We began the New Year with a Club Assembly, which is devoted to conducting Club business and fellowship activities. This week we had the privilege of hearing from one of long-time Club members, Al Philpotts. A member of our Club since 1992, Al provided us with an update on his professional endeavors since giving his classification talk nearly 25 years ago.
Retirement might mean starting a life of ease for some people; not for Al. After retiring from the U.S. Air Force in 1995, he has worked for and retired from 4 different positions and remains working today as a consultant/contractor for Brother International Corporation.
Founded in 1908, Brother has a presence in 47 countries; its headquarters are located in Japan. The company manufactures a wide range of products/services, including sewing and embroidery machines, printers and scanners: printer technology; cutting machine tools; calculators; and on-line karaoke technology. Brother employs 34,000+ people worldwide and enjoys over $6 billion in sales annually. Al spent two years working in human resources at Brother’s U.S. headquarters located in Bridgewater, New Jersey. It was during this time that Al was unable to make our Wednesday noon meetings; however, he remained active with our Club by continuing his role as webmaster for Club Runner.
Al’s new role in talent acquisition with Brother allows him to work from home, which means we get to see his smiling face and enjoy his company at Rotary once again. Who said retirement is boring?
To our January Birthday Rotarians……
Hank Barnette
Cindy Glick
Steve Kalamar
Gerry Long
Mario Stuart
Bill Matz
Tip Mowrer, Jr.
Gordon Sommers
Roger Whiteley
Announcements:
Reminder: A Celebration of Life for Bob Cohen will be held on March 25, 2017 at 11 AM at the UUCLVPA located at 424 Center Street in Bethlehem.
Membership Update: As of July 1, our Club consisted of 100 members; as of December 31, we are down to 98 members. During the first 6 months of the 2016-2017 Rotary year, we added 4 new members but lost 6, including Marcus Hege, Bob Cohen, Bob and Madeline Brown, Ann Gibson and Gordy Mowrer, for a net loss of 2 members. Members were challenged to invite 1 potential new member to one of our January or February Club meetings, with the goal of reaching 112 members by June 30, 2017. Convenient wallet-size Rotary cards to share with potential members were distributed.
Catherine Trawinski has scheduled an Outreach Hunger Committee Meeting on January 20 at 8:30 am at Wegmans on Route 512. If you’d like to be involved in this exciting Club service project, please feel free to attend.
This month’s ‘Who’s That Rotarian’ question, revealed that Tip Mowrer got to play golf with Jackie Gleason at Shawnee on the Delaware back in 1955.
Next week’s program speaker is Allison Czapp, whose topic is: Buy Fresh, Buy Local.
Other Upcoming Events/Activities:
Ginny Sandoval, Membership Chair, Allentown West Rotary, is organizing an International Women’s Day at Cedar Crest College on Wednesday, March 8, 2017 in an effort to recruit more women to Rotary. The event will start with round table discussions form 3:00-5:00, followed by a celebration of women with networking, drinks, and snacks, and entertainment from 5:00-7:00. Our District Governor, Linda Young, has been invited to join the effort, and Ginny has extended the invitation to area Clubs. Despite it being geared toward women Rotarians, men are invited to attend as well!
Service Project to fight hunger – Saturday, March 11, 2017. We will be joining our sister Area 2 Rotary Clubs – Morning Star, Nazareth, Easton, and Saucon Valley. We will be packaging food through Outreach Hunger for local good pantries in our respective communities at Moravian College. Catherine Trawinski and Diane Donaher will be coordinating these efforts for our Club. We will need many volunteers from our Club.
March 11th is also the date our District 7430 has selected to celebrate the RI Foundation’s 100th Anniversary. The celebration will be in the form of a Gala which will be held at Pine Crest Country Club in North Penn. It is close enough for many of us to attend, so please save the date on your calendar.
Our District is planning a fun, yet impactful, service opportunity. On March 26-April 2, 2017, your fellow District 7430 Rotarians will be leaving for a 7 day round trip cruise, leaving from Miami and sailing to the Dominican Republic on the Fathom Adonia, an elegant, yet relaxed, 710 passenger ship. Rotarians will have a chance to serve and participate in Impact such as teaching English, helping with tree planting and reforestation, making water filters for home use, pouring concrete floors, aiding a women’s chocolate cooperative as well as a paper recycling and craft entrepreneurship. When not serving, you can relax at beautiful Amber Cove, a $90 million dollar facility, and enjoy the beach, hiking, touring, zip lining, deep sea fishing, snorkeling, and more! Cost is $299 pp for an inside or outside cabin*, $599 pp for a room with balcony, $999 pp for a suite! Airfare and onshore leisure activities not included.
District Conference 7430, hosted by District Governor, Linda Young, is scheduled on May 5th - 7th, 2017, at the Eden Resort & Suites in Lancaster. Conference ticket prices starting January 1st are $220. Special Conference room rate is $169 - $189 per night for Friday, May 5 and Saturday, May 6, 2017. Rooms at this rate will be held until April 4, 2017.
Mark your calendars for Monday, May 15 (rain date is May 22) for our annual Rotary Golf Tournament at the Bethlehem Municipal Golf Course. A golf committee meeting is scheduled on December 21 at 11:15.
After decades of investing in literacy projects, experts have realized that simply getting children into the classroom — either by removing attendance barriers or providing supplies — is not enough. Before students can succeed, the quality of the teaching in that classroom needs to improve. Discover how Rotary is mentoring and coaching teachers to solve illiteracy.
