Club President Message

Greetings Fellow Rotarians:

School has started and we all need to be especially careful with the additional traffic from parents, students and school buses.

This week’s speaker will be Lois Hall. Her expertise is in dealing with grief. She has been involved in many facets of life changes through the health department.  It should be a very interesting presentation.

Mark your calendar for September 24th. This will be the District 6690’s Foundation & Membership Seminar. Registration begins at 8:00 am and sessions start at 8:30 am at Ohio University in Lancaster. This should be over by 1:00. You can go to our web site www.OlentangyRotary.org to register. The club will reimburse you the $10 registration fee.

Be sure to welcome new member John Robinson at our next meeting.

Next week we will be having our Evening Social night on Thursday, September 8th. We start at 6:00 and there will be hot hor dourves and a cash bar. It’s a great opportunity for fun and fellowship. Feel free to bring a friend or spouse. Evening Social 6pm at Bridgewater. NO BREAKFAST MEETING THAT DAY!

Our highway clean-up is coming up on Saturday, October 15th. Chair Dan Ludwig will be passing around a sign up sheet as we get closer to the date.

There are several birthdays this month…. Happy Birthday wishes to Dan Weng-8/6, Walter Davis-8/13, Jan Simonis-8/26 & John Medeiros-8/27.

So that you know where some of the money that we raise year round goes……Last Wednesday, Al Valko and I presented the Wellness Community a check for $5000.00. The money goes towards their goal of helping comfort people and families that are dealing with cancer.

We are selling the Entertainment Books this year. We need to sell 50 or more to make the “big money”. Please see Tom Kleven to pick some up.

Be sure to invite a friend to one of our meetings or ask someone to speak at one of our meetings. New members and great speakers are always appreciated.

See you this Thursday morning at 7:30 for breakfast!!!

Yours in Rotary Service,
President Steve

Greetings Fellow Rotarians:

This week our meeting will be in the evening at 6:00 at Bridgewater. There will be hot hor dourves and a cash bar. Please bring a friend or spouse and enjoy the fellowship!

Evening Social, 6:00pm at Bridgewater this Thursday.

OUR SPEAKER: Amy Barcus, her subject is E-Commerce & E-Marketing.

NO BREAKFAST MEETING THIS THURSDAY!!!

We will also be collecting food for the People In Need in Delaware. This Thursday night will be our last turn-in opportunity. Please bring what you can.

People In Need of Delaware, Inc. is in desperate need for food items to continue offering meals to the many folks in our county that don’t get the opportunity to eat as often as we do. Please review the list below of the most needed items. This will be a short food drive, time wise, so be sure to bring what you can this weeks evening meeting.

Thanks for your help!!!

This Sunday will be the Powell Cruize-In Pig-Out. Several of our members will be showing their classic automobiles. Take an opportunity to check out their cars.

We are also in need of 3-4 volunteers to help with set up (9:00am) and break down (5:00pm). Let me know if you can help out.

See you this Thursday Evening at 6:00.

Yours in Rotary Service,
President Steve

Greetings Fellow Rotarians:

It’s now the first week of August and school is just around the corner. Last month the school supplies were delivered to People In Need by Tom Kleven. Thanks to him and all that helped make that good deed happen.

Our meeting this week will be our normal breakfast format, Thursday at 7:30AM. This week’s speaker will be Ms. Rachel Weng. Her topic will be her recent mission trip to the Philippines. A very interesting part of the world! I’m looking forward to her describing her experiences there.

After many months of delivering the morning Reflection, both Sue Jones and Dan Weng are ready to focus their energies towards their upcoming Presidencies and I am looking for some of our Club members to take over this important aspect of our morning meetings. Please let me know if you are interested in helping out and taking over this Club duty.

Red badge members can sell our raffle tickets to cover the “Greeter” criteria for getting your Blue Badge. Also, any with a Red Badge are welcome to the Board of Directors meeting. It is an interesting way for you to gain insight to the Club’s business and this month you will get to meet with DG Brent during his official club visit

Our next project will be selling the Entertainment Books. Please see Tom Kleven for details. A nice easy moneymaker for our club, use it once or twice and it pays for itself. We need to sell 50 books to get to the best profit margin……

This month we will be visited by District Governor Brent Rosenthal. Be sure to plan on attending Thursday morning, August 18th. We want a great showing of our club members to show our support for DG Brent. The evening before, we will be having our Board of Directors meeting at 6:00 at the Wellness Community. DG Brent will be attending our Board Meeting to assess what our Club has been accomplishing and plans on accomplishing this Rotary year 2011-12. All committee Chairs are expected to attend and be prepared to give DG Brent an update on their committees and/or fundraiser. Any Chair that cannot attend this meeting needs to brief me in writing so I can relay the information onto DG Brent. Assistant District Governor Susan Robenalt will be at both meeting as well.

Please keep former member and Past President Bob Sokol and his wife in your thoughts and prayers. He is recuperating from quadruple bypass surgery and his wife is recovering from breast cancer.

Look forward to seeing you all this Thursday morning!
Yours in Rotary Service,
President Steve

Greetings Fellow Rotarians:

This week’s speaker at breakfast will be former Olentangy Rotary Club member Dennis Stapleton, Delaware County Commissioner. His subject will be Happenings in Delaware County. Plan on attending to learn what is happening in your county.

Next Tuesday, August 2 will the annual Powell Night Out. Hosted by the Powell Police, it will be held at 6:30 at the Village Green in downtown Powell. The following link has all the details – http://www.cityofpowell.us/event-NatlNightOut.php .

Mark your calendar for Sunday, August 14th. That will be the day that the Powell Cruize In – Pig Out takes place. Larry Coolidge (who chairs this event) is asking for 3-4 helpers from our club. Set up starts at 9:00 and clean-up runs until 6:00. Let me know if you can help out. You can also sponsor a trophy for only $35. We will have 3-4 of our members displaying their cars this year. Stop by and find out more about their automobiles!

Former Member, Cindy Byers, wanted to relay the following message via FaceBook to our Club:

Hi Steve, it is too late for this week’s meeting but I wanted to let you and the club know that our student from 1999 – 2000 (?), Sayaka Yonezawa had her first child on Friday July 15. Mother and son are both doing great. She sounds very excited (and tired).

Congratulations to Sayaka!

Our speaker on August 4th (a breakfast meeting) will be President-Elect Dan Weng’s daughter, Rachel. Her topic will be about her recent Mission Trip to the Philippines.

Special thanks to Tom Kleven (and his wife Debbie) for putting together yet another great School Supply Program. 600 bags of supplies were delivered to People In Need of Delaware. Thanks also to all that attended that Monday night and made the work go so quickly! I’m missing my red Swiss Army knife used that evening to open boxes. Please let me know if anyone knows where it is. . Special thanks to Anna Harrison and Bryan Cochran for lending our club the tables that were used to organize the supplies.

Our next fundraiser will be selling Entertainment Books. We need to sell 50 of them to make the best profit margin. There are great coupons in them that will quickly pay for the book many times over…..Tom Kleven will keep us posted as the arrival date gets closer.

And lastly, be sure to visit our new web site. Mike Brown put in a lot of time and energy to make it a site to be proud of. Check it out at www.OlentangyRotaryClub.org.

Enjoy your week and stay cool!

Yours in Rotary Service,
President Steve

Greetings Fellow Rotarians:

We had our first ever evening meeting last Thursday and it went extremely well. It was well attended and instead of finishing up at 7:00pm it went well past 8:00. Thanks for all that attended and special thanks to Anna for providing us with great food and a great place to meet and socialize. We did not officially start the meeting until 6:45 or so. If you have trouble arriving by 6:00 please come anyway, as arriving late isn’t a sin and your attendance and fellowship is greatly appreciated. Fun and fellowship was the evening’s agenda. We were also updated by John Medeiros on our international achievements and from Sue Jones regarding our Heart of Gold. Tom Kleven filled us in on tonight’s school supplies for PIN. Our next evening meeting will be the second Thursday of August, on the 11th. Mark your calendars and plan on attending. Be sure to invite your spouse or bring a friend. It will start at 6:00 and last until 7:00 or until you leave… . For those that attended this past week, please give me your input on how or what we can do to make it even better!

Be prepared for our upcoming Entertainment Books selling spree. Contact Tom Kleven for details on how you can help.

The numbers are in for the golf outing and it was another great year! Congratulations to Golf Outing Chair, Jan Simonis and her hard working team for a job well done! Our Golf Outing and the Heart of Gold are our two largest money makers. Without these monies, we would not be able to support the programs that we work on through-out the year.

Our monthly Board of Directors meeting will be this Weds evening at 6:00 at the Wellness Community across the street from Bridgewater. Red badge members plan are invited to attend.

This week’s speaker will be our very own Dag Frioriksson our former Exchange Student from Iceland. Plan on being there at Bridgewater for breakfast and a chance to catch up with Dag!

Yours in Rotary Service,
President Steve

Greetings Fellow Rotarian:

We are gearing up for our annual School Supplies program for People In Need. Secretary Tom Kleven will need help in the next week or so to get this all put together. The first request will be for help with picking up, transporting and “set-up”. Then a lot of help will be needed for putting everything together. This is a great opportunity to have family members or friends pitch-in on a very worthwhile project. This will take place at Sawmill Business Park on North Hampton Dr. just north of Bridgewater. Expect an email from Tom with details soon.

This weeks meeting will be a first for our club. It will be held on Thursday evening from 6:00pm – 7:00pm at Bridgewater. There will be hot finger food and a cash bar. This meeting is part of an experimental pilot program recommended by RI and enthusiastically endorsed by our District Governor Brent Rosenthal. This should be a great opportunity to invite a guest or bring your spouse. Fellowship is the Rotarian theme. This will be in place of our normal breakfast meeting. I’m looking forward to seeing you all there.

The Powell Cruize-In Pig-Out will be held on August 14th from noon -5:00. There are great cars to check out and nice food as well. Several of our members display their classic cars there. Stop in and show your support.

Yours in Rotary Service,
President Steve

Greetings Fellow Rotarian:

This week we have Mr. Mark Pizzi, President of Nationwide Insurance, speaking. He is on the board of directors for the Buckeye Ranch and will be discussing their achievements and challenges. Should be a very interesting presentation.

We have made a change in our meeting format to attract both new members and to encourage more club fellowship with existing members. Effective this month, we will be meeting in the evening from 6:00PM-7:00PM at Bridgewater on the second Thursday of each month. Hot appetizers and a cash bar will be set up. This meeting will have a less formal program with a Rotarian theme. Members are encouraged to invite guests and bring their spouses. We will try this for 6 months and determine then if we will continue, refine or retire the program.

Please note this change on your calenders.

Our Board of Directors meeting has also changed to the third Wedsnday of the month. It will still be at 6:00PM and held at the Wellness Community on Sawmill Parkway in Powell. All members are welcome especially Red Badge members.

Yours in Rotary Service,
President Steve

Greetings Fellow Rotarian:

It’s the beginning of a new Rotary year and I want to start off by thanking Past President John Medeiros for leading our Club through a great year! I also want to thank all of the outgoing Board memebers for their guidence and all the time spent working with PP John to make our Club such a success. A special thanks to Past Tresurer Lori Kaiser for all of her hard work keeping our accounting in such great shape.

A hardy welcome to our incoming Board members and to our new Treasurer, John Jordan. I also want to welcome our new Vice President Sue Jones. I know they will all work hard to keep our Club performing at the high quality level that you, as members, expect.

The speaker for our meeting next week is Mr. Mark Pizzi, President of Nationwide Insurance. As a board member for the Buckeye Boys Ranch he will be enlightning us to their successes and the challenges that they face. Should be a very interesting presentation.

Tom Kleven has begun to put together this years school supplies program that we distribute through People In Need of Delaware. He will need your support and and help to get this worthy program put together and delivered. Be sure to pitch in and help make this a success.

There are several new social events along with a new meeting format that we are working on that I’ll share when the details are worked out. New oppertunities for fun and fellowship for our Club!

I will be following Presidential tradition with a weekly Presidents message sent out on Sunday evening. Let me know of any items, dates, projects, etc. that need to be shared with our fellow members.

That’s all for now…..Enjoy your Fourth of July weekend! Have fun and be safe.

Yours in Rotary Service,
President Steve

This is the week of ‘lasts’ for me as President. Last ‘Weekly Message’, last meeting coming up this Thursday. (Hold the applause).

The transition evening went very well. Anna and the Bridgewater staff had a nice spread of hors d’œuvres and the string trio from Olentangy Liberty High School provided excellent background music.

One of our traditions of the last several years is for the outgoing president to select a Rotarian of the Year. I selected Sue Jones. Sue has been a long time member of the Olentangy Rotary Club and has participated in one way or another in just about every activity we have ever done. In particular, in partnership with Dan Weng, in offering the weekly prayer for our meetings. Then of course there is the Heart of Gold that she has run for the last two years and been a significant participant in other years. It was a pleasure to recognize her in this way.

Next week you will have a new president, Steve Ussery lead the meetings and organize the club. We are in good hands.

Have a good week, I will see you Thursday.

Yours in Rotary Service,
John Medeiros

First and foremost, the meeting this week is Wednesday evening at the Bridgewater at 7:00 PM for our annual transition event. We will not have a meeting on Thursday.

The Wednesday evening transition event is for all members and spouse or guest (no charge). It is an after dinner event with a cash bar, hors d’œuvres and a string trio from Olentangy Liberty High School for entertainment.

Please come and enjoy a nice social evening.

Survey: We are at 16 responses and holding, and holding and holding. Yes, there was a quick flurry of respondents then a bit of a stall. We still have well over half the club that hasn’t responded yet. You know who you are!!

Check in and fill it up, 100% response would be very helpful in guiding the club in the coming years.

Car magnets: We found two of the Olentangy Rotary car magnet signs for the memorial day event. I think we originally purchased 6 or 8 of them. Please look around and let me know if you have any of them.

I hope to see you Wednesday evening at the transition event.

Just one more Weekly President’s Message from this President. What will I do on Sunday evenings. What will you do without updates on El Gallo III.

Yours in Rotary Service,
John Medeiros