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Harold
Isbell
Message from Harold Isbell, President - May 2008
Notes from the Club President – April 2008
As we approach the end of another school year, I’d like to review some of the things our club does for students:
a. We sponsor an Interact Club for high school students. It meets at OTHS every Tuesday during school hours. Jay Taddei is our liaison with the club, and he attends every one of their meetings. A faculty sponsor also meets with them. They’ve had several service projects this year, including participating in our Highway 50 cleanups two Saturdays a year, a Christmas gift program which aims for every child to get at least one gift each year, collected Books for Belize, and organized and conducted their own fund raisers at the high school.
b. We send two students to RYLA (Rotary Youth Leadership Awards), a leadership camp at Lake Williamson, Carlinville, IL the first weekend of August. We’ve already sent in registration forms and money for two OTHS students this year. (One of last year’s participants was elected president of the Interact club after she returned and has done an outstanding job of leading them this year.)
c. Many of us Mentor at one of the local schools. Mentors meet with their mentees one hour each week. Mentoring can include help with homework, playing games, just listening and establishing a relationship of trust with the student. Many students need the presence of an adult they can depend on in their life.
d. We recognize a Student-of-the Month every month during the school year.
e. We sponsor an exchange student from another country (this year from Poland).
f. We award two $1,000 scholarships to graduating seniors from OTHS. (This year’s winners attended our meeting March 31st.) Rotarians Steve Amezich, Cindy Doil and Maurice Hesse developed the criteria, reviewed the applications and selected the winners.
g. Dick Glogowski organizes a Job Shadowing program for high school students, in which he matches them up with business men or women in the vocations the students request.
Our Golf Tournament is coming up May 13th at Far Oaks Country Club. We need lots of help with it. Please let Jill Pietrusinski or Dave Snyder know your availability.
Our annual family event at a Gateway Grizzlies game is scheduled for early June. Dick Anshus has reserved one of the “sky suites” for us. We’ll have food and drinks and a great view of the game. Grizzlies games are always full of excitement, both on the field and off! The club is heavily subsidizing this event, and cost to each of you will be only $10.00 – including tickets to the game and food and drinks. Save the date!
Notes from the Club President – March 2008
Harold
Isbell Notes from the President
Welcome to March, the month when spring will arrive and we’ll all start enjoying warm weather, sunshine, flowers and robins cheerfully building their nests. (Have I told you about the swamp land I have for sale in Arizona?)
We have many opportunities for Rotary enrichment right here on our own doorstep between now and the middle of April.
- Basic PETS (President-Elect Training Seminar) will be offered Thursday March 20th at the O’Fallon Public Library. This is mandatory for President-Elects (in our case John Betten) and encouraged for other officers, board members, or anyone who is interested in how clubs operate.
- A Rotary Leadership Institute will be offered Saturday, April 12th at the O’Fallon First United Methodist Church. This is another opportunity for all Rotarians to learn more about Rotary. The club will pay the $85 registration fee for up to six of our members. You can register by going to www.rotary6510.org/rlihoa.htm. Let me know if you register so we can pay your fee.
A district foundation dinner and celebration will be held at the Katy Cavins Center Sunday April 20th. Please see me for tickets.
The GSE team from Brazil will attend the foundation dinner and will be at our meeting Monday April 21st. We will be looking for members to host them overnight (maybe more than one night) and transport them to planned activities during their stay.
Finally, a few words about our benevolent activities this Rotary year. We gave $7,500 to the O’Fallon Parks and Recreation Department for a climbing wall and playground equipment in Rock Springs Park, $2,500 to the Rotary Foundation for 60 clean water wells in Bangladesch, $2,500 to the District’s Mobile Dental Van in India. (Both Foundation gifts will be matched by Rotary districts in the areas to be benefitted.) We gave $1,100 to the YMCA for their Partnership in Youth program, which makes it possible for local youth to participate in summer programs. We gave $100 to the Okaw Valley Boy Scout Council and $250 to the two Cub Scout Packs we sponsor. We still have $5,000 designated for a local cause to be determined later in the year.
I’m looking forward to the speakers and programs we have lined up for March. Hope you enjoy them too!
March 3 Wanda Parmentier from Cambridge House apartments March 10 Congressman Jerry Costello or IL Rep Ron Stephens (still unconfirmed) March 17 Darcy Benway on OTHS programs and funding March 24 Jim Clindaniel on Hospice programs and changes March 31 Business Meeting
Notes from the Club President – February 2008
Harold
Isbell Notes from the President
Our club’s founding fathers hit on something big when they picked Mondays for our meeting days. Every month since September has contained a Monday holiday, and with Presidents Day in February we will have canceled six meetings. (Would have canceled seven, but we met November 11th because we’d celebrated Veterans Day with ceremonies Saturday and Sunday of that weekend.) March has five Mondays and we’ll meet every one of them! What a shock that’s going to be!
Recruit! Recruit! Recruit! We haven’t brought in a new member since August. I think we’ve already kissed the Governors Trophy goodbye. No matter how much we give to the foundation or what other wonderful things we accomplish, the trophy won’t go to a chapter that didn’t increase its membership during the year. We started this year with 83 and now have 81. Please join me in looking for prospective members and inviting them to meetings. If they seem interested, give their contact information to John Betten, our membership chairman. Give them an application and tell them what Rotary is all about. Mike Wieland has brochures that you can give them. Every Rotarian should be an ambassador for the club. Remember we’re always looking for new members. Recruit! Recruit! Recruit!
Notes from the Club President – January 2008
Harold
Isbell Welcome to 2008! And welcome back to Rotary after a two week holiday vacation!
Thanks to Don Murdoch and Woody Derickson for bringing us the best Christmas citrus fund raiser ever, and thanks to all who bought, sold and delivered the fruit. Special thanks to the Holden twins for adding to the excitement with their colorful costumes, sale of ping pong balls, and their exciting wheel spins.
Our next project, the Looking Glass Playhouse production of “The Full Monty”, is not so much a fund raiser as a fun evening with members of eight Rotary clubs in the area. The Looking Glass folks will present a special show just for Rotarians & guests Monday evening, Feb 4, 2008. We are the host club, and you may be asked to bring refreshments or to help with administrative support. Please help us to make this a successful and fun evening.
Recruiting new members should always be one of our top priorities. Invite a new person to a meeting. Let everyone know we are always looking for new members. Welcome any visitors who show up, whether you invited them or not. Try to make them feel welcome. Without new members our club will regress, and I don’t think any of us want to see that.
Thanks,
Harold Isbell President 2007/08 Rotary Club of O’Fallon
Notes from the President - December 2007
Once again we’ll get to hear the OTHS Madrigal Singers entertain us and get us into the Christmas spirit at our first meeting this month. That’s always such a treat! This has been a wonderful year so far – good programs and good fund raisers - but we haven’t brought in a new member since August! We haven’t had many visitors, and currently have no viable prospects. That’s bad news! Last year we brought in 17 new members (between July 1st and June 30th) and lost 13, for a net gain of four. This year we’ve gained six and lost eight, for a net loss of two. We can probably count on losing as many this year as last, so if we’re going to meet our goal of a net gain of 3 again, we need to jack up our recruiting efforts! We will meet only three times this month. Christmas Eve and New Years Eve fall on Mondays and we will not meet. According to our by-laws we will elect officers for the July 2008/June 2009 Rotary year at our last meeting in December. If you’re interested in being considered for one of the three board positions that will be vacated this year or the vice president position, let any board member know. The board will announce its slate of officers at our December 12th meeting, and election will take place December 19th. Have a great Christmas Season! Harold E. Isbell President
Notes from the
Club President – November 2007
Harold
Isbell This is my fifth newsletter article as your president. Hard to believe the year is going by so fast! We will elect officers for the 2008/09 Rotary year at our last meeting in December. Three new board members will be elected to replace the three who rotate off next summer, and a new vice president will be elected to enter the planned order of succession and become president in 2011. Do you know who will become president next July 1st? Eight of our members attended the District Conference at Mount Vernon in October and we walked off with the Governor’s Trophy again! This was for the 2006/07 Rotary year. Congratulations to John Coers for his leadership last year! A major reason we win every year is our generous giving to the Rotary Foundation. November is Foundation Month, and all of our programs will be related to the Foundation. We’ll have Dennis Sparn, from Swansea and Dick Erdmann from Fairview Heights as speakers, both of whom are on the District Speakers Bureau. I’m sure our own foundation chairman, Don Murdoch, is planning another exciting wheel spin some time this month. Note that we will meet Monday Nov 12th, even though it’s the Federally Observed Veterans Day Holiday. There are opportunities to observe Veterans Day in O’Fallon Saturday and Sunday of that weekend. The annual Veterans Day Parade will be Saturday Nov 10th at 2:00 p.m. We will assemble in front of the Cavins Center about 1:30 p.m. and end up at the VFW Hall on West 1st Street, where there will be refreshments and a short ceremony. Come out and walk with us! The Citrus team pulled out all the stops and had a rousing kick-off for the annual citrus sale last Monday. Your orders and money are due by Dec 3rd. Fruit will be available for pickup Dec 15th. Come to every meeting, sit with your team, and see what excitement the Citrus team has prepared for you. Bring a friend! Harold E. Isbell
Notes from the
Club President – October 2007
Harold
Isbell
As I write this, we've done most of the work to prepare for the
auction. The Cavins Center has round tables upstairs and rectangular tables
downstairs, ready for stuff to be delivered. There's still a lot to be done
before 5:30 tomorrow evening when the doors open.
October Programs: Oct 1 - Kenny Schieler – Veterans Wheelchair Games Oct 8 – No Meeting: Columbus Day – National Holiday Oct 15 - Dave Eustis – Southwestern Illinois RC&D Oct 22 – Lifestyle University Oct 29 – Business Meeting
October Birthdays Oct 18 Richard (Corky) Cecil Oct 20 Dave Snyder Notes from the
Club President – September 2007
Harold
Isbell
Welcome to Auction Month! - known to non-Rotarians as September. The upcoming Auction, September 29th, should be uppermost on every club member’s list of priorities this month. Whether we have a good Rotary Year or not depends to a great extent on how successful our auction is. Please do the best you can to: a) Pay for your four tickets b) Use two of your tickets to attend the auction yourself c) Use the other two to bring guests you believe will bid on some of our over 300 auction items d) Bring in at least $600 worth of auctionable items e) Turn in your items or donation slips by Sep 17th so they can be included in the printed program, and properly numbered and marked prior to Auction Day f) Advertise the auction in any venues available to you – (Flyers available) g) Give Jill Pietrusinski the ticket numbers and users names for any additional tickets you sell or give away h) Help move auction items and set up the Hall the weekend of the auction i) Help during the auction Thanks for your cooperation! With everyone’s help, this year’s auction can be the best ever! We will meet only three Mondays this month, due to the Labor Day holiday. Sep 10 and 17 will include guest speakers and reports on special programs by some of our members. Sep 24 will be our monthly business meeting. See you at Rotary! Harold Isbell President --------------------------------------------------------- September Birthdays 5 Rick Murray 6 Tim Evers 7 Ken Diel 15 Amanda Caby 17 Cindy Doil 17 D. C. Huller 21 Phil Goodwin Notes from the
Club President – August 2007
Harold
Isbell President’s Notes – August 2007
In July we inducted three new members, Christian Boyd, Xavier Bruce and Michael Hines, and accepted a resignation from Clint Martin. We also announced the candidacy of three new members who will be inducted in August, Darcy Benway, Wade Weitlauf, and Jamie Williams. We awarded Paul Harris Fellow recognitions to six members who achieved the required $1,000 in contributions to the Rotary Foundation last Rotary year.
Annual dues for all members are $100 per year, with $50 due in July and again in January. Our Treasurer, Tim Evers, will have your statements at the check-in table when you come to the next meeting. Please pay promptly. We paid our District and Rotary International dues, (about $6,000) in July and could use the reimbursement. Finally, we have several important events coming up, which need your support. O’Fallon’s Homecoming weekend is August 10 – 12, including the Rotary-sponsored Children’s Parade, a float in the official Homecoming Parade, and working a food stand. Our Auction – our biggest fund raiser every year – is September 29th, and we have another fund raiser scheduled October 13th. Remember this year’s theme: Rotary Shares! Please involve yourself in these opportunities.
Harold Isbell President Notes from the
Club President – July 2007 Welcome to Rotary Year 2007-2008! First, I want to thank John Coers for the wonderful job he did as president of the club last year. His meetings were fun, he kept on top of the club’s goals and projects, let people run their own programs, and left office with the highest club membership on record and the most successful fund raising ever. John’s a hard act to follow, but I’ll do my best. All 31,000 + Rotary Clubs around the world have a new president as of July 1st. So does Rotary International (RI)! The incoming RI president this year, Wilfrid Wilkinson from Ontario, Canada, selected “Rotary Shares” as our theme for his year, and designed the logo below, which you’ll see on Rotary literature throughout the year. As we think about the theme, let’s keep in mind that it doesn’t just mean throwing money at projects. We share by mentoring, cleaning up a highway, giving blood, organizing a children’s parade, hosting a foreign student, as well as participating in fund raisers and giving to the Rotary Foundation. Let’s make sharing a goal for ourselves and for our club as we continue through this exciting new Rotary Year! July has five Mondays this year, and we will meet July 2nd. Our program will be a participatory celebration of Independence Day, with some singing and an opportunity for you to share memories of a special 4th of July you remember or a time when you were especially proud to be an American. Come Share!
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Love a Doil, Inc. The World is Our
Cloister |
Welcome
to the Rotary Club of
Welcome
to the Christmas season! Don Murdoch kicked off our annual Christmas Citrus
Sales project in November, and it ends December 2nd. Don’s able
co-conspirator, Woody Derickson, informed us by cell phone from Florida last
week he’s checked out the grapefruit and they’re going to be the best we’ve ever
had! I’m sure we all appreciate Woody’s sacrifice in going all the way to
Florida to check out the grapefruit for us. 
Wow!
If you missed our last meeting in July, you missed the unveiling of an
engineering marvel! The product of Don Murdoch’s Starbucks coffee-drinking and
innovative thinking buddies, Don used this new Rotary Wheel/ Wheel of Fortune /
Roulette Wheel and a $50 bill to persuade some 20 of us to pledge $100 to the
Rotary Foundation during the 2007/08 Rotary year. The wheel will come out again
at random meetings this year, so be ready! You don’t want to miss the next spin
of the new Rotary Wheel!. 
