Conifer Rotary Club Meeting Info - Join Us!

Club Meeting Tuesday June 26, 2012
by Wytias, Charlotte

Program: Greg Podd, Former District Governor, AZ: Rotary!

If you missed this program, your life is diminished. The inspiration of Greg's words had more than Matt in tears! Thanks so much, Greg. Your presentation certainly made us all so proud and grateful that we are Rotarians!

Greg started his presentation reflecting on the annual themes that the RI Presidents select. Last year's theme, Reach Within to Embrace Humanity created the vessel for his presentation and this year's theme, Peace Through Service is emblematic of the essence of what Rotary is all about: "Understanding....Goodwill.....Peace". He reminded us that all that Rotary is and does happens through the individual Clubs and their members. Rotary is US! And the world needs Rotary more now than it ever has to meet the basic needs of our human family.

He spoke of the major areas of concern: 1. Literacy; 2. Water; 3. Hunger and Health. He set the stage, telling his own story of going on a Rotary Group Study Exchange to the Phillipines. This trip was life-changing for him, as he became truly aware of the enormous needs of people around the world who have nothing compared to what we have in the USA. He provided the statistics that prove the need for literacy, clean water and nutrition/health: 2 billion people in the world cannot read/write, and 2/3's of these are women; even in the USA, 1 in 4 do not graduate from high school; every 8 seconds, a child in the world dies because of contaminated water; nearly 1 billion people are malnourished and 42 million have HIV/AIDS. (A hungry man is an angry man....President Jimmy Carter).

Greg proposed that we have 2 halves of our lives: the first is to achieve success; the second half is to achieve significance. He shared a model of our planet were the whole thing represented by 100 people and what that would look like. It is dismal. So, he reminded us that it is what WE do that makes a difference. He proposed that in 2012-2013 Rotarians must:
1. Be proactive. We must be leaders. Leaders have a "poor sense of fear"; they have no concept of the "odds against them"; they "make the impossible happen".
2. Set demanding goals. People with goals succeed simply because they know where they are going. He reported on the work of Rotarian Tony Zino, who recognized the need for free open-heart surgery for children around the world. Ten thousand children have received the surgery at a cost of $1 billion dollars!
3. Develop partnership relationships. It is important to include people from our communities to join our projects. He reminded us of the tremendous partnership offered to the Polio Plus program by the Gates Foundation. We must create an army of activists.
4. Have a positive mental attitude...the Rotary Spirit. I can....I should...I must!!! Rotary=HOPE.

Guests: Ron L: Sponsor for Conifer Rotary Cookbook, Bill T, Boggie (Suzanne's father), Terry (RI Polio + Rep), Kimra (Evergreen Rotary), Julia (Charles' daughter)

50/50: Grand Winner: Cliff Bowron !!! (thanks, Cliff, for the donation to the Back Pack Program!)

Awards from the Annual Picnic on Sunday: for members not present...Service Above Self to Cliff, Finn, Catherine, Mark; Youth Exchange, Mark; Interact sponsors, Calisse, Steve; Board members, Calisse, Cathy T.

Greg Podd gift of ornament from beetle-kill pine, representing the ornaments created by our youth for the National Christmas Tree going from Colorado to Washington, D.C. 2012

FINE! Audrey reported that Bruce had lost his name badge at RYLA and was required to sing "I'm a Little Tea Pot"...which he did!

Peaches are coming!! Cookbook is coming!!! August 3rd. Get your orders to Angela! 500 cookbooks are ordered and will be given to peach purchasers!

First Tuesday: next meeting, bring your fresh produce for the food pantry...or $$$ to Christy

Be sure to see the photo book and scrapbook that Angela has created for the Club history!

Rotary Club of Conifer Meeting June 19, 2012
by Wytias, Charlotte

Guests: Larry, Kimra, Mark, Allison, Dave, Mary, Gretchen, Carol---from Evergreen; Bill Downs, DG; Bill Taylor, former Club member; Mary Adams and Alison MacKenzie (Bailey Day BackPack volunteers)

Program: Ben Allen, Rotary member of Evergreen, CO; Founder/owner of Allen Technology Advising: The State of Technology for Rotary District 5450, 2012.

Important note: Ben will make this power point presentation available on request! Thanks, Ben!

Ben prefaced his presentation with his own history of having gone to Tanzania, Africa, to set up a computer lab. He is returning this next January and will be there with his family through July!! You can see more about his project: ATAinAfrica.blogspot.com; a very interesting story!

Ben taught us some ways that we can use technology to enhance our communications and reduce "travel" time using "virtual meetings" which are FREE: via Skype.com (1:1 and screen-sharing); Join.me; (conference call and screen share with multiple people) Rondee.com (conference calls) ; oovoo.com (12 people per video).

He presented information about ways that we can maintain "boxes of files" that can be shared. The advantage is that, should an officer leave, for instance, all of the files that person has maintained are still accessible via the shared file. Drop-box is one venue as is our Rotary Club-Runner. Google-apps also provides this service free to 501c3 organizations (i.e. our Foundation would qualify). In addition, there is a training for apps: SnagIt can be installed and provides training videos that the Membership can use to learn about all of this!

For those in business, he had some "tech" suggestions for improving "business continuity": Avoid distractions on your home-page that would take people away from your website; use a Unified Threat Management (anti-virus) program that provides use agreement, web-filtering, antivirus and anti-spam services.

Special Visit from Evergreen Rotary!!!
A number of Evergreen Rotarians came to Conifer to present a $250 check to the Rotary Club of Conifer Foundation in memory of Arnold Agre. They have voted to start a scholarship in his memory and are donating a bench with his name to the Mountain Resource Center. Our deepest thanks to our dear friends in the Evergreen Rotary Club!

50/50: Gretchen from Evergreen: a pound of coffee; Angela--$43 (fyi: Catherine gave others a chance to win this week!!!

Announcements:
Club picnic and passing of the gavel as Suzanne Barkley's home, near Bailey at 3 p.m. Sunday June 24. Audrey is sending directions and menu reminders! Schedule: 3 p.m.: snacks and drinks (beer/wine/lemonade--byob if you want something else); 5 p.m. dinner (meat provided by Club) with side-dishes from members. Bring outdoor chairs. Parking is ok across the road from Suz's house. (Warning: there is a step-up into the kitchen!!)

Ward got his official name badge!!!!

The BackPack Program got a good start at Bailey Day June 16! We signed up nearly 10 volunteers, 2 of whom came to our June 19 Rotary meeting (Mary Adams and Alison MacKenzie) and are interested in becoming Rotarians!!! Suzanne had 2 Rotary Club of Conifer signs and a Rotary BackPack sign designed to promote the Club and the BackPack Program. The signs are in hard-board/laminated/grommeted....created by Dave Wortman at LCI Signs in Pine; and he refused payment---said he could decide there was no charge, since it is his business...and he appreciates all the Rotary does in the community!!!! Thanks, Dave!
We had a table, thanks to Marcel! and a canopy, thanks to Suz's son, Tom--good thing...it poured rain and hail at 1:30 pm!!!! We had flyers that described the Project and a back pack with a sample of the foods that will be provided to students on Friday's. We also met the folks who are running the Boys and Girls Club at Deer Creek Elementary school this summer----they have hungry kids, too. So, if you would care to bring boxes or bags of snack food that we can donate to them, please bring to the Club meetings.

Peaches are coming August 3. Last day to order is July 21. The Bailey market dayz will let us have a table for selling, too.

District 5450 news: All are invited to the change-over dinner, also to be held Sunday June 24. District Day at the Zoo, Denver, Sunday July 15. Register on the 5450 website.

Audrey Matson presented Rotary Flags to the Club from their Nepal trek from the New Zeelander Rotarians and the Mt. Everest Rotary Club

Rotary Club of Conifer Foundation Election:
Ed Steinbrecher and Melony Harris were unanimously voted back onto the Foundation Board of Directors.