Today marked the second Club Assembly of the new year. President Rod asked members to break into their respective committees to discuss what they had going on currently, programs they might be planning and what they planned to do in the future. Rod also asked committees to discuss how, what they do, can get prospective new members to join the club as well as discussion around what changes/enhancements  they would like to see for the upcoming New Year’s Eve Gala Event. Following the 20-minute get together, a spokesperson for each group presented highlights of what they discussed:
 
Club Service: Mark informed members of the River Raisin Cleanup (details above). Brent Mercer reported that the committee is still looking for someone to provide food at Art-A-Licious in our booth since the original vendor backed out. A sign-up sheet was passed around. Still in need of volunteers.
 
Christmas Tree & Wreath Sale Project are fast approaching. The New Year’s Eve Gala Event is also in the planning stages. Mark developed a “Leadership Sign-Up Sheet” for members who want to take on a lead role (Ticket sales, sponsor recruitment, marketing, food/beverage, decorations, auction items, clean-up, etc.) Each member will be asked to sell two tickets and get one sponsor. There are two separate flyers: one for tickets and one for sponsors. A sponsor can give anywhere from $100 to $2,500 (Platinum Level – comes with 4 complimentary tickets; Gold sponsor – 2 tickets). To get a sponsor simply think of someone you may have bought a large ticket item from and ask for a sponsorship in return. It’s that simple. A pre-direct mail effort will be going out soon.
 
Vocational Service: Dan reported that DG Wayne moved the Vocational Service Lunches to January and that sites are being selected. One of the committee's plans is to invite various business representatives to speak which is a nice opportunity to tell them about Rotary. That includes Rotary members themselves who represent businesses they work for!
 
Membership: The committee suggested that each one of us should simply think of just one person they could invite top lunch who would be a prospective member – just one. Who couldn’t do that? Something else they considered was compiling a list of former members who dropped their membership and call to see if they like to rejoin. Secretary Allen reminded the group that some years ago the club did host a luncheon (Past Rotarian Day) for former members and we might want to do that again.
 
International Service: Mike said that the committee was focused on the St. Clair School for Girls in Kenya where Purity is from and said that since they were in need clothing for students, uniforms and more sewing machines, the committee would come up with a fund raising project to subsidize that. This would be announced at the New Year’s Eve Event and anyone who contributes $6 that evening would be told that the money would go toward paying for shoes for students in Kenya.
 
Youth Services: Kevin piggybacked on Mary’s information about Fluency Friends as well as the Rotaract Club which is being started at Adrian College. Barry informed us that real progress is being made on starting the program at SHU as well!
 
Patty offered a possible fund raining project might be to solicit a top name motivational speaker to the area that tickets could be sold to that would include a pre-event social and a gathering after.