August 16, 2024

 

       

Note: Future meetings will be back in the Sunset Room at WNMU

Announcements:
Art said we still have Fairgate to sign up for. Maggie passed around the sign-up sheet. The Bi-District conference will be November 15-16. The meeting will be in Juarez. Transportation from El Paso to Juarez will be provided by the El Paso Rotary Club. The Mexican clubs will present their projects.

We need sponsors for the polio concert in October. Art had sponsor invitation sheets available.

A prototype for soaps was passed around. The mold was courtesy of Future Forge, and the soap was made by Kneeling Nun Mercantile. It is hoped that these soaps can be marketed and
presented to future speakers. Jim Callender suggested this could be a steady income fundraiser for the club on a national or international basis.

Art announced future speakers and reminded everyone that we will be meeting at the University next week and will probably be having a board meeting.

The Board approved the computers for the SPIN grant even though there was a little controversy because of the process used and the issues surrounding SPIN. We expect to get $1,494 from the District for this project and hopefully we will raise more through the club.

Peter Falley as chair of the Foundation encourages us to make donations to The Rotary Foundation Annual Fund. Each of us is expected to give to the Annual Fund each year. The expectation is
that each individual give $100 on average, but if you only give $25 a year that will satisfy the EREY (Every Rotarian Every Year)
expectation. We need better participation. You can contribute by giving a check to Peter made out to the Rotary Foundation; or you can ask Maggie to include an Annual  Fund Rotary Foundation item on your quarterly bill for dues; or you can go to rotary.org and click on the Donate button to make a donation on line. Peter hopes that we can get to 100 percent contributions from our club to improve our record. Last year only 8 club members contributed and only one or two have made a contribution so far this year Mark Abramson mentioned that points accumulated by the club could be used to incentivize people. If a person gives $100, the club could match it with $100 in recognition points toward a Paul Harris Fellowship. Once you have accumulated a total of $1,000 in donations or points, you will be rewarded with a Paul Harris Fellowship.

Maggie handed out bake sale advertisement posters to be posted and handed out. Jim stated that he and Anacaite had been to see Bill Harrison who is now 102 years old, and he was excited about attending the bake sale benefiting Indian Springs Ranch.

Items for the basket to be given to District Governor Yasser Murga were briefly discussed.

Program:

Art introduced our speaker, Bryant Chaffino, Music Program Coordinator, at WNMU and leader of the Mariachi Plata del WNMU mariachi group. He believes that our high school and college kids get overlooked as far as programs are concerned. There are special programs for children and adults but not for this age group. He feels his role is to help this age group and that is why he has the mariachi group, which has grown from a 5 person group to 25 students. His students help with everything—the paperwork, the programming, the fundraising. His students have a strong desire to help the community. He has started a mariachi program at La Plata Middle School, which he hopes will lead into the high schools. This mariachi group is the only championship winning collegiate mariachi ensemble in New Mexico. The group is the only one in the U.S. to have been invited to Mexico to perform. Bryant displayed their new mariachi suits, which the students helped design—very classy since they are ambassadors for the University.

 

After a question and answer period, Art presented Bryant with a small thank-you gift.

 

Before we adjourned, Art asked for a motion to approve that the District Grant be used for SPIN and additional money will be provided by the club. Motion was made by Jerry and seconded
by Maggie. Motion carried.

Meeting adjourned at 1:05 pm.