Bulletins - 2008 - 01/16/2008
This
Week's Bulletin Was Written
By Ron Erbetta (Without a Centennial Moment!)
President Mike opened the meeting at 7:30 a.m. A moving invocation was given by Dan Duncan and the Pledge of Allegiance was led by Dave Ferguson. In honor of our Speaker from Rotary International, Linda led us in a great rendition of “Rotary My Rotary”.
Jonathan’s winning raffle ticket went to Mel Gallegos.
Brags and Ads….Gary Green announced the arrival of a new Granddaughter to compliment his Grandsons….he will be giving her a Paul Harris Fellow as he has done for his Grandsons. Dave Ferguson put in an early plug for the Holes-for-Heroes Golf Tournament pointing to Paul Marsh’s red Golf shirt from last year’s terrific tournament. Larry Nuffer was tongue tied and had a problem speaking about his new Marketing & Communications Consulting business….but he assured us he can speak effectively! Good luck Larry, we know you can do it! Jay Sener followed up on Cynthia’s plea last week to have any members help find homes for their litter of boxer puppies. And finally, our very own Ken Tablang has been nominated for the San Diego Board of Realtors Excellence Award to be presented this Saturday – congratulations and good luck Ken.
Pete McGuire introduced our many guests and large contingent of visiting Rotarian guests.
President Mike brought Mel and Jeff Christie to the podium …..and Mel asked
R.I. General Secretary, Ed Kuta to join them to induct 3 new members into the club and award 6 Multiple Paul Harris Fellowships.
The new members are:
David Wright – returned here from Florida after graduating
from S.D. State – he loves surfing and travels extensively.
Dan Dehner – is a CPA with KPMG and volunteers at the
Senior Community Center. He loves sailing and travel.
Jeff Winter – After many years in the Health Care Industry, he
now consults companies on how to minimize employee turnover.
The Multiple Paul Harris Fellows were then called up to the Podium. They are:
Lucy Killea - Mike Whitehurst - Jim Lauth - Don Lang - Nancy Vaughan - Ron Erbetta
Congratulations and thanks to all for your support to the Rotary Foundation. As we all know, the money donated through Paul Harris Fellowships funds Polio Plus and the many other International and National Humanitarian Projects undertaken by our Clubs,
Districts, and Rotary International. And thanks to Carol & Mel - Foundation Co-Chairs!
We were very fortunate this week to have R.I. General Secretary, Ed Futa introduced to our club by President Mike! Ed is the person who runs the day-to-day operations of the entire Rotary organization – an enormous job that he does so well.
His opening remarks were to compliment us on bringing in three new members (Thank you Jeff Christie!)…..in all of his travels, he rarely sees so many inducted at one meeting. He reminded us all that we must continuously recruit new members – it is the lifeblood of Rotary. He pointed out that if we lose 3 members we have a net gain of zero.
Ed said he is in town for the International Assembly – this being the 3rd year that it has been held in San Diego after 16 years in Los Angeles. The Assembly is a two to three week training program for the 530 District Governors from around the world and with Spouses and support personnel, there may be 1500 people in attendance. This is a huge exposure for San Diego. He informed us that the first training session is for Membership.
Ed updated us on the Polio Plus program and was extremely happy to report that the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has awarded the R.I. Foundation a grant of $100 million. The stipulation was that it had to be awarded by 12/31/07 (which it was after “Fast-Tracking” the Grant!!) and Rotary must match the $100 million in 3 years with contributions from its members – a challenge he feels will be met with no problem.
Then came an exciting and frightening conversation from the Gates Foundation…..they asked how much more money we could handle and subsequently match!! WOW!! Ed said the Foundation Trustees are coming up with a response!
Ed said the significant fact here is that the Gates Foundation as well as other Foundations realize that Rotary is effective in using these funds because we LIVE in 33,000 communities around the world. We don’t just give the money and leave, our club is there to do continual follow-up. This is what gives strength to our Organization – as we all have learned, the Club is the most important ingredient in Rotary. Foundations are coming to us to offer donations in part because Polio Plus put us on the Map and gave us credibility – very little of the money we collect goes to administrative costs.
And finally, Ed pointed out that even with our increased credibility, we must do more Public Relations and let people know who we are and what we do.
We are not 100 years OLD, we are 100 years YOUNG!
We are energized!
We are here because we believe that no one should be left out of living life!
We are here because we believe no one should go without food or water!
We believe everyone should participate in the “Celebration of Life”!
Q. Chris Carstens-Why don’t we have Rotary Mini-clips to let people know what we do?
A. Ed – We are doing exactly that and you should see them soon.
Q. Martin Blair-What is the status of Polio Plus, we keep hearing there are only three countries left that have cases of Polio.
A. Ed – The last pieces are always the toughest – there are actually four countries that have cases. This is now not a medical problem, it is a political problem. Countries do not have a good accounting of their people and they keep moving around. This is spreading some wild polio viruses and they have increased.
Q. Lucy Killea-Could you explain how a small donation multiplies in Rotary?
A. Ed – This is done through the ‘Matching Grants Program (which Ed explained). We are very careful that donations for grants are large enough and have had to increase the minimum grant to $5,000. We had to make sure that the Administrative Costs were not higher that the Project Benefits!
Ed thanked our Club for all that we do…..and we thank Ed for his very enthusiastic speech and for taking the time to visit our club.
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