It was a gorgeous day for Officer Installation! Gordon Matthews, past President of RCSE and past District Governor, presided over the officer installation. Your new Board Members are as follows: Immediate Past President - Ben Brewer, President - Cindy Kelley, Secretary - Laura Lane McKinnon, Treasurer - Bruce Montgomery, and Sergeant-at-Arms - Mel Mrochinski. The incoming President had to resign from the club so Cindy announced that the Board would be contacting people to see if they would be willing to serve. Cindy also thanked Ben Brewer for his year as President before leading a discussion about goals for the club for the upcoming fiscal year.
Cindy started by mentioning she has had the opportunity to visit many clubs recently which has given her an opportunity to see how other clubs conduct their meetings. Most people like the format we have of meeting every Friday for lunch but would be willing to entertain the idea of having a social or community project once a quarter in lieu of a meeting. Another suggestion was to have more "out meetings" where the club has a meeting off site. Everyone agrees that the club needs to focus more efforts on recruiting new and younger members. Cindy concluded by asking for a few members to help evaluate our dues to see if we can lower them.
After Cindy was done, she asked James Ferencsik, Beth Ferencsik's son, to speak about his studies in France. James is seeking a Masters Degree in International Security from a university in Paris, France. His focus is on preventing political violence around the world. He received a scholarship from Rotary to help fund his graduate degree. His host club in France is the Rotary Club of Paris which meets in a downtown 5 star restaurant - a little different than our meetings! He is grateful to Rotary for providing him this opportunity to study abroad and has noticed no matter where a club is located, all clubs are made up of generous people who want to give back to their community.