At our March 14th Board Meeting, our Board voted to allow a reimbursement of $100 for any member who attends our Annual District Conference. As you know, our District Conference will be held in Wyomissing on April 27th through April 29th, at the Crowne Plaza Hotel. The Conference will feature many dynamic speakers, as well as top notch entertainment. The theme of the speakers will be how to develop leadership skills, and will provide useful ideas for contributing to our club which are also applicable to business and family life. Saturday night’s program will feature Bill Haley Jr. and the Comets. Bill is a Rotarian, and people who hear the group all agree that they sound just like the original comets. Please consider attending the Conference. You can attend for one, two, or all three nights for a modest cost. More information at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/2018-rotary-district-7430-conference-registration-31170115655.
At our regular meeting, we heard from 4 of our BAVTS Shadow Students who are in the Culinary Arts program. They worked together at the 4th Annual "Girl Scout Cookie Crunch," held February 25th at ArtsQuest's MusicFest Cafe, to win the overall title of "Cookie Crunch Champions" for their Lemonades® Pepper Chicken Bites with Mango Salsa. The students were introduced by their teacher Larry Fortunato, who acknowledged that this was quite an achievement, considering that their competition were local restaurants who have professional chefs. Congratulations to Jaevon Freeman, Kenya Harrell, Marc Anthony Olmo, and Gabriela Stocklas. According to Larry, our support of BAVTS, and the recognition we pay to the students, provides the kind of encouragement these young people need to strive for excellence.
Our meeting program was a presentation by Sylvia Doyle and Al Philpotts. Sylvia, our Program Chairman, spoke about the process which the Program Committee uses to select topics and speakers for our weekly meetings. The committee primarily uses Rotary’s 6 areas of focus to narrow the topics which will be presented. They also try to find topics which can be related to one of the Rotary Action Groups, in case members have an interest in becoming actively involved in an issue. If a member wants to suggest a speaker or program topic, there is a Speaker Form on our club website. The form can be downloaded and printed, but is not an interactive form due to the limitations of ClubRunner. Any member wishing to suggest a speaker or topic should fill out this form and e-mail or mail it to Sylvia, or Deb Geiger the Program Co-Chair. The committee has done an outstanding job for our club, and on behalf of our club, I thank each member of the committee.
Our Webmaster, Al Philpotts, reviewed how to use ClubRunner and our club website. Al showed us how to retrieve a user ID and to reset a password in case we've forgotten. Al mentioned that a benefit of knowing your user ID and password is using them to access the ClubRunner mobile app. Available for your smart-phone, the CR app gives you immediate access to our club information (directory, calendar, stories). With the app on your smart phone you'll have an always-current directory at your fingertips, to quickly phone or email any of our talented club members. Al has been instrumental in helping to use ClubRunner effectively, and plans to address other topics at future meetings. Familiarizing yourself with ClubRunner (and using the CR app) will help us to be a more effective club. Al is available one-on-one to help anyone use ClubRunner more effectively. I want to thank Al for his dedication to improving Bethlehem Rotary.
Next week’s speaker will be Lynn Collins Cunningham of the Bethlehem Chamber of Commerce.
ANNOUNCEMENT:
Our 22nd Annual Charity Golf Tournament takes place on May 14th. Details for sponsorship and attendance are available on the club website or by clicking this LINK.
At its regular Wednesday Meeting of January 10th, the club introduced representatives of several regional charitable organizations that have received recent grants made by the Bethlehem Rotary Foundation.
Club President Gerry Foran presents check to Arlene Lund, Executive Director,
Center for Humanistic Change
Foundation President Pat Connell presents check to Catherine DeHart and
Maryanne Haytmanek of the NCCC Foundation
Foundation President Connell present check to Lia Jordan, Executive Director,
Touchstone Theatre (and member Rotary Club of Bethlehem)
Foundation President Connell presents check to Megan Pildis, Executive Director,