July 16, 2009

Rotary Club

of Temple

Thursdays at Noon

Wildflower Country Club

www.templerotary.org

2009-2010 Board & Officers

President's Message

Hello fellow Rotarians. I hope everyone had a great weekend.

I have to remind everyone of the challenge to all the members of the Temple Rotary Club to look out into the community and bring ONE NEW MEMBER into the club this year, and to make sure they become active in club activities. New members are the lifeblood of Rotary. There might be a bottle of wine in it for those that bring in a new member. I'm not against

bribery in this case.

We have changed the time and day of the monthly board meetings to best accommodate this year's board. You can find the time, place and date of the board meetings on our website. Just go to www.templerotary.org

and then to the "officers & Directors" page. At the bottom of this page you will find the board meeting information. I have also added a page to the website called "Scheduled Programs". This page has the July, August and September programs listed. The website is a very powerful tool we should all utilize. CHECK IT OUT!

Last Week Message

Rotarian of the Day, Justin Fuller, introduced our guest speaker, Dennis W. Baker, the Bell County Emergency Management Coordinator.  Mr. Baker is well suited to this area having served 26 years as an Army Logistics Officer.  He was with the Texas Governor’s Division of Emergency Management.  He came to Bell County in 2007 after serving as the Waco Regional Liaison Officer for Region 6A. 

Mr. Baker is the point person between all of the cities of Bell County and the Governor’s Office of Emergency Management.  He also assists the unincorporated areas of Bell County, such as Heidenheimer.   

Just as Mr. Baker learned the Boy Scout motto to always “Be Prepared,” he stressed to Rotarians that emergency preparedness is a personal responsibility. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) provides useful emergency preparedness information at www.fema.gov/areyouready.  As a general rule, we should have 72 hours of supplies of water for people and pets, and non-perishable food.  Have flashlights in a variety of areas around the house since you don’t know where you will be if the power fails.  Have batteries to keep those flashlights going or to keep radios operating.  It is equally important to have a specific plan on where family members should go in the event of an emergency.   

Hurricanes Katrina (August 2005), Rita (September 2005) and Ike (September 2008) challenged our country’s ability to address disaster planning and relief efforts.  Among the critical lessons learned was the benefit of pre-registering communities so that evacuees have a specific destination, and communities are prepared to receive them.  This process also promotes better allocation of resources so that communities don’t get overburdened, as well as better tracking of displaced people.   

Mr. Baker highlighted the efforts of Temple Fire and Rescue, our own Chief Lonzo Wallace, and the many Bell County volunteers who helped victims of Hurricane Ike.  He stressed that volunteers are key to emergency preparedness and encouraged all of us to get involved.   

But Rotarians should never forget to Be Prepared!   

100% Dinner

The 100% Dinner is scheduled for August 21st, 2009, at Sammons.

Scheduled Programs for July, August, September

Please let me know if you have a program you would like to share

and we will book them.