Meeting Notes July 1, 2015
Our Greeter this morning was our new President Herb Klotz and he did an excellent job.
President Herb rang the bell at 7:30 a.m. Rev. Jeff Kistler gave a very nice invocation.
GUESTS: No guests or visiting Rotarians today.
SPECIAL DISTRICT AWARDS:
Herb asked Past President Barbara to come up and explain the Monday evening awards. See separate article. Barb presented the RI Presidential Citation for the Northwestern Lehigh Interact Club to Hope Pearson who is its Advisor. Barb noted that there are 34 Interact clubs sponsored by our district RCs, but the NWL club was the ONLY IC that received this award this year.
AWRC CHANGEOVER DINNER:
Herb showed pictures of our June 25th dinner party at LCCC. There were many highlights including the induction to membership of Wendy Weaver and Brian Peterka.
ATTENDANCE AWARDS:
Aw Secretary Joe Goll announced the names and the number of years of AW members having perfect attendance. The top ranked heroes are George Ikeda with 37 years, and Ernie Boll with 45 years.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
The Sierra Leone Grant work started last week. Herb showed some photos he received.
Our next Thursday evening meeting at the Holiday Inn will be at 5:30 PM on July 9th.
Herb reminded us that AW Rotarians are taking on the annual Purple Pinkie 5K run / walk on October 24th. This is a district-wide fundraiser for Polio Plus and will involve Interact students from all over our five county district and an assembly. The PP Committee will meet on Thursday evening July 9th at the Holiday Inn immediately after the regular meeting. Please join this committee.
The annual District event, Strike Out Hunger, will be on August 5th with the Phillies and the Dodgers. $9 of every ticket sold will go to the RI Foundation’s Annual Fund.
Mike Henry said that our club's third annual Community Pig Roast Fundraiser is coming together nicely. It will be on Saturday July 18, 2015. It will be held at Ontelaunee Park in New Tripoli from 4:00 PM - 7:00 PM with food being served starting at 4:30PM, including turkey for non-pork eaters. NOTE: There is a signup sheet for volunteers to work a shift to make things happen.
Dan Crane reminds us to please invite friends and family and join your fellow members for food and fun and fellowship at this community event. Adults $20 pp; Children 5 to 12 $8 pp; <5 free. Net proceeds will go toward the Snack Pack program. NOTE: Volunteers for serving still are needed. And more sponsors are welcome too.
The NWL SD Night in the Country will be on August 15th, Barb needs some members to form a group to decide how we will participate. The Interact students plan to sell candy for a ShelterBox again. Barb says that the theme might be “Snacks for Snacks” to publicize the snack pack program.
Herb reminds us that we all can suggest or request speakers and topics for future meetings. Please send your ideas to Jeanne Shipe and Geoff Legg.
Barb said that today is the last day for us to order the maroon AWRC shirts.
President Herb asks us all to e-mail him about any announcements to be made at future meetings so he can include them as part of his planned agenda.
Herb thanks us all for the honor of being named AW Rotarian of the Year 2014-15. He plans to feature a “Rotarian of the Week” at most of our meetings starting today. The AW Rotarian of the week of June 29th is Dr. Dan Crane, our President-Elect. Herb gave a brief bio about Dan and said some nice things.
Next week our scheduled Greeter is Rev. Jeff Kistler, and our program will be a Classification Talk by Chad Butters.
LUCK of the DRAW:
The door prize donated by Herb was won by Dan Crane. The $60 pot of the 50:50 was not won by Vernon who selected a white marble.
FINES:
S-a-A Don Davis fined Mike G. for no pin.
HAPPY DOLLARS:
Gloria is happy to have Hope Pearson back for a while.
Wendy is happy to have been inducted as a new member.
Don and Connie celebrate their 41 years of marriage.
Ernie and Sandi have an anniversary of 59 years.
Dawn says it’s swimming season and she is happy that her grandkids are doing well in competition.
Bill Palmer was happy that the U.S. women’s Soccer team won and will play for the Gold.
Herb was very happy today. His new granddaughter was born last Friday in North Carolina.
Halyna is happy that no tornado touched down in Trexlertown the other day.
Mike Henry is happy that he took his 9 year old granddaughter to the Church picnic.
Barb is happy that she and the family went to Knoebel’s last Friday; and she is celebrating her birthday.
PROGRAM:
Our program today was a presentation by AW Vice President Mike Gschwendtner describing the results from the May 2015 AW membership survey. And two weeks from now Herb will present the overall plan for this new Rotary year that includes things learned from the survey.
Mike said there were no big bombshells, which is good. There is a recommendation that AW do more with Social Media. Herb asked us to include some candidates for membership with those skills. Somebody suggested we contact the Interact students for a volunteer. And Dan noted that new member Brian Peterka is an IT guy.
Another request is more time for fellowship. This somewhat addressed by some members coming at 7:00 a.m. on Wednesdays. Herb as some ideas on this. And some members would like more Networking opportunities.
AJ suggests we work on getting more members to attend our many Dining Out events. Dan suggested we consider once a month – or two months – we have evening socials and bring guests.
And, no surprise, there are members who would like better quality and variety in our meals.
Some members would like more classification talks and re-classification talks.
There were 30 responses to the survey -- 50% of us. And 29 of those are participating in one or more ways in the operation of our club. The 30th is a new member.
On Membership Mike G. said we are doing pretty well. He asks us all to consider the people with whom we interact on a regular basis, and determine if they are a qualified candidate for membership.
Bob Gordon says wear your Rotary pin - or other Rotary I.D. - everywhere that you go. It’s a real conversation starter.
CLOSING:
We sang a fairly good rendition of “God Bless America.” This was followed by the recitation of the Pledge to the Flag of the United States and then the saying “One profits most who serves the best.”
ocus on membership for our Club. 
