When:	Friday, August 12th, 2016
Where:	The Lansing Center, Second Floor
Speaker:	Matthew Anderson, Chief Brand Officer
Topic:	"Making Education Engaging"
Chair of the Day:	McKenna Long
Invocator:	Jeff Dettloff
Greeters:	Gary Baxter & McKenna Long
Chair of the Month:	Jeff Dettloff
Editarian:	Helen Mickens

Matthew’s passion is to take something that is good, and turn it into something great. With over a decade of managing in everything from coffee shops to fine dining steakhouses, he is uniquely skilled to coach and train in high levels of customer service, create fun and unique brands, and to marry the industries of business and K-12. He holds a Bachelors (B.A.) in Hospitality Business from Michigan State University; is currently earning his MBA from Sullivan University; was recognized by the International Business Awards as 2014’s Maverick of the Year; and is a member of Mensa, the international high IQ society.

 

In his first job, Matthew was a member of the fifth management team in 10 years assigned to salvage a failing fine dining restaurant in Minneapolis. He was specifically tasked with turning around the productivity of the bar that was ranked #45 out of 45 in the chain. One year later, it was ranked #1 out of 45. After two years, the restaurant was thriving and was approved for a $2 million expansion.

 

Matthew next took the opportunity to rebrand a 71-year old heating and air conditioning company in Lansing, MI. After updating the brand with an award-winning website, marketing campaigns, standards and policies, and establishing a Vision, Mission, and Core Values, the company ran 19% annual growth for two consecutive years. Matthew was recognized for 37% annual growth in his departments, and received the Sales Manager of the Year honor from the American Business Awards.

 

Matthew participated in the Dale Carnegie Course while rebranding the HVAC company, and it transformed the way he works with his teams. Where he had once been the go-to manager for disciplinary action, he is now the leader that employees seek out for counsel and advice. Seeing the change the course made in his life, he started an endowment at Michigan State University that quickly raised over $100,000, so that college students will forever have the opportunity to take the course before they graduate. For this effort, he was recognized as MSU’s Emerging Alumni Leader of the Year.

 

As a result of his work with the endowment, Matthew met the CEO of Engaged Education, and now serves as its Chief Brand Officer. He utilizes his strengths in brand management to design and influence consumer touch-points, form strategic partnerships with businesses and non-profits, and develop operational standards that make him an asset to the organization, and the organizations it serves.

 

Matthew was homeschooled from 4th grade through 12th grade, so he has an acute understanding of the value of providing unique opportunities in education. To him, learning “at any time, at any place, at any pace,” is not a catchy line, but the way he completed his education. Because of this, he believes that all students should have the ability to choose an educational model that is interesting and relevant to them, and is passionate about making education engaging.

           Sign up now for the 16th annual Lansing Rotary Foundation Golf Outing!

All proceeds will benefit Child & Family Charities.

 

 

Not a golfer? Plan to join us for a light breakfast starting at 8:30AM

following play at around 3PM.  Our outing beneficiary

will make brief remarks, and attendance will be taken; reserve your non-golfer spot by emailing Cathy.

 

To register as a golfer, team, or sponsor, visit https://lansingrotary.wordpress.com/upcoming-events/ or talk with Al Yambor & McKenna Long

Remember, this is a member-guest format event; no more than two Lansing Rotarians per team, please.

Sign-up sheets are also available at the fellowship table. 

 

To donate an item for the golfer gift bag or sign up to volunteer, please contact Erica Bills.

President Davis called the meeting to order at 12:31. Past District Governor Clyde Carnegie gave a Rotary themed invocation, followed by our rendition of the National Anthem accompanied by John Dale Smith.

 

Lisa Smith assisted with the introduction of visiting Rotarians and guests by making a microphone available where necessary. For a summer meeting, there were a lot of guests in attendance. Sue Mills gave the Remembrance Report, letting us know that the health of the club is good. Lisa Smith chimed in with news that Lee Kleibert is recovering from an injury sustained on a trip out west.

 

Suzy Carter, with assistance from Bill Smith, our District Governor, presented perfect attendance awards to several Rotarians. The grand prize winner wasn’t in attendance, but did a make up this week in Hart. Yes, Duane Vernon has 54 years of perfect attendance.

 

Paul Harris awards were given by Donna Gardner, also with assistance from our District Governor. Before announcing this year’s recipients, Donna thanked Cathy for all of her assistance, Past President Lisa Smith for allowing Donna time at the podium to encourage us to give, and to Tobi Moore for the great job she has done with new members as evidenced by their participation in our Paul Harris campaign. We raised over $13,000, in a year that saw a lot of fundraising in addition to our Paul Harris campaign.

 

Prior to our special music, John Dale Smith announced that residents of East Lansing and Meridian Township have been advised that they should not drink the tap water. He suggests that you stop on your way home to buy bottled water.

 

Ken Beachler was welcomed to the podium to introduce our special music, soprano and music pedagogue Melanie Helton. Melanie stages two operas at MSU each year. These were in November and May. Melanie shared two selections with us. The first was from Elixir of Love titled “Take This from Me, You are Free”. At least that is what she told us. Since it wasn’t in English, we didn’t really have any idea if that was accurate or not! Her second selection was from a concert she performs with a theme of excruciatingly bad love songs. This tune, titled “Paradise” from a 1930’s film “Woman Commands”, required us to fill in the blanks (or whistles) and kept us entertained. Melanie is one of the more entertaining performers we have had the pleasure to welcome to our club. Not only is she an accomplished vocalist, her banter between selections is very entertaining.

 

President Davis introduced our District Governor, Bill Smith, who was introduced to Rotary as a young boy when his grandfather would take him out of school to attend the noon meeting of the Climax club. Even with the early introduction, he did not join Rotary until after he retired. Since the Climax club is small, it doesn’t take very long to be President. As evidence, he was the President after only two years of membership.

 

DG Smith encouraged us to ‘step our of our comfort zone’ and become more involved with Rotary outside of our club, while acknowledging the work that we have done in our community. For those who are interested, there are many opportunities, beginning with attendance at RLI, or Rotary Leadership Institute, at the district level. International Conventions are great opportunities to learn more about Rotary and, if you have the opportunity to attend one outside of the US or Canada, you get a wonderful view of how Rotary works in other countries. Next year at the convention in Atlanta, Rotary will be celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Rotary Foundation.

 

There is also a District Conference, held every year in May. This is a celebration of the work that has been done by the local clubs within the district.

 

The Presidential theme for this year is Rotary Serving Humanity. Theme pins are available for all members. One of the ways that Rotary has served humanity is the fight to eradicate polio. During this past week, there were no new cases of polio reported, so we are very close to achieving our goal in this area.

 

DG Smith stated that it is a pleasure to attend a meeting at a club this size. He was not one to visit other clubs before his stint as Assistant District Governor. (I guess you could say that his year as DG will force him to step out of his comfort zone!) Clubs of our size have a lot to share with smaller clubs and we can do that by participating in district events.

 

At the conclusion of DG Smith’s remarks, President Davis introduced our Assistant DG, Nathan Triplett from the East Lansing club. He then thanked DG Smith and let him know that we would be donating a bio sand filter as part of our project to provide clean water in the Dominican Republic and Haiti. He also presented a copy of our 100th anniversary book.

 

Reluctant to dismiss our meeting early, President Davis announced that our next meeting will be next week at the Lansing Center with Matthew Anderson from Engaged Education. He wasn’t able to stretch that to six minutes, so the meeting was adjourned early.

Linda's email is:  linda@kitechnologygroup.com