Rotary File - January 20, 2015
President Mark distributed an assortment of MLK quotes in honor of his holiday yesterday.
Greg Probst became our latest member to achieve Paul Harris Fellow status.
RI President-elect K.R. “Ravi” Ravindran recently announced his presidential theme for 2015-16, “Be a Gift to the World,” at the opening session of the International Assembly in San Diego, California.
Rotarians in the news: Dave Parsons for an Iowa City Press-Citizen column and Jean Knepper regarding an elementary art project.
Please use the consolidated signup for dish duty, scribe or World in a Minute.
World In A Minute: Tom Langenfeld spoke about Benin, Africa. It’s officially the Republic of Benin, bordered by Togo to the west, by Nigeria to the east and by Burkina Faso and Niger to the north. A majority of the population live on its small southern coastline on the Bight of Benin, part of the Gulf of Guinea in the northernmost tropical portion of the Atlantic Ocean. The capital of Benin is Porto-Novo, but the seat of government is in Cotonou, the country's largest city and economic capital. Benin covers an area of approximately 115,000 square kilometers (42,000 sq mi), with a population of approximately 9.98 million. Benin is a tropical, sub-Saharan nation, highly dependent on agriculture, with substantial employment and income arising from subsistence farming. It has just one Rotary club, whose priority is to eliminate malaria in its country.
On February 26 we will have our Community Grants Awards event. Tickets are $20 each, it will be at 6:30 p.m. in the Kirkwood room and feature French food.
On January 22 there will be an Executive Committee meeting, and on February 14 our district planning committee will meet.
Bowl For Kids’ Sake, the annual charitable event for Big Brothers Big Sisters of Johnson County, will be held February 28-March 1.
Speaker: Brad Friedhoff, former naturalist for the Johnson County Conservation Board spoke
About the interlocking trail systems in Johnson County. Three historic trails are Dillion's furrow, the Mormon handcart trail and Lane trail, used for the Underground Railroad.
Trail development began in earnest in 2000 when the Johnson County conservation board adopted fist trail plan, and in 2006 formed its first trails advisory committee.
Starting this year, all “separated” trails will be managed by the Johnson County Conservation Board, while all others will continue to be managed by Johnson County Secondary Roads.
Multi-use trails and water trails are also being considered in addition to the usual walking and biking trails.
More information is available at Www.johnson-county.com/conservation as well as on their Facebook page.