Ann Arbor Rotary Harpoon

The Rotary Club of Ann Arbor sponsors the U-M Rotaract Club and the Interact Clubs at Huron and Pioneer High Schools. Harpoon is the weekly newsletter of the Rotary Club of Ann Arbor.

Leonard A. Stenger, President
Maurita P. Holland, VP & President Elect
Nishta G.Bhatia, Immed Past Pres
J. Downs Herold, Secretary
John G. Ackenhusen, Club Treasurer
David J. Keosaian, Endowment Treasurer
David B. Williams, Sergeant at Arms
Todd Kephart, Director
Claire Foley, Director
Agnes Pearson Reading, Director

Spaulding Clark, Director
Susan Smith Gray, Director
Edwin R Wier, Director
John T. White III, Club Administrator

P.O. Box 131217
Ann Arbor, MI 48113-1217
www.annarborrotary.org
info@annarborrotary.org
(734) 662-1734

Meetings: Wednesday at noon at the U-M Union, 530 S. State St.

Choose a month from the pop-up menu below to choose which version of the Harpoon to view.

Harpoon Version

Harpoon for the Meeting of May 22, 2013

Celebrate STRIVE

MEETING IN THE BALLROOM

Rotary Leadership Institute Training

Program: Celebration of STRIVE Success

It's been another great year for our STRIVE program at Ann Arbor Tech High School, and we'll celebrate the accomplishments, plans and dreams of all students who participated in the program in 2012-13 and meet and honor the winners of the 2013 STRIVE Scholarships to Washtenaw Community College. Speaker: Lynn Martin

The meeting will be in the Ballroom, with a premium meal (top price $11.50) including hot entree and dessert.

Song Leader: Jim Irwin Accompanist: Tom Strode

Committee Meetings:

11:00 Community Allocations - Bob Mull

Upcoming Meetings and Events:

June 5: Speaker: Governor Rick Snyder Dinner Meeting: 5:45 p.m. Ballroom 
June 8 (Saturday): Rotary Leadership Training, Gaylord, MI 
June 9 (Sunday): DOGS at the Ann Arbor Marathon – John Sepp
June 12 Speaker: Ann Arbor Mayor John Hieftje, The State of Our Fair City 
June 19 Speaker: Russ Miller, Former RI Special Representative to China Topic: Rotary in China - a Report from a “Global Rotarian” 
June 26 Speaker: James Sayer, Research Scientist, U-M Transportation Research Institute  Topic: Connected Vehicles in Ann Arbor . . . the Safety Pilot Model Deployment

September 9 (Monday): Golf & Tennis Outing

Details on monthly meetings may be found on the club's website.

Notes from the Meeting:

For this, the 4,819^th meeting of the Rotary Club of Ann Arbor, we sang the national anthems of both the United States and Canada, with John Ackenhusen as accompanist. President Len reminded us it’s only 175 ½ weeks until our Centennial.

Our invocation was given by Patricia Garcia who, in remembering the Oklahoma tornado victims, said it was difficult to find the appropriate words of support and sympathy, but that “music speaks to what cannot be expressed.” This was appropriate, given that our program today was the Huron High choir.

Song leader Steve (Golden Tonsils) Pierce, accompanied by Maurita (the pride of Gulliver) Holland, led us in the “Good Old Summertime” and Steve’s more or less signature piece, “The Happy Wanderer.”

President Len thanked our luncheon team. Greeter/host were District Governor Don Riddell and Past District Governor Don Chisholm; attendance was logged by Ginny Geren and Amy Freundl; the audio/visual team was Wayne Colquitt and Dan Romanchik; the mic runners were Phil Weiss, Millie Danielson and JoAnn Barrett; the meeting reporter was Don Faber; the photographer was Fred Beutler and the speaker introduction was handled by Art Williams.

Emeritus member Gene Ingram turns 90 on Memorial Day.

District Governor Don Riddell and Past District Governor Don Chisholm were called to the podium to award Paul Harris Fellowships to those club members who have earned them this year. First timers honored were Dick Carlisle, Chris Conlin, Todd Kephart, Steve Kesler,Dennis Norton, Prue Rosenthal, John Sepp, Leo Shedden and Karen Valvo. And our most recent PHFs to come forward included Dave Anderson, Rob Boehnke, Barbara Bryant, Marsha Chamberlin, Tom Conlin, Wendy Correll, John Debbink, Ingrid Deininger, Don Devine, Dallas Dort, Dick Elwell, Dave Felbeck, Paul Geiger, Anne Glendon, Bob Green, Larry Hastie, Libby Hines, Maurita Holland, Jim Irwin, Tom Kauper, Phil Klintworth, Joan Knoertzer, Frode Maaseidvaag, Griff McDonald, Robbie O’Brien, Mark Ouimet, Joanne Pierson, Rick Price, Jim Reece, Dave Reid, Susan Smith Gray, Al Storey, Randy Tisch and John White. Of our 325 members, we have 43 new PHFs and 9 first timers. In addition, we have 160 Paul Harris Fellows among the current members, as well as two benefactors and one major donor making for $750,000 in all-time giving.

DG Don then presented the Presidential Citation to President Len for RCAA’s outstanding contributions to the cause of Rotary. President Len thanked Governor Don, saying “although I get to accept it, the service that underpins the citation is really the work of the members you see here and some that you don’t see. Also, I want to thank you and Foundation Chair Don Chisholm for your support for the District Grant projects that our club has sponsored.” Then the Ann Arbor Rotaract Club received its own Presidential Citation, accepted by Vicky Lai and Adrienne Escamilla who thanked the club for its support, especially Beth Fitzsimmons, Ed Weir, Andrea Darden, Omari Rush, Johannes Kristinsson and Amy Kilbourne.

Upcoming committee meetings include Community Allocations.

The second annual Ann Arbor Marathon will be held June 9. A portion of every entry goes to the Ann Arbor Public Schools Educational Foundation. John Sepp needs volunteers to staff the water and first aid table for the event; contact him at john.sepp@lpl.com.

President Len’s history lesson: On this date in 334 B.C., Alexander the Great defeated the Persians in the Battle of the Granicus, starting his march through Asia Minor; in 1819, the SS Savannah left Savannah, Ga. on a voyage to become the first steamship to cross the Atlantic Ocean; in 1906, the Wright brothers were granted U.S. patent number 821,393 for their “flying machine”; and in 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson announced the goals of the Great Society.

Notes from the Program:

Huron High School Principal Art Williams introduced Dr. Richard Ingram of the Grammy Award-winning Huron High choral program and the Huron High A Capella Choir. Rick Ingram thanked his parents, Gene and Margaret Ingram who were in attendance and said how lucky he was to have his parents still coming to his concerts. Gene, longtime Rotarian, was celebrating his 90^th birthday, and son Rick led us in a singing of “Happy Birthday.” With Mary Ann Balduff at the piano, the choir took us on songs from around the world –Australia, Romania and finally to America. The living American composer Rene Claussen was honored with a song before the choir closed its multicultural program with a song from Latin America, complete with percussion. Dr. Ingram mentioned his choir’s recent trip to Rome and the experiences his singers had in learning about Roman history and singing in some of the really old churches in Rome. It made us all envious, of course, but pleased that these young people have the kind of opportunities they have in an arts-supportive city such as Ann Arbor and a school district that values these kinds of experiences.

Thought of the day: “A bird does not sing because it has an answer. It sings because it has a song.” –Chinese proverb

Notes by Don Faber, Harpoon editor Photographs by John White

Notes of Interest:

Although not yet seated… Incoming President Elect Karen Kerry and Director Phil Weiss are already under the watchful eye of John White. The current Board was joined by incoming Directors Mary Hays, Phil Weiss and Ashish Sarkar for the annual Board Retreat on May 14. Incoming President Maurita Holland led a discussion about the survey results and some changes to our meetings that may be coming. More information is in the Summary of the Board of Directors Meeting, below.

Interact Picnic: Karl Brenner and his wife Christine hosted the Pioneer and Huron High Interact Clubs at an end of school year picnic. Awards were made to Senior Interact Club Board members. In addition to Karl, Ed Wier, Christina Kim, Ashish Sarkar and Len Stenger represented our Rotary Club. The Huron High Interact Advisor was also present.

Brochures for the 2013 Golf and Tennis Outing are available at meetings and on our website. This year’s Keynote Speaker is our own Fritz Seyferth who has been a true Michigan Man throughout his childhood and career. Golfers and tennis players are needed so start talking up this great Rotary event on Monday, September 9 at Travis Pointe Country Club.

Learn to Row Day: Sara Gronewald (daughter of Rotarian Michael Field), Director of Rowing at the Ann Arbor Rowing Club and several enthusiastic but patient members showed several Rotarians the basics and put them to the test on the water. It was a gorgeous day and everyone came back dry! John White's photographs from the morning on the river provide several 'snapshots" of the experience. Thanks to Agnes Reading for setting it up, Kathy Wood for filling in to organize us at the event and Dave Williams for picking up the lunch from Rotarian Hugh Morgan at Satchel's BBQ.

Rotary Leadership Institute to hold training session on Saturday, June 8 in Gaylord.
RLI offers a three-day course designed to improve the leadership skills and Rotary knowledge of future Rotary leaders. We have also scheduled sessions in Troy MI on July 20 and Chatham, Ontario on October 19. For more information, contact Dan Romanchik by email or by phone: 734‐930‐6564.

Ann Arbor Chronicle Advertising: James Corey has completed the process to have our Club advertised in the Ann Arbor Chronicle. If you don’t find it on your first click and are technologically challenged, Editor Mary Morgan explained it this way: The Rotary ad is running every day, but it's in rotation with other ads on the site. It works like most online publications: Our ad software serves up a set of ads each time someone comes to the site. Subsequently each time someone clicks on a different article or refreshes the page, a new set of ads appear. If you and I go to the site at the same time, we might see a different arrangement of ads – or perhaps the same set, depending on what the ad software serves up. Take a look, click if you need to, and thank James.

Ann Arbor Rotaract recently identified new officers. The new President is Adrienne Escamilla and the Vice-President and Secretary is Vicky Lai. Additional officer positions include Professional Development Chairs Obi Nwachukwu and David Malawey; Community and International Service Chair Diana Sykes; and Social Event Chair Monica Laing. AA Rotaract will be partnering with “Career Connections” in a series of programs for low-income young adults to assist them with career planning and job development.

The Rotary Youth Leadership Awards conference was held the weekend of May 10-12 at the University of Guelph in Ridgetown, Ontario. The Rotary Club of Ann Arbor sponsored eight students to attend the conference this year. Our sponsored RYLA students came from a variety of sources including our sponsored Interact Clubs, the general student populations at Pioneer and Huron High School, Community High School, and the Pioneer High School Rising Scholars program. Arrangements are being proposed to have the sponsored students attend an upcoming Rotary meeting to share conference highlights with our Club members.

Summary of Board of Director’s Meeting/Retreat May 14, 2013: The meeting was held Tuesday, May 14 at 5-9pm at Cleary University on Plymouth Road. The Club’s active membership at the end of April was reported at 324. Member attendance was reported at 50% for the four April meetings. A plaque was presented to Cleary University in recognition of their supplying meeting space for the Retreat and other Rotary meetings. John White reported that we would have around 40 Paul Harris Fellowships to be awarded on May 22nd. Chris Ballard was appointed to a 4-year term as Trustee for the Ann Arbor Rotary Endowment, replacing Norman Herbert whose term had ended. The Operating Fund Balance was reported as $28,400. The Endowment Treasurer reported the market value of the Endowment at a total of $1,507,368 at the end of April. He also noted that he projects the Community Service account to close the year with $17,000 in unallocated funds. Reports of committee activity noted that this year’s Touch-a-Truck event held May 4 was a success at its new location. A joint Interact picnic will be held to honor the graduating seniors from both clubs and to recognize the successful year of each. Two new members have been added to the Harpoon and Website Committee and more would be welcome. The Club’s ad is now up and rotating on the Ann Arbor Chronicle’s website. President Elect Maurita Holland led the group in a lively discussion following the review of this year’s Club Survey’s results. Keeping in mind the Rotary Theme for 2013-14 , “Engage Rotary, Change Lives” the group suggested ways that our club’s strategic plan objectives will be used to guide the club’s programs next year.

Meeting Statistics: Attendance at the May 15th meeting included 118 members, four guests, two visiting Rotarians, Carolyn Hiatt from the Honolulu, HI, Sunrise Club and Laurie Baumer from the Lansing, MI, Club. Former member Geoff Larcom provided the program. Before our luncheon 20 members participated in meetings of the Audio, Junior Rotarian and Program Committees.

Makeup Cards from Roving Rotarians: None this week.

Birthdays: May 19 – Bob Donnellan, Pam Smith; May 22 – Dan Millard; May 23 – Karl Hosten, Terry Linden; May 24 – Brian Schrag; May 25 – Doug Gross, Dennis Norton; May 26 – Jerry Prescott

Links of Interest: Websites of interest to Rotarians are listed below:

Peace Through Service Logo Rotary International: The RI home page has links to About Rotary, The Rotary Foundation, Club Locator and Member Access. Our Club is in Zone 29. The zone has 17 districts and covers portions of Maryland, Michigan, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Ontario. District 6380: Our district's website includes 53 clubs in the counties of Washtenaw, Livingston, Oakland and Macomb in Michigan and Kent in Ontario. The district’s monthly newsletter and articles of district-wide interest are posted there.

Rotary Club of Ann Arbor: Our Club’s website provides background material and information including the current Annual Report, Strategic Plan, New Member Nomination Form, Committee Descriptions, Club and Golf Outing brochures, synopses of upcoming programs and an archive of Harpoons. Find us on Facebook.

Submit news, committee meetings, and announcements to the Harpoon, the newsletter of the Rotary Club of Ann Arbor. Contact the Club to subscribe by email.

Our Club also sponsors the following Rotaract and Interact Clubs:

U-M Rotaract Club Huron High Interact Club

Pioneer High Interact Club Ann Arbor Rotaract Club

“Peace Through Service”