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Last week at Rotary we recognized a new honorary Paul Harris Fellow.....Lisa Herr. Lisa has been a member of our club since February 2015. She and her family hosted Anni this year and will be hosting our 2016-17 youth exchange student, Simran from India. She serves on the Fruit Basket committee and has been a program chair. You will also find Lisa and her daughter Grace serving at Come to Supper. Lisa is Executive Director of the 7 Rivers Alliance.Congratulations Lisa! More information on how you can become a Paul Harris Fellow or honor someone as a Paul Harris Fellow....click here.
We also had guests from the Weber Center for the Performing Arts...."Wouldn't It Be Lovely" who entertained us with songs from the production.
Our exchange student, Anni from Finland said her good-byes to our membership. Anni thanked everyone for giving her a year that has changed her life forever....the friendships and places she went will be forever remembered.
Anni especially thanked those that picked her up each week to attend Rotary - even though someone forgot her a couple of times!!! and those that bought her raffle tickets. She had kept every ticket and then rolled them out at Rotary!! See photos of the meeting. Anni was a delight to have this year and will be missed...we wish her the best in her future and hope that she will come back and visit us. Thanks to ALL her made her year so special!!!
President Patt Boge then presented the Downtown Rotary Strategic Plan for 2016-17....click here to view. The Board of Directors had a Board Retreat with the help of Rotarian Jerry Arndt as facilitator...our club's Vision: Be a club of engaged members that get to know each other better while having fun delivering service, learning together, and having a positive impact on our community and the world. A Pulse Surveywas given to each member as a self-evaluation on how well you know our members. We will update the Pulse Survey again in January and June 2017 (please contact Patt if we need to update your information). Click here to view.
A few changes for this year are:
We will no longer have a member give a "response" to the program. This will give the presenter a few more minutes for their program/questions. Patt will personally send a thank you to them.
We have a Program Committee, chair is the President-elect nominee...this year that is Todd Restel. Todd and his committee will set the programs up for the year. If you have any suggestions for an upcoming program, please contact Todd Restel. We will still have monthly program chairs that will be the host to the presenter and assign our volunteers for the meeting.
Patt has asked the Membership Committee to assign a mentor to each new member...not necessarily their sponsor. We hope this will make our new members feel more welcome and get to know our membership better. If you would like to be a mentor, please let our Membership Committee Chair, Greg Curti know.
I wanted to tell you how grateful I am for having had the opportunity to spend a day with Anni on Friday, July 22nd!! Thank you also for inviting me to Anni’s goodbye pancake dinner on Thursday night. Anni is a good cook.
Anni and I started out the day at 9 am with a pontoon ride on Lake Onalaska and the main channel of the Mississippi River near Dresbach. We stopped to have avocado snacks, one of her favorite foods. Since she had some gift cards left to use before she leaves for Finland on Sunday, we then went shopping to buy clothes at Kohl’s and cosmetics at Ulta Beauty. Anni also had a gift card for Panera where we had lunch together. From there we fulfilled one of the items still remaining on Anni’s bucket list, a tour of Norskedalen. We had our own special tour—just us and the tour guide. I have attached a few pictures of our day together-click here to view.. I dropped her off in Coon Valley at her host family home at 4:30 pm.
Even though it was extremely hot on Friday, we enjoyed every minute of our adventure together.
As many of my fellow Rotarians already know, Anni is a delightful and wonderful person who steals your heart away. I look forward to being her friend for life!!
Our Rotary Youth Exchange Student for 2016-17 will be Simran, a 16 year-old girl from India. We are excited to sponsor Simran while she is here. She likes to read, watch movies, cycle and draw. Simran is vice president of her school's Interact Club. She wishes to be a psychiatrist. The Youth Exchange Committee is currently working to complete the application process for the three families who will host Simran in the Central High School district. She is scheduled to arrive at the La Crosse Airport, Monday, August 22nd at 3:14 pm.
We are teaming up with the Riverfest Commodores with a fundraiser. They are selling raffle tickets to benefit their Riverfest Commodore Foundation, Inc....each ticket is $10....every ticket we sell we will get $5.......1st Place is Four Club Seats to the Packers/Dallas game on October 16th...includes a 6 passenger limo service to and from the game.....2nd - 5th price click here to view.We hope you will not only buy a ticket but take a pack of tickets to sell to your friends, co-workers, etc. We will use the money through-out the year for our projects. A side note is that the Packers will honor Bret Favre for his Pro Football Hall of Fame induction and unveil his name in the ring of honor on the Lambeau Field facade during halftime at this game! Please help us make this fundraiser a success. Pick up your tickets this week at Rotary.
COME FOR SUPPER....The Humanitarian Committee will be helping again with the "Come for Supper Meal Program" at Our Savior's Lutheran Church - 612 Division Street on Tuesday, July 26th from 4:30-6:00 p.m. Click here to volunteer. We need two more volunteers.
Rotary Golf Outing is Wednesday, August 24th at Cedar Creek. 12:30 shotgun start. Cost is $80 for golf and dinner, $45 for Cedar Creek members. $20 for 3 feet of string (limit 3 feet per team). Please register by contacting Bob Allen at robert.s.allen@stifel.com
ROTARY WORKS FOUNDATION...Rotary Works at their July Board meeting approved the following grants:
OccuPaws Guide Dog Association: $500.00 for review/assessment of guide dog teams located in the La Crosse area... 2 guide dog teams will be assessed
Consumer Credit Counseling Services: $1,220.00 for Financial Empowerment Program for Family & Children’s Center. Funds will be used for Hope Academy classes to teach teen parent families to responsibly manage their financial resources
Deerwood Park Shelter: $2,500 toward building a $40,000 shelter in Deerwood Park. Holmen Rotary is partnering with the Village of Holmen and Holmen Youth Baseball
We have four members that represent our club on the Rotary Works Board they are: Jeanne Meyer, Majel Hein, Kelly Kreig-Sigman and Craig Ubbelohde. If you have any questions on the Rotary Works Foundation feel free to contact our representatives.
The Rotary Works Board meets every third Thursday of the month, 7:00 a.m., at the Reinhart Center on the Viterbo University campus. Their next meeting is August 18th. Click here to view their web site.
ROTARY AVENUES OF SERVICE DINNER....Avenues of Service Dinner is scheduled for Tuesday, August 16, 2016 at the Four Seasons Community Center, Caledonia. Save the date for an evening of Rotary fellowship. This is a fundraiser for our Rotary Works Foundation. Fellowship.....Awards....Basket Raffle.
Bruce Swanwick will be recognized as our club's Rotarian of the Year. Announcement next week will reveal the Rising Star, Lifetime Achievement Awards and Service Awards.
We will have a bus that transports area Rotarians to Caledonia for $10 per person (we will need 30 Rotarians to sign-up to make it happen). You will receive an email regarding how to register for the dinner and bus. You will also have the opportunity to register at our meetings. We will also have online registration for ALL area Rotary members to register.
The July Edition of the District Dispatch.... can now be seen in its online format at this link..click here.
Dean McHugh, from the Rotary Club of Holmen, serves as Governor of District 6250 for 2016-17. Dean began in Rotary as a charter member of his club in 2007 and is a Past President. He has also served as Foundation Annual Programs Chair for District 6250. Dean initially joined Rotary to help give others the experience he received as a foreign exchange student to Bogota, Colombia. He was chosen to be his club’s International Service chair and encouraged by his charter President to find a signature international project for his club. Dean realized his water quality training and Spanish language abilities would be helpful for clean water projects in Latin America. He has made three visits to Peru along with his club’s clean water team where they monitor ongoing projects and evaluate additional opportunities. He has made Rotary contacts throughout the world to learn about and cooperatively promote clean water and sanitation. More information on Dean click here.
Arch Klumph’s idea for an endowment fund dedicated to “doing good in the world” planted the seed for The Rotary Foundation in 1917. Thanks to his vision and staunch advocacy, and the extraordinary generosity of Rotary members worldwide, that fund has become one of the world’s leading humanitarian foundations.
Learn about the people and events that have made our Foundation a powerful force for good. That one idea and an initial contribution of $26.50 set in motion a powerful force for good that has transformed millions of lives around the globe. View the timeline of the history of the development of what is now the Rotary Foundation.
100% ATTENDANCE FOR THE 2015-16 YEAR....Congratulations to the members who achieved 100% attendance for the 2015-16 Rotary year...click here to view. If you believe that you had 100% attendance and are not on the list....please contact Lyn at rotarylax@charter.net. We will have a drawing for gift cards at one of our meetings in August.
I’m the guy who asked to join your organization. I’m the guy who paid his dues to join. I’m the guy who stood up in front of you and promised to be faithful and loyal. I’m the guy who came to your meetings and no one paid attention to. I tried several times to be friends, but they all had their own buddies to talk to and sit next to. I sat down several times, but no one paid any attention to me. I hoped very much that someone would have asked me to take part in a fund raising project or something, but no one saw my efforts when I volunteered. I missed a few meetings after joining because I was sick and couldn’t be there. No one asked me at the next meeting where I had been. I guess it didn’t matter very much to others whether I was there or not. The next meeting, I decided to stay home and watch TV. The following meeting, I attended, but no one asked me where I was for the last meeting. You might say I’m a good guy or a “good family man” who holds a responsible job and loves his community and country. You know who else I am? THE GUY WHO NEVER CAME BACK. It amuses me how the heads of organizations and the members discuss WHY The organization is losing members. It amuses me to think that they spend so much time looking for NEW members when I was there all the time. All they need to do was make me feel needed, wanted, and WELCOME! (Author Unknown)
Anita will be selling greeting cards at our upcoming meetings.
Birthday, Wedding, Sympathy, Get Well, Anniversary, Congratulations, Note Cards and other cards will be available. All cards are unique and hand-made. Thank you cards are only $1.00, as are the note cards, which are blank inside. The regular cards are $2.00 and $3.00 each. Some cards are three for $5.00 and some three for $10. Anita donates all sales to the Rotary Works Foundation! Last quarter she donated $210 for the 2nd quarter card sales. Y-T-D sales are $450.00. Thank you to all who supports Anita's fundraiser for the Rotary Works Foundation.
MEMBERSHIP 2015-16
Active Membership
June 30, 2015 - 167 July 25th - 169
Honorary Members July 25, 2016 - 25
Honorary Membership is offered to members who have distinguished themselves by meritorious service in the furtherance of Rotary ideals. Honorary membership is the highest distinction that a club may bestow and should be conferred only in exceptional cases. Honorary members cannot propose new members to the club or hold office and are exempt from attendance requirements and club dues. Honorary members will continue to receive The Rotarian Magazine compliments of the club.
Excused Membershipis offered to members if the aggregate of the member’s years of age and years of membership in one or more clubs is 85 years or more, the member has been a member of one or more clubs for at least 20 years, and the member has notified the club's secretary in writing of the member’s desire to be excused from attendance and the board has approved. Excused Members will pay the quarterly dues of $70 and only for meals when they attend a meeting.
Membership Proposals....we will no longer ask for three references when you propose a new member. This was a criteria that our club had set not RI. This will help us process new members into our club more efficiently. You can access the membership proposal form online, under the Club Information site page.
Congrats to Anni our exchange student who won $20 on the marble raffle last week.
Please note: Raffle, Fines, Birthday, Anniversaries and Scooters are all donations that will go to the club If you are making a donation and would like it to go to the Rotary Works Foundation or Rotary International Foundation, we ask that you write a check to the Foundation of your choice.
July 21st: Raffle$50 ; Fines $41 ; Scooters $4 ; Scrip $280
ROTARY ATTENDANCE July 7th - 61%
July 14th - 58%
July 21st - 61%
Rotary Attendance policy is to attend or makeup at least 50% of the club meetings during the first six months and the second six months. They can be done by: • Attending regular club meetings • Making up meetings at other Rotary Clubs ( which includes E-Clubs) • Engaging in club projects/events/fellowship/board meetings.
ClubRunner Mobile App is now available for download! The ClubRunner Mobile App is your key to connect to your ClubRunner website on the go! Completely, free to download and use, this app will let you access the key info you need while you're on the go. Password protected just like your website, the ClubRunner Mobile app is comprised of 3 main modules.You now will have the ability to view your member directory, view the articles posted to your website and locate the nearest club right from your iPhone or iPod, bringing you even closer to being able to connect, collaborate and communicate!
To downloadthe app from the Apple App Store or from Google Play, simply type in 'ClubRunner' in the search bar. Our mobile app is compatible with all versions of the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch sets that have iOS 3.1 or later and with versions of Anrdoids that are 2.3.3 or better.
Click here for more information.Note the app is the one that has a blue background and has CR on it. It will give you easy access to all our member's contact information.
If you would like to volunteer to do Rotarians in the News, be a greeter, raffle ticket seller, scrip seller or announce guests, you can email the Monthly Program Chairs that are listed above....just click on their name. If you would like to give your classification talk please contact Program Committee Chair Todd Restel.
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that has changed her life forever....the friendships and places she went will be forever remembered. 
t. Anni is a good cook.
ad, watch movies, cycle and draw. Simran is vice president of her school's Interact Club. She wishes to be a psychiatrist. The Youth Exchange Committee is currently working to complete the application process for the three families who will host Simran in the Central High School district. She is scheduled to arrive at the La Crosse Airport, Monday, August 22nd at 3:14 pm.
date for an evening of Rotary fellowship. This is a fundraiser for our Rotary Works Foundation. Fellowship.....Awards....Basket Raffle.
