Latest News from President Steve!
South Gateway Internet Newsletter - Week of April 6, 2008
Dear Rotarians,
April will be a busy month for South Gateway Rotary.
Rebuilding Together
On this Saturday, April 12, 2008, members of the South Gateway Rotary will assist in rehabbing (probably repainting and clean up) of a house in the old LaSalle School area. The owner is economically incapable of handling this fixup, and we will be helping along with dozens of other people and organizations. Paul White will have more on the circumstances and the location at Tuesday's meeting.
BOARD MEETING
Our board meeting this month will be April 17, 2008, at 12:00 o'clock noon at the South Bend Library, main branch. Discussions will include organizations that we will be funding and projects that we will be undertaking during the next few months.
YOUTH LEADERSHIP
Mike Tinney is taking a couple of Riley students in for the RYLA conference on April 17. The students involved will make a presentation at one of our subsequent meetings. What a worthwhile project this always is.
TRIVIA NIGHT
Put on your thinking caps for the second annual South Gateway Rotary Club Trivia Night on Friday, April 25, 2008. Also we all need to be working on finding people who will fill the tables. Cost is $10 per attendee. Should be lots of fun.
THIS WEEK'S SPEAKER
This week's speaker will be Paul Lambo from the Literacy Council of St. Joseph County.
THIS WEEK'S JOB RESPONSIBILTIES
- Jon Shaffer - Greeter
- George May - Invocation
- Fred Bettner - Raffle
Submitted by:
Steve Eslinger, President
South Gateway Internet Newsletter - Week of March 10, 2008
Dear Rotarians,
CONDOLENCES TO FRED AND BEVERLY BETTNER
Our condolences to out to Fred and Beverly Bettner on the loss of her mother last week. All of us know how big a part she had been in their lives. Our thoughts and prayers are with them.
MEXICO WATER TANK PROJECT
The Anthony Wayne club from Fort Wayne started a project to put 16 water pumps and tanks into a poor Central American town well up in the mountains. The people there had previously only had rain water and stream water to drink. Each pump and tank cost $3,000 to get moved in and installed. The club raised more than was required for the project and is now requesting that several other clubs contribute a little bit of money to fill out their requirements for one more pump and tank. This subject will be among those discussed at the board meeting this Thursday. If you have input either favorable or unfavorable on this subject please share that input with one of the board members.
BOARD MEETING ON THURSDAY
This Thursday will be the March board meeting. Due to unavailability of either library site, the meeting will be at the office of Steve Eslinger. Steve's office is in the Trigon Building on the 5th Floor in Suite 517. The Trigon Building is directly across the street (South) from the County-City Building on Jefferson Blvd. We'll be adding a little food this time. Steve has indicated that he will be serving pizza to the board members who attend.
THIS WEEK'S SPEAKER
This week's speaker will be David Switzer, Community Relations Manager for I & M. Dave was recognized recently by St. Joseph County Chamber of Commerce at the Capitol Connection Luncheon for his years of service to The Chamber’s Legislative Affairs Council (See photo below with Mark Eagan on left and Dave on right). Switzer has led the council as chairman since 2003. Chamber President Mark Eagan made the presentation in front of more than 100 people gathered at Morris Park Country Club and thanked Switzer for his leadership and dedication to The Chamber.
THIS WEEK'S DUTY ROSTER
- Robert Frank - Invocation
- Don Napoli - Greeter
- John Toepp - Raffle
Steve Eslinger, President
March 3, 2008
Ethical Will
The March issue of The Rotarian magazine has an interesting article about "Ethical Wills". An ethical will does nothing to transfer your property on death. Instead, it is intended to be a letter about what you have learned or hold dear or even how you want your heirs to use the money or other assets you have left them. I had never heard of this concept before, but it is an interesting idea. Apparently, in some places these ethical wills are even recorded on video tape or CD to make them even more personal.
Travia Mivia
April 25th is the date of this year's Trivia night. I have to admit that this idea did not excite me the first time I learned about it. But then I attended last year's event and actually had a good time. And our club was just learning how to do it then. When my wife asked me to go to another Trivia Night this Friday which will support a different cause, I did not hesitate to agree to go.
Back to our Trivia Night, Emee has asked that we each submit a set of questions pertaining to a topic of interest to use at this year's event. I have been putting together a list of questions on one of my hobbies, which is woodworking. Please help out early by creating and submitting your list of questions on your subject of interest as well. Keep in mind, however, what the reaction will be of your own table if your questions (which you will not be able to answer, of course) are too difficult or too easy.
Speaker for Tuesday, March 4, 2008
The speaker tomorrow will be Sara Jane Cikara, an exchange student.
Duty Responsibilities for March 4, 2008
- Greeter Emee Miller
- Invocation John Conlon
- Raffle Mike Tinney
P.E.T.S. Conference Report
At last week's meeting, Jerry Hunt, our President-Elect, brought back a report from the PETS conference that the incoming RI president wants to have $1,000 donated by every club for the eradication of polio. At Thursday's board meeting, Jerry indicated that RI really wants each club to donate $1,000 per year for each of three years. The first year would be the 2007-2008 year, which ends this summer. Our club will be considering and deciding within the next few weeks whether to make this contribution for the 2007-2008 Rotary year to the Polio Plus program of Rotary International. Be prepared to discuss this request. (Incidentally, for those of you who have not yet heard of PETS, its stands for the "Presendents-elect Training Sessions", a Rotary conference held yearly which the incoming president of each Rotary Club must attend in order to be trained on how to run a Rotary Club.)
EREY - the "Every Rotarian, Every Year" Newsletter
Another point that Jerry Hunt said was stressed at the PETS conference was that Rotary International wants each Rotary member to contribute at least $100 per year toward the Rotary Foundation every year . In order to make this happen, Jerry is planning to start keeping a record and is asking members to contribute $10.00 every month at some meeting that month when they are purchasing their meal tickets and/or raffle tickets. The Rotary Foundation is one of, if not the largest foundation in the world. As our club has already learned that their money is spent on projects that are frequently valuable and organized by local clubs. The eye project that Kane Brolin, our own club member, helped with and the water pumps project organized by the Roseland club a couple of years ago were made possible by generous co-funding with the Rotary Foundation. The Rotary Foundation funds projects on a large scale that single clubs would be unable to do by themselves So, when Jerry's hitting you up for that monthly contribution to the Foundation, you will know why.
New BANNER For Our Club
At the board meeting, John Toepp made a couple of excellent suggestions on additions to the design for the South Gateway banner. His proposed changes really don't affect what is already on the banner but just clarifies what the principal pictures are about. The board encouraged John to go ahead with those changes.
TRIVIA NIGHT
Mark Goodhew, Emee Miller, and Greg Melton are working on setting up Trivia Night for late April. It is probably going to be a Friday evening. John Toepp is working on getting the Knights of Columbus hall. Don't forget that Emee needs questions in an area of interest to you. You won't be able to answer your own questions, but you will be able to enjoy watching others struggle with that information as they try to answer your questions.
RUBBER DUCK RACE IS A GO! 
The board was very favorable to doing the duck race again this year. We believe that it again needs to be run in conjunction with another organization's project or event on the East Race. That brings in more people and more sales of tickets, particularly at the last minute before the race occurs. The board members liked the duck race because it is the right size project for our club, it doesn't take very long to run the event, and it is a good fundraiser. We all had fun doing it last year and are looking forward to it again. This is one of our "most fun" events in which all Rotary members can participate!
THIS WEEK'S SPEAKER
This week's speaker will be Barbara Mort, Assistant to the Governor Ambassadoreio Scholars. This was later postponed to a future meeting due to the bad weather on February 26th.
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 2008 DUTIES
Kane Brolin - Invocation
Greg Melton - Greeter
Steve Sommers - Raffle
Steve Eslinger, President
Our South Gateway Membership Directory Gets a New Address ... and a New Look!
Our club's Membership Directory has been moved to a new, faster server and has a new look or interface that gives you more options when you perform a search or when you want to see the data listed in a different way. Check out our new ... South Gateway Rotary Membership Directory
