Meeting Recap - Mar 1, 2016

Eric Nelson opened the meeting with the Pledge of Allegiance and Invocation.

 

Eric introduced his guests Mara Corey and Sharria Armstrong, teachers at Irondale. John Risdall introduced his guest, Tyler Moury, account executive at Risdall Marketing.

 

President Dana Rebelein took the podium to remind us that next week's meeting will be offsite at CPY's 5th Annual Spring Luncheon. The keynote speaker will be John Turnipseed, a great speaker with a compelling message. The luncheon will be held at the New Brighton Community Center from 12-1 PM (Check-in begins at 11:30). Click here for details. See the left hand column for future programs.

 

The Egg Hunt is coming up soon, so mark your calendars now so you will be available to help. Egg stuffing will be on Palm Sunday, March 20th at 11AM at Lakeside Homes, 1200 Foss Rd. The Egg Hunt itself will be on March 26th and everyone should be at Driftwood Park by 10 AM. 

 

By now all of you should have received Paul Fournier's email informing the club that, for health reasons, he would be unable to serve as President 2016-17. Dana announced that John Risdall has offered to be co-president with Paul for the 2016-17 term (following the club meeting, a special Board meeting passed a resolution to present the proposed co-presidency for approval at the March 15th regular club meeting).

 

The Board will have its regularly scheduled meeting on March 22, 11 AM.

 

Don't forget that the Gold Plate dinner will be April 1st. Tickets should be available soon. Margaret Johnson passed out a Gold Plate Dinner sponsorship information sheet.  You can download it here.

 

Gerry Tietz presented Bev Aplikowski with a Paul Harris Fellowship +3.  Thank you Bev, for your support of the Rotary Foundation.

 

Cindy Carlson reported that support has been strong for sponsoring Maman, a 7 year old Nigerian student.  In fact, the $360 needed to sponsor him for a year has already been raised and she has begun collecting the additional contributions needed to sponsor a female student as well. Contact Cindy if you would like to contribute.

 

Dana summoned John Marg-Patton to the front so that we could properly celebrate his birthday, but John resisted the summons, drawing a surly response from the membership until he defused the situation by offering to partner with John Ordway to bring dessert in two weeks so that we could celebrate both John's birthdays at once. Finemaster Jim Kadechka was not so easily pacified, fining John a dollar for the delay tactic.

 

Glenna Dibrell offered a happy fine in anticipation of her 3rd grandchild, who should be born any day now.

 

Eric Nelson introduced Irondale teacher Mara Corey, who thanked us for our support of the Classical Actors Ensemble's upcoming performance of "Macbeth" at Irondale.  We are invited to attend the performance on Friday March 11th at 11AM.  Eric and Mara are shown below.

 

Eric Nelson introduced our speaker, Sharriah Armstrong.  Sharriah spoke to us about "Paideia", a learning method that she employs to increase student engagement and improve literacy skills at Irondale.  Sharriah described Paideia as a discussion method that teaches rules for civil discourse and thought exploration in a professional setting.  It teaches students how to think critically, not what to think.  To ensure civil discussion and inclusion of all viewpoints, she has seven rules for Paideia discussions:

Sharriah led us through a Paideia discussion and many were impressed by the effectiveness of this learning strategy. Our thanks to Sharriah for sharing it with us.  Dana, Eric and Sharriah are pictured below.