January 12, 2009 Robert D. Hanson Rotary Excellence Award Una Martone Greeter:                                  Beth Peiffer Invocation:                              Neil Hendershot Rotary Minute:                        Jim Miller Club Singing:                          Doug Pieper Student/Teacher Presentation: Carolyn Dumaresq Publications:                           Dave Freet

PROGRAM:
Bob Hanson has been a role model for all and exemplifies the Rotary 4 Way test in his personal, professional and Rotary life.  We are indeed honored to have had him as a member of the Rotary Club of Harrisburg and acknowledge his exemplary leadership in this manner.
Past Awardees include:

Andy Rebuck - 2002
Dolores Liptak - 2003
Marie Lick - 2004
Karen Snider - 2005
John Judson - 2006  
Bob Saline - 2007
Kent Frese - 2008 

The 8th Robert D. Hanson Rotary Excellence Award goes to Una Sheridan Martone.  Being the recipient of the Robert D. Hanson Rotary Excellence Award, Una receives $2,500 toward expenses at the next Rotary International convention. 

Una provides leadership development to our Youth Community Development Team students.  She runs every meeting for the students and does a great job.  She plans and coordinates the work of the students, arranges for their luncheon, raises funds for and with the students for their philanthropic work and seeks assistance from other Rotarians.  This very worthwhile project of the Rotary Club of Harrisburg is led by the capable Una Sheridan Martone.


UPCOMING PROGRAMS / MEETING LOCATIONS:             
January 12      Robert D. Hanson Rotary Excellence Award Hilton

January 19      NO MEETING

For complete programming go to our website: hbgrotary.org and click on calendar.

NEWS AND NOTES:  
• Meal charge in 2009 will be $14 for Guests, Visiting Rotarians and Active Specials.

• The Rotary Club of Harrisburg will host Breakfast meetings on Thursday, January 15th and Tuesday, January 27th at the Diner in Homeland Center (1901 N. 5th Street) at 7:00 AM.  No cost.  Please come to use this as a meeting make-up or opportunity to bring a prospective member.  RSVP to Linda by Wednesday, January 14.

• The Whitaker Center is offering our Rotarians and their guests, the opportunity to see 3 shows at $23/pp.  Please call Linda to make your ticket reservation.  You pay the Rotary Club of Harrisburg and the tickets will be at Will Call.
Celtic Crossroads - Direct from Ireland. A unique Irish music experience  
January 16, 8 PM
Sunoco Performance Theater

International Guitar Night  - It's a festival of virtuoso finger style players including French guitar legend      Pierre Bensusan, Argentina 's Cecilia Zabala, and classical and steel strung guitar from Benjamin Verdery and Brian Gore.  
January 22, 7:30 PM
Sunoco Performance Theater

Wayman Tisdale - Smooth jazz
February 5, 7:30 PM
Sunoco Performance Theater

•  4th Annual Teacher Impact Awards seek to recognize teachers (Pre-K – 12) who have made a significant difference in the lives of their students. Nominations are being accepted now thru January 30, 2009. Five winners will receive a plaque and $1000 to their school. Form is available from Linda or online at www.office7390.org

• HOST FAMILY NEEDED in Central Dauphin High School : Paul (Po-Kai) Huang, our 17-year old Rotary exchange student from Taiwan needs a Host Family.  Since he is attending Central Dauphin High School , we are seeking a 2nd and 3rd host family in that area.  We are looking for a host family from January through March and another host family from April until July 1st.  Host families do not need to be Rotarians.  If you know a potential host family, please contact Linda, Dave Bedard or Ron Guss.          

• DISTRICT INFO: 

     2008 District Conference  April 30-May 1

Check out the tentative schedule:

Thursday, April 30 Golf Tournament—Country Club of York
Friday, May 1– Yorktowne Hotel Plenary / Breakout Sessions
Lunch/ Factory Tours including Harley Davidson
Dinner at Sovereign Bank Stadium

Saturday, May 2—Yorktowne Hotel - Plenary Sessions
Lunch/ Downtown/HistoricalTours/ Governors Banquet

Registration materials will be available shortly!!

100th Rotary International Convention  Birmingham, England  June 21-24, 2009
Register early take advantage of special pricing! First deadline: December 15. Register Online! It’s convenient and secure. Your confirmation materials will be e-mailed to you.  Birmingham Convention Bureau will handle all individual and group housing requests. Reservations are filled as requested. E-mail: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

You will receive a hotel confirmation from the Birmingham Convention Bureau indicating the hotel name, address, room rate per night, room type requested, and dates reserved. All housing changes/inquiries must be made directly to the Birmingham Convention Bureau until 8 May 2009. Please return your completed reservation form by 17:00 GMT on 8 May 2009.

VOLUNTEERS NEEDED FOR KATRINA BUILD

Joining Hands, District 7390’s disaster relief project, will be building its second new construction home along the Mississippi gulf coast from January 5th – March 27th, 2009. Major financial support will be coming from a $15,500.00 District Simplified Grant. Clubs participating in this Grant are Hanover, Colonial Park, York, York North, Carlisle, Hershey, West York, Mechanicsburg North, Littlestown and Mt. Joy.

Contact John Judson or Tom Johnston for more info.

For more information contact District Initiatives chair Diane McNaughton or Linda.

For meeting cancellations due to inclement weather.... Tune to ABC27-TV
or check your e-mail or call the Rotary office at 234-1208.

ATTENDANCE:
LAST ROTARY MEETING:  1/5/09       58%                        
Rotarians   89    Active Specials   14   Guests  5 Visiting Rotarians   0 = 108

Minutes by Andy Rebuck: 
“Be more organized, be nicer, volunteer more, exercise more….”

Oh, sorry about that; I did not see you there and I was busy checking my 2009 New Year Resolution list.

What?  You say I am supposed to be writing the minutes of the Rotary Club of Harrisburg meeting on January 5, 2009?  Well, I can do that.  Here goes.

Ring!  President Barry did indeed ring in the New Year and our meeting at officially 12:15 on this past Monday!

(This scribe did see that quite a few members may have been adhering to their list of resolutions.  More on this to follow, but it did seem readily apparent at our table that some Rotarians may have resolved to skip the dessert bar while others were noticeably applying the four way test more often to their words and deeds.)

Rotarian “Pinch Piano Player” Swain tickled the ivory as Karen “She Can Sing”
Paris led America the Beautiful.  Rotarian Griner offered the invocation and our meeting was off and flying like a champagne cork this past Wednesday night.

All club members were invited on a mission trip the week of February 16 to Biloxi with John Judson and Tom Johnston.  They need more help and this might fit quite nicely with some of our resolutions.

Like confetti on a windy day, our meeting whirled as Gib introduced three guests including our soon to be newest Rotarian Elizabeth Chronister.  Seconds later, Cub reporter Carrie highlighted all the Rotarians in the news and then Kent “Webmaster” Frese thawed us out with a very warm review of our hot Rotary web site.

It looked like some members were checking their resolution list as Ron “We need a Guest Home for Paul” Guss made a plea for service above self and a home in the CD school district for our exchange student over the next 60-90 days.  Contact Ron if you can be of assistance here.

President Barry then offered a short note that membership is key to our club and as the economy is upside down entering 2009, our club members are encouraged to see him or a Board member as needed to privately discuss a need for flexibility with club dues and billing.

The final 25 minutes of the meeting were incredible as our speaker today gave an interesting, provocative and controversial speech.  Dr. Joyce Davis used all her talents honed during a world wide career in journalism to raise issues about our world without making them politically charged.

Dr. Davis, the new SR. VP of Content with WITF, tackled into the topic of “A view of the world as it is and a view of the world as it should be” like a USC linebacker.  This interesting topic brought our club members around the globe and raised the question: What can be done about the turmoil in the world?”

Admitting that there may not be a silver bullet, the speaker asked the question of whether the UN is still a viable police force and if perhaps NATO may be the best replacement option.

The presentation and the Q & A to follow made it clear that we were fortunate to have Dr. Davis as our guest for the second time this year and may indeed need to make a New Year resolution to have her return a third time.

Best wishes Rotarians in 2009!