Meeting Minutes 01/06/2015

 

Vice President, Travis Alberts called the meeting to order and led the club in The Pledge of Allegiance. Don Kamban gave the blessing for the club's meal.

 

 

Sam Hitchcock recognized The Ohio State Buckeyes for their win and upcoming Championship game.

 

District Governor, Phil Mariola was thankful for good road conditions which allowed him to be with us.

 

 

Rich Geib observed that it has been taken down. Carey Gardner informed the club that the characters needing attention have been stored in the front for easy access. He also wanted the club to know that he received a message from Mark Watson that there was a payment due. Elaine is calling Craig to find out what the payment is for. The club was unaware of any work that was complete prior to the end of this year. Rich remarked on the amount of traffic he observed this year and it was suggested that next year we look into obtaining a traffic counter.

 

Carey Gardner announced that there will be an RTY board meeting February 19th at 4:30 in the Geib Family Center - everyone is welcome.

 

 

Travis introduced District Governor, Phila Mariola as this weeks speaker.

 

Phil presented the club with a Rotary sign and the book "Effective Public Relations". He has put 11,000 miles on his car since assuming the DG role in July. He visited 42 clubs in his first 2 months as DG. Currently the district has 1973 members and 47 clubs. He advised the group that clubs with large numbers find it difficult to engage their members. The optimal club size is 25 - 35 members in his opinion.

 

2 service projects were described by Phil that really "moved" him. The Minerva club had an evening Christmas party at a local church. They invited the families of mentally handicapped children. They had handcrafted games that lined the hallway and the kids and their parents really enjoyed it. There was a large amount of membership involvement. They sang Carols, had a puppet show and even had a Santa Claus that called each child up by name to present them with a gift. He said he will never forget the looks on the mother's faces. The second Event was a small club in Champion held on a Saturday afternoon where Santa was brought in on a fire truck

 

Phil thanked our club for participating in the "CAMO" project and presented Travis with a Certificate of Appreciation.

 

Phil acknowledged that engaging new members, publicizing the club, attracting younger members, improving attendance and getting member participation up are issues that all clubs are experiencing.

Successful Fundraisers that he has heard about within the district included an "Incredible Edible Auction" which raised about $4,000 in an hour and the Canton South Basketball Preview

 

Upcoming Dates of Importance for District 6650:

The Mid-Year Assembly will be held February 28th at the Foultz Community Center

May 15th is the District Grant Deadline

 

Please "Like" Rotary District 6650 on Facebook

 

Rich Geib thanked Phil Mariola for being here and said that he has been a member of Rotary for 40 years and this was the most interesting District Rotary update he has heard in a very long time.