3/9/11 Club Update

Posted by Gail Goldstein 
on Mar 10, 2011
 
 

Rotary Meeting - Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Just like a “bad penny” I turn up again – 2 weeks in a row!   It was Club Assembly Day today and we had a fabulous morning of fellowship!   President Armando opened our meeting with a warm and wonderful “welcome back” to Art Swerdloff.  I don’t know about everyone else, but just seeing Art today (along with his sporty new moustache) just made my day!  Art shared that he will be traveling to Puerto Rico in December for the wedding of his son – so a happy holiday season for Art!  We also learned that the Club will be welcoming a new member of the USC football team into the Vuchsas family and you know how I feel about that (sorry Gale)!  Anne’s soccer team won her playoff game despite the fact that “she says” they are horrible and next to the bottom - - perhaps a ringer???  Lucy’s wonderful daughter is home from college and missed breakfast but has made the Honor Society – so she deserves to sleep in!  All in all…good news was shared!

My goal today was to share with you my wonderful experiences at PETS and pass on some of my excitement, enthusiasm (with a touch of dread) that I now feel as I turn toward July 1st.  First of all, from my perspective PETS was a life-changing experience.  I left that 3-day program a completely different Rotarian from when I arrived.  I felt a renewed sense of family, fellowship, camaraderie, community purpose and international purpose and I feel deeply committed to all aspects of Rotary.  Not bad for 3 days of training!  Seriously, I want each and every one of you to feel the excitement and energy as we finish this Rotary year and look toward all that we can, and will, accomplish next Rotary year!   There’s much to be done! 

One of the areas that excite me is our opportunity to become a more generous partner in our International efforts to end polio and fund other international projects, such as the clean water projects.  In an effort to create momentum in this effort, I will be providing a “Gail’s Goodie” at each of the meetings during the coming Rotary year.  This “Goodie” will be a wrapped gift of some form or fashion and of unknown value - - - could be something extravagant, could be something modest - - - each week will be different.  This week we previewed the project by auctioning off a gift that was purchased by Lucy Wegner for $100 – thanks so much Lucy!!!  She received a leather-bound Rotary embossed portfolio and inside it was a $50.00 gift card to Nichols.  I was so happy to hear that she loved Nichols but more excited that we raised $100 to as the first Club donation to our International programs.  I am confident we will be able to accumulate an impressive sum that will be donated on behalf of our Club to our international programs!  Lucy has us off to a great start!

As promised, the following are the important District and RI dates to put on your calendar for the coming Rotary year:

·         June 11, 2011 – District Conference  (District Simplified Grant applications due)

·         July 26, 2011 – First District Breakfast

·         October 2, 2011 – District Picnic

·         November 6, 2011 – Paul Harris Celebration with Circus Vargas

·         February 8-14, 2012 – District Trip to Puerto Rico

·         March 31, 2012  - Community Service Day

·         April 19-22, 2012 – District Conference at San Diego, Mission Bay

·         May 5-9, 2012 – Rotary International Convention in Bangkok, Thailand

These dates have also been saved on our web site for your convenience. 

In addition to our District and International participation, I am excited to help plan and promote many social, service and fundraising events for our Club!   Today we talked about some of the projects that have been done by others, projects we currently do, projects we have done in the past, but most importantly, received the following suggestions from Club members for projects that they would like to pursue (big thanks to Tom Ryan, our secretary and my scribe today):

  • Find a way to get more people to Puerto Rico for the District Trip to capitalize on “Rotary Moments”
  • Develop some type of a food or necessities distribution program in our community
  • Adopt-our-Families for the year, not just the holiday season inclusive of a mentoring component for the children (a personal favorite!)
  • Plan an Arts and Crafts Fair for the community and for fundraising
  • Find a new partner to rekindle our “Back to School Shopping Spree” (formerly with Mervyns) to assist youth in need in our community
  • Assess whether there is a safe way to rekindle our Project Amigos program of building a home each year in Mexico at the orphanage
  • Develop home improvement projects that would help those in need in our community, perhaps turning our attention to area seniors
  • Develop a project for military women veterans perhaps through the V.A. or through a partnership with Military Women in Need
  • Rekindle our relationship with For the Troops to plan and pack boxes for delivery to active military serving abroad.

Wow, am I excited!!!  Add that to what I hope will be our Wild, Wild, West Dinner with Jim Vuchsas as Sheriff honoring our Sunrise Community Service recipient, membership recruitment meetings, McBride holiday adoption program, Ultimate Wine Experience, Venice High School Jacket program, several pancake breakfasts with our firefighters, Progressive Dinner, Bingo Night with Venice Boys & Girls Club, July 4th Parade, Santa Tour, Teacher Mini-grants and more….boy, what a year we are going to have!  There is only one issue that I can see……WE NEED MORE MEMBERS!!! 

We need to tell everyone we know, and even those that we don’t yet know, that we have an exciting, vibrant, family that provides wonderful friendships and memories for all!  We need more members to share the joy and fellowship and wonderful feelings that we while planning and executing these great programs!  To that end, I am happy to report that Anne Algaze has agreed to act at Public Relations Liaison for the upcoming year to promote all of this throughout our community!  Hopefully, promoting our projects, inviting guests to join us in the efforts and publicizing them will help increase our membership! Visit our web site (Playasunrise.org) for new Club, District and International stories.

So….take your vitamins, sleep well, fasten your seat belts and keep your hands and arms inside of the car because we are taking off for a fun and fellowship-filled year ahead!    Have a great week ahead!

Yours in Rotary,

Gail