Our Greeter today was Chuck Ehninger, and he did a great job. President Herb Klotz rang the bell at 7:15 a.m. Rev. Jeff Kistler gave a very nice invocation.
Our meeting area was adorned with about 100 banners from RCs around the world. Thanks Herb and Ronnee.
GUESTS: District Governor 2016-17 Linda Young; Ronnee Klotz; Judy Ehninger; Mary Frances Salines; Grace and Rev. Dave Mohr (Slatington RC); Alicia Ruiz and Mike Orbin (Allentown RC); Caitlyn Beach, guest of Brian Peterka, Gary & Dee Rohrbach -- incoming Area 1 A,G. (Emmaus RC): Judge Ed Cahn; Sandi Boll; Marta Fedoriw; Steve LaPierre (Emmaus RC); and Dave Dries (Spring Township RC).
It seems that Herb misplaced the remote -- sorta like Dan did last week. It cost him $5 for its return to start the meeting.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
June 24th was our June Dining Out at 29 Cooks in Emmaus; see separate article.
July 28th -- THURSDAY -- In place of our Happy Hour meeting will be our full club monthly Dining Out at Italiano Delite in Macungie.
Next week the scheduled Greeter is Len Salines and our program will be Jason Bowen giving his 2016 Speech Contest Presentation.
SPECIAL AWARD:
Sue Weber received a gift from Herb recognizing the end of her third year as Area 1 Assistant Governor.
YEAR END REVIEW:
Herb said that he has had a wonderful experience as our RC President. Herb noted that at Monday’s district Changeover we received some awards. See separate article.
Herb extended thanks to the AWRC board of directors as well as to Geoff Legg and the AW Foundation board. He said that the latter has created a 5 year Strategic Plan for our club foundation.
Since almost our entire membership -- 57 out of 67 -- participates in one or more aspects of club or community service, Herb thanked us all, one by one, over the course of the meeting.
MEMBERSHIP:
Over the last year we inducted 15 new members ( 2 were returnees ) with 11 different sponsors. Six of our members hold district roles. We lost 8 members which gives a net of 67 active members vs. the goal of 65.
INDUCTION OF NEW MEMBER:
Ron Coleman was inducted as a member of AWRC by a formal ceremony conducted by Chuck Ehninger. Welcome, Ron. Sue and Bill Weber were his sponsors.
FOUNDATION AWARDS:
Chair David Caccese announced four new levels of Paul Harris Fellow recognition: Jeanne Shipe – first award; Lise Twiford -- PHF+1; Gwenn Carr -- PHF+3; and Herb Klotz -- PHF+3. Lise and Herb received their new pins.
Our AWRC total goal for last year’s giving to the RI Annual Fund was $10,000. So far we are at $11,400. Similarly we had a $1,000 goal for PolioPlus giving and we are at $1,100/.
Last October was the first time that AW Rotarians took on the responsibilities of operating a district-wide event. This was the Yvette Palmer 5K Purple Pinkie Run with proceeds going to eradicate Polio. We netted $7,500 in district donations which were doubly matched by the Gates Foundation.
LUCK of the DRAW:
Today’s door prize donated by Chuck Ehninger was a bottle of wine and was won by Wendy Weaver. Then Dan Crane won – again -- the right to draw a marble for the $72 50:50 pot and HE WON IT !!
FINES:
S-a-A Don Davis fined Jean Machamer for no pin and then Judge Cahn for no pin nor badge. Hmmmmm.
HAPPY DOLLARS:
Dale Hostetter is happy that Dan Crane won the 50:50.
Sue Weber is happy that Linda Young became our next district governor at Monday’s Changeover Dinner.
Halyna is happy that while the Dining Out last Friday was BYOB -- which she forgot -- she actually attended a wine tasting event because of all of her friends’ generosity.
Don Davis was asked to fine himself because he forgot Donna Beach’s birthday last week. We sang to Donna today.
Alicia Orbin is happy that the Allentown RC was awarded a bronze level Presidential Citation.
Barb Kistler announced that her full time retirement only lasted for 6 weeks. She starts her new job on Friday.
Ihor Fedoriw is happy that their grandkids come to visit from Sweden tomorrow.
Chris Blechschmidt is happy to be leaving for Germany for a few weeks.
Bill Palmer is happy that our District Governor, Linda Young, is with us today,
Herb Klotz put in $5 for the great week the whole family just enjoyed in Colorado.
Don Davis is happy to be celebrating his wedding anniversary today.
PROGRAM: Our program of the year in review continued with notes about each of our 14 club committees:
Gloria Zimmerman (Service) provided a history of the Lowhill Food Pantry program and the Snack Pack program. We started supporting the Food pantry in 2012 and delivered 2000 lbs. of food at an average cost of $.91/lb. Then Dale Hostetter suggested that we find fresh produce and we began our relationship with the Burkholders. And last year we furnished the Pantry with 12,656 lbs. at a cost of #.24/lb.
Herb told us that we volunteered at 59 service events last year and he named the volunteers. There were 3 who worked at over 25 each.
Herb presented last year’s committee chairs who are stepping down, with a gift. Dan Crane is giving up the Park work crew detail. Dennis Houser and Brian Peterka will do it.
AJ and Mike Henry are no longer organizing the Dining Out events. Jean Machamer and almost-a-member Ronnee Klotz will do this. We had 10 Fellowship events last year, all good.
And Bill Palmer finally convinced Mitch Huston to Chair the PR Committee.
Membership’s Mike Gschwendtner is replaced with Ginny Sandoval. Bob Nagle is no longer leading the Dictionary project. And Dale Utt is giving up the Scholarship committee to Hope Pearson.
And we had a great PR year with Chad Butters doing social media, and Gloria Zimmerman getting articles published about us. One issue of our weekly e-Bulleting was sent by the district Membership Chair to all district RCs as a good example to be followed.
We gave 11 $1,000 scholarships this year.
Fundraising led by Len Salines raised $3,000 from the Pig Roast and under Gwenn and Gary’s leadership raised $33,000 from Tempting Tastes 2 for next year’s good works.
ROTARIANS OF THE YEAR:
The AW Rotarians of the YEAR are Gwenn Carr and Gary Englehardt. They will be recognized further at a future meeting.
INSTALLATION OF OFFICERS:
Past District Governor, Bill Weber, asked all of our 2015-16 Officers and Committee Chairs to stand up, Then he fired us. Then he had all of those for 2016-17 stand up and repeat an oath to do their best, and declared them to be in office.
PASSING OF THE PICTURE:
George Ikeda explained that in 1980-81 we had a Youth Exchange student from Japan whose parents came here at year end. They presented George with a painting of a Japanese mountain and asked that it be displayed by the current RC President. Dan Crane now has it for the second time in 35 years.
PASSING OF THE GAVEL CEREMONY:
Starting what may become a new club tradition, Herb announced the name of each RC Past President in the room to stand and form a line. It started with Judge Ed Cahn from 1969 and ended with Dan Crane receiving a new gavel passed down the line. Actually DG Linda passed the gavel to the Judge at the start.
Ihor Fedoriw presented Dan Crane with a lovely Ukrainian Easier Egg as a wish for good fortune.
Then our new President Dan Crane thanked all for the opportunity to serve. He thanked Herb for his great year and presented him with a nice plaque.
CLOSING:
Halyna Stegura hit the right note to start us singing a nice rendition of “God Bless America” Then we recited the Pledge to the Flag of the United States and then the saying “One profits most who serves the best.”
And so we ended the longest meeting on record with everyone smiling.
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