Our Greeter today was Gail Micca and she did a marvelous job.
President Jeanne Shipe rang the bell at 7:30 A.M. to open the meeting. Gail Micca 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.
GUEST: Gary Heller, guest of the Webers; Andrea, our Y.E. student from Croatia; and Eli, our former Y.E. student from Peru.
Pres. Jeanne showed pictures of the Student of the Month of September – Alyssa Zack, , and of the Northwestern Interact students. Then we saw pictures of the NWSD leaders, and then Jean Machamer and her Interact students, and our Y.E. student, Andrea.
Jean Masiko advises that we WILL NOT be stocking shelves at the Kingdom Life Food Bank this month.
LOWHILL FOOD PANTRY:
Please remember that the Collection jar is at the registration desk for cash and check contributions.
Y.E. STUDENTS SPEAK:
Andrea said that she has been in the U.S. for a month and a half, and that she loves it here.
Eli said that she started with AWRC 7 years ago and is pleased to see us all again. She will graduate college in December as a Psychologist.
CLUBRUNNER APP still is recommended.
THE NEXT THURSDAY EVENING MEETING will be on October 11th at 5:30 PM at the Sleepy Cat Urban Winery at 1840 W. Allen St. in Allentown. Ronnee Klotz passed around a sign-up sheet.
DINING OUT:
October 18th Thursday- at the Stoney Run Inn at 6:00 PM.
DESTINATION MEETING:
November 7th at LCTI.
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.
PURPLE PINKIE AT LCCC IS OCTOBERE 13TH !!
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.
Herb Klotz said we need two more volunteers to work on the course; Dan Crane said “OK.” And we need people to sign up to run, to walk, and / or to sponsor.
Pres. Jeanne reminds us that she and her dog Daisy will be participating and asks us all to sponsor her -- or Daisy.
Jennifer Stinson said that she has some gift certificates for the after race raffle, but really needs some more.
Our RI Foundation Chair, Barb Kistler said that the Northwestern Interact students again this year will support the race. Barb asked for folks to sponsor the students at $15 each. She now has the first 5 paid for. Please help.
OCT 16th CONCERT by the Harmonizers is scheduled here at Luther Crest for 7:30 PM.
MEALS ON WHEELS UPDATE:
M.O.W. Chair, Dorothy Bloom explains that the Lehigh County and Northampton County Meals on Wheels programs have merged. We are now Meals on Wheels of the Greater Lehigh Valley.
Changes of course are involved. The next AWRC volunteering for M.O.W. is TENTATIVELY set for Saturday November 11th. Details will follow.
ANNUAL FOUNDATION SEMINAR is on November 10th at MONTCO CC in Blue Bell.
BRING A GUEST TO BREAKFAST:
Pres. Jeanne has designated our regular November 14th breakfast meeting as an opportunity to invite potential members to come see what AW Rotarians are all about. INVITE SOMEONE!
DICTIONARY PROJECT:
P-E Amir Famili has launched this year’s project and ordered about 1,000 dictionaries to arrive in a few weeks. Cash donations are welcome. And there will be a “Label Pasting” Party at Amir’s home on October 26th.
Gwenn Carr reports that we now have a $1,000 TT5 sponsor from LCCC.
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.
TT5 PLANING MEETING:
The first planning meeting for Tempting Tastes 5 will be held Friday October 19, 2018 - 7:30AM at the Holiday Inn in Breinigsville. We are looking for ideas and suggestions to make this event even better than it has been in the past
THREADS OF CHANGE:
Pres. Jeanne says the grant money is in hand. The T.O.C. folks have been using the new container at the Holiday Inn to begin serving Lehigh County. As the weather gets colder they will hold off for the Winter, and will add the needed racks and totes in the Spring.
FUTURE AWRC ROTARY DISTRICT GRANT IDEAS WANTED:
Please tell Pres. Jeanne and Barb Kistler your suggestions for 2019-20 District Grants. Those applications start going in soon.
NEXT MEETING -- October 10th -- Our Greeter will be Ihor Fedoriw, and the program will be Bill Erdman, D 7430 Area 1 Foundation Coordinator discussing “Recognition Points” and other TRF subjects.
Pres Jeanne introduced S-a-A Mitch Huston who conducted the drawings and picked up the Happy Dollars.
The door prize donated by Gail Micca, was won by Jeff Kistler.
The 50:50 pot of $86 was not won .by Len Salines whose ticket was drawn. ONLY 4 marbles remain…..and one is Black.
HAPPY DOLLARS:
Mitch Huston is happy to report another great turnout of about 8,000 at the J. Birney Crumb stadium last weekend to see the great marching bands.
Jeane Shipe happily informed us that member Hal Warner got married last week in South Carolina.
Bill Weber is happy that he met up with a guy who used to help out at the Tranquility Christmas Tree farm.
Sue Weber is really happy to be with all 3 of today’s guests. She provided us with some info on Gary Heller.
Gary Heller started Historic Rescue Photography with the goal of helping historical societies improve their capabilities relating to archive, education and fundraising. He provides this service on a volunteer basis.
Halyna Stegura is happy to be back. And she is happy to report that daughter Christina completed a 13 hour “Ironman” competition last Saturday in Maryland.
Joe and Peggy Goll are going to their Key West home over the long weekend.
Barbara Kistler was happy to see many people when she visited Ontelaunee Park. And the Band Shell AW Rotarians helped to build and to maintain gets regular use. There now is a need to refinish it again.
Gwenn Carr was happy to have Mustafa Jaffer with us today.
Herb Klotz and Len Salines are happy to have celebrated their birthdays last Monday.
PROGRAM:
Our program today was our own DGE Herb Klotz sharing a RC Membership survey and analysis of multiple districts. Herb explained that they were looking at the most successful RCs that grew membership noticeably in one or more of the 5 years studied. They contacted the actual RC President for that good growth year and asked a series of questions.
If a RC grew well in one year but lost the next, it was not in the study. Ten questions were asked and 44 club Presidents responded. Herb listed the reasons given for the large headcount increase, including:
Clear membership goals and a plan
Membership Recruiting Events including Mixers
Fun Meetings/Strong Fellowship/Good Programs
Strong Public Image Campaign
Good Programs/Interesting Meetings
Alternative Meeting
Invite Friends/Active Recruiting
Herb noted that 90% of RCs with significant growth held recruiting events or membership drives. Events included Business Networking Mixers, Membership Contests, Happy Hour Socials, and Socials at a member’s home.
And 90% of large growth RCs also worked on their Public Image and conducted Marketing Campaigns.
Then Herb discussed member Retention, citing an RI study showing that people say they left because it was too expensive or took too much time. Right now some RCs are finding ways to reduce their costs to members.
Regarding New Member Retention, Herb listed:
Involve new member on a committee or project
New member orientation program
Mentor for new member
Make new members feel welcome & recognize them
Reach out to new member if attendance drops
Keeping existing members involves having Fun, a Light hearted, welcoming atmosphere. Good fellowship and with Every member engaged/involved in some way.
Herb said that the times that RCs meet does not seem to matter. He said that our target audience is both Young Professionals, and recent retirees. He reviewed some comments made by surveyed RC Presidents to further illustrate the findings.
CLOSING:
We closed our meeting by reciting the saying “One profits most who serves best.”
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