The Ken January 9, 2017

Attendance: Barb Henry

Split Club: Donna Di Francesco

Invocation: John Coogan

Fine Master: Tom Lang

The Ken: Jeff Markarian

Mike began our meeting with the Pledge, Barb led us in “America” and John Coogan gave our invocation. Please remember Shari McDonough’s family as her father Jerome McDonough passed away. And please keep John Riordan in our prayers as he is struggling with a 1 in million immune deficient disease.

Guests today were David Evans from Niagara County Rotary Club and our speaker Althea Luehrsen with Leadership Buffalo.

Mike announced that there will be a board meeting at Palatka’s, Wednesday at 8:00 am. Audrey is having the first wine tasting event planning meeting 1/24, 5:30 at Jovi’s. Holly is emailing me the details about an HR event she is involved in at Helium Comedy Club. I’ll be sure to send it out so we can support her. Dawn Mirand will retire this week. She is confident in the progress she has made with our school district. I have updated her new email address in our roster. Dawn has many things to keep her busy. Larry Coon is looking for volunteers at the end of January for the Interacts “purple pinky” event. Larry please forward me the details. Remember, Rotary matches Interacts money raised and The Bill and Malinda Gates Foundation will double match Rotary’s contribution. Sue Jandzinski announced the Kenmore Mercy Foundation received $100 K from the medical staff.

Tom Lang stood in as Finemaster. Tom immediately fined Paul…for being Paul. Audrey tried to persuade Tom by mentioning how much she likes Tom as the Finemaster. John Coogan is a grandfather again. His son had a baby last week. All is well, no fine for grandchild but a heavy fine for a new Jaguar in the parking lot. Brian mentioned his bread was not auction worthy. I confessed to banging the corners of the Virgin Islands. Tom blushed and didn’t much recover. After confessions, Tom allowed us to share what we did for New Year’s Eve.

Ron Levea won the split club and I drew the Ace of Spades for the second time in row.

At this time, Brian introduced our speaker Althea Luehrsen from Leadership Buffalo. Making Buffalo Better. They are a non-profit organization founded in 1987. Their mission is to unite existing and emerging leaders from diverse backgrounds and perspectives in order to increase their knowledge of community issues, broaden their vision and enhance their ability to lead. Althea left us with applications if we want to participate.

Meeting adjourned