Last Tuesday's meeting featured our representatives at this year's Rotary Youth Leadership Academy (RYLA). Irondale Students Kelly and Tariq (pictured below) spoke about their experiences at Camp RYLA.
Today's meeting guests were Past District Governor Gary Campbell and his wife, Assistant District Governor Sandy Campbell.
Our Gold Plate Dinner Fund-A-Cause effort was so successful that we were able to make a $5,000 contribution to CPY to help fund their summer food program. Ninety percent of CPY students qualify for free and reduced lunch programs during the school year but help is needed during the summer months. CPY is going the extra mile by providing families with meal packs this summer. You can help by volunteering to help pack weekend meal kits before the Rotary meeting on Tuesday, June 14th from 10-11:30AM. Call Mary Stewart at 651-633-6464 to sign up. Mary is shown receiving our CPY donation check below.
Jed Hamoud was back from Lebanon with good news about the political climate there. Jed noted that two female Rotarians, Dr. Ghada Ayoub and Dr. Najat Saliba, have been elected to parliament!
John Johnson shared his thoughts about ways to recruit new members and increase attendance of current members. As a relatively new member, John has found it difficult to recruit new members for a number of reasons. Potential members strongly resist the idea of attending a noon meeting every week, preferring instead to meet before or after work. John also feels that he doesn't have a complete picture of our club's various roles in the community, making it hard for him to explain why someone should join the club. Cindy Carlson moderated a discussion about meeting times and the vast majority of Rotarians present preferred a morning meeting with a continental style breakfast and one meeting a month at happy hour. We also discussed the value of having a speaker at our meetings as well as the magnitude of the task of securing a speaker for every meeting. The consensus of those present seemed to be that speakers were important and desired for most meetings. Club leadership will investigate the particular details of changing our meeting times and survey the membership about their preferences. The club owes a debt of gratitude to John for initiating the discussion of these issues which are essential to the future of NBMV Rotary.
There will be no meeting next Tuesday due to the Memorial Day Holiday.
Our Speaker on June 7th will be Dave Newman speaking about the Fast For Hope Water Project