First off, Cheri recognized our outgoing Board members: Susan Jones, Denise Jones and Randy Sweeney! Thank you for your service above self!
OUR ROTARY YEAR
Well then. Here we are.
This year has gone by so fast that sometimes it has made my head spin! So much (and yet so little) has happened since our last recap at the Annual Meeting in December…
Here is a short summary of our year together since Past President Katie passed the gavel to me at the end of June 2019:
We started off with a bang with our Annual Golf Tournament in July, which turned out to be our main fundraiser of the year, raising over $7,000. Thanks to Phil Cala and Mike Bird and their excellent committee for starting us off right. These folks always do a spectacular job.
We then spent the summer scouting out locations for our weekly meetings with the Venue Committee, led by Sue Jones, with the help of Katie Geiss, Randy Sweeney, Russ Webb, and Lisa Goodell, and checking out the local Meat Raffle scene with the fundraising committee members. Unfortunately, we were not able to pull that one off, but we did have a successful holiday raffle, thanks to a group effort by Lisa Yaggie, Lindsey Alday, Kathy Burch, Michelle Jones, and Sandy Hatfield.
August was particularly busy for the Youth Exchange folks, saying farewell to Petra and Milko, who returned home to Croatia and Paraguay and best wishes to Sydney Wendell and Patrick Kelly as they headed off for new adventures in the Czech Republic, and Finland. We also welcomed Ana from Brazil and Paul from France, who quickly became part of our Jamestown Noon Rotary family. Thanks to all of the YE committee members for your support this year, especially counselors Hiroko Walters and Chris Anderson, and our perennial hosts – the Yaggies, who have now hosted upwards of 13 students for our club – as well as the Spillaines, the Bowers and the Masons, Kelly Dawson, the Wendells. Thanks also to all of you who indulge me with my reports of all things Youth Exchange. I am so proud and thankful to you all for your continued support of my personal “pet project”.
Camp Committee chair Randy Sweeney helped coordinate our annual program at Onyahsa with the Resource Center, and a few of us even joined them for their opening bonfire, which my granddaughters really enjoyed!
Our Social Committee did a great job this year, beginning with our Corn Roast in September and our Christmas party at St. Luke’s in December. They also made my dream a reality by resurrecting “Farch” with a Prohibition party on a snowy night in February. Thank you to Vicki Mc Graw, Kathy Benson, Lisa Goodell, Deb Kathman, Kathy Burch, and Stacy Hannon for bringing the club together “after hours”.
Colonel Vince Horrigan took over the reins of the Highway Clean-up committee this year and did a fantastic job of inspiring the troops to report for “Operation Trash Be Gone”. Well done to all who took part in that effort. You know “it’s a dirty job, but…”
We had another successful Red Kettle Drive this year. Thanks to Lynne Gruel and her team, who filled the time slots in record time! It is so nice to have our club out in the community supporting this annual event!
Thanks to Vice President Kevin Sixbey and the Vision committee for their work supporting the mission of the club far and near with projects abroad spearheaded by David and Marissa Troxell our “boots on the ground” representatives and local projects in coordination with the City and other local organizations. We can really be proud of the impact that our club has on our community and the world thanks to the dedication of these fine folks.
Steve Sandberg and the Vocation committee had great plans to expand the Mock Interview program this year, that were unfortunately stymied by the shut-downs, but I am really impressed by the number of you who were willing to give up a bit of your day to help to inspire our local students. Thanks too, to Kathy Burch, who helped me with my vision of the Rotary Why. Hopefully, it made you all think of your real reasons for being here each week. Thanks to those who were willing to share their stories. I think we all really enjoyed each and every one.
Diana Meckley has graciously taken over the reigns of the Literacy Committee mid-year and she has great plans. I hope that you will support her once she gets things up and running.
Thanks to Kathy Benson, who finished out the year as the acting chair of the Invocation and Song committee and to all the people who opened our meetings with thoughtfulness and prayer.
Thanks also, to our accompanist Lucy Miller and to Tim Edborg, Phil Cala and Vince Horrigan, our enthusiastic A ’Capella song leaders!
I am happy to report that our club participation in the Rotary Foundation continues to be very high under the leadership of Greg Jones and his lovely assistant Sue, who along with VP Joni have organized our monthly Birthday Table recognition in support of the Foundation. We have not been able to award all our Paul Harris Fellows this year, due to our inability to meet in person, but they will resume once Dr. Jones is “up and running” again!
I would like to take a minute to recognize a person who has been extremely valuable to the RCJCSF since its inception. Christy Brecht has graciously continued as the Treasurer of the RCJCSF since she ‘retired’ from her previous position as Club Treasurer. While she has not been able to join us in person as much lately due to her increased work responsibilities, she has continued her connection to the club through her various duties of tracking and maintaining our Foundation’s funds. Christy has decided to step down from the position of RCJCSF Treasurer this year. Her replacement will be announced soon, but in the meantime, I would like to offer her our thanks for her many years of quiet service for this particularly important responsibility.
Thank you to Sue Jones, Chris Anderson, and the rest of the Communications Committee for keeping us and the community informed about Club events throughout the year. Your timely “Rotarily Yours” reports have been especially valuable during recent months while we have been apart. I have to say that I haven’t missed having my photo taken every week, but I do know that your work has been recognized throughout the community if the number of times that people mentioned seeing me there are indication!
I would be remiss if I did not mention the Club Service committee, chaired by Norm Merrill. Although they have not been able to greet us and make sure that our room is ready for us every week as they did when we are together, we know that they will be there for us when we return, making sure that everything is in order. Norm has been under the weather during the past few months, and has also not been able to join us online, but I want to send a message of thanks to him and his committee members for all that they have done for us earlier in the year.
I cannot say enough about the Program Committees hard work – especially during these past three months. Becky Robbins and her crew have done a fantastic job of bringing us interesting and engaging speakers every week. I cannot say enough about the ways that they reach out to the community and educate us all about things that matter. I do have to say that I think the highlight of the year was the Jamestown “Tarp Skunks” presentation. It was awesome!
Many thanks to this year’s Board of Directors – President Elect Joni Blackman, Vice President Kevin Sixbey, Treasurer Russ Webb, Secretary Lisa Goodell, Past-President Katie Geise, Denise Jones, Sue Jones, Randy Sweeney, Lisa Yaggie, Chris Anderson and John Healey for your time and wisdom. It has been a pleasure to serve with you. Special thanks to Lisa and Russ for volunteering to check us in and take our money at all our meetings at the Dobuletree. These duties are not part of their “job descriptions” and we are thankful for their service!
Thanks as well to Katie, who gave me a great example to follow (and lots of extremely helpful guidance and notes) and to Joni who entertained my neurotic concerns and occasional complaints with calm and practical advice – I have no doubt that she will be a wonderful President for our club next year!
Finally, I want to extend my heartfelt thanks to our Membership Committee led by Randy Sweeney and co-chair Tory Irgang. Their commitment to instructing and orienting our new members is a valuable asset to the club. Their focus on the engagement of the membership of our club is so vitally important and I appreciate the time that they take to make our new members feel welcome and informed. I also appreciate their dedicated follow up and attention to attendance and participation. I am extremely proud of the fact that they were so immensely helpful in following up with each and every member during this time of quarantine, making personal phone calls just to check in and see how everyone is doing.
This was no small feat and I cannot tell you how very much I appreciated your efforts.
I can share facts and figures, but I will save that for President Joni’s annual report in December. Suffice to say we have done a whole lot this year! We have gained several new members and lost a few as well. I would like to take a moment of silence now for one, Misti Johnson.
Misti was a wonderful person, great friend to many, and fantastic representative of Rotary. Every time she approached the podium, she left me with something to think about. Her generosity of spirit and her wonderful wit were a blessing to the club and will continue to miss her.
Another loss for our club this year has been the resignation of Lucy Miller as our “Mistress of Music”. The club owes a great debt of gratitude for Lucy for keeping us in tune all these years. I have always enjoyed being part of a “singing club” and hope that the tradition can continue in some way, but I can honestly say that things will never be the same without Lucy’s accompaniment.
I would also like to take a moment to recognize an amazing achievement of one of our members who is actually here with us today via phone. 2020 marks Spud Erickson’s 50th year as a member of Rotary! His contributions to our club have been many and we miss having him with us each week. Although things have been difficult for him lately, he did tell Pat Kinney to let us all to know that although he misses us, ZOOM is just not his thing! Thanks to Spud for all he has done for our club over those 50 years – we appreciate ALL his contributions.
Finally, I am sure that there are some whom I have failed to mention by name, but I would like to thank ALL OF YOU for your support and encouragement this year. It has been my great honor to serve as your President and to get to know so many of you so much better. This year’s theme of “Rotary Connects the World” has been special to me in many ways, but most importantly it has been my connections to all of you that have made my life rich beyond words.
These past four months, in particular have been a great challenge to all of us, but I cannot tell you how very impressed I am of the quick pivot that you all have made to keep Rotary a part of your lives. Your adaptability and good humor during this switch to a new way of being together should not surprise me at all – you are ROTARIANS after all – but it has been heartwarming and comforting to know that our Rotary family is still intact despite the challenges.
I have one last thing to offer as I say goodbye to my year. As President of the club, I am given the honor of recognizing someone who I feel has been particularly helpful during my year of service. As I mentioned earlier, one of the things that our club achieved early on this year was the relocation of our weekly meetings to a new venue. The committee did a fantastic job of finding a new place to meet and working out all the details to make our weekly meetings at the Doubletree a reality. One person in particular had to figure out a way for us to take care of the weekly detail of payment to the venue. This person was instrumental in setting up the system for the credit card payments and transfer of funds each week. He did this fairly seamlessly without question or complaint (well, not many 😊) and also made it so that we can now pay our dues and make contributions online as well.
For his extra efforts this year, I would like to recognize our Treasurer, Russ Webb as the 2019-2020 Rotarian of the Year.
We did things a little differently this year, and I gave Russ his plaque earlier this week by having him stop by my house to “pick up” some paperwork. Thank you to Russ for your work as our Treasurer and for being such an integral part of our club. Congratulations!
There are many things that I had hoped to achieve this year that unfortunately did not come to pass because of the shut-down, but I have to say that I don’t feel discouraged, because I know that we will do great things together again very soon, and I can’t wait to help President Joni and the club continue our mission into the next Rotary year.