you who have made special contributions
- to this particular program. Thank you. Thank you, Jeff. The scholarship committee clearly has been one
- of the strong committees that where I've had very little involvement and it's just more, you know, okay,
- let me know what you're doing and I'll try to keep up. So thank you.
- Ron Barnes and Alan Barker will speak on behalf of the nominating committee report, and then we'll have
- an election. Thank you, President Steeve. You know, it's always great this time of year to see what
- our colleagues in Rotary will step up in leadership roles. And it's also great to chair a committee
- that most of the people on the committee do all the work. And particularly, Alan Barker, we
- call the fact that he did heavy lifting. But I lived in Texas for a while. Down there, we called it
- taking the bull by the horns. But it's a pleasure to ask Alon to share the slate that we have for you.
- Thank you very much, Ron. And hi, everybody. It's great to see you.
- Exciting moment for the club as we think about our leadership for next year. And by the way, creating
- lasting impact is the theme for next year. So I just wanted to put that up there on the screen so that
- you can all see and think about what you might be doing in your own personal life and within the club
- to create lasting impact. Can you hear me? Okay, good.
- without further ado, first of all, before we go into the actual slate for the for the for the year,
- there are a few board members who we want to thank dearly for their hard work and support for for the
- year. And so thanks to Tracy Yovanovitch. And by the way, I should mention that Tracy is also a member
- of this nominating committee, but she's not with us right now. So Tracy, Andrea Murray, Caleb Poor,
- who was with us and is no longer part of the club, but so much
- enjoyed while he was here. Jeff Richardson, thank you very much. Jim Shea and then John Zodi. I want
- to give a special shout out to John Zodi, who's been our treasurer this year and with Steve and with
- everybody involved in the organization has just done a remarkable job in getting us out of QuickBooks
- into DACDB and sorting out everything that we needed to do for the club. So, you know, really, I guess
- a round of applause to John, even though he's not with us.
- to thank us. So moving on to this year, we are just about there. We have Sam Udak is going to be our
- president, Hank Walter, our president-elect, and then immediate past president is Steve Wicks.
- Those three are members of our board. And then we've got Mark Peterson, who was our secretary last year,
- who's moving into the treasurer role, which is really wonderful. Thank you very much. Secretary is TBA.
- We were just about there with the choice of secretary, as well as the director at large. And then we
- have a number of
- either new members or returning members of the board that I wanted to mention. We've got Jonas Chang,
- we've got Katie Cerniak, we've got Leslie Kotsenko, Heidi Schultz, Lynn Schwartzberg, and Jim Sims.
- So it's going to be great to see how the leadership of the board takes us into the next year. And so,
- all together, this is
- pretty much what it looks like. We have one member to be announced and that would be the director at
- large. And then the role of the secretary is going to be sorted out between the members of the of the
- board as they are right now. And probably that that will be updated within the next week or so.
- So with that, I would like to move as a member of this club that we accept the slate for next year for
- the 26-27 Bloomington Rotary Board. Do we have somebody who'd like to second it? Oh, well,
- It's good Sarah Sarah Laughlin was I think I will I will go with Sarah Laughlin. So so so moved. And
- at that point, are there any comments, discussions, questions? Anybody? Yep. Okay. So in in that case,
- I think we're ready for a vote. So all those in favor say aye. All those not in favor say aye. Well,
- yes, yes. Thank you to all of them.
- And congratulations to everybody who's gonna be on our board next year. Oh, I'm so sorry. You know,
- I've been neglecting our online group. Can we bring the online group into... We can bring them in here.
- There they are. We could take that vote once again. I think I'm confident that everybody in the room
- will say aye, but all those online, if you're in favor of the slate, say aye. Aye. Aye.
- Good. Thank you very much. And all those not in favor. I think we're good. Thank you all very,
- very much. Judy.
- get that I need a microphone. Is everyone aware that Alon is going to be the nominee for district governor
- for several years from now? I don't know. 28, 29. So I don't know if everybody is aware of that or not.
- Thank you. So after the meeting, we'll go and do a head count. It's going to be very close as to whether
- we have a quorum or not.
- We may be doing this vote again next week. So it's a small turnout, which we were concerned about with
- spring break. So we'll make sure we do it correctly. And if we don't have a quorum, we'll vote again
- next week. Joy? We are up to 11 online, by the way. 11 members online. 11 members. OK, good. Thank you.
- We should be OK, but we'll go through the numbers and make sure.
- So now we just have some free time that I'd like to open it up for member questions. Just, you know,
- anything of the things we've talked about today, something you like about the club that you'd like to
- see us continue, something that you think needs improvement, just put up your hand and Michael will
- find you, enjoy, let us know if you have anyone online.
- I just want to say, I'm sad. You have been such a wonderful president in so many ways, and so funny,
- and so kind, and I already miss you. Thanks. Thanks, Connie, and I'll pay you afterwards. Thank you.
- Leslie, you got something? I do. I wanted to give an update on this summer blast off event. We have
- about 20 partners.
- The kits for the rotarians to make are in progress. We've worked with the city for permits. We expect
- a very large turnout. So hopefully everybody can make it from three to eight PM on May 21st on the last
- day of school. Even if you don't have kids, please stop by. There are adult activities as well. So expect
- big explosions and a plethora of science.
- So would anyone like to see me try to figure out a way to start later than noon, start at 12.05? I don't
- know what gets cut, but just so that there is a little bit more informal social time. And once again,
- I'm particularly sensitive to the working members who can't get here at 11.30. They're getting here
- closer to noon, and then they're zipping out right after 1 o'clock. So any comments? Michelle has a comment.
- So I like hearing about Rotary International and seeing a video, but maybe that could be running with
- subtitles as people are coming in before you start. That's one way to trim time. Good idea. Yeah, I
- would just add to that build on that. There could also be a scroll when you're coming in of anniversaries
- and birthdays. You can read it as you come in.
- that would all be very easy for me to set up if that's what we wanted to do. Could the same be true
- for announcements? That would probably be a little bit tougher. I'm kind of reluctant to bring this
- up, but I feel like I should. And I've talked with Michael about this. We've been on the program committee,
- but sometimes I feel that we don't change or
- alter the program because of events that are happening right here in our own backyard. I wish Hank was
- here, but how many months or years ago was when this police stood on the roof of this very building
- and aimed their guns down at students that were protesting? We need to discuss things like that and
- bring them out into the open. And I wish we could do more of that. Thank you.
- I think Sarah had a. As a former chair and perennial member of the Community Service Committee, I would
- not be in favor of eliminating the announcements about upcoming events because we get a lot of volunteers
- as a result of those announcements. And I'm afraid that we we would have a hard time if we didn't have
- that opportunity.
- I will say just kind of as my particular philosophy that if you're a club member, I try to include your
- events. So let's say if Beacon or the NAACP, both of whom are club members, have something going on,
- I try to include that in the announcements. If another not-for-profit in the community that doesn't
- have a direct tie to the club, somebody says, hey,
- someone so-and-so is having something, I typically won't announce that and will say, well, maybe Happy
- Dollars is the right time to do that. But I try to keep that announcement as a kind of something you
- get for your membership. So Beacon, my sister's clause at NAACP, and there are a few others as well.
- Reflection, three minutes. Thoughts on?
- Should it be longer, Connie? I think we should use a timer. That's what they do in Toastmasters,
- and it works. Any other thoughts? About four minutes. Any reason why?
- It's better than three. I see Glenda with her hand up. I see Forest with his hand up. There's just an
- axiom of public speaking that if you give people three minutes, they'll take five or six. So if you
- stick to three, we'll probably still be going in the right lens. If you want to drop it down to two,
- then you might get to three.
- I was going to say something similar. I think three, we should stick with three. The only other thing
- I can think is maybe we could do the announcements or the information about RI every other week instead
- of every week. But who knows if that would really save us much. And it's been good for us to be introduced
- and reminded about all of the RI programs.
- Roughly half of our club members make the voluntary donation to the Rotary Foundation. And the Sunrise
- Club in town, the Thursday morning club, of course they only have 15 or 20 members. It's required, and
- then part of their dues, and of course their dues are higher than us. Our membership is a little bit
- different. We have a lot of not-for-profit representatives in the club. We're not all made up of millionaires.
- So we just approach it differently. But I do want to remind members, especially newer members, that
- we are part of something bigger. And then in terms of segments, I think of new member ceremonies and
- Paul Harris ceremonies as kind of being membership. So when one of those occurs, there's five minutes
- there. So that pushes out other things.
- I've been very impressed with the way you have handled everything that's gone into the meetings this
- year. I think you've packed it very full, and I think you have also educated many of us about things
- that some of us have forgotten along the way. So I congratulate you on doing all of that. The profile,
- I think, is a very interesting and nice addition to what we hear during the week.
- The Mystery Rotarian, it's fairly easy for those who have, you know, are in the public realm. So like,
- for instance, Jim Sims has held elective office in town, so he was an easy one to do. There are others
- that are much harder. I've approached some and they've respectfully said, you know, I really don't want
- to be the Mystery Rotarian. Others have been really helpful.
- I really liked Phil Amerson. You know, we talked about doing his duet with Bill Hudnut and falling as
- a Santa, but finishing giving out the gifts before being taken to the hospital in a Santa suit. We have,
- we have 160 people total in this club and they're really impressive, fascinating individuals.
- And you know, we just don't get the opportunities to know each other. And so the mystery rotarian,
- And then some of the quizzes that I've added in, like who doesn't work out at the Y or who isn't a singer.
- Just trying without embarrassing anyone, just to shine a spotlight on all the amazing people in this
- club. It's a lot of work, but I've really enjoyed getting to know about all the things people in this
- club have done in the past and many of whom are still doing.
- So we are about out of time. Tyler, if you can put up, oh, well, let me see. I want to thank today's
- volunteers, Houshee Wang, Dave Meyer in a couple of different roles, Joy Harder, Judy Schroeder, Ashley
- Wesley, Michael Shermas, Connie Chakalas, and Mark Peterson for volunteering today. Next meeting,
- March 24th, will be here in the Georgian Room. The topic will be Bloomington's Giving Circles
- how 100 women and 50 men who care support local charities. Our speakers will be Kathy Romy and Ken Buzzard.
- And Tyler, if you would please share the graphic for the four-way test, then please stand if you're
- able and join me. Of the things we think, say or do, first, is it the truth? Second, is it fair to all
- concern? Third, will it build good will, matter of friendships,
- Fourth, will be beneficial to all concerned. And fifth, is it fun?