President Arnie Biondo welcomed all to the Centerville Rotary Club and lead the group in the Pledge of Allegiance. Brian Hayes provided the prayer.
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President Biondo provided some updates:
Happy Bucks last quarter raised $3,000 for Matthew 25 Ministries for Ukraine Relief.
Happy Bucks this quarter will go for Operation Warm. Ginger Clark noted 636 coats were donated last year. Price per coat has gone up this year.
Our guests this week included:
Beth Kuzmic, guest of Dan Johnson who used to live in Centerville but now lives in Hilton Head where she is also a member of that Rotary Club.
Jeff Senney’s guest was Ashley Walton is from James Investment Group and is interested in learning more about our club.
Potential member Chris Norman.
Pat Beckel was our Sergeant at Arms today. He mentioned the successful Americana Festival which is the largest single day festival in the state. And coming up this Sunday at Stubbs Park is the Queen tribute band. This is an amazing place to live with so many free things to enjoy.
Happy Bucks given:
Pat Beckel for Centerville.
Jeff Senney for a great festival/parade and that no formal complaints were filed on the Rotary truck.
Frank Perez started us off with a coat.
Chuck King for getting 2 birdies and 41 on the front 9 at Shaker Run.
Matt Kuhn was back for this week and maybe next and announced his son is graduating from cyber warfare school.
Adam Manning for seeing family over the holiday weekend.
Jim Harris for our visitors today and celebrating his nephew for something the editor couldn’t hear!
Don Overly for Operation Warm.
Ginger Clark announced CWPD had a great time at the Americana Festival where she walked up the hill in 100 degree weather to find Pat but he wasn’t there!
Scott Kujawa got to see his son.
Brad Thorp announced his son Issac moved back to Ohio.
Lee Hieronymus said the fire truck made it through the parade without a fire, steering is loose so it goes from side to side but there were no complaints this year. Those who rode had a good time including President Biondo and Past President Hayes who sprayed lots of folks.
Ger Eastabrooks for Operation Warm.
Ron Hollenbeck for Operation Warm and announced all 20 pumps in Malawi are installed and functional. Should be able to wrap up the District grant this month.
Dan Johnson for his friend, Beth visiting today.
Carol Kennard for her birthday (thinking of a Beatle’s song…) and for an upcoming week at the beach with all of her kids and grandkids.
Larry Merchand to catch up since he’s missed a few meetings and the needed rain.
Wayne Davis for a great Americana Festival and for seeing several Rotarians on Saturday.
Our speaker this week was our new president, Arnie Biondo. Arnie shared these thoughts:
NEW PRESIDENT CHAT— CENTERVILLE ROTARY CLUB
The Rotary theme for July is TRANSITION. How apt. This is what our new RI President is thinking. I’d like to share some of that thinking today.
But first, we are partly in a transition because the last 3 Rotary years were heavily impacted by Covid 19 pandemic. All clubs saw a drop in activity and membership. However, our Club faired much better. Thanks to our past 3 presidents— Brian Hayes, Frank Perez and Chuck King. Please thank them for them steering us through the pandemic.
RI President Jennifer Jones selected the theme “IMAGINE ROTARY”. For us, and all clubs, that translates to “IMAGINE WHAT OUR ROTARY CLUB CAN BECOME”
What’s coming ahead in the next 50 years is exciting.
Her theme, I think, is born of the pandemic times. Many of us long-time Rotarians know what Jennifer talks about… the pandemic reminds us that we have to keep evolving to be the force for good in our community and the world. Quickly, this is what the 22-23 President’s logo means:
It comes from an Australian Aboriginal artist
- Dots represents people— 7 for the Rotary avenues of service
- Circle — Connections to each other
- Together, they make a Guiding Star
- Green Line — represents an Aborigine digging stick for hard work reminding us that we Rotarians are people of ACTION
- The colors? Purple for Polio Eradication; Green for Environment and White for Peace. Together—- the colors of the Suffragette movement 100 years ago… (a nod to RI’s first female President)
Past governors and assistant governors keep telling us we have a terrific Club, and we do. Our challenge is to continue to be terrific, and then some.
How? President Jones says “we need to better engage members”. As a 25-year rotarian, I agree. She goes on to say, to do so, all clubs “need to adapt and retool” to get their members to “love their Club and their Rotary experience.”
My hope and desire for this Club is that we can begin to adapt, retool while we come back from the worst of the pandemic years. I say HOPE because a Club president can’t make that happen… only when we all pitch in will it happen… and it won’t occur in a year. Let’s look at building on our solid foundation, and go up from there.
I got together with future presidents Adam Manning and Rebecca Quinones and we decided this is what we want to focus and build upon this year, and beyond:
1. Get NEW members. Pre-Covid we were above 70. Now at 63. And we need to welcome young people. Average Ohio lifespan for is 76… do the math and you can assume many of us will be pushing up daisies in less than 10 years! To that end, each of us needs to invite younger potential members. Especially you under 50 crowd! We would like to look at starting a new Rotoract Club. The RI goal this year is to have 30% female Rotarians in each club.
2. I read that younger people want to be engaged in meaningful service work… to do good in their community and the world. Rotary can be the answer. Crissy Allums is well on her way to reviving our service projects. And, my first call for this, SHE CAN USE SOME HELP! Which leads me to…
3. Every Club member needs to take on a Rotary job. Quoting my dad, Arnie Sr., “many hands make light work”. So what will you do this year? Help Crissy? Be the Youth Exchange Officer? Join membership committee? Set up meetings? Be our AV specialist?
4. Harvey made me say, “…in a business-like manner..” when discharging my presidential duties. That’s fine and good, but we have to have fun! Gladly, many of you told me how you agreed we need to schedule some purposeful fun…like yesterday’s Dragon’s game. Sofie Ameloot and Kelly McDonald are starting up. Get in touch with them to help out. Monthly is our aim. Jeff Senney then volunteered to help on that committee!
5. And, for that business part, we will have quarterly Club Assembly meetings. The idea is to have each director and chairperson give us 60 seconds on what their crew is doing and what’s coming up. This is particularly helpful for those NEW members to learn what we are about.
August 25 is our first.
6. Public Relations. This was a big emphasis at PETs. We may be the community’s best kept secret. YES! I am looking for a few people who will undertake this for the club. We need to better utilize social media, and PETs gave a great idea— have a couple Rotarians work with some Interact students to get our messages out. Helps us and give a closer connection to those students. (by the way, we will be looking to a school holiday when we will invite the Interactors and their parents to a meeting… stay tuned)
What will YOU do in the 2022-23 year to be more involved in the Club’s activities?
As Porky Pig used to say, “that’s all, folks”. I will, though, ask again, what will you like to do this year? I’m easy to find and so are the other Club leaders.
President Biondo ended with:
“You don’t imagine yesterday, you imagine tomorrow,” said RI President Jennifer Jones
The next Board meeting is scheduled for July 18. Stay tuned for location.
Next week our program will be Lauren Gay, a wine sommelier at the Sueno restaurant.
President Biondo led everyone in saying the Rotary 4-Way Test and wished all a good week.
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