Rotary Club of Gold Beach

Rotary Club of Gold Beach * Meeting each Wednesday at noon at Grants * January 14, 2009 * Meeting #26

Today's Program: Jim Wernicke, Mayor of Gold Beach.
Club Report: Last week we met at the Senior Center and heard from Bea Nash on the "Snack Pack" Program. This program was designed with the idea that "No Child Should Be Hungry". According to Bea over 50% of our children at Riley Creek School are on free and reduced meals. This means their families have low incomes and Gold Beach is considered a needy area. The Snack Pack program was designed to send non-perishable snacks home on Friday afternoons so that these children will have something to eat over the weekend. The cost of a Snack Pack is $5.00. The cost to sponsor a child in the Snack Pack Program is $150.00 per year. This program is administered by Christian Help and donations are tax deductible.

Upcoming Programs
January 14- High on Health Fundraising meeting
January 21 - Alan VanDiver, USFS District Ranger
January 28 - John Bishop, Curry County Sheriff
STAY TUNED FOR MORE INFORMATION
April 25- High on Health!!Rotarian's at Work Day

Reminder
Lunches are now $10.00 this includes a drink and gratuity.

Marketing Tips - Attracting New Members
Things to consider in attracting new members...We all know that for Rotary to achieve, membership is critical. Every Club's survival is based on retaining its existing members and attracting new members. Both require having the right tools and systems in place to ensure the right level of communication for each target audience.

From the Outside Looking In - Assessing How We Are Currently Seen By the Public...Taking the perspective of your audience is critical when formulating communications. Even though we might know the message we wish to convey, we need to adjust our delivery to suit the understanding of our audience. Just as we might subtly adjust our communications when conversing with a young child, a busy CEO or someone who has only a limited understanding of English, so too must we understand that the general public may not immediately understand Rotary's language or be captivated by anything we, as Rotarians, may find significant.

Why Should They Look? The "What's in it for me?" Principle (WIIFM)...Capturing the public's attention in the first place is often the biggest issue - people can derive value when you provide them with information presented as something attractive, something previously unknown or something novel they don't expect. Presenting an image of Rotary that does just these things provides us with a head start getting people to listen.
Stay tuned for more information on attracting and maintaining members.

Today's Program: Elyse Power

Club Report: Last week we had an interesting talk given by our own Judge Jesse Margolis.

Thanks Jesse!

Christmas Party: This past Friday our club enjoyed a fun Christmas Party at Spinners. Sergeant at Arms Ted Watkins was arrested for telling Blonde Jokes. Ted was handcuffed and stood trial and his punishment was having to "be a blonde" for the remainder of the evening. Thanks to our club for their very generous donations we are able to help several needy families this Christmas!

Upcoming Programs

December 17 - Santa Claus

December 24 - Merry Christmas

December 31 - Happy New Year

April 25- Rotarian's at Work Day
WE NEED TO START PLANNING FOR "Rotarian's At Work Day 2009": Saturday, April 25, 2009 is the date when Rotarians around the world will spend the day working and giving service to their communities. NOW is the time to start planning for OUR club's participation in this worldwide event. There is so much we can do in our community, all we need to do is look around us. Contact local groups that can help you put together a one-day project that will "make a difference". Then, work with our club leaders and members to plan the project so it can be completed in a single day. Then, get it on our club calendar, muster the troops (Rotarians at Work Shirts are a "very good thing to wear") and get the job done. Don't delay . . . we want our club to play a roll in this great event.

 Rotary Club of Gold Beach* Meeting each Wednesday at noon at Grants*December 3, 2008* Meeting #22

Today's Program: Jesse Margolis

Club Report: Last week we heard from new members Amy Timeus and Lisa Carlson. Make sure to get to know them if you haven't already. They are anxious to get involved with our club.

Email from Tony and Terri Lynn

Ghana Update #3
November 24, 2008. Is one of those days that we will both remember for years to come. This was the day we would go back to Gungabisi. 2 Years later. We walked into the village and things at first remained calm. It did not last. The women threw their arms around Terri and it was hard to hold back the tears. The celebration was enormous. With the help of translators the overall theme was "We cant believe you did not forget about us" We cant believe you came back" It was an incredible thing that words will not express. We then walked to the well site and saw what all of us. Their community with the Bolga baskets and our community with all the helpful donations and Rotary members have been able to achieve in this very hands on grass roots project. We saw the well. It is about 35 feet deep and there is water. They will continue to go deeper to about 50 feet deep so there will be water in the dry season (Jan-March) . The project is planned to be completed in about a week and we will visit the site everyday to get new footage of the lining, slab and pump. After receiving another rooster we set off for the next adventure. On our way to Gungabisi we saw a young boy with out a hand walking down the street. We all jumped out and you can imagine that he was quite startled. Rashed communicated with him in their language and arranged a meeting for that evening. So that night we set off into the bush a few miles out side of Bolgatanga. In the dark we asked people along the way how to find the home. Found the village and requested permission from the chief to enter. We then found the house and Rashed had to explain to the boys father , again in tribal language what we wanted to do. It took a while for him to understand and finally he gave his approval. For the next Hour Terri fitted her first hand onto the Boy while the village watched. By headlamp, it was not easy. The boy immediately took the pen and paper and wrote his name.

Again, I can not continue to express by words what this is like. The next day we visited another village, Anateem. This one is way out. We had to walk on bush trails into an area that has no roads, water electricity, anything. They too are hoping for a Bore hole. This is becoming very emotional.

Today we are taking a break, there are three more villages to visit and then the final ceremony an which the local news is supposed to come and attend. Dinner is cheaper now as we are accumulating birds...three so far. all we have to do is pay someone to kill them and cook them.

Another hand recipient is coming to see us tonight.

Ghana Update #4
It started with just a drop. We are spending these two weeks here in the north east region. The other day we watched them pour the slab for the top of the well and where the pump will go. It is the one manufactured in India. Next we will see the lining of the well tomorrow and then finally the construction of the apron, installation of the pump and finally the commissioning ceremony.

Tomorrow will be another unique day as we have two potential hand recipients coming to our hotel. The boy from the other night is fourteen and was a birth defect. Yesterday Rasheed saw him in town riding a bike with his new hand. The next two recipients are older and are both car accidents, one gentlemen lost his 20 years ago. Also tomorrow we will award the $100 Don Hayes Scholarship, we have 5 girls coming over with the essays they have written, they are all 5 orphans. Visited another village today, interesting way to spend a vacation. Current bird count is 6 Guinea fowl (yum, wild bird larger then a chicken and very tasty) and 3 Roosters (not much meat and a little tough) so we are eating plenty of meat at night.

 Rotary Club of Gold Beach* Meeting each Wednesday at noon at Grants*November 19, 2008* Meeting #21

Today's Program: Classification Talks.

Club Report: Email from Tony and Terri Lynn -

Ghana Update #1
It was a 48 hour travel day with about 1 hour of sleep on the plane. A very nice yet long journey. We arrived Accra at 19:30 and found our arrival much more easily than before. Today I wandered the streets of this west African capital and remember quite clearly just why I love this country so much. Immediately stimulating and nothing to do but soak up the atmosphere and sweat like a person who is more acclimated to the coast of Oregon. Met a few new friends today, received two marriage proposals and ate some dried fish covered in a spicy sauce. A good day of getting myself used to the weather before we set of on a new adventure. Tomorrow we journey to a coastal town east of here Ada Foah and meet with a professor from The Ghana University to do a documentary on Sea turtle conservation. We will hope to go out at night with the group from 23:00- 2:00 and hope to see nesting turtles.

So far life is good in Ghana. from there we may be able to email one more time before we set off across an area that has never been explored before, isolated since the 60's when the Volta river was dammed, no roads, just a boat that will take us there, we will spend 7 days or so documenting a new route on Bush trails that perhaps some one else will follow in the future. after that... it is on to Bolga to celebrate the well with the village Gungabisi.

Be well, Tony

Ghana Update #2
Hello All,

First of all thank you to all of you who have responded, it is great to hear from home while on the road. Please understand that we can not reply back to each of you as the connection on this continent is soooooooo slow, a bit frustrating to say the least, OK so now the update.

As usual with the way we travel all things planned do not always go smoothly and we have learned to just follow the signs and - or our own intuition towards which ever direction presents itself.

Therefore, we chose not to journey towards Ada Foah for the Turtle story and do it at the end of the journey instead. This put led us to a small area named Kpong. we got dropped off in the middle of nowhere and settled into a plate of fried rice and beef kabobs with a cold beer. 'Frank' approaches us and says there is a Big festival on the mountain today and that he will drive us there. Sounds good to us. The mountain is Krobo mountain, the Krobo people lived on this mountain 300 years ago and each year they return from all around Ghana to climb the mountain. OMG.... now I have attended my share of Raves, but this was quite the party. BBQ's filling the sky with smoke, towers of speakers at the base of the mountain blasting Ghana Highlife and what must have been 5,000 people at least bouncing and celebrating. We climbed the mountain, you can imagine the looks we received being the only Obruni's (white people) climbing the mountain, about 2 miles straight up in this heat. Amazing experience as this of course would not have happened had we gone the other way.

Anyway the next day we found a bead factory that makes glass beads out of broken bottles and melts the glass in wood fired stoves made out of termite hills and were able to do a story with the owner, the family has been making beads here for 200 years. We picked up some nice pieces too to bring back. This morning we found a local fisherman to take us out in his canoe for a couple of hours.

Next we plan to move on to the plateau and do some serious trekking, there is supposed to be a hospital out on these plains that we hope to introduce the 'give a hand' project to. We are carrying 4 prosthetic hands with us and hope to find recipients in this small out of the way village.

The weather seems not as hot, quite comfortable really and the food has been excellent so far, perhaps we have found out how to better eat while in Ghana.

We are slowly making our way to Bolga and plan to be there around the 24th.

ciao, Tony

Upcoming Programs
November 26 - TBD
December 5 - Christmas Party