The meeting in the Winnetka Community House was opened at 12:15 by President Bill Leske. The Thought for the Day came from Wes Baumann who simply suggested we only use the three tables closest to the front as we had only 25 members present. It was followed by the pledge of allegiance led by President Bill. There were no visitors. Lunch was served at 12:20 and the meeting then started at 12:35.
ANNOUNCEMENTS: President Leske noted we had no birthdays or Rotary anniversaries to celebrate. He reminded us there are two Rotary trips available and anyone seeking further details should contact him.
He also noted August is “Membership” month and asked we all make a special effort to invite guests and remember there is a 1000 Harris points bounty to anyone who recruits a new member and that member stays for a year.
Rich Lalley noted the Kids Against Hunger has again been favored with $2500 grant from Rotary International.
HAPPY BUCKS: Ned Meisner threw in some Happy Bucks in recognition of a successful medical procedure that corrected his atrial fibrillation called Catheter Ablation. He also gave a second offering to celebrate going to Florida to help a good friend celebrate their 65th birthday.
John Thomas did the same for a similar catheter ablation treatment he recently had to eliminate atrial flutter.
DIG AND GRIN- Rick Borjesson provided two anecdotes. The first elicited appreciative whistles and clapping. The second got a plethora of groans ….
SPEAKER : The speaker for the day was Ned Meisner who detailed a service project in Ecuador that seeks an $80,000 Global Grant. The new grant would be a follow-on to a grant just successfully concluded. Ned had recently spent two weeks in the Quito, Ecuador area with an American friend whose late wife was Ecuadorean. While there in Ecuasor, Ned saw a successful water project, a school and a medical facility used by visiting U.S. doctors.
The new project is to be a second stage of training and implementing locals in better farming and crop distribution systems.
After a ten minute intro, Ned switched to a telephone connection with two Ecuadoreans who would be the leaders of the project, Dr. José Suarez and his wife Dolores Lopez-Suarez. They were visiting in San Diego. They outlined some details of the proposed project which they described as building a “training farm”. The audience was able to ask them some questions to get a better feel of what would be done with the second grant for the project..
There followed some questions about the mechanics of Global Grants in the Rotary International system with Ned and Rich Lalley able to answer those queries. It wa a well received talk with Mr. Meisner getting a nice round of applause at the end.
The meeting closed at 1:21 p.m. with a recitation of the Rotary 4-Way Pledge.
Areas of Focus
