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Notes from the President
Board Meeting
March 17, Noon, 8 North 9th - Please bring your lunch. All RED Badgers are welcome.
Wheelchair Foundation - From Gail Buckley
I received an invitation today from the Wheelchair Foundation to participate in the distribution of wheelchairs in Dominican Republic to the Haitians there in the hospitals. The dates selected for the delivery is April 1-4th. There will not be another Rotary Club involved, but since we donated about 150 wheelchairs to this area, we can be apart of the delivery.
If anyone is interested, and want more information, please ask them to email me at buckleyg@austin.rr.com, or call me at 512-250-5276. I will be leaving for Cancun for the wheelchair delivery to the Mayan villages next Monday, 3/15, so please send this information out to your clubs as soon as possible.
Thank you so much for your help.
~gail~
Tejas Multi-District Conference
April 29-May 2, 2010 in San Antonio - Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center.
For the first time in the history of Rotary International Six Districts host a Conference as big as Texas!!!
Fiesta Fun & Food - Fellowship - Rotary Ideas - Service
- House of Friendship- Silent Auction - Live Entertainment
Sounds like great fun.
Today I will place registration sheets on the tables for those who are
interested in attending this years District Conference.
Early Act First Knight
The Temple Rotary Club is sponsoring the Early Act First Knight Program at Lakewood Elementary School this year. It is an exciting program that teaches children what Rotary is and does. More importantly it is a character training program that includes the Four Way Test.
Below is the Schedule of events at Lakeway Elementary School:
Friday March 19, Lunch Time - Service Meeting
This is a meeting that Rotarians and a handful of children meet to discuss and direct their international and local community service projects.
Friday April 2, Lunch Time - Service Meeting
Friday April 16, Lunch Time - Service Meeting
There will be a service meeting on this day at 11:45am and also at 1:00pm
will be the kickoff ceremony. This ceremony is the show with the horses and jousting. It will be a very unique and spectacular show and I encourage all our members to attend and support the children at Lakewood Elementary. It will be a chance to see first hand how this program is impacting the character of children in our community.
Friday May 7, Lunch Time - Service Meeting
Thursday May 20, Second Knighting Ceremony
If you are interested in joining this committee please get with Barbara Bozon. To find out more about this program go to the Early Act First Knight website is www.eafk.org.
Last Weeks Program -
Service on the TISD School Board
Our own Jerry Pickle shared his “story” of serving on the Temple Independent School District (“TISD”) School Board. Jerry, as they say, comes by his service on the School Board honestly. His father was a school principal. His brother and sister are faculty members at junior colleges. HisHiHis His wife is a teacher in the Belton school district. Thus, it is no surprise that Jerry had long thought of serving on the TISD School Board.
We all know Jerry in his role as one of the hard working attorneys at Scott & White Healthcare. As he noted, it is easy to get lost in the demands of a career. Therefore, Jerry stressed that it is important for us to keep in touch with the “real world.” We can do this by interacting with family, friends and neighbors all of whom help keep our lives balanced and grounded. Serving on the TISD School Board is one way Jerry keeps involved and in touch with the Temple community.
Why would anyone want to serve on a school board, Jerry asked? The time demands are substantial. There are many meetings. There are events that a school board member is expected to attend (i.e. sports events, award banquets, etc.). You field many a call from a concerned parent or relative. Jerry said it is not unusual to be approached by citizens who have a particular interest in the way he might choose to vote on an issue. Then there are those citizens who call him to question why he voted a certain way on an issue. He also said that he gets calls from people who are not residents of the area he represents. He does his best to fulfill his responsibilities in an ethical and fair manner. As Jerry put it, his service may not always be about doing the “right thing”, but by doing whatever it is you must do the ‘right way.”
Jerry has served on the TISD School Board since 2005. He half laughingly said within 10 minutes of his first School Board meeting, the meeting went into executive session and the superintendent resigned! This was not what Jerry expected, but you play the hand you are dealt. His first term did not get any easier. He offered that TISD has hired a diverse set of superintendents with a variety of skill sets. Yet it was not until TISD hired Robin Battershell that Jerry has felt that things are settling down.
Jerry explained that under Superintendent Battershell’s leadership the TISD must address some very serious issues. First and foremost is the lack of money. There are aging facilities in need of repair or replacement. There are programs that need to be funded. There are salaries and benefits that must be covered. There are 16 core subjects that must be given to all students, including special programs that are needed to get all students through school. All of these demands need to be met at the same time that the State of Texas continues to reduce its funding of schools. All of these demands need to be met at the same time that many Texas citizens, including Temple residents, bristle at the prospect of higher property taxes to fund education.
How does one finance public education? Jerry informed us that Texas is 43rd out of the 50 states in funding education. The main explanation for this statistic is that the State Legislature struggles to determine a method of financing public education without raising property taxes.
The hours are long and sometimes a simple “thank you” is hard to come by. But, through it all, Jerry, and the other School Board members, will do their best to make certain that we maintain a fine school district. Keep in mind this is a fine school district that year in and year out produces quality students, such at the two Temple High School students recently featured in the Temple Daily Telegram who are in the running to be National Merit Scholarship recipients.
District 5870 Information
The February, 2010 District Newsletter is currently posted on the District Website. The link to the district newsletter is http://www.rotary5870.com/Newsletter.cfm
Scheduled Programs for March
Please let me know if you have a program you would like to share and we will book them.
March 11 - Lonzo Wallace - Firefighter and Policeman of the year award - Lonzo will talk about the First Baptist Church building Fire
March 18 - Dr. Elmyra Encarnacion, Director of the Scott & White’s Plummer Movement Disorder Center
March 25 - David Blackburn - TMED Project
April 1 - BioScience District Team
April 8 - John Redington, Rotary GSE Team to Australia
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