The Spokesperson September 30, 2021 (Sep 30, 2021)

On a clear and sunny day, the Mount Clemens Rotary gathered for a meeting that seemed out of sync!

Promptly at 12:16, President Jeff Furest rang the bell to order. He gave inspiring words of "You must meet the change.” With that, Kathleen Best put us on track with the Pledge of Allegiance, which flowed right into the national anthem. After a long trip, Doug Norris rattled off “The Four-Way Test.” Pres. Jeff blew by the invocation which was reeled back by The Reverend Tom Davies. Tom kept it short, sweet, and to the point.

The IACC with Tina's help, served up a Caesar salad, beef and (salty … not my words) gravy, broccoli (two weeks in a row with no green beans but I'm not complaining) white rice, and yellow cake for dessert.

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PRES. JEFF GAVE ANNOUNCEMENTS OF:

There will be a Rotary float in the Mount Clemens Thanksgiving Parade 11/20 and we need volunteers to build and walk in the parade with the theme of "Hands Holding the World.” Pres. Jeff will be out of town so he is looking for able body members to pull it off.
At the last board meeting, it was approved that an increase in dues to $100 and corporate dues to $75 annually. These passed with a show of hands by the members, with some clarification from Past Pres. Val Miller and Steve Krankota giving some insight to the increase.

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Ryan Murphy had a double shift of Guest and Visitors, Flowers and Recognition.

Our guests were our speaker Paul Gieleghem and fellow Rotarian Nick Castle.

Piano Gary handled GTSYHAR. With no list of birthdays and anniversaries and club anniversaries, the flowers flew: Mary Bednar to our speaker, "Ladies Man" Man Ken Steele bought all the ladies at his table blooms, Pres. Jeff to Dr. Murphy, Scott Chabot bought one for someone, Piano Gary purchased one for Rev. Davies and Steve K to Kathleen Best.

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Staying with the out-of-order theme, Bob Lee instructed us in singing "You are my Sunshine" with no book and "Roll Rotary.” Next week there were calls for Metallica.

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With no Sunshine reports, Pres. Jeff's Goodwill consisted of a meeting with Rotarian Ken Spear about working with the Detroit Rotary Club on an educational opportunity benefiting both Wayne and Macomb County, with assistance grants from both clubs.
The October club service project headed by Christine LaTour, spoke of a cleaning of the Rotary Park on 10/16 and volunteers are needed.
Doug Norris's 4,000-mile cross-Canada country trip netted two Rotary club flags from Calgary and Nova Scotia and each one was "unique and different.” That's Rotary!

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The fine-master Dr. Murphy performed cash endectomies on a

waiting room full of members. Karen Bates-Gasior was temporarily absent for the first extraction but was later nicked for $2 for most missed.The best-dressed naturally went to Kathleen Best for her chapeau, $1. Bob Lee's musical improvisation linked with Doug N’s Canadian travels pounded them for $2 Loonies. The cost of living next door to Rev. Davies’s 8-year-old grandson for his birthday spanked him for $4. Ken S dating tips to Ed Mastry for flowers on a first date was ill advised to the tune of $2. The scribe relearned an expensive lesson "Never Sit Next to The Fine Master" lack of cake consumption and upcoming travels to South America $5. Steve K's tardy arrival cost him some extra coin.

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Scott Chabot introduced our speaker — two-term Clinton

Township treasurer in the largest Township in Michigan — Paul Gieleghem.

Paul has taken an interesting path in his political career by starting out in Lansing as the State Representative and moved down, over the years to local level. With 20+ years of service, he has had a unique view of how the system operates. Macomb County in the 1990s was the fastest growing county in the country with now over 100,000 residents. This has created challenges on many levels. With road expansion (or lack of it) school systems and tax base to cover all the needs, there is no easy way to define what the needs of the community are.

The greatest taxes are collected from the gas tax and auto registrations and is split between state, counties and cities. Macomb County is diverse with the aging roads and sewers of south cities vs. the new north and the expansion needs to meet that growth. We see it in Mount Clemens in how the school and police forces have changed over time. Paul gave a very balanced talk of the counties SWOT on how to address this problem, which for the scribe, was very informative about the community around us.

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CALENDAR of EVENTS

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OCTOBER 21

Larry Neal

Meeting followed by tour of

new North Branch Library,

54100 Broughton Road, Macomb MI 48042

NOVEMBER 18

Rufus McGaugh, author and world traveller

Joyriding with a Terrorist in Yemen: and Other Travel Tales