President Donna Schuler opened today’s meeting with an invitation to enjoy our meals and each other’s company.

 

Guest today: Matt Drewno – works at Stanford Inn and Ecology Action, a nonprofit in Willits, where they are starting a new nonprofit focused on growing Victory Gardens. Matt is interested in membership!

 

Sunshine Report
Updates on John Porter, Wilma, and Roger.

 

Happy Dollars
John C – for the rain, we need every drop!
Joe – a grandson got married, and he and Ruth went to the wedding!
Jody – happy, but I couldn’t hear why…
Matt – happy to present $1000 to Mendocino Rotary Foundation to support travel to Vanuatu

 

Thought of the Day, from Gary: TS Elliott “Only those who risk going too far will know how far one can go.”

 

Today’s Program
Donna split us into working committee tables: Rotary Foundation/Club Service, Youth Services, Rotary Park/MRFoundation, Membership, Community Service.

 

Each committee/working group reported out.

 

Community service grant applications were reviewed; 13 received, 8 moving forward for possible approval. Highway cleanup is due again — John C will schedule a date.

 

Membership reported that what makes the club fun is going out in the community and doing good; to do that, we need more members. The committee has a ‘hot list’ of possible members who will be invited to attend. Each member will be assigned a date to bring a guest. We need to re-brand our group by what we do, the impact we have. What is Rotary? We are Rotary Park. We are $5000 in scholarships to kids each year. We are Vanuatu.

 

Foundation and Rotary Park: Jerry is making headway with the Board of Supervisors regarding our permitting and development of Rotary Park. We did get $4000 refund of previously paid property taxes while our nonprofit status was pending; we received another $1000 donation from one of the Supervisors. We may be able to use some of this money to do some safety-related tree trimming. The Easter Egg Hunt was successful, and the next event is July 4.

 

Picnic next week in Rotary Park at the time of our regular noon meeting!

 

RI Foundation – only 5 club members have not donated to Every Rotarian Every Year yet this year. Gary will contact those members for at least a $25 donation.

 

Youth Services reported we received 11 scholarship apps, and the committee will meet May 3 to review the applications. We will award 2 scholarships. Scholarship awards night is May 23.

 

International – the trip to Fiji and Vanuatu is coming up April 26, May 5, and May 13 are the ‘leave dates’ for our various delegates: Matt, Donna, John C., and Jeff. A Rotary Club in New Zealand wants to be our partner club to go for a Global Grant from RI next year.

 

We talked together as a club about fundraising, specifically our Golf Tournament. Jody will chair, and Donna will co-chair. We need as many teams as early as possible! The golf tourney is August 18.  We need to start gathering raffle prizes and hole sponsors.

 

Today’s Raffle Winner: Jody.

Meeting adjourned 1:15pm.