The Spokesperson March 24, 2022 (Mar 24, 2022)

Opening Activities

President Jeff Furest called the meeting to order at 12:16 on March 24, 2022. Julie Huttenlocher led her fellow Rotarians on the Pledge of Allegiance and national anthem. Ellen Lysik led us in “The Four-Way Test.” Sarah Lee did a wonderful invocation for our lunch. The lunch menu consisted of: garden salad, dinner roll, roasted potatoes, green beans, sausage with onion and peppers. A side of cake was our dessert for the week.

Presidential Announcements

There were no presidential announcements for the week. President Jeff F handed the floor over to Valerie Miller for a “brief” announcement. She reminisced of the time before COVID and her many years in Rotary. This was the time when she developed lifelong friendships with the members and their spouses. Some of her best friends are Rotarian spouses. Her challenge to the club is to get back to having fun with Rotary and having more social events.

Guest & Visitors

Ed Mastry handled announcing guests and visitors. Jordan Dorley, guest of James Gwizdala, was our only guest of the week. He also tag-teamed the presentation with James G.

Birthday & Anniversary

Member Birthdays: Barbara Owen
Partners Birthdays: None
Wedding Anniversaries: Bob Cannon, Dana Camphous-Peterson, and Kris Howell
Club Anniversaries: None

Flowers

Ryan Murphy had the pleasure of handing out flowers to fellow Rotarians. Ed M bought the first flower of the afternoon for Sam Wireman for helping him set up for the meeting. Val M bought Julie H and Mary Ann Hosey flowers for her error in leaving them off of her best friends list with the earlier announcement. Eric Pierson bought Ryan M a flower for getting him set up with custom orthotics. Scott Chabot bought the last flower for Ed M for stepping up and getting the room set up.

Music

Rotarian Scott C selected “Sing a Song to Rotary” and “This Land is Your Land.” Let’s just say the last song left a little to be desired.

Sunshine, Good Will, Member Announcements

None

Recognition

Larry Neal was on recognition duty for the meeting and recruited the help of Barbara O. They both fined Val M $1 each for failing to list Julie and Mary Ann as some of her best friends during the announcement. In honor of March Madness, the Spartans in the room were fined $3 but the Wolverines in the room were fined $4. Glenn Burton was fined $2 for his Huskies taking on Eric P’s Broncos, Eric was also fined $2. Tom Davies was fined $5 for being out of town so much and for standing behind Eric P during “The Four-Way Test.” Julie H was fined for making the club start the meeting one minute late due to a bathroom break. Larry fined himself $1 to show Bob C thanks for endorsing the library recently. Bob Lee was fined $3 for sneaking in late and getting seconds for lunch. Gary was fined for the song “This Land is Your Land.” Ed M was fined for dressing up and having new shoes.

Dana C was fined $4.99 to make the following announcement:

The Macomb Family YMCA just had a cycle-a-thon this past Monday.

Proceeds from the fundraiser are to go to sending scholarship kids to camp.

It costs $200 a week to send one kid to camp.

The fundraiser raised approx. $2,000.

Their goal is to raise $15,000.

Any help from Rotary is greatly appreciated.

Speaker

Rotarian James G and guest Jordan D tag-teamed the presentation for the meeting. They provided updates to the fundraiser and club website.

The Hunch Free team toured the fundraiser website and mentioned it is ready to go live. They are even able to make changes and updates as needed once it is live.

After demonstrating the fundraiser site, they shifted gears to show off the new club website. The new site is also ready to go live as soon as the club would like.

The new club is new member centric. The goal of the club site is to simplify club administration from the back end but make it easier to attract new members to the club. The design and function of the site will make it easy for a new club prospect to sign up to join a meeting as well as see all the events and activities the club puts on. A new member can apply via the website vs paper application.

The back end of the site, for club members, will simplify club administration. Weekly duties will be posted, club communications listed, and dues can be paid. It is possible to generate a report for birthdays and anniversaries making it easier to track that information for club meetings.

The bulletins will also be listed on the club site which will help with SEO.

The site is clean, functional, and modern.

The 50/50 raffle winner was selected but I failed to write down the winner.

Meeting adjourned at 1:30.

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