Club Meeting 7-18-24

Greeter- Cory Walker
50/50- Yumiko Akiba
Invocation- Ray Defendorf
COGS- Jen Batzing
Photographer- Gill Sweet
Video from Meeting: 00:00 - Start; 00:14 - Welcome & Thank you; 03:46 - Visitor and soon-to-be new member - Barb Richter; 08:04 - Special Recognitions; 11:44 - Lucas returns - with an update!; 24:01 - Whatā€™s Next for our Club?; 26:30 - Good News Bucks; 31:23 - The Biography Challenge
 
Happy July Birthdays to our Rotarians šŸŽ‚
 
Welcome to our guests:
  • Cynthia Raj, Retired from the Chemung County Chamber in Elmira and as the Director at the Chemung Valley Montessori in Big Flats. Cynthia has served on a variety of local and regional boards since her family relocated to New York, but currently enjoys helping friends and loved ones and supporting community-based initiatives. She would consider it an honor to be part of the Corning Rotary.
  • Barb Richter, Retired CPP teacher and future Rotarian 
  • Joe Melanson, CPP teacher and Admin. Intern
  • Lucas Kallas, former Rotary Exchange Student 2016-2017
 
Announcements:
  • River Clean Up, Saturday, July 20th
  • Camp Star Night, Monday, August 12th
  • City of Corning- comprehensive plan update; please provide your feedback here.
  • Endless Mountain Music Festival starts this weekend. The CMoG concert is free and sponsored by Corning Rotary.
 
 
Special Thank you and Recognition:
  • Cathy Buck for her work with Camp Star
  • Yumiko, thank you for making sure the river clean-up project would happen
  • Nora Smith for visiting so many breweries in preparation for Oktoberfest 2024
  • Ross Perry, thank you for being a member of the Corning Rotary Club, longevity recognition 
Welcome Back Lucas Kallas! 2016-2017 Rotary exchange student
 
Lucas is thankful and appreciative of the ā€œBlank Canvassā€ exchange student experience.  The Rotary Exchange Student program helped Lucas develop the necessary skills for navigating independence. Sailing, travel and relationships are most important to Lucas.  He gives credit to the Rotary Exchange Student program for setting him on his life-path. He states, "the program brought me together with other people."
 
Rotary Retreat (15 members:  Board and Committee Chairs) took place, Saturday, July 13th. 
  • We reviewed the 23-24 goals/outcomes and drafted 24-25 goals and objectives.  These will be shared at a later meeting, mid-September. 
  • August 1st please be on the lookout for a member survey.  We expect your input on the following: How do you wish to dedicate your time, talent and/or finances to support Rotary projects? Both a paper and electronic format will be made available. 
  • We have 70 members and the same number of committees when we were a club of 120 members.  Together we will identify the priorities for the current membership. 
Good News:
  • Ernieā€™s son has turned 45- $45 donation to Rotary
  • Ray has surgery August 7th to take care of a tumor, thank you for the prayers, please continue to pray
  • Wendy welcomed a new grandchild, Scarlet.  She is the 6th grandchild.
  • Andy shared that he had an "all clear" report from Sloan Kettering
 
Coming soon....a social calendar of events, once a quarter (5th Thursday) at the Rockwell Museum. More to comeā€¦
 
 
Rotary Biography challenge
  • Goal: Have at least one Rotary Biography challenge a month
  • Please make a submission to Ernie
  • Each biography will be published in the COGS
Adjourned
 
Video from Meeting: 00:00 - Start; 00:14 - Welcome & Thank you; 03:46 - Visitor and soon-to-be new member - Barb Richter; 08:04 - Special Recognitions; 11:44 - Lucas returns - with an update!; 24:01 - Whatā€™s Next for our Club?; 26:30 - Good News Bucks; 31:23 - The Biography Challenge