Our club has been active this month, and it's all down to the members getting involved.

Dave Johnson has joined our membership roster and we are looking forward to benefiting from his experience. Dave is the owner of Minuteman Press  in Coral Springs on Sample Road just east of Wings Plus. Stop by his storefront and get a tour.

 Marty Jenner, our VP, has been working at bringing more articles to the club website, he's always ready with his camera to take shots of guests, speakers, and special events. Look for the news about our club contribution to the Rotary Foundation.

Our District Fund Raiser is now officially underway: The Rotary Golf Ball Drop is scheduled for November 12th. 2009. The plan is that Rotary Clubs in our district (that's Broward county down to the keys and Grand Bahama Island) will sell tickets at $25 each. On the 12th. Golf balls individually marked with the ticket numbers, will be dropped 150 feet above a golf green hole on the Biltmore Golf Course at 1:30pm. News media will be attending. The three balls nearest the hole will win the top 3 prizes. The prizes are donated by generous businesses and will be announced shortly (Last year they included a vacation, and jewelry all were of significant value)

Of course, it's not the prizes, but the work that can be done via the Rotary Foundation that is important. Our club is in the planning stage of a 3 year plan for projects both locally and internationally. We anticipate getting support from the Rotary Foundation in our project goals.

 On August 27th. we have Stacy Kagan from Allstate insurance talking to us about Hurricane Insurance. Stacy is a very well respected speaker nationally, and I'm glad that we have the privilege of hearing her speak. We welcome prospective members at our weekly luncheon, and that would be a great week to attend.

Stacy and Rotarian Husband Richard, earned points this month by taking on the significant responsibility of being host to our inbound student from the YSE (Youth Study Exchange) program. Marco is from Italy and will be staying here till the end of the school year. Currently attending Stoneman Douglas High School, Marco is already fitting into the community. Read the Club articles for more info and updates.

We just said goodbye to our Outbound YSE student, Emily Cadet. Emily is headed out to Italy this week to be hosted by a local Rotary Club in Sardinia for this school year. We hope to hear back frequently from Emily. We had the pleasure of meeting several of her relatives in particular several of her 'Cousins' (internal joke!).

 In October, we will be hosting a Business Networking event at Carrabba's in place of one of our regular luncheons. We did this last year and it was very successful. Rotary recognizes that business networking is important to the success of it's members, and the district encourages clubs to reach out to the business community. If you would like details of this event, please contact me at 954-973-7100.

We are working with our sister Rotary Club of Cali Columbia on the planning stages of a health service project in Columbia. This will help us meet our Rotary Objectives but more importantly it will help the poorer community in Columbia and I'm sure we all agree that building peaceful relationships around the world without demands is the right thing to do. We are also working on an exchange visit opportunity with the club in Columbia, it looks as though we are going to have the chance of sending 3 members over to Columbia in early 2010 to review the prospective service projects. We will reciprocate and invite the club to send 3 members to be hosted with our club families here in Broward.

This week we met with the President of the Rotary Club of Jamaica, Ken Banhan, we are discussing the chance that we can collaborate on a school service project in Jamaica. If you think our schools are lacking in any way, consider that some of the rural schools in Jamaica do not even have running water or electricity!

I'm looking forward to the development of plans for international service by our club in collaboration with local Rotary clubs abroad. But I'm also looking toward community service projects in our local community. Last year we worked with several organizations helping those in need locally. This year we wish to add to that support. We have already put in motion a future project at the Sawgrass Animal Hospital, that will happen later this year (after hurricane season). We have ongoing projects at the Broward Homeless shelter, and we are planning a Thanksgiving project at the SOS Children's Village.

As you can see, we are moving ahead with good plans to provide community service both locally and internationally. We know that the Future of Rotary is in Our Hands. So we are putting our Hands to work.

 If you would like more information about how you can get involved with Rotary, please contact us. My office is 954-973-7100