ROTARY DISTRICT 6780 COLLEGE OF GOVERNORS MEETING PIGEON FORGE, TENNESSEE April 23, 2015 AGENDA Call to Order Pledge of Allegiance Invocation Welcome and Introductions PDG Bobby Davis PDG Ray Knowis Attendees:, presiding PDG Ray Knowis RIPN John Germ PDG Frank Rothermel RIDE Karen Wentz PDG Robin Textor DGE Beth Stubbs District Treasurer Jenifer Y. Campbell DGN Fred Heitman District Secretary Judith R. Roney DGND Deborah Alexander-Davis District Foundation Chair Jim Roxlo PDG Jack Bailey, Jr. Zone 30 ARPIC Greg Maciolek PDG Bobby Davis PRID and Trustee Noel A. Bajat RI Presidential Representative PDG Jim Devlin PDG Greg Vanderford, Rotary Coordinator Zone 30 PDG Harry Fields PDG Carl Chinnery Zone 31 Endowment/Major Gifts Advisor Secretary s Report Judith Roney, District Secretary Motion made, seconded, and passed to accept the January 3, 2015 minutes as written. Treasurer s Report Jenifer Campbell, District Treasurer Modified Cash Basis as of March 31, 2015 (yellow) $280,619.79 Modified Cash Basis as of June 30, 2014 (blue) $235,679.94 The budget is in the black and doing very well. Discussion was held around how much to keep in reserves. The Council on Legislation standard is 85% of the highest expenses for the last 3 years. RI Board s standard is 100%. Motion was made, seconded, and passed to accept the treasurer s report. The financial documents are attached to these minutes. Invited Comments RI President Nominee, John Germ Kudos to Jerry Wear for his leadership of the District and for planning an excellent conference. Kudos to District 6780 for being one of the strongest districts in the Rotary world. Germ stated 2018 is still on target for eradication of Polio. Funding is $450 million dollars short of the $5.5 Billion dollars needed. Four UNICEF workers were killed by a car bomb in Somalia. Nigeria hasn t
had a new case of polio since July 27, 2014. Pakistan has 22 new cases, and Afghanistan has 1 new case from Pakistan. Germ is working on his International Assembly and is engaged in a lot of travel and scheduled events. He is going to advertise world-wide in the July Rotarian Magazine for people to be nominated to serve on all Rotary International committees, and potential participants may nominate themselves. RI Director Elect, Karen Wentz Wentz remarked on the wonderful event for the COG the previous night at the Titanic. An Institute is planned for Baton Rouge, LA September 22-17, 2015. Registration is being streamlined. Registration opens May 1 and Wentz issued a special invitation for all present to come. RI s President, President-Elect, and chair of the Foundation trustees will all be in attendance. The 2016 Institute will be held in Cincinnati, OH October 11-16, 2016. This is the 100 th anniversary year of the Rotary Foundation. Wentz has been in RI Director training sessions. She has met with the regional Zone coordinators, regional Foundation coordinators, and Governors-Elect, and all have measurable goals to achieve. President s Representative, Noel Bajat Bajat is a Rotary Foundation trustee. He expressed honor to be invited to the conference, and noted how many distinguished Rotarians are from District 6780. He complemented RIPN John Germ on his grasp of the details of RI operations and not just being content with an overview. Some innovations for funding the Foundation are being rolled out including the Jean Thompson Harris Society (Paul Harris Wife) in 2016. Fundraising will be highlighting differing areas of focus (e.g. water, maternal/child health, economic development). Endowments can be established for any area of interest targeted in the strategic plan. Attempts will be made to raise these additional funds from outside resources without affecting the Annual Fund. $120,000,000 is the goal for Peace Centers Endowment. Currently, the total Rotary Foundation Endowment fund is $992,000,000 with a goal of one billion dollars by the Atlanta Convention in Germ s presidential year. RI Zone 31 Endowment/Major Gifts Advisor, Carl Chinnery Chinnery expressed delight at being asked to speak at this conference. Zone 30 Rotary Coordinator, Glen Vanderford Vanderford expressed appreciation at being here and called to attention all the years of PETS involvement together. Heart of America Leadership Trainings are June 26-27 in Cincinnati, and July 10-11 in Birmingham. Since Rotary members are our customers, he believes they should have input in Rotary s policies and plans. He is promoting club visioning and commended District 6780 as one of two Districts in Zone 30 that has implemented club visioning. Vanderford and his team supports 12 Districts in Zone 30. The Rotary Foundation Report Jim Roxlo, Foundation Committee Chair To Date: 45 Star Clubs with the expectation of 55 by year s end, 15 Clubs average more than $150 per member, 3 Clubs average more than $300 per member. 121 Paul Harris Society members. $451,000 Annual Program Funds which is $100,000 more than last year and more than the yearend totals for the last 3 years, a 30% increase. District Grants: $115,000 total available, but there were requests for $150,000. 21 clubs grants were funded from $1000 to $20,000. More than half the clubs are involved with grants annually, and up to 2/3 involved bi-annually. Global Grants: 12 approved, tagged, or likely in 2014-15 with project sizes from $35,000 to $200,000. A total of $187,000 in District Designated Funds is required to support these Global Grants. RI now permits a carryover in funds from previous years so that $207,000 is available.
Roxlo remarked that while this is good news, we are having growing pains. Budgeting for the GGs was tight for this year and will be worse next year. More Annual Fund donations are needed. Roxlo reported there is $32,000,000 in DDF money sitting in the RI Foundation waiting for clubs to use for projects. This provides an opportunity for clubs and districts to sell their projects to districts with unused DDF funds, thus developing partnerships and the potential for more and bigger projects. TRF has 3 year goals now and is encouraging Multi-District projects for Global Grants. Roxlo provided a financial accounting of District Foundation activities for this Rotary year 2014-15 to date, and is attached to these minutes. Finance Committee Report PDG Frank Rothermel (for PDG Carol Foster, Finance Committee Chair) The current Finance Committee is Carol Foster (2), chair, [Chairman John Bailey (3) resigned due to health issues], Frank Rothermel (1), and Jim Devlin who was appointed to complete Bailey s term. Foster is attending another District Conference this weekend as a RI Presidential Representative. Foster will continue as chair for the 2015-16 Rotary year (3), Rothermel (2), Devlin (1). Motion was made, seconded, and passed to appoint Jim Devlin to begin a 3 year term on the Finance Committee beginning July 1, 2015. Beth Stubb s budget (green) was reviewed and approved by the Finance Committee and by the COG at its January meeting. Motion was made, seconded, and passed to recommend the budget as it will presented to the District Conference business meeting. Nominating Committee RIDE Karen Wentz The Nominating Committee consisting of Karen Wentz, chair, Jack Bailey, Jr., Carol Foster, and Ray Knowis nominated Deborah Alexander-Davis as the 2017-18 District Governor designate. Bobby Davis recused himself from the committee because his wife was being considered. There were no challenges and she was declared DGND in February 2015. The Nominating Committee was directed to come up with a procedure for selecting a Vice-Governor to serve in the event the District Governor is unable to serve. The first step was to ask for volunteers and the committee will select a Vice-Governor from among them and report back later. Addendum to minutes: Jerry Wear was selected as Vice-Governor for 2015-16, announced May 11, 2015. Resolutions Committee Report PDG Harry Fields (Resolutions Committee Chair) Resolutions endorsed in the January COG meeting were: 1. Resolution in Memory of Past District Governor Walter Pulliam who passed away at 101 years of age. 2. Resolution to Revise District 6780 Rules of Procedure clarifying the voting and non-voting members of the District Finance Committee. 3. Resolution of Gratitude to Participants in the 2015 District Conference. State of the District District 6780 leads Zones 30 and 31 in Foundation giving. Wear had hoped for a 7% increase in membership, but membership is up 3% and is 6 th in the Zone. There has been growth in Sunset Clubs which tends to attract some younger members. Other attractions are flexibility in meeting places, meeting times, and whether to have meals or not.
The youth programs are strong with the Interact conference attracting more than 600. They are energetic and active in projects. District 6780 had its first Rotaract Conference with 32 participants. Currently, there are 5 Rotaract Clubs. Wear was surprised to learn that some Districts don t have ideas or plans for using their District Designated Funds for projects, which gave him the opportunity to invite some of them to participate with our District. He believes more than 16 will. This District will have a Global grant of $10,000 for Clay County, KY, one of the poorest counties in the U.S. It is to be a sanitation project with Tennessee Tech involved and with international partners from Mexico and Turkey. Wear complimented all the clubs, no matter how small, for the work they are doing in their communities. Old Business-none New Business John Germ mentioned the upcoming Council on Legislation and that this District will have several members there: John Germ, Jim Lacy, Harry Fields (our representative) and Karen Wentz from the RI Board. Reco Advice is being solicited regarding changing membership and funding reporting deadlines for the Foundation to June 30 of each year instead of March 31. March 31 has been confusing since clubs actually have 3 more months in which to complete goals in these areas, but they typically don t get recognition unless accomplished by March 31. Changing will mean the clubs will be honored in the next Rotary year for the accomplishments the previous year. Many in the group felt that could be an advantage for someone to come to the club to show appreciation rather than, or in addition to, the glut of awards hastily presented at the District Conference. It would also encourage all the club members rather than the few that typically attend conferences. Comments: Governor Elect Beth Stubbs Vocational Service: Donna Fare will be taking over from Carol Foster. Seven participated in the speech contest won by Wendy Armata. Rotary Club of Shelbyville annual Career Day at Motlow, chaired by Ivan Jones, had 600 students. Community Service will continue to publicize club projects in the Rotary Showcase on the website and in the District newsletter to encourage other clubs and spark ideas. As an example, the RC of North Knoxville along with a District Grant, has provided clean water stations at two popular parks in Fountain City. International Service will be chaired by Rickey White. 7 new global grants have been obtained for projects in Mexico and 3 new non-grant projects are in progress for kidney transplants, equipment for a rural school, cleft palate surgeries, etc. RC of Bearden has a new project in South Sudan providing funds for construction, wells, housing, and books for a girls school. RC of Farragut is launching a project in Kenya focusing on life and vocational skills for children who are orphans or otherwise don t have the ability to further their education. RC of Knoxville started a nursing school in Zimbabwe, South Africa (partners are Duke University, UT School of Nursing and The Rotary Foundation). Youth Services will be chaired by Jerry Wear next year. Don Randolph will continue with RYLA. RYLA continues to grow and is already at capacity for the teams being sent to supervise activities. The question is whether to limit it to the current capacity of 180, or contract to bring in one or more additional teams to allow for more participants. Bruce Wilson will be Interact chair. Additional Interact and Rotaract clubs will be sought. Rotaract clubs have 212 members. Currently there are 3 outbound exchange students and next year there will be 7. There are 6 inbound exchange students and there will be 8 inbound students next year.
Governor Nominee Fred Heitman Kudos to DG Ware for the increase in membership. Kudos to Greg Maciolek for better District communications. There seems to be less dependence on websites and more Facebook and Twitter activity the way younger people communicate. On April 20-23, 2017, the Multi-District Conference will be in Chattanooga with 5 Districts. John Germ will be honored and the conference will be a warm up party to his convention. Governor Nominee Designate Deborah Alexander-Davis Alexander-Davis is pleased to be a part of the District s Governor s team. She is delighted with the increase in donations to the Annual Programs Fund, half of which will be coming back to the District in her year as Governor. Adjourned to Bomar Foundation Meeting Bomar Foundation Report to the College of Governors April 23, 2015 Call to Order Bomar Foundation Board of Directors Report PDG Robin Textor A total of $8,000 in scholarship was given to 4 students. Treasurer s Report Jenifer Campbell, Treasurer Financial Statements-Modified Cash Basis as of March 31, 2015 (yellow) -$210,713.64 total assets. $183,000 is the corpus, leaving $27,000 for the possibility of scholarships. $8,000 was used and $19,000 remains. Campbell reported that monies in the Wells Fargo account are making 22 cents per quarter and recommended moving that account to Raymond James. The COG recommended that the Board transfer $20,000 to Raymond James and transfer $5,000 into the checking account for anticipated upcoming expenses. Motion was made, seconded, and passed to recommend transfer of $20,000 from Wells Fargo to Raymond James, and to transfer $5,000 to the checking account. Appreciation was expressed to Judith Roney for 5 years of service as District Secretary. Greg Maciolek will be the incoming District Secretary. Adjourned to District Conference in Convention Center Respectfully submitted by Judith R. Roney, District Secretary.