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?