Jeff Ackerman joined us last week to discuss The Union's effort to raise funds for the Nevada County Libraries. As of last week they have raised $41k and the paper will supplement that. The money will go to the County Library if the Board of Supervisors chooses not to contract out library staffing. If it does, the funds go to the Friends of the Nevada County Libraries. Interesting effort to support our libraries in a time of dwindling sales tax revenues and to influence Board policy, too! If you are interested, more information is at www.theunion.com/libraries. Thanks to George Rebane for bringing us this program.
We are still just $150 shy of our $1,000 goal to fund a Shelter Box for Haiti (the Rotaractors are close to funding two!). If you would like to help, write your check for $50 or more to the Nevada City Rotary Club Foundation or for $49 or less to the Shelter Box (either way it’s to a 501(c)(3) non-profit and tax-deductible) and bring it to a meeting or mail it to our P.O. box. Put "Haiti" in the memo field. More information about ShelterBox is available at www.ShelterBox.org. If you donate by February 28th, you can deduct it from your 2009 taxes.
We’re also working on our commitment of $3,000 toward the match of the Gates Foundation $250m donation to RI for polio eradication. Our next effort is during Polio Plus Week when we will table at the SPD Market on Friday, February 26th to create awareness of the fight against polio and to solicit donations to the End Polio Now effort. If you can help with that, let Community Service Chair Cathy Wilcox-Barnes know.
An Area 4 Mixer, a social event for members of all 6 western Nevada County Rotary Clubs (including the Rotaractors), will be February 24th from 5:30 to 7:30 at Goomba’s Restaurant in Grass Valley. It is $10 and a no host bar and all proceeds fund the Polio Plus effort. Let me know if you plan to attend or sign up at the meeting, so I can give a head count to the Grass Valley Club. Should be a good opportunity to network with area Rotarians and to have a bit of fun. There will be good food and drink, too!
Are you psyched for the Annual Radio Auction? It is now just two weeks till the March 4th cut-off for donations! The Auction is March 20th this year. Put March 19th in your calendar, too, for the dry run the evening before. If you have not yet received your sales packet, talk to Auction Co-Chair / pP Nancy Kemp or Auction Co-Chair Gary Gustafson. Your goal is to land again donations from your contacts last year (if you are a new Club member, we have assigned you donors recruited by former club members), and that you try to land at least one new donor this year (or become one yourself). This is our primary fundraiser and we need it to raise $25k of our $60k annual budget. Please do your share so we can restore our scholarship budget to $15k – we had to cut it to $12k in this year’s budget to account for expected difficulty raising money this year. Thanks!
Community Service Chair Cathy Wilcox-Barnes updated us on plans for our Rotarians at Work Day effort on Saturday, April 24th. We will be continuing our work at Nevada City’s Penzance Park (at Sacramento and Adams Streets) by building a retaining wall, installing a sign, and enhancing the landscaping. We need enthusiastic Rotarians with tools, work gloves, and a desire to get hands on in service to our community. Sign up with Cathy and let her know your shirt size. The women club members greatly outnumbered men last year, so we need to make a special effort to turn that around, guys!
Secretary / pP Dave Kenitzer and Youth Services Chair / pP Kim Stewart are leading a committee to launch the Youth Tube project – a video / film competition for area high-schoolers modeled on our music and speech contests. It will be limited to Area 4 this year but, if it goes well, the District may well take it District-wide next year. If you joined Rotary because you wanted to help kids, this is your chance! Contact Kim or David if you can help out.
One piece of feedback we got at the Fireside Chat earlier this month was that some newer members need assistance in registering for access to the member portions of the Club and RI website. If you need a login and password for the Club site (www.ncrotary.org) check with pP / Club Secretary Dave Kenitzer. Instructions on how to logon to the RI site (www.rotary.org) are available here and will posted to our Club website soon.
Our program this Thursday is hosted by Kim Stewart and will be a group discussion of experiences we have had visiting other Rotary Clubs while on vacations abroad. This will be a good opportunity to see what lies out there in the wider world of Rotary! See you at the meeting!
