With no chow line to slow the flow of entering the zoom room, the number of attendees went from 27 to 56 in the last minute before President Julie Pingston called the meeting to order. Terry Terry introduced our guest invocator, Bishop David Maxwell, who shared his thoughts and prayers on our needs for assistance, our sufficiency and our insufficiency, that we are trustees and executors of this earth, to leave an imprint on this landscape, to impact in a humanitarian way in these times of divisiveness and parochialism, and for the introduction of civility in our discourse, the protection of lives that matter and a special prayer for our governor.
We had the introduction of guests and were delighted to see Suzy Carter as a special guest of Carmen Hall. Nathan Ekola, joined the East Lansing club last week, works for Aerotek and was formerly with the Battle Creek and Portage Rotary Clubs.He said, “if you want to grab lunch or coffee, give me a shout.” So I did. John Dale Smith again provided our patriotic music with My Country Tis of Thee. We’ll just have to imagine seeing his feet working the piano pedals (does anybody really know what those pedals do?). You know what you can do while watching a zoom Rotary meeting? Try to guess what people are eating for lunch. Try to read what’s written on the art on their walls, or as I did last Friday, make up names for Rotarian pets. Jim Phillips had a cat with him that kept walking back and forth across his screen like a rock star which I found hilarious, so I named Jim’s cat Katy Purry. John Shaski’s dog looked like he wanted to lick the screen, so I named him Salvador Dogi. I’m thinking we should have a bring your pet to Rotary week. I’m on the board now, so trust me, I’ll bring it up.
Health of the Club: Ron Seeley’s wife recently had surgery and he is providing the home care for her. Former Rotarian Bill Kane passed away on Wednesday.
U35ers are doing a get together at the Horrock’s Beer garden on the 15th from 4:30 to 6:30. You can probably leave work earlier than that and nobody will notice if you’re working virtually. The Rotary Cyclists plan on doing a 5 mile ride ending at Horrocks to boost attendance for the U35ers. If interested, let Dave Trumpie or me know and we’ll get you the particulars.
Curt Sonnenberg updated the club on the Foundation’s international grants and encouraged participation. The typical annual budget for international is $40,000, with grants in the $5,000 range. Kurt Guter and John Grettenberger did a virtual new member orientation Friday morning.
Our Club has gotten involved with the Lansing Reads Program. Check out the Lansing Reads program. Many Rotarians signed up and read and I scrolled through the website and think the Rotary Foundation should show up on their as a sponsor as well, although I was pleasantly surprised to see a number of Rotarians have already donated.. Here’s the link for that
https://donate.lansingpromise.org/campaign/lansing-reads/c301753
Special music today was provided by the band www.politicallizard.com. Of all the things ever done in the backseat of a car, I’m willing to bet this was the first time Rotary special music came from there. The group shot a video from their Toyota Rav4 (the acoustics of which have always been underrated). All of their instruments were miniature, but the sound was big time and most enjoyable.
Berl Schwartz introduced us to Steve Robinson, a new Rotarian here and President of LCC.
Steve told us that LCC changed his life early in his career and now its his turn to return the favor. Steve spoke to us from one of our favorite venues, the Michigan Room at LCC. LCC was one of the first of its kind back in the 50's and has been an anchor of placemaking and art with its downtown campus. LCC serves many needs, including manufacturing excellence, state of the art aviation maintenance training and being a pathway for transfers to Universities. Shortly after taking the helm the LCC Board of Trustee passed a resolution that is a national model on diversity and inclusion. It was not just a position statement, but rather an assignment to develop a comprehensive equity action plan, with accountability requiring that LCC leadership actually makes sure that it gets implemented. Changes have already been made with the LCC police department and academy. Steve told the story of his father in law, whose attendance at LCC changed his career options and those of his extended family. LCC promotes social and economic mobility and Steve hopes to remove any remaining stigma associated with the community college brand. You can follow Steve @lccpresident on both Twitter and Instagram
Kevin Schumacher's email is: schumacher@glassenrhead.com