The speakers today were club members who attended the RI International Convention in Toronto.
Guests and Visiting Rotarians
Shelly Maharry and Shirley Fleihler-- Guests of Casey Cook
Announcements
The Food Fight is going strong with around 10,800 lbs of food purchased by AM Rotarians. A donation from Deb Ockenfels of some chocolates was auctioned off and Phil Peterson purchased it for $50. That money will be donated to the Crisis Center/Food Bank as part of the Food Fight. Deb Ockenfels has been to the produce auctions and she has a load of melons and corn to bring to the Food Bank today. She will have new totals next week.
Brad Languuth and Dick Huber will be riding one day of RAGBRAI from Sigourney to Iowa City. Dick suggested that those who are not familiar with RAGBRAI get a feel for it by visiting City Park sometime during the last night stay during RAGBRAI.
The District is determining with the Marshalltown and Pella clubs what might be appropriate for other D6000 clubs to do to help in tornado damage relief. We will wait for instruction.
Dick wants the Events Committee to meet next week to determine whether the Oktoberfest event should be resurrected.
Congrats to the members who received perfect attendance certificates for 2017/18 today.
Speakers
The panelists who attended the RI Convention included Phil Peterson, Jim Peterson, Chris Knapp, Vernette Knapp, Amy Nicholson, and Deb Ockenfels. There was general agreement that the most amazing thing about the convention, or any RI convention, is the people you meet from all over the world. Amy cited an instance where contacts from India have been able to figure out how she and her daughter can get from India to Pakistan despite the political animosity between the countries. All spent many hours in the House of Friendship staffing the RAG4Clubfoot booth and generally finding out about many RAGS, fellowships and projects, and meeting new people. The plenary sessions were also awesome with great speakers such as Prime Minister Trudeau, Princess Anne, and Laura Bush. There were many younger Rotarians in leadership roles with the convention, such as the young female MC who was once a Rotary Scholar. Amy summed it up that Rotary is made up of a "world of people with good hearts."
Next year the convention is in Hamburg, Germany and the year after in Honolulu, HI. Plan on attending an RI convention soon!