Rotary Bulletin for December 9, 2014

Last Week’s Program:  

We were fortunate to have two speakers talk about the Polio Plus Program.  Ed Arnold of the Northwest Des Moines Rotary Club provided information on the history of Polio epidemics in the United States and the successful treatment of polio through vaccination.  He also reminded us that in 1985 Rotary began its efforts to eradicate Polio worldwide through the Polio Plus Program.  It began as a partnership between Rotary and the World Health Organization.  As evidence of the success of the program, in 1988 there were approximately 350,000 new polio cases diagnosed each worldwide.  In 2012 that number had been reduced to 291.  A trouble spot which truly remains is along the Pakistan/Afghanistan border.  There are approximately 300 cases to date, 260 of them in Pakistan this year.

Kyle Davies is the public relations and marketing coordinator for the Iowa Energy basketball team.  Kyle gave us an overview of the team and its prospects for the year.  As many of you know, Iowa Energy is a minor league team for the National Basketball Association.  In the past, the Iowa Energy had been affiliated with several teams. Beginning this season, they are affiliated with only team, the Memphis Grizzlies.

The Energy has partnered with Rotary on the Polio Plus efforts over the last six years by providing discount tickets and donating funds to the Polio Plus Program.  Over the six years of this joint effort over 6,600 tickets have been sold and nearly $55,000 contributed to Polio Plus.

Tickets will be available to buy at our club beginning on December 9th.  See Doug Hillman if you would like to buy tickets, or if you would like to buy tickets and designate them for use of various youth organizations including but not limited to Mosaic, which is a program which provides services for adults with disabilities.

COMING ATTRACTIONS: Ken Kremer provided a list of speakers for the month of December.  They appear below.

December 9th:

Matt Strawn, Next Generation Affairs will speak on Middle East Update with Top Israeli Leaders

December 16th:

Lori T. Chesser, Immigration Department Chair, Davis Brown Law will speak on Immigration

December 23rd:

Lt Col Anita Elliott, Vice Commander Iowa Wing, Civil Air Patrol will tell us about theIowa Civil Air Patrol

December 30th:

Joe Brennan, Head Coach Iowa Barnstormers will speak about Iowa Barnstormers Football

 

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

Bike Shop:  Harold Hulleman reminded us the number of days remaining to participate in bike repair in 2014 are dwindling.  The next two Thursday’s and Saturday’s will be it for 2014.  Please see Harold if you would like to participate on one of those days.

Our member Kristin Pike is spearheading the Christmas Basket Program.  Look for further announcement from Kristen on this topic.

Editors Needed:

Our weekly Rotary bulletin is in need of a few good women or men to serve as editor. Typically the editor will be responsible for the bulletin for a month at a time. The process involves taking a few notes at the meeting and posting those notes to the electronic newsletter. If you are interested in taking a turn as editor, please contact Greg Kenyon.

Board Meeting:

The next Board meeting will be held on December 9, 2014 at 10:45 a.m.  Any member is welcome to come to the board meeting and offer suggestions to the board.

Three Minute Speaker/Sergeant at Arms:

Naura Godar served as our three minute speaker and sergeant at arms.  Nora shared her Rotary story. She joined at the suggestion of the marketing director at her architectural firm and then found that she really enjoyed the community service aspect of the club.  She is involved in various other community service activities and enjoys coming to lunch to meet with people who give her different perspectives than her usual lunch group.

President Mike mentioned a recent book he had read which addressed the topic of multitasking.  According that that author, we are really only able to do one task at a time.  In the book, it is referred to as “attention filters”.  We were asked to turn our attention filters on so that we get as much out of the meetings as possible.