Our Greeter today was Mustafa Jaffer, and he did a marvelous job.
President Jeanne Shipe rang the bell at 7:30 A.M. to open the meeting. Mustafa Jaffer gave a very nice invocation.
Pres. Jeanne began the meeting having the members recite the 4 way test followed by Bob Gordon’s 5 Way Test, Then we recited the pledge of allegiance to the U.S. Flag.
GUEST:
Ellen Kern (Allentown RC), Chief of Staff for Senator Pat Browne.
Pres. Jeanne showed a picture the volunteers from last Friday evening’s shelf restocking at Kingdom Life Food Pantry.
Ihor Fedoriw told us that Halyna Stegura is undergoing treatments on her eye and is doing well. Prayers always help.
LOWHILL FOOD PANTRY:
Please remember that the Collection jar is at the registration desk for cash and check contributions.
P-E Amir Famili asks for volunteers to sign up in advance to work at the Lowhill Food Pantry on the first Saturday of the month.
CLUBRUNNER APP:
Don’t forget to check for upcoming AWRC events.
ROTARY LEARNING OPPORTUNITY:
On Saturday, October 20th there is an RLI (Rotary Leadership Institute) training session at DeSales University. AWRC members will have their registration fees reimbursed after they attend. This is a great opportunity to learn all about Rotary.
DINING OUT:
September 20th Thursday at the Mediterranean Café & Grill in Fogelsville.
October 18th Thursday- at the Stoney Run Inn.
DESTINATIOIN MEETING IS “IFFY”:
Sep 26th -- meet at the Northwestern Middle school with the Interact students is tentative.
DESTINATION MEETING:
November 7th at LCTI.
PURPLE PINKIE IS COMINE:
October 13th at LCCC is the date for the 5K run and Fun walk to raise funds to eradicate the last few cases of Polio from the world.
John Scott reviewed the 4 areas of need to make this AWRC event successful for our District again this year:
1. Participants to run or walk should sign up on Herb’s list, or go to purplepinkie.net to register.
2. If some members will not Run or Walk, please volunteer to help control car traffic, race directions, food distribution, or registration on site. Randy Beitler is the contact.
3. Make pledges to sponsor folks who will be racing.
4. Donate gift cards which are a highlight of the event that we raffle off at the end. Jennifer Stinson is the contact.
Herb Klotz said that Pres. Jeanne will be participating and he urges us all to sponsor her -- or her dog Daisy who will be with her.
NEW AWRC PROJECT:
The Band Shell we helped pay for years ago at Ontelaunee Park is in need of repairs. Bob Nagle is putting together a list of supplies needed.
AWRC ANNUAL SERVICE AWARD NOMINATIONS:
Chair Chuck Ehninger still seeks nominations through Sep 30th. He has none so far.
DISTRICT 7430 GOVERNOR NOMINATIONS ARE OPEN:
All RCs now may nominate a candidate to serve as our District Governor for the Rotary Year 2021-22. Contact President Jeanne Shipe to make a nomination.
NEW AWRC BANNER DESIGN SOUGHT:
Pres. Jeanne is asking for suggestions for a new banner design. The best 3 will be reviewed by the board. Then the club members pick the winner.
AWRC VICE PRESIDENT NEEDED:
This important position needs to be filled soon.
TT 5 COMMITTEE MEMBERS SOUGHT:
TT5 will happen on April 28, 2019, but Now is the time to volunteer to work with Gwenn and Gary to learn and execute the many jobs associated with this great fundraising event.
RESTAURANT ADVERTISING NEEDED:
Gwenn Carr has noted that we now have table-top signs identifying us as AW Rotarians to use when we eat out as a group.
We need twelve (12) or more Restaurants to support Tempting Tastes 5, and we only have 4 so far. AW Rotarians are asked to tell restaurants that they use that AW Rotarians are eating there.
THREADS OF CHANGE UPDATE:
They will hold a “distribution event” on Sunday September 16th in Leesport from 4 to 9 PM..
THE NEXT THURSDAY EVENING MEETING will be TOMORROW, September 13th at 5:30 P.M. at the former Holiday Inn in Breinigsville. The program is making plans for future evening programs.
FUTURE AWRC ROTARY DISTRICT GRANTS :
Please tell Pres. Jeanne and Barb Kistler your suggestions for 2019-20 District Grants. Those applications start going in soon.
NEXT MEETING -- September 19th -- Our Greeter will be Geoff Legg, and the program will be………
Pres Jeanne introduced substitute S-a-A Geoff Legg who conducted the drawings and picked up the Happy Dollars.
Ihor Fedoriw was unable to greet a few weeks back, so today he donated a bottle of Ukrainian Cognac as a second door prize.
The first door prize today was a goodie bad donated by Mustafa Jaffer, and it was won by Andy Drotar.
The bottle of Cognac was won by Ellen Kern.
The 50:50 pot of $56 was not won .by Ellen Kern whose other ticket was drawn. Lots of marbles remain
HAPPY DOLLARS:
Bill Palmer is happy to correct last week’s mistake. Gail Micca’s 3 children are two boys and a girl, not 3 boys.
Bill also is happy to have former AW Rotarian, Ellen Kern, with us this morning. Ellen was our Chair of the 2011 District Conference that we held at Bear Creek.
Ellen Kern said that she is happy to be back at an AW meeting.
Herb Klotz is happy to have completed another 180 MILES of hiking the Appalachian Trail.
Gail Micca is happy to be visiting her son.
John Scott happily recommends attending the Kutztown Fair Car Show on Sept. 22nd and 23rd.
Ernie Boll happily reports that next Tuesday he will return to Green Valley, AZ. for about 3 months
Len Salines and Joe Goll were declared happy as S-S-a-A Geoff walked by and took their dollars.
Then Geoff spotted Sue Weber smiling and collected a dollar from Bill.
PROGRAM:
The program today was PA State Senator Pat Browne, 16th District, providing us with a legislative update. Ellen Kern, Pat’s Chief of Staff introduced Pat noting that he is the Chairman of the PA State Appropriations Committee. And since ALL proposed legislation usually has a financial aspect, they all go through Pat’s committee.
Pat is a very compassionate man. He always is looking out for others. Pat took the microphone and admitted that he had paid Ellen to say that. He also said it was great to back with us again. And he thanks Rotarians for all the good that we do.
Pat said that managing the finances of the state is his primary responsibility. He noted that last June the 5 groups came to the table and put together the next year’s operating budget of $32.7 BILLION in just 3 weeks -- a record, and early too.
A significant related success was that the original budget proposed was a 3.1 % increase. With Pat’s guidance that was reduced to a 1.7 % increase -- more in line with inflation. The difference was about $500 Millions of less revenue to collect. They now expect receipts to slightly exceed expenses this year.
Using a series of slides, some with Pie Charts, Pat reviewed the financial history of the Commonwealth over the last 10 years. The great economic growth in the last year makes things a lot easier to run. The focus of the budget is on Education and on Human Services. K through 12 education is the biggest investment by state governments. This year Education is $14.1 Billion budgeted.
In 2010 the receipts were $4 Billion short of the expenses. One significant way the expenses were reduced was by cutting some subsidies.
In PA the Service Sector is growing. Locally driven business developments are the ones that have survived. Over this last Summer their group traveled across the state to develop the plan for Training Grants going forward. There is a shortage of trained workers in PA.
Pat said that the education dollars going to school districts are used for many things. Safety of the students is one.
In PA we are so diverse and have many resources that we could function as a separate country. He also noted that over the last 10 years there are about 6,000 fewer state employees.
Pat also discussed mandated Federal program that must be paid from this budget. One example is the Prison system. Costs went way up when things like mandatory sentences were imposed. Efforts are underway to address this issue.
PA people are an aging group. This means Human Services costs continue to rise. Pat also mentioned that the recent Tax reductions reduced costs to the Utility Companies and our bills should be lower for electricity, etc.
Senator Browne said the goals are sustainability, do not overextend, do the right things and maximize efficiency.
CLOSING:
We closed our meeting by reciting the saying “One profits most who serves best.”
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