2010/09/22 Meeting

Posting by Tom Lott:

In Bernie's absence I offered to write the weekly newsletter. You'll
see I need a good editor, but ploughing ahead...

After a productive Board Meeting, we had our best Rotary meeting in a
long while. Not only did we have a good speaker, Brett Grant showed
up. Everyone was thrilled to see him. He looked great though
admitted he was tired. He had spent the morning at the radio station
(KSHP-AM) and did a sports show on air. Big day for the first time
out except to visit a doctor! He still has to take a weekly chemo
treatment, which unfortunately falls on Tuesdays, but promised to make
it to Rotary meetings when he is able.

Bill Pierce reported that Bernie is doing well but has a ways to go to
get stronger. Bernie resigned as President and the club, in fact, but
several continue to lobby for his return to the club in the future.
Bill Clink is reported to be swimming, but we did not have any more
information on his condition.

At the Board meeting a major discussion was the new Interact Club at
Southwest Tech. We decided to sponsor the club if we found a willing
lead Rotarian. And to pursue the Interact Club at West Prep. Ted
Gurr, Lynn Price, Francie Summers and others have done a wonderful job
leading us down these paths. While Southwest Tech may not technically
be a school of needy children, there will be many in that situation as
it is a magnet school. The expense to start an Interact Club is
small, and the students raise most of the money themselves. If
needed, we agreed to "pass the hat" for any extra funding necessary.

Other actions at the Board Meeting was to amend the budget to
eliminate a Foundation Grant and an unspecified International project
in the face of fewer fund raisers. With those deletions, and without
King of the Hill, Super Bowl board and March Madness board the Charity
budget will be about 3,000 in the red. We have money in both bank
accounts, as always, so this is not a concern. The club is looking
for someone to step up and run the Super Bowl and March Madness
boards, which could put us in the black for the year.

All Board Meetings are open to all club members, and copies of the
budgets or financials are available to anyone that asks (just ask Jan
or myself).

Our speaker was an FBI Agent, Scott Hunter, who prosecutes white
collar crime. We have a lot of it and he gave some true life
examples. I noticed Ted Baker and Duncan Lee squirming in their
chairs at times during the presentation. I always wondered what they
did in that innocent looking office building on Sahara. The drive
pretty nice cars, but I've never heard any mention of yachts or the
Bahamas. Unless someone makes an anonymous call to Agent Hunter, we'll
probably never know. Ken Cox won the raffle and pulled the blue
marble to win the pot, estimated at several hundred dollars.

Next week: Mayor Oscar Goodman! The mayor joins us every year and is
our most popular speaker A great opportunity to bring a guest.

Tom Lott
9/22/2010