October 1, 2012 Meeting Notes

As usual, the meeting started with mass confusion.

President Tim finally got the meeting under way at 12:15 pm.
The Spiller team was in charge of assisting Tim as follows: Greeter was Kelly Quinn; the Pledge was led by Blake Smith; Ken Holbrooke gave a special Rotary moment that was nicely done. There were no visiting Rotarians, photos were handled by Steve Spiller and notes were taken by Monty East. With a full agenda today, President Tim introduced 2 members of the Lyman Gilmore Interact Club who were conducting a fundraiser called "Purple Pinky". This is designed to draw interest to and symbolize the efforts worldwide of eradicating polio.

Next up was our monthly "Adopt a School" program recognizing the students of the month. This year we have a 5th grader to add to the 6th, 7th and 8th graders we normally introduce. Parents and students always go away proud. This is a great program for the school and Rotary.

Birthdays and anniversaries were recognized for October. Birthdays included Michelle Belmonte, Judy Hess, Morgan Stoltz, Carol Lenhard (Carol let us know her granddaughter's birthday is on the same day as hers). Anniversaries were announced for Rich Keene and Eric Trygg.

Announcements included Anita's invitation/reminder of the Foundation Dinner on Wednesday, October 24th with cocktails at 5:30 at Miners' Foundry. This will act as our regular weekly meeting.

• Jon Byerrum also spoke about the Foundation and announced the upcoming Club Assembly focused on member participation. Calls will be made to members letting them know their status and what they may do with matching funds toward their journey to become a Paul Harris Fellow. Last year, our club achieved 100% participation.
• Steve Sauer let the club know that this past weekend we sold $645 worth of Ball drop tickets. We really need more volunteers!!!! Scott Browne was fined for not showing up and relieving President Tim. His fine was $50 worth of Ball drop tickets.
• Steve Sarantopoulos was presented with his pin for having successfully completed 6 years of perfect attendance.
• Kris Stepanian will be performing at the Center of the Arts (Disco & Boogey). For her announcement, she was fined $20.
• Lee Osnas confessed to a recent Alaska trip and was fined $30. During hisconfession, it was made known that two other Rotarians also went but werebeing very silent about it. Of course, President Tim finding out that it was Scott Browne and Richard Toothman, fined both of them $25 each, as well.

Finally we got to the all important program, which was facilitated by Steve Spiller and Pete Lemon. The first to speak was Wyn Spiller (good move, Steve). Wyn gave us some very interesting data. It seems we are still at 1.2 million Rotarians despite bringing in 1.1 million between 2003 and 2010 worldwide. The biggest decline seems to be in North America and our zone. This is really why the new member focus "Ignite" is being implemented. It is designed to give structure and tools to the focus. A point system will be put in place to encourage building memberships on a wide scale. The new program will dwell on meeting these needs:

1. A way to measure;
2. Giving members meaningful jobs;
3. Nurture.

Our club 10 years ago was at 82 members. We are now at 72. The visioning exercise we conducted at a club showed a goal of 100 members. We all broke out into working groups and brainstormed ideas to enhance membership. Many good ideas came out and will be carefully looked at by the committee. These ideas will then be provided to the membership. It was a very good session and enjoyed by all. One of the key points made was that "every" club member, in effect, is a member of the committee. We all need to be vigilant and active.

Drawing was conducted and Rich Toothman drew a white marble.

President Tim closed the meeting at 1:30pm.