New District Governor Tom Markos and his wife, Nancy, paid our club a visit last Wednesday. Our District has something like 74 clubs, and Tom plans to get around to all of them in the coming year.

Tom’s passion is the Rotary Foundation, which will mark its 100^th anniversary in 2017. He gave a number of moving examples and stories of all the good our donations do. For example, a $5 donation, when matched by the Foundation, will buy 3 dictionaries to give to children who may never have owned a book before. Or, it could buy a vial of vaccine and help ensure that 10 kids will not get polio.

Tom stressed that we should all be proud to wear the Rotary pin. Rotary has helped so many around the world through its projects and Foundation grants, and it promotes worldwide friendships and business connections.

2017 will also mark the anniversary of 30 years of women having membership opportunities in Rotary. Currently, 15% of members worldwide are women; 22% in North America and 32% in our District.

Some background on Tom:

• Originally from Ogden, Utah
• First joined Rotary in Wyoming in 1983
• Joined the Kruse Way club when he moved to Oregon, then was a charter member of the West Linn club
• Has 4 kids and 3 grandkids
• Likes to scuba dive

He also announced that next year’s District Conference will be Memorial Day weekend (May 26 – 28) in Seaside. The keynote speaker will be Sylvia Whitlock, a woman who was instrumental in getting the rules changed to permit women to join Rotary. Best to book right now while hotel rooms and discounts are available.

Guests

In addition to Tom and his wife:
–Assistant Governor Renee Brouse, who introduced Tom as our speaker

–Newberg City Manager Joe Hannon –Leah’s boss and a Kiwanian, but we let him in anyway

–Mike Pollock, the Yamhill County Director for Helping Hands, with LeRoy Benham

–Stuart Wilkins, a friend of Fred Gregory’s

–Judy Robinson, who will be inducted into our club next week

Coming up

TUESDAY: Rotary is sponsoring Tunes on Tuesday tomorrow. Come on out and show your support. Chehalem Cultural Center from 6:30 to 8:30pm. Gates open at 5:30pm.

WEDNESDAY: We will learn about the history of our Club, presented by our summer intern, Britta Stewart.

NEXT WEEKEND: Annual pancake breakfast time! Please sign up to help if you haven’t already. Some people, who will go unnamed, like Jim McMaster and Auggie Gonzales, can’t join us this year because they will either be on a water polo cruise in Croatia or at a family reunion. They’ll be missed.

 

The annual Changing of the Guard. That’s what it was at last Wednesday’s luncheon. New President Leah Griffith called her first official meeting to order, and shared information about the convention she attended in Korea and her plans for the year ahead.

Heads up! Leah plans to change things up a bit—starting with the process we use at the beginning of each meeting. We’ll still do the Pledge of Allegiance and a reflection. But then we’ll have “My Rotary Moment,” where you can talk about a special time or event in your Rotary service. Then guests will be introduced, followed by non-revenue-generating announcements. At the end of the intro process, the Duck will be passed around (third week of the month will still be dedicated to Polio Plus fundraising).

Sounded like we’re in for a busy year. Leah outlined these upcoming activities:

• Rotary is sponsoring the July 26^th Tunes on Tuesday and having a booth at all concerts
• Pancake Breakfast July 30/31—still need volunteers and help selling tickets
• Possible joint picnic in August with the morning club
• SMART will resume when school starts
• Distribution of dictionaries to school kids in the Fall
  
• Christmas tree lighting—maybe more Rotary involvement?
• Dr. Martin Luther King event/Habitat for Humanity
• Clean up of Memorial Park before Memorial Day festivities

She also reported on some important new directions discussed at the convention:

• Less focus on attendance and more on service
• Having a simplified membership process
• Being ready to adapt
• Being welcoming to our guests
• Getting ready to celebrate the Rotary Foundation Centennial year

But then she really had me fretting. What are we to think when our convention attendees didn’t know who Psy, the featured performance artist at the Korea convention (and whose father and grandfather were Rotarians), was? Hmmm……..(BTW, according to Wikipedia, Psy’s “Gangnam-Style” song topped the charts in over 30 countries and his music video of it holds the Guinness World Record for most-watched youtube video. EVER.)

Our meeting guests included Intern Britta Stewart and prospective members Julie Robinson and Matt Stephens. Walter Want introduced their guests, his sister and brother-in-law, Sissy and Richard Riley, from Gilbert, Arizona, who traveled here to help Walter and Julie celebrate their 50^th wedding anniversary. Auggie introduced visiting Rotarians Tom and Alma Olson– key figures in support of our Guatemala missions. Both Tom and Alma are past presidents of the Antigua Rotary Club.

Other stuff from the meeting under the miscellaneous category:

Spike asked whether anyone is interested in serving a 3-year term on the club Foundation Board. If so, he would like to hear from you. Involves about 6 to 7 meetings a year.

Curt has more pancake breakfast tickets for us to sell and Scott is selling sponsorships for the event. And if you haven’t signed up yet to help out at this event, get your rear in gear……

Todd moves into the Prez-elect position, with responsibility for programs. If you have an idea for a topic, please contact him. Scott becomes Prez-Prez-elect.

Many thanks to Bob Ficker for his service and welcome to new treasurer Dawn.

Before hitting the bell to adjourn, Leah also installed Mike Boock as our new membership chair and Rob Dailey as vocational service chair. Jim McMaster received a perfect attendance award, Walter a 15-years-of-service award and Leroy Benham a 40-years-of-service award. Wow, Leroy! Congratulations, all.

And thanks to all club members who volunteered with Special Olympics this past weekend. Heard there were about a dozen at the bocce ball event, and there were about that many serving dinners, too. So nice.