Our Greeter today was Shawn Fejes and he did a marvelous job.
President Amir Famili rang the bell at 7:30 A.M. to open the meeting and welcomed all. Then Shawn Fejes gave a very nice invocation.
P-E Ralph Witcher began the meeting having the members recite The Pledge of Allegiance to the U.S. Flag. Then Pres. Amir led us in reciting the Four Way Test.
GUESTS:
Pat Witcher, wife of Ralph; Wilmer Schultz, Emmaus RC; and Dave Dries, Spring Township RC;
DINING OUT IN JULY:
FRIDAY, July 19 at 6:00 P.M.at Zanzibar Kabobs and Grill, Tilghman St. in Allentown. A sign-up sheet is going around.
Amir needs volunteers to help at the Lowhill Food Pantry.
BOARD MEETING NOTES:
As the minutes of the monthly AWRC b.o.d. meeting are approved, they will be posted to our website as a “site page” on the left side. Minutes of the July special meeting have been posted.
ANNUAL SUMMER PICNIC DATES:
Sue Weber announced that once again the picnic will be hosted at the Webers’ farm in Vera Cruz. A survey is underway to decide whether Sunday Aug 4th or Aug 11th will draw the largest crowd.
VIDEO FOR SALE:
Pres. Amir has received some requests for copies of the 2006 video about AWRC. He plans to send out copies, BUT seeks donations to the Dictionary project in exchange.
STRIKE OUT HUNGER AT THE PHILLIES:
DG Herb Klotz reminds us that on August 15 . RI President Mark Maloney will throw out the first pitch. And $10 of each ticket from Rotarians will go to PolioPlus.
NO YOUTH EXCHANGE STUDENT FOR 2019-20:
Bill Weber announced that Anna, the 17 year old Y.E. student from Denmark has suffered a heart attack and is recovering, but cannot visit here this academic year.
THURSDAY EVENING MEETING:
July 25 at the Holiday Inn at 5:30 P.M. is our next meeting.
NEXT MORNING MEETING IS July 24 with Donna Beach as our Greeter. The program will be Gwenn Carr + Gary Englehardt about New: Project Funding Requests Review.
Pres. Amir introduced our Sgt-at-Arms Mitch Huston who conducted the drawings and collected Happy Dollars.
The door prize donated by Shawn Fejes was won by Herb Klotz.
The $110 pot of the 50:50 was not won by Jeff Kistler’s ticket being drawn followed by a white marble. Four marbles remain.
HAPPY DOLLARS:
Mitch Huston announced that the annual Drum and Bugle Corps. Competition will take place on Aug 2 and 3 with 23 groups competing. About 20,000 fans are expected to turn out.
Pat and Ralph Witcher announced that they will become grandparents in late October -- it’s a girl.
Shawn Fejes is happy that his daughter is now starting college.
Herb Klotz extended thanks to AW members for the many prayers for their family.
Marlene Heller is happy to say that she and Gary hosted their 4 and 6 year old grandkids overnight without the parents -- and survived.
Gwenn Carr is happy that Gary and she had two great weeks in St. Kitts with their daughter and son-in-law.
Al Lewis is happy to be able to report that on July 1st he celebrated his 88th birthday. We sang Happy Birthday to Al.
Chris Blechschmidt is happy that 2 years ago on a trip to Iceland their daughter made a new friend by chance, and they have kept in touch. Recently that family visited Chris and family and had a great time.
Wilmer Schultz is happy to report that he will celebrate his 93rd birthday on Saturday. We sang Happy Birthday to Wilmer.
PROGRAM:
Today’s program consisted of the first official round of reviews of funding requests from our 2019-20 annual budget. Gwenn and Gary introduced the form at both a Wednesday and a Thursday meeting and explained the concept of having every member understand and vote on their degree of support as guidance for the board.
Copies of the specific requests were e-mailed to all members in advance. And hard copies for today’s review and voting were distributed, executed and collected by Gary and Gwenn.
Herb Klotz reviewed the $1,000 request for support of the annual District-wide Purple Pinkie 5K race to eradicate Polio.
Then Herb reviewed the plan to substitute a $25 per member donation to the RI Annual Fund, in place of the more expensive $200 matching program of prior years. Jeff Kistler suggested that these donations only be made in the names of members who do not donate additional amounts.
Amir Famili explained the request for funds to support the Lowhill Township Food Pantry’s fresh produce program as we have done for many years.
Amir then reviewed the $1,200 request for our annual Dictionary project for 3rd Graders. The total cost is $2,400 with the balance coming from cash donations.
Jeff Kistler and Ralph Witcher discussed the $9,000 request for 9 scholarships we have awarded to worthy students of local schools each year. There was discussion about possibly increasing the dollar amount, even if fewer scholarships were given out.
Ralph then went over the request for $600 to operate our Student-of-the-Month program which covers gift cards and food for parents expenses.
Pres. Amir thanked everyone for participating. He also reminds us that members also can vote via E-mail.
CLOSING:
Pres. Amir suggested that we continue to pray for our Rotary family. He closed our meeting by our reciting the saying “One profits most who serves best.”
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