June 26, 2017 – Meeting Bulletin
 
Birmingham Rotary Club – Meeting on June 26th
Dave Underdown has called the meeting to order at 12.15PM with the Pledge of Allegiance and the Four Way Test.

Regan Gilshire sang America The Beautiful

Chris Winans gave the Invocation as follows:
Each of us is called to be the best we can be.  We are not called to mediocrity.  Very few of us can rise to embrace our call on our own.  It takes commitment, effort and encouragement to achieve greatness.  Let us be thankful today for the commitment that our President Dave Underdown has given to this club as our leader this past year.  He has truly given service above self.  He has taught us that while we work toward our own success, it is our responsibility to help guide others to their success as well. We can achieve great things when we work together.  Let us be thankful for the opportunities we have in Rotary to work together, as well as for the people we meet who inspire us to greatness and whom we inspire.

Mr. Jay Reynolds was a guest of our President Dave Underdown today.

Volunteers for the meeting today:
  • Lunch Tickets & Attendance:  Joe Valentine
  • Raffle Tickets:  Ken Gass
  • Greeter:  Charles Wickins
  • Sheriff:  Bill Roy
  • Bulletin Editor: Dilip Kuchipudi
 
Announcements:
  • Dave Underdown gave out the Paul Harris Award to Bill Roy for contributing US$1000 to the Foundation.
  • Nave Grewal will pass on her Treasurer duties to Regan Gilshire.
  • Bryan Frank is organizing Tigers match on July 26th.  Ticket is US$45.  This includes transportation by bus from Birmingham and back with snacks and drinks on the bus.  Only about 20 tickets left.  Please sign up ASAP.
  • Hope Warming Center:  The next serving at the center will be on August 1st.
  • Year End Party at John Westerheide was wonderful and thanks to John it was organized very well.  Dave gave out acknowledgment gifts to all the members who supported him throughout the year.
 
Birthdays:
  • Marsha Kovack is on June 28th and Norma Jean Evans on June 30th.  Very Happy Birthday to them.
  • Marriage Anniversary:  Bob Shirley Kenning is married for 70 years as of June 22nd, 1946. Congratulations
  • Membership Anniversary:  Sara Rappaport has become a Rotarian on June 21st, 2014 
 
Raffle & Card Draw:  
Regan Gilshire won the daily raffle
No one won the pot

Sheriff:
Bill Roy started off mentioning about Tigers ending the losing streak and appreciating Dave for his leadership this past year.  Almost all the members contributed and spoke high about Dave’s leadership this past year and passion for Rotary.
 
Program:
Linda Hatfield, the incoming President has praised Dave’s leadership and said would miss Dave’s text messages after 11PM about the next day meeting.  As a coincidence Linda and Dave share the same birthday (Don’t remember the day) and their spouses share the same birthday on November 3rd.
Dave spoke about the accomplishments this past year particularly the Master’s Raffle Tickets where we ended up with US$19000 on the positive side.  He also mentioned it as a miracle that his wife Linda is married to him for 38 years and counting.  He also thinks since he successfully completed his term as President, anyone can do it.  (I would add anyone can do it provided they have the same passion of Dave).
 
John Mucha gave a summary of what we had accomplished as part of Rotary Foundation.  The grants from our Foundation are preferably given to projects where we are involved actively.  Grants have been given to the Pontiac Schools Literacy Project, Hope Warming Center, and Sponsorships for students to attend RYLA.  As a member of the district we have to contribute to the District Foundation which will allow us to apply for Grants and this has been fulfilled successfully.  As an international project we have contributed to two more water wells in Ghana and seeing the progress we will contribute more.  There has been grant given to the Community House which has been a home for Birmingham Rotary for the past 87 years.  There were other grants to Kids Kicking Cancer, Disabled Kids Hockey etc. as well.

Norma and Alicia gave a summary of Pontiac School Literacy Project.  Given the feedback received, this program is making a huge difference in the reading levels of the children.  1st and 2nd Grade children have improved 2 reading levels and likewise the 4th grade children as well.  Kids were taken on a Field Trip to Victory Ranch and it was thoroughly enjoyed by them.  Some of the children may not have seen outside of Pontiac and they enjoyed the day trip including horse riding.  Children were very appreciative of Birmingham Rotary for all the great work it is doing for changing their lives.

Joe Bauman has been appointed as the District Grants Committee Chairman.  We as a club have to contribute $75/member per year to the Foundation and next year it is going to be $100/member.  He requested all the members to sign up for an auto deduction of contribution towards this and more.  Our district gave US$1.2M this year to Foundation.  Rotary has been nominated as the best Charity organization and this contributed towards making Bill Gates give $450M towards eradication of Polio.

Dave concluded the meeting thanking everyone for their support this past year and asked everyone to get involved more.