Rotary File for May 24, 2016

 

Kevin Gotto-- Guest of Mike Messier

Linda Muston-- Iowa City Noon

Tine van der Stroom-- RC Rhenen-Veenendad, Netherlands

 

 

Myrene Hoover summarized the results of a member survey on positive and negative things about our club.  Approximately 70% responded with positive things to say about the club and about 30% mentioned things that could be improved.  Among the positives:  We have interesting speakers; we almost always have a greeter to welcome people to the meeting; a large number of members are actively involved in projects and events sponsored by the club; we socialize and have fun as a group; and new members are encouraged to take on leadership and participant roles.  Some of the items that some mentioned could be improved: we could do a better job of long range planning; we could try new meeting structures, places and times; we could post regularly on social media; there could be a stronger awareness among members of policies and budget issues that get discussed at the board level; incoming officers could be better trained;and we could be more diverse ethnically and racially.  The Board will be going over the results at the regular monthly meeting this Thursday.  A reminder that all members are welcome to attend Board meetings.  It will be at the Waterfront Hy-Vee Club Room at 6:45 am this Thursday morning.

 

Carolyn Wanat thanked the Scholarship Selection Committee members and particularly Deb Pullin-VanAucken and Tom Langenfeld for presenting the awards to Abby Dixson at City HS and Abby Moore at West HS.  They will both be attending UI in the fall and both expressed interest in continuing involvement with Rotary.

 

Liz Nichols announced that there will be a Communications Committee meeting from 9-11 on Saturday, May 28 at Tall Grass in Coralville (Dave Parsons is hosting).

 

Deb Galbraith invited everyone to visit her home on Kirkwood Avenue on Sunday, May 29 during the Historic Preservation open house in her neighborhood between 1 and 3 pm.  Anyone who wants to bring food or help Deb serve is welcome to do so.

 

Mike Messier thanked the approximately 34 members who volunteered at the Johnson County Community Foundation Golf Tournament on Monday.  It was a beautiful day and a big success.  Many commented about how well organized it was by all the volunteers.

 

Our visiting Rotarian from the Netherlands and friend of the Muston's, Tine van der Stroom, presented a banner from her club.  Deb and Kris Ockenfels brought back a banner from the RC of Prague they visited on their recent trip to that city.

 

Brian Adamec pointed out the many fine sale items on the display table.  There is even a lawn mower, trimmer and spreader available for bid.

 

 

Louis and Hannah Doerge, Peggy's children, discussed the filming of "Night of the Babysitter" a crime/horror thriller that Louis wrote and directed and Hannah helped to produce. 

 

Louis studied film production and acting at the University of Iowa and graduated in 2004.  He has always had a fascination for classic horror and crime films and got the idea for the script while living in Austin, TX.  In Austin he met Dora Madison, one of the actors on the set of "Friday Night Lights" which was filmed in Austin. She volunteered her acting skills to the part of the babysitter in exchange for being listed as an Executive Producer of the film.   Louis was fortunate to also get an Emmy-winning actor from Hollywood, Bill Oberst, who played the part of the killer.  Most of the cast and crew were local and most got minimal, if any, payment.

 

The movie was very low budget at $40,000.  Much of that was crowdfunded.  It was shot in super 16mm, which is actually better resolution than most digitally filmed movies.  It is currently in Austin being edited for sound and color.

 

Hannah was the Line Producer which means that she found many of the locations for the filming, including a motel room situated as needed for the details of the script.

 

Louis talked about the difficulty of finding distribution in a way that actually gets any of the financial backers, producers, directors or actors paid.  The major distributors generally claim that all of the revenue is eaten up in marketing and distribution costs.  Louis is going to try to independently distribute this film and will be heading to film festivals to introduce it, and particularly SxSW in Austin.

 

We were treated to an unreleased scene and a trailer from the film.