Branding Our Rotary

December 19, 2013

Branding our Rotary

Thank you Harvey for allowing me to share my Rotary ‘moment’ today at the meeting.  Mike, it’s not going to happen, I can’t stand still behind a podium let alone keep my hands on my side.  Perhaps we’ll need a movable podium for me…or better yet do away with it…we’ll see!  Thanks to my conversation with Jeff Newby back during my Cajun Chair reign, I became aware of the importance of branding, not only of a product but of events and of people.  That conversation was the start of Catfish Newby, Banner (Sea/Turkey) Ray, Banner Babes, Sign Fairies, just to mention a few. We even had George on board and he made special presentation to many of us with hand selected beads straight from New Orleans.  Today my office is still adorned with numerous alligators (from 1” to 6’ft in size!) that were given to me in recognition of my “Alligator on a Stick” business plan…fortunately, I lost the brand of Mr Alligator or Alligator P…it just didn’t have the ring and I returned back to just pain Dr P....How do you want to be Branded?

Dennis, thanks for letting me step in for you and becoming the Super Hero In Training presenter…I was honored until it was pointed out to me the acronym for the title…thanks Dennis….Kudos today to both Jesus Torres and Omkar Ranada who were presented the infamous capes in absentia…you going to have to admit that Savi looked pretty good wearing the cape for them!

Singing at our Rotary meetings…do I need to say more, I’m still flipping through my Official Simi Sunrise Rotary Songbook and have yet to find the songs that were sung…what gives!  And speaking of giving, perhaps we might be able to copy the below song and include it the OSSRS!

Happy Holidays and a Wonderful New Year to All!

Dr. P

Twelve Days of Rotary

On the Twelfth day of Rotary President Savi gave to us, Twelve Paul Harris Fellows, Eleven Community Projects, Ten Board Directors Directing, Nine Super Heroes, Eight Major Cajun Sponsors, Seven Funny Rat Finks, Six New Members, Five Golden Pens, Four Hundred Cajun Banners, Three Senior Turkey Seatings, Two Off-Site Meetings, and a President Elect Nominee!

Welcome to my Rotary Blog!

Welcome to my Rotary Blog.  I've decided as President –Elect (Thank you very much, Simi Sunrise for having faith in me!) to start a blog and begin to journal my thoughts on a blog to share with the club.  Blogs are an interesting creature, they typically will morph into a very user friendly page where bloggers can not only read the content that has been posted, but add comments and thoughts as well.  Perhaps now is the time to give you a slight warning, you have nominated an educator, although I was a dirt farmer, always outstanding in my field (that’s a little humor for Marshall), I even had all my agriculture students do a lot of writing, reading and pushing the educational envelope with new ideas and technologies.

Hopefully this blog will follow me not only through the rest of this year, but as your President-elect next year and your president the following year.  We’ll see if it’s still alive (or that matter if I've survived the year) and continue on as the Past President’s blog.

This morning after consuming some of the best tasting ribs I have ever had for breakfast (and for dinner as well), it finally hit me that there was no turning back when Steve Smith asked for the vote…although I was campaigning heavily for the “no” vote, it seem to be close to unanimously ( George Kerr???) and the standing ovation took me by surprise…thank you!  Poor Savi had to almost sell her soul to have me say yes (get a glass of wine in her and she might actually tell you what sold/closed the deal), and the support that all the past presidents and the club has been offering I’m sure that it will be fun ride…just going have to strap down my seat belts and enjoy the ride!

Kudos to Pat for putting together an awesome board for his upcoming year, my table mates were all in awe as he named each person that agreed to be part, they all seemed to be a perfect match…from newer members to well-seasoned members and Jim Lowry as Cajun chair…wow!

Here’s the list of Pat’s Board:

                President – Pat Abruzzese

                Past Pres – Savi Bhim

                Pres Elect – Steve Pietrolungo

                Secretary – Dick Erbe

                Treasure – John Tolson

                Avenues of Service:

                Club Service – Vince Dulchich

                Community Service – Paula Williams

                Vocational Service – Mike Johnson & Hal Reniger

                International Service – Pam Perry & Jarrod DeGonia

                Youth Service – Mary Paseta & Wayne Snyder

                Rotary Foundation – Deb Davila & Peter Cicciari

                Directors at Large:

·         Maggie Kestly-Grindstead

·         Gary White

·         Tim Shannon

·         Steve Smith

Cajun Chair – Jim Lowry

Grants Mentor – Doug Feco

Family of Rotary –Stella Ortiz

            Parliamentarian - Craig Foster