Rotary Meeting 12-5-06

Meeting Dec. 5, 2006 The meeting was highlighted by the presence & program of our District Governor, Delwyn Bluhm, who accompanied by his wife, Georgia. After a brief quiz from Sargeant at Arms, Merle Baumover, the announcements were: Terry McLane reminded us to bring gift for family member that we are sponsoring at Dec 19 meeting for a "wrap session." As he has done in the past, Terry generously invited "wrappers" to breakfast at the Marriott on Sat, Dec 23 after which we would serve as Santa's reindeer to deliver the packages to the families. Russ Ver Ploeg said speaker for 12-12 will be from Des Moines Business Record. Lloyd Hill from Northwest Rotary Club gave some background information about Mr. Bluhm. He has an engineering degree from Iowa State and has worked for the University for 39 years. He is a 1st Lt in the US Army Signal Corps. His wife, Georgia, as been a nurse in Ames & they have two children. Jason was happy to hear that Mr Bluhm was active in Boy Scouts. Mr. Bluhm gave us each pins with his slogan, "Lead the Way." He discussed the 5 topics introduced by Bill Boyd, Rotary International President, as: Water Management, Food, Health, Literacy, & Family of Rotary. There are projects in these areas partially funded by district money for world-wide impact. New committees have been formed this year under Mr. Bluhm's leadership, one involving public relations to explain what Rotary does worldwide, such as our campaign to eradicate polio, which is now limited to 4 countries. He gave some details on Rotary programs that we've discussed at our meetings, such as the donation of dictionaries in our district, Special Olympics, Xicotepec,various international exchange programs, such as:Friendship Exchange, Group Study Exchange, Ambassadorial Schools, & World Peace Fellowship, Hurricane Katrina donations, FAMSCO (medical supplies), Ryla, RotaKids, Interact, & Rotaract. There are even fellowships for Rotarians interested in golf, skiing, & RV travel! District Conference is in Ames on May 10-12.