Rotary Gram

Durango High Noon Rotary Club

July 11, 2002

"What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us...."

William Morrow....

Mr. Jeff Brown 'attempted' to open his first meeting as club President, but had some trouble getting the attention of those assembled. There was a suspicion that a certain member of Law Enforcement may have had a hand in Jeff's welcome.

Commenting that we are a difficult crowd, Jeff extended a warm welcome to everyone, especially guests, but not the 'cop'. Jeff recognized Past President, Tom Galbraith, back for now from parts unknown.

Jeff reminded us of his 5 Rotarian guests a few months ago, including his son, who will be President of the Albany, MO club in 3 years. We were then told that Jeff's father was President of the Albany club in 1960 and his advice to Jeff was to have fun and to apologize in advance.

Jeff introduced Ron Holligan as being in charge of Invocations, who led us in a prayer. Jeff followed with the pledge.

Guests were introduced, including:

Peter Marshall

Deborah Uroda

Bill Blank, Visiting Rotarian

Dane Grant, Visiting Rotarian

Jim Reser, Visiting Rotarian

Kay Ulwhelling

Laura Webb

John Francis

Jan Measles

Gayle Wenger

Jan and Shelly Lowder

Erin Youngblood

Carrie Goodman

George Kelchner

Justin Tafoya

Ed Zink

Diane Doney

Wayne Bedor's son, (sorry Wayne, didn't catch his name)

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

Cookies for Fire Relief: Peter Marshall, GM Double Tree, reminded us that the hotel's famous cookies were on sale for $1 each, with all the money going to fire relief.

Shelly's greeting cards: Shelly Lowder has her original greeting cards for sale to help fund her exchange to New Zealand. Her silent auction of original works was a success.

Daybreak Club Chartering Night. The newest Durango Rotary Club will be chartered the evening of Wednesday, July 31st at the train station (museum). High Noon Rotary is one of the sponsors of the new club, which meets at 7:00 AM Wednesdays at the Rec Center.

Melisa with child: Melisa announced that she and Brad are expecting their first child. Steve G., any advice?

CLUB SERVICE:

Mark Prouty, Programs Chair: Mark is responsible for programs for RI year 2002 - 2003. Assisting him are Len, Jim and Rick O', and a couple of others.

Mexican Fiesta: Mark has agreed to run the fund raiser again this RI year and was recognized with a gift certificate. Accepting the gift, he hoped that it was not for a Mexican restaurant.

Len Goebel is SAA: Demonstrating that he means business, Len conducted that duties of the office with zeal, including Carl, Mike M., Bob B. among his first customers. Patty B. won the drawing.

ON THE TABLE:

Fire Station Chat: A Rotarian from Gilbert, AZ, was scheduled to hold a session at the Bodo Station on Sunday, July 14, with the topic of "..interactively experiencing how to engineer peace in your life....." Mr. Madaghiele is bicycling to Ground Zero, stopping along the way to "...facilitate individual and organizational change via logic and science supporting universal spiritual laws."

High Noon Rotary/United Way Annual Golf Tournament: The annual fund raiser will be held Saturday, August 17th at the Dalton Ranch Golf Club. Entry fee is $125.00, which includes the golf, lunch buffet and a cart. Opportunities for hole sponsors are still available, contact Melisa Caskey. Info? 247-9444.

NORBA Mountain Bike Championship: Ed Zink and Justin Tafoya placed applications for volunteers to work during the events, scheduled for August 1 - 4. Opportunities include Hospitality, Course Marshal, Course Construction, Feed Zones, Registration/Accreditation, Transportation, Office/Administration, Results, Officiating Assistance, Parking/Traffic, Set Up, Break Down, Awards/Prizes, Time Keeping and Volunteer Headquarters. Call 259-6774 to sign up.

Booster packs are available again this year, including a bell to encourage your favorites riders. Ed said that this year's event will be bigger and better than last year. 500 volunteers are needed.

PROGRAM: Jeff gave the floor to John Anderson to introduce the day's presenters, Mary Barter, Diane Doney and Deb Uroda.. Having spent much of his career involved with education, he indicated that the information we were to hear was from the best conceived plan for physical plant improvements he had seen.

Dr. Barter began the presentation by giving Deb the credit for putting it together. The information comes from the Master Plan to Meet Current and Future Needs of 9 R. The school systems serves 350 elementary, 650 middle school and 1,800 high school students.

On the upcoming ballot is the opportunity to approve the funding of $84.5 million in improvements and additions via a 20 year bond. Objectives of the master plan include:

Buildings

Safety

To protect the current facilities investment

To eliminate overcrowding and meet class size guidelines

To provide for future enrollment

Mary included in her remarks that the plan was 4 years in the making and that many options to finance the improvements were explored. With the state struggling with revenues, grant funding is declining and essential programs are being lost. Teacher's salaries have fallen behind and 'mountains aren't enough' any longer.

Efforts will be made to cap school sizes to work with reasonable sized admin staffs. The need for a second high school is estimated at least 10 years out, giving ample time where it should be built. The current range of grades taught in each school was judged to be optimum for child development and use of space.

Plans recognize the desire to maintain a neighborhood style of school, available for multiple uses. The goal is to develop the most flexible and function environments for the future. Open enrollment is being reviewed, with a view toward changing attendance areas to best utilize current space.

Diane spoke about the use and recommendations of consulting architects, responsible for helping develop guidelines for remediation of existing facilities and new construction. By state law, schools are not allowed to collect more than a set amount per pupil. Accordingly, the community is encouraged to increase operating monies via an override, to cover maintenance, utilities, repairs and salaries.

Unfunded mandates also impact the school system, when requirements for new programs are not met with new sources of money.

If was clear after the presentation that problems need to be solved, with teachers and students gathering in hallways, using converted storage rooms and as many as 3 teachers sharing a room.

Jeff thanked the presenters and with the meeting running late, rang his first meeting as President to a close.

Coming Up:

7/17 Board Meeting, 7:00 AM, Double Tree

7-18 Durango Nature Studies w/ Ann Rilling and E.D. Cheryl Weiscamp.

7-25 Virginia Castro, with slides and discussion of her recent Rotary Group Study Exchange trip to Sweden.

7/31 Chartering of Day Break Club

8/1 - 8/4 NORBA events in Durango (volunteers?)

8/1 Rep. Scott McInnis.

8/8 Durango Mt Resort

8/15 Open

8/17 HNR/United Way Golf Tournament

8/22 Open

8/29 Open

9/5 Open

9/12 Fort Lewis College - Dr Bob Dolphin

9/19 Pancake Breakfast