Meeting held on June 21st, 2016,
Recorded by Phil Thoden
President Harold Ingersoll called the meeting to order. Corey Gaskill led the pledges and Ellen Hunt gave our invocation of the day. Kim Gdula led us in saying The Four Way Test. Cindy Veidt served as greeter and Kenton Heinze introduced the guests and visitors.
President Harold exchanged Adrianne Marks’ Red Badge for a Blue Badge. Congratulations Adrianne! Jim Bryce provided a Global Awareness Update about the efforts of the Rotarian Action Group Against Child Slavery (racsrag.org) that works globally to protect the astonishingly high number (46 million!) of children who suffer as slaves worldwide, particularly in Asian countries.
President Harold then reminded everyone to use Meetup and Facebook to sign up and let people know about our Rotary Club activities. He also thanked Charles Doty for hosting a fun wine tasting event this past Friday. Last, he introduced us to Alexis Taylor who is currently a Rotary Peace Scholar candidate from Austin. Good luck Alexis!
After an extended 10 minutes of Fellowship time, President Harold reconvened the meeting to share an overview of our Club’s accomplishments during the 2015-2016 Rotary year. Among the impressive highlights:
- Held 48 excellent programs with average weekly attendance of 97 members, an increase of 3% participation
- Conducted major Club By-laws reform
- 12 Thirsty Thursdays with average of 8 members monthly
- 12 North Austin and 12 Downtown Austin breakfast clusters with average of 12 members each
- Started new MasterMind group with average of 12 members monthly
- Taught 86 students how to start a business, while engaging 30 of our members through Camp Enterprise
- Conducted four new member recruitment events; engaged 123 members and increased membership by 15 new members (overall increase of 30 new members)
- Assisted 40 orphans by funding the Iraqi Children’s Fund Orphan Psychology Project and engaged 18 members
- Raised $16,815 for polio eradication and engaged 30 of our members with Pints for Polio event
- Drilled a water well in Negros Moscogos, Mexico, impacting communities in a 10-mile radius (800+ population)
- Donated $500 to the anti-malaria campaign in Northern Sudan which purchased 100 mosquito nets
- Hosted a Stop Hunger Now project that engaged 80+ members and provided 11,000+ Meals (this was more meals than Congress bagged)
- Engaged 19 middle school students, 2 faculty and 16 members by creating an Interact Club at Fulmore Middle School
- Graduated 103 5th Graders; awarded 400 medallions; and engaged 850 students, 135 faculty & 135 parents/family members from Pecan Springs and Dawson Elementary Schools through Early Act First Knight
- Distributed 30,000 books and had a single 800 book giveaway to the public through our Literacy committee
- Served 12 military families through Operation Vacation
- Awarded 14 high school and 1 masters program scholarships, totaling $50,750
- Conducted 3 events at the Helping Hand Home for Children: Splash Day, cluster lunch meeting & Christmas party
- Crossed the threshold of $1,000,000 donated to The Rotary Foundation since the inception of our Club
- Increased the corpus of our Austin Rotary Club Foundation by $15,165; and solicited $38,605 forprojects and $29,050 for the Rotary Foundation through Annual Ask
- Raised $88,620 from 162 members through Annual Ask and engaged 31 members in the committee
In recognition of all these significant accomplishments by the Club, President Harold then handed out awards and recognized the many outstanding member volunteers who made all these good things possible.
Next week’s “speaker” is the Changing of the Guard Program.