Mike Knight gave an entertaining talk on raising tilapia and specialty greens via aquaculture in Lodi, Wisconsin. Along the way, he recapped his colorful career in data analysis and how he’s applied those skills to his current project. Technical issues abound (for someone with zero farming experience), but understanding market demand and pricing proved to be key issues he learned along the way.
This Week’s Speaker: Cherie Gon presents our High School Scholarship Awards; Leadership from the Middleton HS Interact Club will discuss their new Club and plans for their future.
We are starting to build the club and foundation budgets for the fiscal year 2019-2020. Like last year, we plan to approve next year’s budgets at the June board meeting. This is a request to get all your Request for Project Support forms completed and submitted to the appropriate Avenue of Service director as follows:
• Community Service – Kevin Welton or Patrick Rees
• International Service – Paul Patenaude or Steve Aune
• Vocational Service – Roxanne Brazeau or Deb Dieter
We will accept all such requests through May 15. That will provide time to evaluate your request, follow up as needed and develop a recommendation for each avenue of service. Just a reminder that we will need annual reports for all fiscal year 2018-2019 approved and funded projects.
Historically, at this time of year, the board approves both a club budget and a foundation budget for the following year. Some of the feedback we heard from the club survey and our small group discussions are that our foundation budget supports the same projects every year and that we should review our process. We discussed this at our board meeting this past Tuesday and the board agreed to delay the approval of the foundation budget for a few months to allow us to develop criteria for approving funding requests. As we have historically done, the current board will review and approve the club budget at our June board meeting.
Once we have developed our criteria for approving funding requests, we will notify the club and allow additional time for members to submit funding requests. If you have already submitted your funding requests, you do NOT need to submit it again; just recognize there will be a delay in receiving a response. Also, we recognize that traditionally we actually fund many of the requests in July/August. However, as we reviewed previously funded projects, we thought Jefferson Middle School was the only one that may have a time-sensitive need for funding that correlates with the beginning of the school year. If there is another funding request that absolutely needs to be funded during this delayed time period, please let me know and the board will discuss how to address the issue.
At our May 3rd club meeting we had small group discussions to gain more qualitative insight on the club survey results. As indicated earlier, our club survey results were overall very positive. Based on lower scores or consistent themes in the written comments, there were 4 areas that we chose for discussion: members not inviting people to join our club, the types and amount of fundraising our club does, the lack of community service projects, and our club’s pace of change. Here are some themes from the survey and/or the small group discussions:
We have too many check writing “fundraisers”; we need another signature fundraiserlike the golf outing. When our club was formed, it was to be about service, not just writing checks.
We want a better understanding of how we spend our fundraising dollars. There is alsosome confusion about our club foundation and the Rotary Foundation.
We want more service projects; especially one that occurs on a monthly cadence and at night to meet the needs of people who can't get away during the day.
We don’t know how to ask people when inviting them to a club meeting; maybe a needfor training/materials
Next step...I would like to review our existing committees, have every member sign up for a committee and leverage some of our club meetings for committee meetings. I would like our committees to have goals they are working towards and all members engaged. Several of our committees are committees of 1 and for those, I’d like to get other people to join the committee. The thought process is that active committees will lead to more engaged club members, increased member retention and eventually more members joining our club. In the near future, I will get a sign-up sheet for all of our members to choose a committee. As for committee meetings, starting in July, I have asked our speaker committee to allow 1 meeting a month for committee meetings or other club topics we feel we need to have. The monthly cadence may change to quarterly or something else but we will figure that out as we go; we just need to start and we can adjust as we feel necessary. We will try some new ideas; some will be great and others may need to be modified. Please keep providing your ideas/input within the committees and provide feedback along the way. I am looking forward to seeing the progress we make in addressing the feedback from the club survey.
We are looking for ideas for service projects that we can participate in. If you have an organization you feel strongly about supporting and would like to explore an opportunity for a club service project, please contact Patrick Rees (patrick.rees@usbank.com ).
McAdow miles team is looking for more riders. We ride Saturday mornings at 8:30 for about 20 miles. It’s not a race. We meet at the parking lots listed.
May 11 Pacific Cycle, on Hammersley Road behind Home Depot.
Wow! The donations and creativity are coming in! This year’s Silent Auction promises to be a Big Success thanks to you! Just received Deb Dieter’s Donation – UW Sunburst Chair!
If you need ideas here’s one – how about sharing Madison’s cultural events? Tickets to the Overture Center, Symphony, Opera, Nutcracker Ballet, Children’s Theatre (CTM), Children’s Museum, American Players Theatre, Stoughton Opera House, Firehouse Theatre in Fort Atkinson, Milwaukee Repertory Theatre, Madison Forward Theatre to name but a few. A big THANK YOU to Deb and the other MWT-M members who have already stepped up with 2019 donations.
Please remember, the golf outing and silent auction benefit the club’s Foundation and the requested projects in 2019-2020. Your participation is critical to our success.
Please join in!!! Your Silent Auction Committee: Jeannine Desautels, Deb Dieter, Ruth Domack, Leo Edelstein, Cherie Gon, Mary Van Hout
The Golf Outing Planning Committee needs help with the marketing and promotion of the upcoming Golf Outing. We’re looking for a Club member to join in the capacity of marketing and promotion. The Committee will guide this member on the specific things they will be asked to accomplish, however having their own ideas and concepts will be encouraged. This is by far our Club’s largest fundraiser, and its success is critical to funding the great things we support. We don’t need a marketing guru … just someone (or two) with some energy and commitment to help out and work with us. Maybe you? Reach out to Kevin Welton at kevinw1420@tds.net.
Mary Beth Growney-Selene, Deb Dieter, and Roxanne Brazeau attended on May 21st. Our work on behalf of Jefferson Middle School was a part of this great effort. We have authorized a pat on the back.
Jeannine Desautels is rounding up volunteers for the many jobs that need to be handled for this event. She passed around sign-up sheets the last couple of weeks, but be proactive and reach out to her and ask her how you can help. You can reach her at jeanninembd@gmail.com.
We need volunteers for our Adopt-A-HWY project. Our section of HWY clean-up is the south right-a-way of the Beltline between Whitney Way and Gammon Road. This is approximately 1.3 miles long. It usually takes 3 hours to pick up the trash. Volunteers are to meet at the Vitense’s parking lot between 4 and 4:30. Any late-comers will need to catch up with the crew on the right-of-way.
Transport cars will be parked at the Gammon Road end to ferry the crew back to Vitense. Yellow Safety vests and trash bags will be provided. Bring good footwear and work gloves. Family members and friends are welcome. Children must be 14 years old and have adult supervision.
It’s in La Crosse this year on June 7 & 8. All Rotary club members are welcome to volunteer for an hour or two of service. This is a great opportunity, especially for Rotarians who have never attended the conference. It gives them a clear purpose and an easy way to connect, while they look around, learn and meet other members from around the district.
Jobs include:
• Registration Desk - work with District staff, welcome Rotarians to La Crosse
• Sergeant. at Arms for meals (glorified ticket taker)
• Breakout session assistants - be the 'go-fer' if the speaker needs anything.
Our club will be bringing bingo back to the Middleton Good Neighbor Fest August 23-25, 2019. This is part of some throwback features including a Friday fish fry and Sunday chicken dinner. We will need volunteers for bingo sessions on Friday (evening), Saturday (afternoon & evening) and Sunday (afternoon). Mark your calendars now, because Wisconsin summers fill up quickly. We have a small committee formed including Deb Dieter, Jack Ferreri, Dawn Frank, Kevin Moran, Rod Nilles, and Matt Loch. We can use some more committee members and we are meeting this Friday after our club meeting. C’mon, join the fun!
An inbound Rotary Friendship Team from Australia will be visiting the Madison area in late July. We are co-hosting this with Madison Downtown Rotary. We’ll need accommodations for five couples and two singles. Hosts will pick up the 1 or 2 people at the agreed-upon place on Monday, July 22, provide overnight accommodations and breakfast, and transportation to the daily activities. Many hosts trade off days and attend the daily events with the guests if possible or drop them off with the group in the am, meet them for dinner, etc.
Coming up on June 9th our club has an opportunity to raise money for a great cause while supporting a wonderful Madison event. The IRONMAN organization in Madison is looking for volunteer Run Course Marshals to help keep athletes safe while they complete the race. If we provide 15 volunteers, we will be eligible for a grant from the IRONMAN organization, the proceeds of which will benefit Tri 4 Schools. Tri 4 Schools is a non-profit that supports health and fitness initiatives in local schools. Registration must be completed online and there are a variety of volunteer times and locations available. To volunteer please follow the instructions below:
Scroll down to the Run Course Marshall opportunities and select your desired time and location.
Scroll to the bottom of the page and complete all the information fields. Make sure to include the Rotary Club of Madison West Towne-Middleton as your volunteer organization.
Scroll through the waiver, click the box to accept, enter your electronic signature and click ‘sign up to volunteer’.
Please note that each volunteer is committing to participate regardless of whether the club reaches our 15-volunteer goal. Thank you for all your efforts.
IMPORTANT DATES
Saturday, June 1st
deadline for all IRONMAN Foundation Grant applications. You must have it submitted by this deadline to receive grant payment following the race. Not sure if you have completed it yet - send me an email and Amber and I will let you know.
Thursday, June 6th
Captain's meeting at Olin Park Pavilion. Time TBD, but likely around 6 PM. This is your chance to meet IRONMAN staff you will be working with, receive Captain's gear and credentials, receive gift cards to purchase snacks (aid stations) and ask questions
Friday, June 7th
DAY 1 of Athlete Check-in at Olin Park
Saturday, June 8th
DAY 2 of athlete check-in and mandatory bike check-in
Sunday, June 9th
RACE DAY!!!!
Monday, June 10th
Volunteer Party at Coliseum Bar, 5:30 PM - all volunteers welcome. We will serve refreshments and appetizers.... and raffle off some fun prizes!
Thank you again for all you do. Please let me know if you have any questions.
e parking lots listed.
