WHEW! WHAT A WHIRLWIND SINCE SEPT. 21. COME ALONG WITH ME TO IDAHO FALLS, BOISE CENTENNIAL, SEMINAR IN BOISE, POCATELLO CENTENNIAL, SODA SPRINGS, REXBURG VISIONING AND SEMINAR IN POCATELLO

IDAHO FALLS CLUB -- VISIONARY ROTARIANS!!

Front row:  Jackie Flowers, Melissa Bean, Jan

Back row:  John McGimpsy, Lorin Dixon, Don Corey, Mark Young, president, Lane Allgood  and Phil Anderson,AG

I was excited to address the venerable Idaho Falls Club chartered in 1918 (a few years before I was born).  So, you can imagine my surprise when I met their leadership on Tuesday, Sept. 21 and they all had their eyes closed.  

Wait...wait...I remember now.  I asked the leadership to close their eyes for the picture, thinking this would be a unique shot.  Notice that everyone did so except the president Mark Young.  Well, that's fitting in that all presidents should enter this auspicious office with their eyes open.

In the picture below, Melissa Bean and Don Carey pose for the camera with PolioPlus boxes in hand.  The club raised $5,111 for polio last year.  This year, the club goal is to raise an additional $3,000 to PolioPlus and $12,000 for the all-important Annual Programs Fund.

After my presentation, Mark Young gave my wife Carolyn and me a 2010 Duck Race T-shirt and a rubber ducky!    Always a shower guy, I am now enjoying my baths each day with Donald...the duck!  Thanks Idaho Falls for a great time with your club. 

But, the yearly duck race is serious business.  It raises $50,000, money devoted, in part, to the Idaho Falls Greenbelt.

The membership goal?  The club wishes to grow to 162 and increase of a net 2 members.  If every club would increase by a net of at least 1, District 5400 would exceed its goal of +45!


BOISE CENTENNIAL, HERE I COME (9.22 & 23)

After a noon speech to the great Idaho Falls club, I jumped into my car about 2 p.m. and headed back to Boise taking the famous route through the rainforest past Arco, Craters of the Moon, Fairfield and Mountain Home.   You should try the drive someday.

This is Anna Ellis, the dynamic young president of a dynamic young club.  This past year, Anna ran a 50km race for club donations to PolioPlus!  

Founded in 2007 primarily through the work of Steve Holm of the sponsoring Boise Sunrise Club, the club meets at 7 a.m. at Perkins Restaurant on Broadway in Boise.

Here is  Steve talking to Constance Carlson outside Perkins on the day of my visit. 

What makes this club attractive to new members?  It's a small club -- only 17 currently -- represents a younger demographic and is a morning club, so the schedule accommodates many young professionals.  The membership goal?  Increase by 3 to 20!  Great goal!

Every member contributes to Rotary's Annual Programs Fund through quarterly contributions of $25.00.  Check out the club website, a loving work of Doug Ooley at http://www.boisecentennialrotary.org/.  You will see that the site proudly announces the club's projects, including providing dictionaires to third grade students at Horizon Elementary School, White Pine and Hillcrest Elementary.  The club also contributes to the Idaho Foodbank.

BOISE FOUNDATION AND MEMBERSHIP SEMINAR OF SEPT. 25, BSU GAME DAY!

What auspicious event took place on August 25 in Boise?  Yes, BSU played Oregon, with the excitement of ESPN Game Day.  I live one-half mile from the stadium, and I could hear the cheering from 13,000 fans as I readied for the day at 6:00 a.m. 

The faithful Rotarians who met with us that day at Owyhee Plaza deserve accolades.  Thank you, Rotarians.  Kattie Wonnenberg, Rotarian of the Year from Buhl, and Tracy Woolman, assistant governor, served as registrars. 

Terry Bowman, president-elect of Boise Southwest, represented his club and obviously enjoyed himself, as this picture attests.

Rusty Broughton, Foundation chair, speaks with Alisha Havens, assistant governor, who works with the Nampa, Caldwell and Canyon County Sunrise clubs.  What are they discussing?  No doubt, the importance of Rotarians participating in the Million Dollar Dinner of Oct. 30.  (Add a codicil to your will to provide The Rotary Foundation's Permanent Fund at least $10,000 upon your demise.  The Permanent Fund is Rotary's savings account, never touching the principal but only spending the interest income on Rotary programs.

Anna Ellis (Boise Centennial) and Bill Agler (Boise Downtown) smile for the camera at one of the breaks.

 This has to be a high powered meeting with Dick Fields conversing with fellow Boise Downtown member and Nina Gammons from Western Treasure Valley.

Layne Dodson of Boise Sunrise poses with effervescent Alisha Havens of the Nampa Club.  I discovered that Layne is a Vandal, of all things.  (I graduated from Northwest Nazarene College, so I can remain neutral in the football wars.)  We held a give-away of BSU and Vandal gear for those who remained until the end.  Layne chose some Vandal gear.  Can you believe that?

POCATELLO CENTENNIAL...NOW HERE'S SOMETHING TO GET EXERCISED ABOUT!  (9.27 & 28)

This is a picture of Byrd Yizar, president of the RC of Pocatello Centennial, exercising with his wife, a guest the club on Monday.

Here Terry Brower is actually complaining about a bad back to the mirth of Dan Davis (far right), Bob Meyers and Larry Gebhardt (smiling at camera) or leading a back exercise.  I think it's the latter. 

So this club doesn't eat first.  No, it exercises first. 

This club participated in a Visioning Adventure on Sept. 10.  As members discussed their heartfelt passions the themes became clear:  improving the quality of life in Pocatello, upgrading the Greenway and serving youth. 

After the Monday morning meeting, Paul Link, past president, took me to two areas in town, the Bistline Partnership Corner and the Greenway where a huge statue greeted us. 

After visiting the club, I learned by Byrd Yizar, an employee of ISU, is helping students there form a Rotaract Club.  Thanks, Byrd.

EAST IDAHO FALLS - THE FIST BUMP CLUB

When President Kym Mowery of the RC of East Idaho Falls told me that I was to meet the club at Dixie's Diner, I thought I would be transported back into time, perhaps the 40s.  Not so.  Nearly every club member gave every other club member a fist bump, not a 19040s tradition but a 2010 tradition.

The music was 1950s and 60s music, my kind of music!  But, the fist bump...now that's today!  This is a fun club..."exceptionally fun," as Kym Mowery wrote in her Planning Guide for Effective Rotary Clubs.  But, the club recognizes that meeting at Dixie's Diner is a crowded environment and poses a barrier to explosive growth. 

The club plans on giving three $1,000 scholarship awards to local high schools and to sponsor other youth-related items in the community.  It is in the middle of establishing a dental clinic in Thailand and new water wells in Nigeria.  In addition, the club is sponsoring two students in Thailand for their college expenses.

Of the 27 club members, 12 are Paul Harris Fellows and the club is very active in the Million Dollar Dinner. 

Thanks East Idaho Falls!!

 

Here's Kym, the club's energetic young president, who surprised me at the end of the meeting with a gift suitable for a hiker, Granola, sourdough bread, honey, and other goodies in a beauitful basket.  Thanks Kym and club.

Here is Lani VanderBeek showing Joe Hahn her new Etch-a-Sketch.  Well, I thought it might be such a 1960s toy, but, of course, I was wrong.  The red device was the latest technological innovation, an ISomethingOrOther.



The leadership group shown here was a hard working lot and many of them are relatively new to Rotary.    From right to the top of the picture we see Kym Mowery (4 year-Rotarian, Lynn Bybee (2-year Rotarian), Caleb Dimick (2 year Rotarian), Lani VanderBeek, Ron Duersch (25 year-Rotarian), Randy Seal (5-year Rotarian), and Phil Anderson (14-year Rotarian).

 

SEPT. 28 - SODA SPRINGS AT BEAUTIFUL ENDER'S

Doug Mathis, president of the Rotary Club of Soda Springs, told me the club met at Ender's.  I had never heard of it.  When I walked into the lobby of the hotel and then the cafe, I knew I was in an historic building.  A website  states thus:

This historic hotel, located next to the Geyser Park Visitor Center, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It features 30 rooms, along with historical artifacts, and antiques.  I learned that the hotel had been refurbished by a local benefactor.

I met with the leadership pictured below.  The club energizes the town with fireworks each Fourth of July selling $11,000 to $12,000 in tickets.  It also has brought in a circus and hosted a fun run.  The new project this year?  Road apple roulette.  (Watch a banker follow horses to record the spot of the deposit!)

From left to right at front row:  Doug Mathis, Blair Winward, Randy Johnson.   Back row:  Alex Swainston, assistant governor, Greg Haney and Don Wind, former D5400 assistant governor.

 

Roger Cheramie,the fellow standing by Don Wind, is a videographer for a local pubic access TV station.  He brought his camer and recorded my speech to the club.  Thanks Roger!

I leave you with a picture of the lobby of the hotel.  It's beautiful!

SEPT. 30 - IS MY WEEK OVER YET?  NO!  REXBURG VISIONING WITH DAVID SCOTT AND CREW

District 5400 has set a goal of providing Visioning Adventure to 8 clubs this year.  David Scott, president of Rexburg, requested a Visioning session with his members for Sept. 30.  Lani VanderBeek and I presented Visioning to this venerable club, the home of Past District Governor Ray Rigby.


I have met amazing Rotarians in my visits and here are two, Garth Dexter and 97-year-old Eldred Stephenson.  Both added to the wisdom of the club as they participated in Visioning at Frontier Pies in Rexburg.

Most of the crew assembled for a picture at the end of the evening.  From left to right:  Eldred Stephenson, Tim Kershaw, Rex Heard, Eric Eastin, Vaughn Phillips, Merrrile Rudd (he led a GSE team to India several years ago), David Scott, and Lynn Archibald.

The heart of the Visioning Adventure is to thrust your club 5 years into the future and look back on what your club has become.  We look for themes that emerge in the discussion.  For Rexburg, those themes were as follows:  1)  Increased Service Above Self with more focused giving of Rotarians,  2)  the need to increase the awareness of Rotary International, especially within the Rexburg Club,  3)  the need to make the Rexburg Rotary Club more relevant to the needs of the community,  4)  and finally, the need for more members and stronger ones, as well.


A CONCERT ON FRIDAY, THANKS TO GENE AND SUE ANN HOGE. AND THE FOUNDATION AND MEMBERSHIP SEMINAR ON SATURDAY, OCT. 2

Two of the most gracious Rotarians I know are Past District Governor Gene Hoge and his wife, Sue Ann.
Prominent members of the cultural and intellectual life of the Pocatello community, Gene and Sue Ann invited me to stay with them Thursday night after I returned from Rexburg.  Along with special Rotary International representative Stuart Palmer, Gene and Sue Ann and I went to the marvelous Stephenson Center for a great concert.  Thanks Gene and Sue Anne.

We assembled at ISU's Pond Center for the Foundation and Membership Seminar.  The three in the foreground at Mark Young, president of the Idaho Falls Club, Melissa Bean and Melody Burns.

Below, Rusty Broughton and Gene Hoge ensure that the Power Point projector is working as they get ready to present.

 Here I am presenting information about the Dictionary + Ethics Project, the YouTube Contest and the District 5400 Awards program.  I will post detailed information about these important initiatives on the website soon.

Health Mitchell and Staci XX of the new Pocatello Portneuf Club were intense and attentive throughout the session.  

 Food?  Yes, and it was good, as Kathleen Simko can attest.

After a debriefing with Kathleen Simko, DGE, Bret Vaterlaus, DGN, PDG 2008-09 Gene Hoge, and our RI guest presenter, Stuart Palmer, we Boiseans headed out about 5:00 p.m.  For me?  Whew!!  I was glad to be home to get a little rest.

Thank you, Rotarians of D5400!  Sevice Above Self!!