October went out with a bang at our final meeting for this month.  There was just too much to even remember it all.  First we had a wonderful new member induction with our newest member Charles Reep sponsored by President Josh.  Charles is the branch manager of BB&T in Newton.

President Josh, "pinning" Charles Reep along with Membership Chair, Joyce Spencer

Joyce introducing Charles to the club.

And on to the Program

PDG Chuck Troutman finished off the meeting by doing our regularly scheduled program on the Rotary Foundation.   To say the least it was a memorable occasion and another great meeting for the Rotary Club of Catawba Valley.

October in our club is looking to be quite a busy one.  I wanted to make this post to try and organize for everyone what all is going on and make sure that you have all of the information you need to be able to participate to your fullest extent.

First off I want to say THANK YOU for every Rotarian in our club who has worked hard, gotten the word out and Made Dreams Real in regards to Honor Air.  We have had more donations flow in and I believe we are very close to our target goal for the first 6 Vets and Guardians.  There are a couple of Honor Air Dates to take note of that are coming up very quickly.

• October 18th - Pre-Flight Meeting at Viewmont Baptist Church (HWY 127 in Hickory)
  • This will be a meeting for all Guardians and Veterans.  Attendance is required!
  • The club will send 5 volunteers to help coordinate this meeting in conjunction with the other Catawba County Clubs.  We currently have 5, but could use more as a backup.
• November 1st - Honor Air Flight - Asheville Airport
  • Departing Approx 8:30am, vets need to arrive by 7:30am at latest

Family of Rotary & PolioPlus

Rev. T. Anthony Spearman has worked hard to arrange a Family of Rotary event for us which will be held at Fudruckers in Hickory.  The event date will be Friday, October 24th which is also WORLD POLIO DAY.  We wanted to also take this special opportunity to fundraise for PolioPlus.  Fudruckers has agreed to return a good portion of our sales (determined by the tickets below) back to us for use in PolioPlus.  We believe this will be a nice informal way to come out, bring your families and have a nice meal together and share fellowship while raising money for PolioPlus.

You must present the ticket in order for your order to count toward our total.  Below are a few points with regard to this event.

• Club Members please come in the evening about 6:30 or 7pm, bring your families and friends!
• If you can not make it in the evening come for lunch and be sure to present your ticket.
• Give away the other 2 tickets to co-workers or friends who you know will come out and support us.

November is Foundation Month.  The Rotary Foundation is our Charity and most of you are actively supporting the Foundation's Annual Programs fund each year by paying the $25 Paul Harris Supporting Member dues each quarter.  Thank you for doing this!  The Foundation supports many wonderful programs in our District as well as Abroad.  You have seen evidence of this with our District Simplified Grants, GSE Teams, Ambasadorial Scholars and Matching Grants just to name a few programs.

Foundation Banquet - Saturday November 8th
This year's Foundation Banquet will be held here in Hickory at the Gateway Inn and Conference Center.  It will be a nice dinner where all members of our club are invited and encouraged to attend.  We will pass around a sign-up sheet in the upcoming meetings.  This is typically a great event with a keynote given from a past RI President or other dignitary from within Rotary International.  Also I might add it is a wonderful time to meet other Rotarians from throughout our District.  There are so many wonderful people that you meet at these events.

Foundation in our Club
If you have not yet you should consider taking a few moments and talking with Kelly Pulliam or Todd Anderson about the Rotary Foundation.  They are the co-chairs of this committee in our club.  There are many ways to give to the foundation.  I will outline a few you may want to talk with them about.

• Paul Harris Fellow - $1,000 gift to the foundation
• Paul Harris Society - commitment of $1,000 gift per year to the foundation
• Major Donor - $10,000 gift to the foundation
• Bequest - to leave a gift in your Will to the Rotary Foundation

I was pleased to attend the Champions for Education breakfast on Wednesday on behalf of our club.  I thought maybe I would be the only person there from our group but quickly realized the strong presence of our club members and their support for education in Catawba County.  At the meeting our club was recognized for its commitment to the More at Four program for the next 3 years with proceeds coming from our Annual Charity Auction.  The new More at Four Classrooms will be at Balls Creek Elementary School.  This program and classrooms will work to ensure more students are ready for school when they start Kindergarten, ready to learn.  We feel that this investment in our community will contue to pay dividends well into the future and is very worthwhile.  Our club decided to support this worthy project as we are sure it will improve the quality of life for all of those who live in our community but especially the children who are able to participate in the program.

I thank you as members of the RC of Catawba Valley and for supporting our board in approving this program sponsorship.

Photos from Champions of Education Breakfast

David Roterts of the RC of Catawba Valley

Members, Joyce Spencer and Jeff Isenhour

President Josh along with Doug Rongo

Recognition received by President Josh on behalf of the RC of Catawba Valley

Acknowledged contributors to the More at Four Classrooms

I would like to thank Vicki Lovett, Hamp Shuford and Bill Shillito for joining me Saturday in Flat Rock for our District Membership and Leadership Seminar.  Overall attendance at the event was very good with nearly 150 of our district's geat Rotarians getting together for the seminar.

At the seminar and sessions I attended we discussed methods for attracting and retaining good members in our club.  As a Rotary Club we provide a variety of service opportunities for our members as well as great fellowship and friendship opportunities.  I also hope to encourage and inspire our members to continue being active in our projects, bringing new projects to our club and working collectively to meet the needs of our community and supporting the International Goals of Rotary.

Membership Drive In Progress!!! 

Please continue to support our ongoing Membership Drive.  Joyce Spencer is our Membership Champion so please see her if you have any questions about proposing a new member or have any quesitons about inviting guests to our club.  Also you can find more information under the Membership section of our website.  There are forms available for download under the Member section as well, for proposing a new member and other resources for potential members.

Remember that a potential member candidate needs to visit our club 3 times in order to be a candidate for membership.  When you bring someone we will add a star to the membership chart and make sure you gain credit for helping to grow the membership of our club.  Special thanks to Joyce and Todd already for bringing in our 2 newest members, Debbie and Judith!  What an exciting start to the 2008-09 Rotary Year!