Knoxville Rotary - A Message from the Club President

The 2010-11 Rotary Year is coming to a very successful close! Evidence of this is the number of awards our club received at the district conference in April. By the time the business session was over on Saturday morning, the Rotary Club of Knoxville had accomplished several of its major goals for the year by receiving TEN awards plus four new patches for the club banner! Our awards included:

The "Changing the World Award" for RCK's total lifetime club giving of over $1,000,000 to the Rotary Foundation. One of only 2 clubs in the entire district! (Chattanooga being the second).
The Presidential Citation with Distinction and District Governor's Citation in recognition of our many successes this year across all areas of service.
Our club is now a 7-STAR club having once again received the STAR Club distinction by averaging at least $100 per member in giving to the Rotary Foundation's Annual Fund. However we blew through that minimum average and now stand at $187.97 per capita and rank 3rd in giving in the District!!
We also received the Globe Club award for the sixth year in a row for our many successful international projects including the Skate park in Mateszalka, hosting of Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar Katalin Illes from December 2009 through August 2010, and hosting Holocaust survivor Arthur Pais at our regular club meeting on August 10, 2010.
And, we are an Eradicator Club for the second time for averaging $40.00 in per capita giving to END POLIO NOW. Our total Eradicator Club giving for the year is currently $9,190.20 or $45.72 per capita.
Lastly, we received 4 Lacy Bomar Awards of Excellence including:
- 1st place in the New Generations Service Project category for the Interact/Rotaract International Dinner that raised $9,000.00 for international projects.
- 1st place in the Club Bulletin Award category for the Rotary Forward.
- 2nd place in the Community Service Project category for our Arts and Diversity event at "A Christmas Carol" at Clarence Brown Theatre.
- 2nd place in the International Service Project category for the Mateszalka, Hungary skateboard park project.

In addition, both of the Interact Clubs and the Rotaract Club that RCK sponsors also received the RI Presidential Citation for the 2010-2011 Rotary Year by meeting the same award criteria that our Club met.

My sincere thanks to each committee and everyone on them who’s hard work made winning these coveted awards possible. Congratulations to all!

Fourth Quarter Activities

We are also completing the fourth quarter of the year with many additional service and fellowship activities. Among them are the following:

April 19 - 21 – Served as Hub Club for the visit to Knoxville by the GSE Team from Thailand. Four of our members hosted the team members in their homes. On April 19 the team presented our weekly luncheon program.
April 26 – Held our bi-annual Trade Show with 22 companies exhibiting including two from other Rotary Clubs in Knoxville.
May 1 – Held our second Arts & Diversity event of the year by hosting 150 students and parents from the Community School of the Arts at the CBT Sunday matinee performance of Music Man. Like the first event in December, it was very successful in that both the students and parents enjoyed and were most appreciative of the opportunity to attend a live stage performance.
May 12 – Enjoyed Rotary Night at the Smokies Baseball Park. Several Rotarians and spouses/guests attended. President Brown was asked to be one of those throwing out the ceremonial first pitch as a way of recognizing Rotary.
May 17 – Presented the 2011 Samuel L. and Juanita Weaver RFK $12,000, 4-year college scholarship to Brooklyn Stanley, who graduated this year from Powell High School with a 4.21 GPA and a 34 ACT score. In accepting the scholarship, Brooklyn said she plans to attend UT Knoxville to study Biomedical Engineering and/ Pre-Med.
May 17 -- Presented the Robert and Diana Samples Community School of the Arts Rotary $2,500 college scholarship to Isaac Mobley, a recent West High School graduate with a 3.65 GPA. Isaac was on the football team and for the last eight years has been a participant in the Community School for the Arts' Side-by-Side Program, which gives students the opportunity to work along side successful local artists for up to three months.
May 19 -- Presented the Ethel Poore Award to the TSD student Katie Wilson. The club presents the award each year to the student “whose influence has most promoted the welfare of the school during the year”. The award is in honor of Mrs. Ethel Poore a former, long-time superintendent of the school.
May 24 – Presented the club’s annual Teacher of the Year awards to two outstanding teachers in the Knox County School System. The elementary teacher award went to Kimberly McDaniels, a third-grade teacher at Dogwood Elementary School. She is known for her skillful teaching, her compassionate care for her students, and her willingness to mentor other teachers. The high school teacher award went to Byron Brooks, the "English as a Second Language" (ESL) teacher at Central High School. He is known for innovative teaching in support of non-English speakers, mainstreaming them into the regular curriculum, as well as his supportive encouragement of the family systems around the students.
May 30 (Memorial Day) -- Joined the other Rotary Clubs in Knoxville in hosting a luncheon stop at Island Home Airport for the International Fellowship of Flying Rotarians (IFFR) when they stopped in Knoxville on their post RI Convention trip through Tennessee and the Carolinas. Forty IFFR members in 20 airplanes and 25 local Rotarians enjoyed a 2-hour lunch of Bar-B-Q, local music, and fellowship.
June – Joined other Rotary Clubs in Knoxville in participating in the month-long Rotary Medic Blood Drive to a) help replenish Medic’s blood supplies, b) enable every Knoxville Rotary family to be eligible to receive blood at no charge, if needed, and c) to gain recognition and publicity of Rotary’s Service Above Self motto.
June 14 – Adopted revised and restated Club Constitution and By-laws as prepared and presented by the Club By-laws Committee.
June 28 – Will recognize and honor the 2010-11 Four-Way Test Rotarian of the Year as recommended by the Club’s Four-Way Test Committee.
Each Month – The Club has been entertained and informed about why we should read the Rotarian magazine regularly by our mighty, one-person Rotarian Magazine Committee, Doug McKamey!

Programs. We have continued the year’s tradition of headliner programs each week. Among them has been Dr. Tom Bogart, the new president of Maryville College; our own Jim Bush, Chairman of the Board of Johnson Galyon; Carl Pierce, Executive Director of the Baker Center for Public Policy; Howard Hall of the Baker Center Global Security Center; Nashville Mayor Karl Dean; Ed Jessup of the UT Graduate School of Medicine; and Brazilian Rotary World Peace Scholar Eduardo da Costa.

Publicity. During the fourth quarter and the entire year, our Publicity Committee has done a terrific job of getting media coverage of our many activities and events. Following is a listing of the coverage spanning the year:

July 2010 – Rotarians of the year Roy and Elisa King (Newspaper);
July 2010 – Samantha Scates Rotary Scholarship Recipient (Newspaper);
July 2010 – 2010-2011 Rotary Board (Newspaper);
July 2010 – Derek Dooley speaking engagement (Newspaper & Television)
August 2010 – RAS Kaitlin Illes and father visit (Newspaper);
September 2010 – Knox Rotary Club Sponsors Cultural Exchange in Morocco (Newspaper);
November 2010 – Free Flu Shot Saturday (Newspaper);

· December 2010/May 2011 – RCK's support of Arts & Diversity by sponsoring Clarence Brown Theatre Arts performances and hosting 200 disadvantaged youth & parents at a matinee performance (Newspaper);

February 2011 – World Rotary Day, February 19, 2011 (Newspaper);
February 2011 – Club's Fundraiser Mardi Gras Gala and Reverse Raffle (Local Televison News segment);
May 2011 – Teacher of the Year Award (Newspaper and Television coverage);
May 2011 – Rotary Foundation of Knoxville College Scholarship (Newspaper).

Also, the club received substantial publicity for its sponsorship of the two CBT productions, A Christmas Carol and Music Man. This included:

Full-page black and white appreciation ads in all six CBT playbills during the year
RCK logo on all television, print advertisements, and posters/flyers plus mention of club in radio spots for sponsored shows
RCK logo placed on 50,000 brochures
RCK logo placed on all other direct mail pieces
RCK logo placement on web link on CBT web site
RCK logo placement on all e-marketing materials for sponsored shows

Paul Harris Fellows. In the fourth quarter, the club presented six new Paul Harris Fellows or PHF multiple donors. This brings the total for the year to sixteen plus three major donors and the club’s second ever Arch Klumph Society Award. Included among the PHF recipients this year were four officers and directors making the 2010-11 Board of Directors a 100% PHF board!

New Generations. On May 3, the UT Rotaract and Webb & KCHS Interact Clubs each made their annual report to the club:

UT Rotaract Club -- Kaylee Duber and Elaina Spiekermann reported that the club is a small, tight knit group that has been very active in the past year with fundraising and service projects. Some examples of these projects are volunteering at Boo at the Zoo, Safety City Bike Fair, and Rotary's Mardi Gras fundraiser. This group had lots of fun this year and is looking to more activities in the future.

Knoxville Catholic High School Interact Club -- Phil Petree, faculty advisor, reported that this year the club grew from 6 to 20 members. The group worked with Honor Air serving breakfast at a preflight meeting. In November they helped with the Empty Stocking fund and the Flu Shot Saturday project. They also participated in Operation Christmas Child filling shoeboxes, and bell ringing for the Salvation Army. In February they participated in World Rotary Day helping renovate the playground at the Tennessee School for the Deaf. Also, when the Second Harvest warehouse was flooded this group did a fundraiser to help restock the food that was lost.

Webb School of Knoxville Interact Club -- Liz Gregor, faculty advisor, reported that the club had a very busy year with three students taking a trip to South Africa and with the Honor Air flights. They raised $556 in a fundraiser that went to the End Polio Now Awareness Campaign. The highlight of their year was the South African Fundraiser at the home of the King's. This fundraiser brought in $9,000. The fundraiser Holi Festival of Color raised $1,400 for the Balbahar Slum School in India. In April they had a tea to celebrate the British Royal Wedding, and they have plans to send three students with Townes Osborn to Hungary in June as the Knoxville Summer Youth Exchange Team.

Webb Interact students hosted their third annual Multicultural Festival on Friday, April 15 at the schools' International Center. The Interact members prepared delicious food from around the world and hosted display tables representing many countries that highlighted different cultures and Rotary Clubs of those countries. The goal was to expose students to different cultures and flavors and to celebrate the rich diversity in our world.

Knoxville - Hungary Summer Youth Exchange Team -- For the sixteenth year, the club will sponsor a summer youth exchange activity. This year we will again have exchange visits between youth in Knoxville and Mateszalka, Hungary. On June 17, three Webb School of Knoxville Interact students will travel to Hungary for a two-week visit returning on July 1. With them will be four Hungarian youth who will visit Knoxville for three weeks. Experiencing each other’s cultures, hands-on service projects, and fun/making new international friends will headline their activities in both countries.

District Conference and RI Convention. Our club was well represented at both the district conference and the RI convention:

District Conference -- Several RCK members attended the multi-district conference in Nashville April 29-May 1 and heard inspiring speakers such as Eric Motley and RI President Ray Klinginsmith, plus attended other interesting Rotary sessions focusing on the conference theme, New Generations. A conference highlight was a dinner and show aboard the General Jackson Showboat.

RI Convention -- Our club was well represented at the Rotary International Convention in New Orleans May 21-5 by the following 13 members, spouses, and friends: DGE Frank & Judy Rothermel, PE Sam & Carol Weaver, Secretary Ed Anderson & Shannon Holland, Past President Bob & Margie Parrott, Past President Townes Osborn, Doug & Jeannine McKamey, Grace Gardiner and Club Administrator Elaine McCulloch.

Townes was also on the program and was the only speaker from our district. She was part of a panel discussion on Rotary branding and public information.

Her presentation focused on Rotary working with other groups with the same community and through that liaison accomplishing more than one group can do alone. In the process, she showcased what our club is doing through its partnerships with others.

More than 18,500 members of the family of Rotary, representing 151 countries and geographical areas, took part in the 2011 convention, where they were asked to redouble their efforts to eradicate polio and embrace humanity by thinking of new ways to take on today's challenges.

Centennial Project

A goal of this year was to identify and make a decision on what will be the club’s Centennial Project to be completed and dedicated in 2015 when the club is 100 years old. Progress has been made. The Projects Committee has held informal discussions with representatives of the City of Knoxville Recreation Department regarding placing a Rotary commemorative public art piece in a downtown park. Based on the positive response received from the city, the club has formally notified the city of its interest in jointly pursuing the planning and development of such a centennial project.

Mainstream Committee

I am a big fan of our Mainstream Committee concept. I have said so at every opportunity. I am a fan because it effectively enables quick involvement of our new members in club activities that they determine. In the process, new friendships are made and future club leaders are identified. This year was the club’s third Mainstream Committee year and it was no exception. In fact the concept was taken to a new level as evidenced by the Mainstream Committee’s performing arts program on March 29, its social gatherings and other activities, and the fact that the group does not want to disband! More power to the Rotary Mainstreamers!!

Conclusions

It has been my pleasure, privilege, and distinct honor to serve as president of our Rotary Club this year. Together, we have accomplished many fellowship and service activities and club projects as outlined above and in my previous quarterly messages. It has also been my honor to work with the 2010-2011 officers and directors. As your Board of Directors, they, along with the committee chairs, have provided the leadership and much of the energy for all of the club’s accomplishments this year. Over the years, it has been my observation that one indication of successful organizational leadership is when activities “take on a life of their own” and “good things” begin to happen that the leaders did not necessarily initiate. That has certainly been the case this year, and it is one big reason our club has had such a successful Rotary year.

My sincere thanks to each and every member of the club for all you do for Rotary and for all you did for our club this year,

H. Brown Wright

President 2010-11

Mid-Year Review 2011-2012