Rotary File - May 13, 2014
President Casey Cook opened the meeting at 7:05 am. He had awards to present to several club members, himself included, for having introduced new members to the club. He called Deb, Myrene, Jim Peterson, Sue Cronin, and himself. Everyone received one mention, except for Jim, who received two. President Casey thanked all of them.
President Casey also mentioned that D6000 is growing in membership. He introduced Bill Koellner, West Liberty, DG Assistant and D6000 Polio Fund Raising Chair. Bill congratulated the club for being 100% Paul Harris; he went on to say that now all Iowa City Rotary Clubs are 100% Paul Harris. Bill reminded us there are several levels of giving:
1 a Rotarian every year. $100.
2 a Rotarian every year: $1,000.
At this point, Bill congratulated Nancy Pacha for being $1,000 per year donor.
At the past District Conference, Gary Pacha, Deb and John Ockenfels, Jim Peterson, and Karin Franklin joined that level of giving to TRF.
Nancy thanked for the award. She mentioned the importance of service, of giving back to the community; said our club believes in the importance of serving, in Service Above Self, as is evident in the Global Grants and the community service the club has participated in / is participating in. We need money for TRF Annual Fund to be able to subsidize projects world-wide.
Another award was handed out. The Integrity Award was presented to Jim Swaim, for serving above and beyond business and private lives code of ethics. Since Jim was then in Washington, DC, it was presented to him at this meeting.
President Casey thanked Mark Patton for being present at the District Conference representing the RC of Iowa City AM. He also acknowledged the presence of Janet Coester, “an old Iowa City AM member who is visiting us today”.
The Sergeant-at-Arms gave his weekly Report. After mentioning the letters of the alphabet that were complete (i.e. all the Rotarians whose family name begins with that letter were present), he read the make-ups.
President Casey asked Randy Willman if there were any Rotarians in the news.
They were: Dave Parsons, Jim Swaim, Jim Peterson, and Mark Patton.
Guests and Visiting Rotarians: Janet Coester, former club member; Bill Koellner.
Announcements:
*Mike reminded everybody that there is still time to volunteer for the Golf Tournament on Monday, May 19th. He mentioned that this year they are going to serve steak.
*It was also mentioned that the Pre-Registration price of $125 for the 2015 District Conference was extended till Tuesday, May 20th. Thanks to Mark Patton, the same rate was extended to the other Iowa City Rotary Clubs. Write the checks to: District Conference 6000, 2015, and give the check to Mike Messier.
*It was also mentioned that a “think tank” for the Can Do Project will meet at Brueggers tomorrow, Wednesday 14th.
Happy Bucks
X There were many happy Rotarians, given that this part of the meeting took 25 minutes.
To mention one: West Liberty Rotary Club raised $60,000 during their bi-annual auction.
Program
Liz introduced the speaker, Joan Kjaer.
Joan presented “World Canvas”, to which she is the Director. It was in 2009 that she joined the UI international Programs, under which umbrella World Canvas is. She mentioned that she is very happy in this position. The programs are intellectually rich. Any topic may be presented, as long as it have an international angle. She said ideas or topics are welcome. The programs and all the pertinent information are at their website. The meetings take place at the Senate Chamber, 2nd floor, Old Capitol. The programs will start again in the fall.
This Friday, May 16th, the program will be “Language of the Brain”.
Another program was about Artificial Intelligence. It was mentioned that in five years, the person will think, and the computer will respond.
Joan mentioned that she pairs guests from different disciplines, to make the programs more interesting. It is also a way to introduce people, professors who see the subject from different points of view, and they may not know each other, even though they work for the same university.
The meeting adjourned at 8:00 a.m.
Respectfully submitted by Nenu Piragine