Rotary File - June 24, 2014

Chris Knapp lead us in singing.

Casey noted that our club’s attendance % had dropped precipitously the past couple of months and the next President had better to do better.

Our club had a 120% participation rate for the Polio Plus Campaign.

Sergeant-at-Arms report:  7 Guests:  Deb O introduced their daughter Kris; Toby introduced Gene Fisher; other guests included John Dawson from Kirkwood; a South African with an unpronounceable name, and Pete Wallace.

Rotarians in the News:  All members were in the District 6000 newsletter.

Announcements:  Pete Wallace announced the need to join the Fan Club for the Crisis Center, cost is $20 to purchase fans (supported by Blank and McCune).

June 26 is the board meeting at Waterfront Hy-Vee early in the morning (6:45 a.m.).

The first meeting with District Governor with a board will take place after the regular meeting on July 1.

Jim Peterson announced approval of a Paraguay water/sanitation project for +$30,000.

Myrene announced that the vacation house to bid on at the silent auction should be looked at seriously (i.e. bid it up).

Happy Bucks: Deb D had $15 for the 15 cellists who had climbed a Colorado mountain to present a cello concert; Mike M. announced the golf tournament will net about $30,000 and we had 28 volunteers from our club help out; Nenu was thankful for the Paraguayan grant, Tom N. announced that son Daniel flew to Helsinki; Liz L announced that Bill got home safe and had survived two weeks of their son-in-law; Pat S. thanked Valerie M.  for the nice French breakfast,   Andreas hoped that the US soccer team would beat Germany; Deb O was happy that her daughter might be interested in Rotary;  Anne L. announced that Katy L got to Nicaragua safely; Jack reported that Brazil found polio in sewage but due to a 95% vaccination rate there was minimal fear of an epidemic; Bryan has a daughter and grandchildren who visited the Children’s Museum and it was the “Best Ever they had ever been in”; John O said he was looking forward to meeting with us first next week; Casey had a good European trip.

Program:  Jack introduced Jon Weih, Director of Student Services at Kirkwood.  He spoke about the new regional center.  Background: 7 school districts in the Jones County area came together seven years ago to help form the first regional center in Monticello.  Specialized and expensive equipment has made it difficult to offer trades.  Senior Year Plus (passed by the Legislature) made it possible to offer high school seniors by community colleges.  3 regional centers have been built in Linn County, Washington County, and UI (to open in 2015) Center in Johnson County.  Reasons for changes: new technology, new networking, new technical training needed. 

Every student is funded at about $7000 by the state.  If the student opts to take a Kirkwood course, Kirkwood charges back to the school district what it costs.  School can then charge back to the state the cost to send the student on to Kirkwood.  Clear Creek, College, Iowa City, Regina, Solon, Tipton, West Branch are school districts participating in the new Center.  UI, STEM Hub, Grant Wood AEA, and Workplace Learning Connection will all be part of the new Center.

Students who test high enough can receive credits from UI or ISU.  They opened an arts curriculum this past year and had about 90 students enrolled.  John will be becoming Director of the Regional Center this week.

The meeting adjourned at 8 a.m.

Rotary Files are available on the club's home page: www.icamrotary.org. 

Respectfully submitted by Mark Patton,

Rotary Club of Iowa City A.M.