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Visiting Rotarians:
2/3: None
2/10: Lisa Pointe, Rotary Club of Traverse City
Guests:
2/3: Clark Gingras (guest of Melzar), Josh Brandt (guest of Norm), Kathy Bussell (Executive Secretary for TC Noon Club) and baby Dominic (working on perfect attendance)
2/10: Bob Eichenlaub, and outbound exchange students Genna and Billy
50/50 Raffle:
2/3: Gary was the lucky winner of $32 and he's directing it to the 2017 global service project in Malawi.
2/10: Jen was the lucky winner of $31 proceeds.
Announcements:
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Dave Bergan has been recommended as a new member for our club. His application is available for review by our members.
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Our winter social is February 27th at The Franklin. Cost is $25 plus beverages, paid directly to the restaurant. It's always a fun time, but sign-ups are a bit slow. Please RSVP by February 22nd at the latest.
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Kathy Bussell has distributed Rotary Show Ad Sales packages. It's important to note that this is an important fundraiser for our club, with proceeds benefiting local service projects. The three Traverse City-based Rotary clubs share equitably in the net proceeds of the show based on % of ad sales income contributed by the club. Jeff Buday mentioned this is typically 60 to 70 cents on the dollar. Craig has materials for those that have sold ads in the past.
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The Youth Exchange students are looking forward to their Winter Festival held in Wawa starting February 18th. This event is where they will learn of the country they'll be living in for their exchange year. Needless to say, they are pretty excited!
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Craig mentioned that we've received resignations in the past month or two from TIm Gillen, Samantha Konopko and Kelly Ignace due to work/schedule conflicts.
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We've received THANK YOU letters from S.T.E.P. and the Salvation Army for our holiday donation and bell ringing efforts (respectively).
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There is a Career Fair scheduled at NMC on March 3rd. Please contact Lindsey if you are interested in lending support.
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The annual dinner to raise funds for our outbound exchange students is scheduled for April 12th at 6:30pm (Boathouse Restaurant). TIckets are on sale now. Touch base with any of our outbounds or members of the Youth Exchange committee.
Program:
Steve Francis introduced our speaker, Gregg Bird, Emergency Management Supervisor for Grand Traverse County. Steve came to know Gregg during the August 2015 wind storm and credited him for his outstanding service during that local emergency disaster which led to his recognition as Michigan Emergency Management Association's Emergency Coordinator of the Year for jurisdictions over 60,000 population! It was Gregg's work that led to the Governor's first-ever declaration of a disaster.
Gregg started his career as a paramedic when he was 18 years old, and was employed in Fire Services for 25 years. During that time he chose to volunteer as part of the Katrina Hurricane response team working in Mississippi. He offered an incredible visual - imagine looking out the Elks Club window and seeing a 32 foot wall of water traveling at over 100 mph. That was the impact of Katrina; it flattened towns and moved everything 10 to 15 miles inland. He feels he worked for the best of the best in emergency response, and he brought that experience to his new position in Traverse City.
When referring to the August wind storm he emphasized how important it was to complete a rapid damage assessment in order to file for emergency relief funds. Best quote, which he brought from his Mississippi experience: "Son . . . you always want to be the dog wagging the tail and not the tail wagging the dog." It was his quick coordination of this assessment (completed within 60 hours of allowable 72 hour window) that led to over $250k funding to the county, Traverse City and Acme.
Gregg has a seemingly endless list of duties:
- Create & maintain emergency plan
- Collect and distribute school drills (fire, wind, lock down)
- Coordinate resources during times of emergency
- Oversee 50 HazMat sites
- Serve as record keeper for Federal grants
- Manage deployment of mobile command trailer
- Manage the county-wide emergency notification "CodeRed" alert system
- Conduct hazard risk assessments for all critical infrastructure
- Create emergency plans for all our major events
and on, and on, and on . . .
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Just a friendly reminder that our 1st quarter invoices were due January 31st