President-Elect Uriah Anderson welcomed everyone to the Centerville Rotary Club and led reciting the Pledge of Allegiance. Brian Hayes provided the prayer.
Quote of the week, provided by Don Overly: "Never bend your head. Always hold it high. Look the world straight in the eye." Helen Keller
Announcements:
- Thanks to today’s greeters, Sivaji Subramaniam and Dan Sortman
- Welcome today’s guests: Tom Riley, President of the Miamisburg Club, and David Williamson who has applied to join our club.
- Monday, 5:30 pm is the next Board meeting at the Joyce Young Center. All are welcome to attend.
- Thanks for donations to Operation Full Plate. Our club donated 153 pounds of food with $342 also donated.
- There was still one seat available for the Diversity Council’s MLK Jr. Breakfast on Monday, 7:30 am at Yankee Trace. Bill Menker claimed that seat.
- Saturday, January 24 is the next Rotary Leadership Institute in Wilmington, from 7:45 am to 4 pm. The cost is $60, but the club will reimburse you.
- Brian is sending out billing next week; those who asked to be billed quarterly for pancakes will start this quarter. If you didn’t tell him you wanted the quarterly pancake billing, you will be billed annually.
Happy Bucks this quarter will be donated to The Food Bank.
Pat Beckel was our Sergeant at Arms
Happy Bucks were generously given for:
- Pat B was happy his wife is back after a month in China.
- Carol K reminded all to sign up for the Pickleball 4 Good fundraiser sponsored by the Centerville-Washington Foundation, on Jan 31 at Pickleball Kingdom.
- Brad H for the 49ers victory, a most talented team, also most injured but still pulled off a win on the road.
- Bill M announced the W-C Library is hosting a Business Breakfast on Feb 10.
- Elda GG was happy to be here.
- Harvey S welcomed today’s guests.
- Arnie B for the Miami Redhawks.
- Sofie A encouraged all to join the Golf Committee; next week, 11 am is the first golf committee meeting for the year.
- Dale B brought box of candy today and doesn’t want to bring any home, so eat up!
- Mike W turned in a check he’s had for a month.
- Chuck K was happy to be here.
- Boyd P questioned Pat’s casual attire, which followed by a discussion about what matches a yellow jacket (tune in next week); was happy David was here, and mentioned Sofie is strong arming folks (including him) to join the golf committee.
- Ron H for today’s guests and Pat’s jacket.
- Jeff S noted his son’s new house had to get a new roof and now the furnace needs replaced.
- Mark K had a great visit with his family and is happy have the house to himself again. Looking forward to watching Miami and Indiana football.
- Rand O will be gone for a couple of weeks.
- Dan J donated bail money for missing president, Adam ;-)
- Dan S gave a preview of Pat’s yellow jacket with a yellow jacket of his own.
- Wayne D was happy to be back and appreciated the coverage in the Dayton Business Journal.
- Sivaji S was happy to be at a table with the City Manager, 2 Dans and a Rand.
- Tom Riley from the Miamisburg Rotary said he heard good things about our club, so came to check us out and get ideas for his club.
- Uriah A was happy to be leading his first meeting, and said he needs a reminder next week to fine President Adam, as he is in Vegas at a conference, and interrupted their phone call to talk to Jay Leno as he walked by!
Our speaker today was our own Kelly McDonald to talk about the Centerville Rotary Foundation. Past President Sofie Ameloot assisted.
Last March, the Board approved funds to hire a local attorney to review our Foundation by-laws and see what we could do to improve our fundraising platform.
It was founded in 1972 as the Centerville Education Foundation, and was amended as the Centerville Rotary Foundation in 2025 to broaden the purpose of the Foundation.
Kelly provided updates on where we are with the work on the structure and function of the two purposes of this Foundation.
Ron Hollenbeck and Harvey Smith were recognized as the first donors to the revised Centerville Rotary Foundation. Thanks to their generosity, there is now a $7,000 cash balance in the Community fund of the Centerville Rotary Foundation.
The original Foundation Board is still in place and now there are separate subcommittees to manage the Community Fund and the Education Fund areas of the Foundation. Sofie Ameloot, James Stuart and Kelly McDonald are the members of the Community Fund subcommittee.
They are working on a Communications Plan next - to create documents, social media, other methods to drive giving to the new Community Fund.
Draft Governance & Operating Plan documents were development to define how people can learn the value of investing in this Fund.
- Education and donation forms are ready to print and have at community events.
The Club’s website has a new page on the
Centerville Rotary Foundation with information and a way to pay online. Online giving does incur a small fee, but makes it easy for people to give.
Sofie shared we have the certificate from the Secretary of State approving the new name change, and the committee is working on finalizing the bylaws.
There are two funds within the Centerville Rotary Foundation:
- Education Fund
- Community Fund
The funds are tracked separately and will not ever be combined.
The Golf Tournament will be the first event designated to benefit the Community Fund of the Centerville Rotary Foundation.
Kelly shared three big areas we can leverage through this new fund.
Before, the Club’s Foundation was solely focused on educational scholarships. Many companies won’t give to fund scholarships but are more interested in broader community needs. This new fund will give an opportunity for a company match.
The Centerville Rotary Foundation is registered as a Qualified Charitable Organization so donations to this fund give tax breaks.
Some larger foundations that give grants, require grants to go only to 501(c)(3) organizations. Our Club can now look at some of these other grant sources. The Fund will be advertised as a way to help with the generational transfer of wealth; help make us a charity of choice.
Methods of donor acknowledgement include:
- Certificate of recognition
- Receipt of donation for tax purposes, including the fair market value of the donation.
- Other methods of recognition are being developed.
Kelly is honored to still be involved in this club, even from afar.
President-Elect Anderson thanked Kelly and Sofie for the information and all the great work to update this Foundation.
Pat B shared the speaker next week will share information about a class for Business owners, co-sponsored by Sinclair and Goldman Sachs. It is taught by high-end CEO’s and is 100% free. Friday next week is the deadline for applications, so you may want to look into it ahead of next week’s meeting.
10,000 Small Businesses
Reminder the Golf Committee meets at 11 am next Thursday at Yankee Trace.
