WARSAW ROTARY      Club 3393, District 6540

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88 Years Of Rotary Service In Warsaw   The first Rotary Meeting was held in Warsaw at the Hays Hotel on April 18, 1919.  The club was chartered on June 1, 1919 as the 484th club in Rotary International.

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New Member Information RI Structured Programs Information Club Officer Information

The 2007-08 Warsaw Rotary Club Board was recently elected. Newly elected President, Jerry Henline plans to continue the good things Rotary is already doing and hopes to get current members more involved. One opportunity to expand membership involvement will be through committee work. Committee options include: Membership - chaired by Max Courtney and Joy McCarthy-Sessing, Public Relations - chaired by Stephanie Overbey, Administration - chaired by Laura Kaufman and Ken Locke, Service Projects - chaired by David Jones (domestic projects) and David Hamrick (international projects), Rotary Foundation - chaired by Alan Alderfer and Alec McPherson. Please consider involvement in one of these committees and speak to the chair person of the committee to make your interest known.

BOARD MEETING - June 11, 2008

WARSAW ROTARY CLUB

BOARD MEETING

June 11, 2008

12:00 pm Great Wall

President Jerry Henline opened the meeting at 12:00 pm with the following Rotary members present: Laura Kaufman, Alan Alderfer,  Lewis Jones, Ken Locke, Greg Cobb, Alec McPherson and Cindy Hampton.

OLD BUSINESS

Changing of the Guard Dinner – The Changing of the Guard Dinner is scheduled for June 26, 2008 at Noa Noa.  Price per couple will be $50, as it was last year.  Cindy Hampton is working on the menu.  Jerry Henline reported that he has received some RSVPs.  Cindy Hampton reported that she needs a "head count" by June 20.    

Interact Club at Warsaw Comm High School – Greg Cobb is still pursuing the possibility of the Club establishing an "Interact" club at the high school, "Interact" is similar to the Kiwanis "Key" Club and encourages high school students to get involved in community service, leadership, etc. 

Rotary Golf Outing – The Rotary Golf Outing is scheduled for Monday, August 18, 2008.  Max Courtney is spearheading the event, which will be similar in format to last year.  The main focus of the golf outing is fellowship, not fundraising, although it does typically make money for the club.

NEW BUSINESS

Rotary Board Meeting Date – Certain new board members/officers for next year have a conflict with the current 2^nd Wednesday of the month date for the Board meetings.  Different dates were discussed.  It was decided that the meeting will be moved to the 1^st Wednesday of each month, beginning in August.  The July meeting will actually be before the regular meeting when the District Governor visits (Friday, July 11)

Pete Thorn Award – Nominations are needed for the Pete Thorn Award.  Ken Locke heads a committee of community members who select the recipient of this award, which honors someone in the community (not necessarily a Rotary member) for their community service.

COMMITTEE REPORTS

Approval of Minutes – The minutes from May 2008 were presented.  Motion was made to approve the May minutes, all were in favor and the minutes were approved.

Finance Committee – Ken Locke presented the financial report.  The account balance was still relatively high because the scholarship checks have not all cleared yet.   There are currently 10 members unpaid for the Jan-Jun 2008 period.  None are members who attend regularly.  Their memberships will be allowed to lapse at the end of June if they do not pay. 

Membership Committee – No report.

Community Service Committee – The scholarship program was generally discussed and Alan Alderfer was commended for a great program and his keen ability to recognize an outstanding group of young ladies.   Alan thanked and recognized his committee members – Cindy Hampton and Tyler Pequignot, who assisted in the selection process.   It was suggested that next year the scholarship recipients should get a certificate as well as a check, in order for them to have something to display at their open houses, etc. 

Fellowship – Cindy Hampton is going to continue with the 1 Minute Rotarian.

International Service – No report

Rotary Foundation -  There will be a Paul Harris awarded on June 20^th. 

With no further business to discuss, the meeting was adjourned at 1:00 pm. 

 

Rotary International polio eradication India 2007 visit

 

Paul Harris 1933 Rotary International Speech

A young lawyer, Paul P. Harris, and three business associates, organized the first Rotary Club on February 23, 1905 in Chicago. Fourteen years later an organizational meeting was held on April 18, 1919 to establish a club in Warsaw, Indiana. An official charter was issued to the club in June of that same year. The Warsaw Rotary Club has been instrumental in many projects in the community. In the 1920's the club helped to establish the local Chamber of Commerce and started "Rotary Toy Day" in 1927 to help children in need during the holidays through The Salvation Army. A speech contest was held in the early years for High School students to present ideas on how to improve Warsaw. Some of the topics covered by youth in those days were the need for more lighting downtown and a community gymnasium for the growing sport of basketball.

Rotary survived the Depression to continue addressing the needs in the community. In 1952 the club sponsored its first Exchange Student, Heinz Wenslow from Germany, and sponsored many others almost annually until the mid 1990's.

Along with Rotary Toy Day an annual "Brice's Day" in honor of Brigadier Bryce Phillipson of The Salvation Army was established by Bruce "Angels" Howe in December 1965. Nearly $1,000 was collected by the club that first year. Bryce was beloved by the members of the club for his service to Warsaw. He was "Promoted To Glory" in 1972. In 1990, then President Don Clemens and club members, renamed the event to Phillipson/Howe Day in honor of "Angels" many years of service. It is estimated that over $300,000 has been collected for The Salvation Army over the years. In June of 1999, Mr. Howe was presented the William Booth Award, the highest award a volunteer can receive from The Salvation Army. A record $35,040 was raised by the club during the 35th Annual Phillipson/Howe Day in 2000.

The club has delivered Mobile Meals in January for many years through the leadership of Bob Gast. Each year the Top 10 academic students at Warsaw High School are presented a $100 scholarship as they prepare to attend college. Other projects sponsored by the club through the years have been the Warsaw Biblical Gardens, Shrine Building, YMCA and Baker Boys Club.

In 1971 John Snell and Bill Chinworth became the first "Paul Harris Fellows" of the club sending $1,000 each to the Rotary International Foundation. Since those first two supporters of the Foundation over $100,000 as been sent to the foundation to meet humanitarian needs around the world. The late Don Rich led an aggressive campaign started in the 1980's to eradicate polio by the year 2005.

In 1994, the Warsaw Rotary Club celebrated its 75th Anniversary. Three members have had the distinction of serving as District Governors of Rotary International:

Arthur Raabe, 1942-1943
William Chinworth, 1948-1949
John Snell, 1969-1970

The club presents an annual "Pete" Thorn Excellence Award to recognize a person who has served the community in the spirit of the late and longtime Rotarian Pete Thorn.

Each week the club meeting features "Louie In The News" remembering another longtime member, the late Louis "Peanuts" Breading who read the news for many years.

The Warsaw Rotary Club also had two honorary members of note back in the 1920's - Billy Sunday & Homer Rodeheaver.

The makeup of Rotary has changed from business men who met in downtown Warsaw to now include business professionals, both men and women, who meet on a weekly basis on Fridays, Noon at the Ramada Inn to learn about their community, fellowship together and join together in service.

For over 80 years the Warsaw Rotary Club has served the community in many capacities and continues to live according to the principal of the motto of Rotary International - "Service Above Self  

WARSAW ROTARY CLUB HOSTS GROUP STUDY EXCHANGE

WARSAW, IN – On Friday, April 29, Warsaw served as the last stop on a 4-week group study exchange trip to Indiana for five individuals from Tamilnadu, India.

   The exchange group was led by Narayanasamy Govindaraj, who is a member and office holder with the Rotary Club in Tamilnadu. The other members of the exchange group (2 women and 2 other men) were not Rotarians, but were chosen to be a part of the exchange team by way of an application and interview process. Each team member represented a different profession in their home country including management, child education, engineering, entomology, and business technology.

            Prior to visiting Warsaw, each exchange group member stayed with a different host family for one week at a time in various Indiana towns and cities.

            As part of their visit with Warsaw Rotarians, the visitors met with Mayor Ernie Wiggins, participated in the Rotary meeting, and took tours of Rohn & Haas, Presby Preschool, Othy, and Kosciusko Community Hospital. The tour stops were intended to expose the visitors to industries and professions that correlated with their own professional interests.

            When asked what they were most surprised by during their four-week Indiana tour, they agreed that the independence of women and the elderly surprised them, specifically that both groups drive their own cars. They were surprised to see men helping with domestic chores such as cooking and cleaning; and said they were corrected in their misconception that marriage isn’t valued in the United States. Many of the people they met, they said, had been married for many years and valued their families. There is a perception in India that most Americans are divorced.

            The visitors were impressed with services for the mentally ill and for those with developmental delays. They appreciated the relationship between academic institutions and industry, and the way both tried to work together. They said that American healthcare was “amazing,” and appreciated how drivers obeyed traffic rules. They visited a community foundation and were excited to introduce the concept in their home community.

            Group study exchange members said they learned a lot from their visit to the U.S., but felt that Americans could learn from them too. For example, they were saddened by how lonely the residents of a nursing home they visited were, and said that the elderly are cared for by their children in India. In fact, a man never leaves the home of his parents. When he marries, his bride comes to live with him at his parent’s home and is eventually responsible for the care of her in-laws. If the bride has no brothers, she will be responsible for the care of her own parents as well.

            The entomologist in the group was surprised by the seemingly irrational fear of bugs that Americans have, noting that people act afraid of them and want to kill them. He said very few bugs are actually harmful.

            The purpose of the group study exchange was to share their culture and values to their American friends while learning about the American way of life, not only socially but also ideas that are specific to their professions.

            A woman with the exchange group said that ultimately they learned that, “across cultures everyone has the same dreams for their children; and in that way the only difference between us is the color of our skin.”