President Jeanne Shipe rang the bell at 7:30 A.M. to open the meeting and welcomed all to AWRC. Then Ralph Witcher gave a very nice invocation
Pres. Jeanne began the meeting having the members recite the 4 Way test, followed with our saying the Pledge of Allegiance to the U.S. Flag.
GUESTS:
Dave Bausch, Allentown RC; Taras Mytkalyk, guest of Dave Bausch and a former Y.E. student from Ukraine in 2006.
The photo shows Dave Bausch who hosted our guest Taras. Taras returned to Ukraine in 2006 and started a Rotary Club.
Pres. Jeanne showed a photo of P-E Amir Famili and his new friends taken at the Mid-Atlantic PETS event a week ago.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
DISTRICT CONFERENCE 2019:
Pres. Jeanne urges us all to sign up to attend this annual event right in Allentown.
DGE Herb Klotz explained that the May 3 to 5 Conference offers a single day option for Saturday. Herb said that the more AW Rotarians that go, the better it will be for us to help plan and run the 2020 District Conference -- His.
OTHER PLANS:
We are working on an updated strategic plan.
May 15th will be an Open House Mixer meeting here at Luther Crest.
It seems that we will have an Outbound Exchange student for the Fall.
There are three new projects being considered for our support.
DINING OUT:
March 28, Thursday, at Gio's Italian Grill, 6465 Village Lane, Macungie, (Route 100) at 6 P.M.
April 28, Sunday TT5 at the Holiday Inn 4 to 7 P.M.
TOMORROW -- SPECIAL AWARD MARCH 7th:
Our own Barbara Kistler will receive an award on March 7th at the Emmaus RC celebration of International Women’s Day.
LOWHILL TOWNSHIP FOOD PANTRY:
P-E Amir Famili needs volunteers for April and May. Please sign up.
TT5 -- YOU ARE INVITED:
Please join Gwenn Carr and Gary Englehardt for a great afternoon of friendship, food and fun. Bring a great gift to the Carr-Englehardt residence from 4-7PM on Sunday, March 24th. We need about 150 items for the Tempting Tastes 5 auction and we currently have about 30 items. Gift cards and baskets of goodies are especially appreciated as they bring exceptional value to our auction.
Please let Gwenn know by March 20th if you will attend. Their address is 138 Deer Run Road, Kutztown, PA.
Also, please let Gwenn know if you need an Auction request document or any other marketing material.
We've NETTED over $125K dollars over the lifetime of Tempting Tastes. Help us make this year's event the best one yet.
Our TT5 website is www.temptingtastes.net where there is more information. Our Facebook page is Rotary Tempting Tastes. Please visit and "like" our age.
TT5 AUCTION ITEM PREVIEW: See separate article.
FOUNDATION GALA IS MARCH 23rd:
The annual D7430 Foundation Gala will be held on Saturday March 23rd at the Pottstown Brookside CC. It is a costume event for those who wish to do so. We donated a basket of cheer for the auction that evening.
THURSDAY EVENING MEETING:
The next one is on March 14th at the Holiday Inn at 5:30 P.M.
RLI MARCH 30th:
Rotary Leadership Institute training is on March 30th at the Radisson in King of Prussia. Give it a try, if you have not done it yet. Your registration fee will be reimbursed to you afterwards.
NEXT MEETING HERE:
March 13th -- Our Greeter will be Marlene Heller and our program will be the induction of Katrina Sundstrom as our newest AW Rotarian. Then she will discuss the “Parkland Cares” program.
Pres. Jeanne introduced our Sgt-at-Arms, Mitch Huston who conducted the drawings and collected Happy Dollars.
The door prize donated by Bill Palmer was won by Amir Famili.
The $76 pot of the 50:50 was NOT won by Chris Blechschmidts ticket being drawn followed by a white marble. Six marbles will be around for next week.
HAPPY DOLLARS:
Bill Palmer is happy to report that Wendy Weaver sends a big “Hello” to us as she enjoys the warmth of Florida.
Ron Coleman is happy to be here.
Diana Dunn is happy to report that the Engineers Without Borders team now is in Sierra Leone working on the Hospital sanitation issues.
Herb Klotz is happy to announce that there will be a separate table for Rotarians at the Engineers Without Borders annual fundraiser at DeSales University on Sunday April 7th from 4 to 7 PM.
DGE Herb recently went to RI HQ in Evanston, IL and he presented a special RI Banner to Pres. Jeanne for our collection. He claims that he shook hands with Paul Harris while there. And he saw the RI President’s seldom used office.
Ronnee Klotz is happy to remind us that there is a Dining Out on March 28th at Gio’s in Macungie. A sign-up sheet went around.
Chris Blechschmidt is happy to report that the local workers in Sierra Leone now are adding sufficient cement to their concrete mix to ensure proper strength.
Dottie Bloom is happy.
David Haight is most happy to have 3 offers to buy his house in N.J. having only had it up for sale for a week.
Ernie Boll is happy. (He and Sandi will be in Arizona next week.)
Ralph Witcher is happy to welcome our visitor from Ukraine.
PROGRAM:
Our program today was Shushma Patel of the Harleysville RC and our 2020 District 7430 Conference Chair, discussing plans to make it the best ever for DGE Herb Klotz. Herb again urged us AW Rotarians to attend all or part of the 2019 District Conference in Allentown.
The D7430 District Conference in 2020 will be held on April 24 to 26, in King of Prussia.
The D7430 annual Changeover and Awards Dinner will be held on Monday June 24th at DeSales University.
Shushma already has chaired two other D7430 Conferences. She is looking forward to OURS in 2020 in which AW Rotarians are supporting DGE Herb and joining the committees that will make that happen.
Shushma said that we can start now to look for and sign up Sponsors for the 2020 Conference. The committee will send out materials for that soon. And one assignment for AWRC is to staff and operate the Sergeants-at-Arms committee for the 3 days.
The theme for the 2020 Conference is “Connections” which builds on the RI theme for next year. The House of Friendship will be called “The Summit” and will be quite different from prior years. Herb plans to have members from all district RCs get together and tell us what they are doing, among other things.
Shushma showed us a 6 minute Video -- first public viewing -- that promotes the 2020 Conference. They plan to add some more details and then use it at the 2019 Conference where Rotarians can register for the following year’s Conference.
The 2020 Conference also will be different since it will include three traditional separate annual events. The Foundation Gala will be on Friday evening; the District Training Assembly will be on Saturday, all the while the Conference is going on.
Herb also will be inviting Rotarians from D7450 nearby to K.O.P. to attend our Conference. He says we want to have 400 attendees.
The two theme ideas for 2020 are:
“Inspire to lead”
“Encourage to achieve”
CLOSING:
We closed our meeting by reciting the saying “One profits most who serves best.”
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