President Mark Killingsworth presided over today’s meeting. A.D. Hunt provided the invocation and Joe Meador provided the Pledge of Allegiance. The meeting was held at the Holiday Inn North. Mark thanked those who helped with today’s meeting.
Mark then introduced Matthew Rumph and announced that his membership application was recently approved by the board. Matthew was then installed as the club’s newest member. Matt is originally from Illinois. He has been a Rotarian before and helped his club establish a RYLA program. He is currently the Executive Director for The Family YMCA.
Mark then introduced today’s guest speaker, Keith Clayton. Keith is currently the District 6840 Deputy Governor for the Mississippi territory. Keith is retired from the Air Force and has been a Rotarian for the past twenty-one years.
Keith then presented Mark with a 2019 Presidential Citation and noted that only sixteen clubs in the district received a Citation for their work in the community in 2019. He also noted that our club has a near-perfect membership database.
He challenged our club to find different ways to engage the community as we suffer through the Pandemic. Some suggestions he offered include donating blood, do a virtual pub crawl to raise money for World Polio Day which is coming up on October 23rd, get involved with RYLA, volunteer in the community, go to the Rotary Learning Center and take a course, and finally, he encouraged club members to attend the Rotary Leadership Institute which begins October 15th.
He also encouraged the club to re-evaluate our current service projects to make sure they are still a good fit for the club. He suggested we find out what motivates our newest members and determine if the club should begin a new project to keep them involved.
The Rotarian fight to end Polio continues. Africa was recently declared Polio free. Only two nations currently have active Polio cases, Afghanistan and Pakistan. Together they have 112 cases. The Gates Foundation is currently offering a two-for-one match for every dollar donated to the Foundation to end Polio.
November is Foundation Month. Keith encouraged club members to support the Foundation. Only two club members are donating regularly.
The District’s Mid-Year review will be held in New Orleans at the Higgins Hotel on January 8-9, 2021. The Higgins is offering a $159 per night rate for the meeting.
Mark thanked Keith for attending today’s meeting. He announced that our Club is working on our latest quarterly charge. He encouraged members to contribute. The Club will be offering a contribution to Homes for Hope. The Club is also planning a Santa Cameo toy drive before Christmas. Stay tuned for more details.
There being no further business to come before the club, Mark thanked those who were able to attend today’s meeting both in person and by Zoom and adjourned the meeting with our motto: “Service Above Self.”