What a way to start our meeting! DeAnn Justessen led the flag salute, and Board Member Lee Ginsburg surprised us with the song choice of "God Bless America". Our invocation was delivered by visiting Rotarian Ken Warner (Thousand Oaks) who enlightened us about Hineni, a biblical quote from Abraham, and compared it to Rotarians who indicate their readiness to serve.
Barbara Chilton updated the Street Fest TTT board and the fundraising thermometer. We're on our way toward our goal!
Visiting Rotarians:
All from Thousand Oaks club: Ken Warner, Lois Curran-Klein, and KT Connor.
Announcements:
Barbara Chilton received a Paul Harris award from the Oaks Christian School Interact Club at this week's Interact/Rotoract Breakfast. Congratulations Barbara!
PP Edwin Velarde announced the website is online for runner registrations for the 5k/10k on April 6. If you're not up for running yourself, consider sponsoring someone to run. A great way to encourage fitness and be charitable at the same time. Updates are on the Rotary Club of Westlake Village facebook page. Friend us.
February Social: Fiddler on the Roof, Sunday February 23. Contact PP Bob Phillips for more information.
Foundation Gala: March 15, at North Ranch Country Club. Groups 4, 5, and 6 will be honoring our first woman president (hint: It's Karen (Jordan) Quigley). We are committed to at least one table, so register soon. (through the district website)
RYLA is looking for volunteers. Register online by March 10 at RYLA5240.org. This year, RYLA is April 24-27.
PP Bill Notthoff has amassed a few dozen facilitators and adult participants for this year's Homer Dickerson Youth Ethics Conference, to be held at CLU on March 6. If you haven't signed up already, contact Bill.
Lee Ginsburg distributed the latest winnings from Fun and Games
Group 4 Community work day is April 5, Saturday. All the projects are "painting" projects: NPHS cafeteria, fencing, quad stage. Shifts begin at 7 a.m. and 9 a.m. (Don't wear yourself out though, because our Street Fest is on Sunday April 6) Sign-ups will be going around.
Next week: NO BOARD MEETING February 19
PP Brad Ormsby will be acting President February 19
Today's Program:
Kris Carraway brought a team of Debbic Licht, Michael, Brittany, and Judy. Together they described "Sidewalk CPR" and provided a mini-refresher course, complete with CPR dolls. Members were eager to learn this life-saving technique. Thank you!
Jack Dwyer started us off with the Flag salute. Mel LeVine sang an American version of "God Save the Queen", and Gary Dickey delivered the invocation. Thank you all!
Visitors and Visiting Rotarians were introduced by PP Brad Ormsby. Though our room was packed, it was all us! Brad's job was easy this week.
Linda LeVine received a special Rotary pin for finishing up the 2013/2014 season of Homeless Meals in record time. Thank you, Linda!
Vocational Minute: Homer Caston Thank you, Homer, for sharing with us!
Announcements:
Our club is supporting the Conejo Valley Rotary with the Thanksgiving Basket distribution in Thousand Oaks and Oxnard. At today's meeting, members contributed more than $750 toward this project. Great work RCWV! For 2013, this program was expecting to support 170 meals. As of Wednesday, the number of pre-qualified recipients was 200. They are hoping to get 40-50 teams to each distribute 4-5 meals. The delivery teams will meet at the grocery store in Thousand Oaks in the morning, and should complete their routes by 10:00 a.m. Two members of our club have stepped up to volunteer as drivers on Thanksgiving morning. Thank you so much!
In response to the Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines, our International Committee co-chairs, Steve Kerrigan and Edwin Velarde, have created a committee to suggest how we can best help the situation. If you have questions, please contact Steve or Edwin directly.
Tuesday evening: November 19 Social at the Four Seasons, 5-7 p.m. RSVP to Bob Phillips
Wednesday: November 20 Mini-meeting/Town Hall. Conversation leader Brian Hynes
Committees: Please submit your committee meeting notes to rotaryjeanne@yahoo.com by Monday November 18, for Wednesday's board meeting
November 20: Board of Directors, 12:30 at North Ranch
Our program today:
November is Foundation month in the Rotary world. Our Foundation chairperson, Ed Pope, also serves as the district "Foundation Area Representative" (FAR) for Group 4. Since Ed was called out of town for business, we were fortunate to have the Group 5 FAR as our speaker today. J. Doug Feco, of Simi Sunrise, explained how funds go into the Foundation, and how the Annual Fund funds the Foundation activities, and where they go from there, if some or all are restricted, or matched, or available for matching, and what comes back to the District three years later, and how the Annual Fund-SHARE contributions are divided between the World Fund and District Designated Fund (DDF).
To see your Donor History, log onto rotary.org, and go to reports. You'll see the Rotary summary of you, if you're a Paul Harris Fellow, and how many points are available, or if you're a Society Member, Major Donor, Arch Klumph, Bequest, or Benefactor. A chart documents your contributions, and if they're restricted or SHARE. Please check and see if Rotary is missing anything.
Back in October, Ed Pope challenged us to become a 100% Benefactor club. We have 35 already! If you have any questions about becoming a Benefactor, contact Ed directly.
Professional Training for Rotary, Business, and Life
The goal of PRLS, begun in 1993, is to provide a set of training sessions wherein current and future Rotary leaders could learn to become more effective in their leadership roles. The basic PRLS course consists of a one-day event covering five sessions: "Leadership," "Leading a Meeting," "Public Speaking," "Rotary, Your Club and You," and "Communications."
This program was specifically developed to train individuals whose goals include a future leadership position in Rotary. They learn skills that will make them more effective in that role. The instruction was carefully designed to improve individual leadership skills that are broad based and not just Rotary- specific. Participants have found substantial value in the many practical applications of information presented throughout the curriculum. The program's blend of curricular theory and practical application skills helps prepare students for success in any leadership role."
This PRLS program offers practical training in professional circumstances that can benefit anyone on both a personal and professional level.
The PRLS classes follow an order: you have to complete Basic PRLS before you can begin the Master PRLS series. You can't take mPRLS 2 until you've completed mPRLS 1. And you can't take mPRLS 5 until you've completed Basic PRLS and mPRLS 1, 2, 3, and 4. Classes are offered in three regions of our District: North, South, and East.
The next offering of Basic PRLS will be March 22, 2014, in Bakersfield. If you've already completed Basic PRLS, you can jump into the Master PRLS series this Saturday, 11/16/13, at Santa Barbara Business College in Ventura. That can be followed immediately on 11/23 with Master PRLS 4 in Thousand Oaks. Then there's a twist: the next two sessions are mPRLS 1 and 2, offered on 12/14/13 and 1/18/2014 back at Santa Barbara Business College. You could wrap up your mPRLS with mPRLS 5 on 2/15/2014.
Class schedules and more PRLS information is available at PRLS.org
Now, onto the finances. PRLS was pioneered by Past District Governor, the late Jock MacKenzie of our own club, to develop leadership in business people that he thought was lacking in the civilian population. The cost to attend these courses has increased to $60 a session for active club members. For spouses and family members, the cost is $30 a session. Not only is that an amazingly low price for the information and training you'll receive, it gets even better. Our club will reimburse you for your session cost, by means of a credit to your RCWV account. All you have to do is sign up for the classes, attend the classes, then submit a check request, listing the course and date attended. Submit that to a club officer, and we'll get the credit onto your next invoice.
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