PORT ISABEL ROTARY CLUB
SEPTEMBER, 2009 PRESIDENT’S PROGRESS REPORT
Let’s start by saying…I probably will forget something in this report but I wanted to try and recap what we have accomplished since I started my presidency….so I am sorry if I left something out.
MEMBERSHIP
- Traci has created committees of three to each come up with at least one new member.
- We had a lot of prospective members show up in September. Those that want to become new members in October need to fill out their application and turn into Sammy by October 9. The board will review them at the board meeting on October 14 and inductions will occur on October 30.
- CONGRATULATIONS TO THE FOLLOWING GROUPS:
Group 2: DeeOnda, Bill F., Bob W.
Terri Lievanos, inducted, DeeOnda sponsor
Scott Finney, proposed, DeeOnda sponsor
Joni Clark, proposed, DeeOnda
Group 3: Ebbie, Bob F., Tom P.
Carolyn Hauschildt, proposed, Bob Fudge
Group 5: Ralph, Jeff H., John R.
- We now are back to 40 members…the number we started the year with.
- 25 of our members had 100% attendance in August, 4 had 75% attendance, 9 had 50%, 1 had 25%, 1 had 0% (due to medical leave).
- Terri McGraw, District membership Chair, will be our speaker on October 9.
OCTOBER SCHEDULE
Please let Bob Fudge know who your program will be!!!
Saturday, October 10 Arts and Heritage Festival, Lighthouse Square, 9-4 fundraiser—selling margaritas and water—volunteers 8-5
October 14 Noon, Board meeting, Cece’s
Friday, October 16 Club meeting, Sherry Sylvester, Texans for Lawsuit Reform, Ron Boudreau host
The no-longer-basketball committee decided that the onslaught of requirements from the Harlem Ambassadors, the iffy ness of attracting a crowd in general and on Valentine’s Day in particular, the need to pay out $3,300.00 before we made a dime, etc. were reasons enough to cut bait. We have cancelled the game. Even though we will lose the $500.00 deposit, the committee believes we will end up much further ahead. In its place, we will hold a raffle with prizes needed by December 15 and the raffle itself occurring from January 1 to April 30 (the drawing date). The committee is looking for raffle prizes!! The South Padre Bank will provide a $500.00 prize, we have lots of offers for use of condos, we have Spurs tickets and a signed Spurs basketball, and 4 Astros among other prizes so far. The next committee meeting is October 6, noon, at Marcello’s.
Pirates Landing has agreed to let us set up our machine on their property during the Heritage Festival planned for October 10. Scott Friedman has offered to assist with supplies. WalGreen’s will provide water for free.
Saturday, July 4, 2009 - COMPLETED
Patriots Day, September 11--CANCELLED
Veterans Day, Wednesday, November 11, 2009
D-Day, December 7, 2009 (replace Patriot’s Day)
President's Day, Monday, February 15, 2010
Memorial Day, Monday, May 31, 2010
Flag Day, Monday, June 14, 2010
We have received $4,375.00 in flag subscription so far this Rotary year….with $607.66 in expenses!!!
The Fort Bend Rotary Club is holding its 2009 Humanitarian of the Year Event on November 12. Part of that event includes an auction. Some of the proceeds will benefit us. We are providing three auction items for them:
Thanks to Mike Kreider, a bay fishing trip for 2
Thanks to George Colley, a Fin 2 Feather trip for 4
Thanks to Scott Friedman, four deep sea fishing tickets and $100 gift certificate to Pirate’s Landing and $100 to Pier 19.
Tom has been put in charge of the District car raffle. The drawing will be held at the District Assembly. The car will be selected in October.
Through Darrell’s and Laurie Howell’s contacts at UTB we may have found someone interested in becoming an Ambassadorial Scholar. Tom and Laurie met with Suzanne LaLonde, the only French professor on campus, to discuss the possible applicant for the Scholarship as well as to discuss finding possible GSE participants. Hopefully, the Scholarship applicant will present an application. She is from Port Isabel.
September 4, Scott Finney, SBA Habitat for Humanity DeeOnda was the hostess
September 11 Rees Langston, 9/11 witness; Public Safety recognition, DeeOnda was hostess
September 18, Club Assembly
September 25, Warren Winger, Masons, Duane Rasmussen, host
STUDENT OF THE MONTH
Our first student of the month will attend October 9. He is Tyler Nuckols. He will be attending with the new High School principal, William Roach.
INTERACT
William Roach, the new High School principal, will be bringing a student interested in starting an Interact Club to our October 2 meeting. A committee will be set up to meet with the student, Christian Morgan, to get the ball rolling.
(c’est la vie)
Unsung heroes recognition
Monterrey visit
Rotary License plates
San Martin, Honduras dam construction
Matamoras orphanage visit
Jerry Adams has agreed to be the Foundation czar…he is in need of a committee to educate us about the Foundation and encourage our members to help out financially. Every year we receive two Matching Grants so we need to keep this in mind when we are asked to give back to the Foundation.
The Polio Plus jar has reached $429.58. Rotary International has asked us to try and raise $1,000.00 for polio plus this year. Please throw your spare change in the jar each week—so we won’t have to tap our budget!! Ginny has been allowing us to raffle a bottle of her wine every week on behalf of Polio Plus!! Thanks!
Tom has initiated a challenge to match new donors to the Foundation up to $1,000.00 total.
Thanks go out to Jeff Church, Jacqui, Rick and Roxanne—Tom has matched their $100.00 donations! FJ Brewerton, PDG and guru on the Foundation will be our program on November 13.
Wendy Hauschildt has been hired to redesign our website (www.pirotary.org) and the site is under reconstruction. We will be establishing a PayPal account so that basketball tickets, flag subscriptions, dues, etc. can be paid on-line. Thanks to Bob Fudge and Ralph Ayers we are close to launching the new site.
Tom has updated his Honduras site—with more to do. Go to www.handstohonduras.com for recent updates. Wendy Hauschildt is also updating that site and we hope to launch the new site in the near future.
The Friday night dinner was at Sammy’s bank—First National Bank in Port Isabel. Thanks, Sammy!!!
We “booked” the community center at Paradise Cove in Laguna Vista for the Saturday night dinner. George Botela was the DJ. Thanks go out to George Farish!
Our visit to Monterey will be November 6, 7 and 8. The cost will be $150.00 per person plus $25.00 for a meal and $10.00 for incidentals. We actually have about 30 people signed up so far. Yes, we will have a golfing outing for the golfers but we are also hoping to arrange alternative side trips for those who wish to go on better shopping trips, do ecotourism, and visit cultural sites. A city tour has also been suggested for one of the afternoons. To participate we will need to sign up ahead of time and probably pay additional fees. We hope to have these activities planned for Friday and Saturday afternoons…on Friday you can choose from column A and on Saturday you can choose from Column B : )
Robert Rodriguez and Bob White have prepared a Matching Grant application to purchase Radiology equipment for the Clinica Teresita. The total project cost is $60,950.00. The hoped for funding sources are as follows:
Port Isabel Rotary $4,000.00
District 5930 funds $4,000.00
District 4130 funds $4,000.00
The Rotary Foundation $12,000.00 (no funding available)
Clinica Teresita clinic $30,450.00
The Rotary Foundation has run out of money….so this project will be $12,000.00 short. The budget will be reworked/cut and will not include increases for our club or district.
OUR DISTRICT APPROVED THE $4,000.00 IN DDF FUNDING!!!!
During September, the Honduran power company and villagers completed the installation of a power supply for the community of Caribbean Mission. The residents of Barrio San Martin built a new dam to provide water to their community. It was funded by a matching grant. The community provided and laid the pipeline down to their new 36,000 gallon tank. We have one more power project ahead of us—La Brea. We also still have the reforestation of the watershed left undone. All are funded through a matching grant approved last year. The monies saved due to the free labor have been assigned to the La Brea power project and a new dam for San Martin.
Tom is applying for a Matching Grant for Honduras again this year. Our budget allows for $4,785.00 for Honduras this year. These funds will either be applied to the Matching Grant or a school as needed. Tom is applying for a matching grant to build a community slow sand water filtration system and clean water tank (due to lack of Rotary Foundation funds—this was cut to one 18,000 filter tank) for the 11,000 residents of Barrio San Martin (we built them a 36,000 gallon water storage tank this year); pipeline to connect the Barrio Cristales dam (3,000 residents) to the 26,000 gallon tank we built in 2008 and then to the new slow sand community filtration system and clean water tank (to be provided by a $27,776.00 Matching Grant that was just awarded to District 5830) and then to a central distribution system; and a filtration tank that will allow for the settlement of sand, gravel and silt out of the water supply serving the 4,000 residents of Barrios Buenos Aires and Miramar.
Barrio San Martin $25,000.00 (free labor)
Barrio Cristales $24,611.68 (free labor + half cost)
Barrio Buenos Aires and Miramar $33,014.84 (half cost)
Rotary Foundation $23,062.82
Barrio Cristales $12,305.84
Barrio Buenos Aires $16,507.42
OUR DISTRICT APPROVED $11,375.22 IN DDF FUNDING FOR THE PROJECT!!!
The Rotary Foundation is out of funds—so Tom cut his budget by $18,500.00—eliminating half of a filter and a clean water tank for Barrio San Martin.
GINNY AND GEORGE’S OLD CLUB IN SEBASTOPOL, CALIFORNIA HAS AGREED TO PROVIDE $4,716.00 IN LOCAL FUNDS!!!!! THEIR DISTRICT HAD PLEDGED A SIMILAR AMOUNT AS A MATCH—with the loss of Foundation funds….that district is evaluating their priorities and will let us know if we are still “in”.
Tom has been partnering with the Pittsburg, Texas Rotary Club in District 5830 to apply for a matching grant to construct a community-size slow sand filtration system and clean water tank for Barrio Cristales in Trujillo, Honduras. A grant for $27,776.00 was approved…Tom provided $504.00 in local funds for it.
We have budgeted $2,500.00 to help the orphanage with an air conditioning system. Darrell has offered to help on this project.
Members are always needed to help out with starting an EarlyAct Club at Derry, Interact at the High School, getting involved in an adoption picnic, helping sell margaritas and water at the Heritage Festival in October, helping perpetuate the new Social Club, assist with the Fish Fry, raise and lower flags, help Jerry with the Foundation committee, orchestrating a multi-club visit to the Matamoras orphanage, and many other activities. If you haven’t gotten involved with an actual activity—as opposed to “sit” on a lane—please consider volunteering—or step forward, if asked.
In recent years, we have allowed raffle winners to keep all the winnings. This is illegal.
Raffle tickets will now be an additional cost--$1.00 per ticket/3 for $2—and winners now win half of the proceeds. You can buy as many tickets as you wish…Traci and/or Pam will sell these tickets during the meal. The club has made $128.00 so far.
8 Rotarians and 4 spouses attended our 2nd social club meeting. Jacqui’s company provided raffle prizes this time.
The next meeting will be Thursday, October 15 from 5:30-7:00 at Pier 19.
The Rotary sign as you enter Port Isabel is in great need of repainting and straightening…Jerry Adams took it down, repaired it, repainted it and returned it. Thanks, Jerry!!! It looks great!!
Special thanks to Jeff Hughes for contacting the powers-to-be to get a pile of mattresses and junk removed in Laguna Heights!!
Ralph’s business, the Purple Parrot, had to move next door…and in keeping with the Family of Rotary, many Rotarians helped with the move. Thanks go out to Bob W., Bill F., George C., Mike K., Paul C., and Tom P. for pitching in.
Tom has been working on getting an RI plate manufactured in Texas for the past 3 ½ years. $22.00 of the $30.00 additional fee for a specialty plate can go to a project chosen by the plate proposer. TB was chosen by the 2007-2008 DGs—so we approached the Health Department to be our sponsor (a plate requires a state sponsoring agency if we want to tap that $22). All ten DGs have now signed off on it and RI has authorized the use of the Rotary emblem on the plate. Thanks to clubs and districts in Texas we have raised the $8,000.00 deposit necessary to manufacture the plate. The Health Department agreed in September to sponsor the plate and administer the funds on behalf of TB (clubs can apply for the funds). Hopefully, we will be on TxDOTs agenda in the near future authorizing the manufacture of the plates. We will be the largest state in the USA with a Rotary plate. Recent attempts in California and Florida failed.