Weekly Update from President Scott Emley

Fellow Rotarians

Happy New Year!  I trust all of you had a wonderful holiday season and your new year is off to a great start.  It's hard to believe we are halfway through the Rotary year already.  We have plenty of activities coming up and I'm sure the second half of the year will go by as quickly as the first half.  In my last e-mail of 2014 I neglected to thank Julie Strecker and Jay Nelson, of Strecker-Nelson Art Gallery for hosting our December club social.  We had a great turnout and the food, drink and fellowship were outstanding. 

I'm sure many of you know that since my last correspondence with you we lost a good friend and former Rotarian Les Frazier.  Les passed away on December 21, 2014.  Our thoughts and prayers go out to his family. 

In May, we will have the pleasure of hosting the Rotary District 5710 Conference here in Manhattan.  This will give us a great opportunity to highlight our city and our 2 Rotary Clubs, as well as the Rotoract Club.  Please put May 8th and 9th on your calendar as there will be opportunities for volunteers to contribute to the success of the conference. 

During the January 15th meeting, prior to our program, we will have our annual business meeting at which time we will elect our club officers and board of directors for the 2015-2016 Rotary year.    Past President Dick Wertzberger has done an outstanding job in recruiting new board members and officers.  The slate of officers and directors for next week's meeting is as follows:

     Betty Stevens:  President

     Vernon Turner:  President-Elect

     Vern Henricks:  Vice-President

     Scott Emley:  Past President

     George Ham:  Secretary

     Gil Sabatka:  Treasurer

     Nancy Bartell:  Seargent-at-Arms

     Mike Mayo:  Rotary Foundation Chair

     Dale Bradley: Director

     Gary Clark:  Director

     Cassidi Green: Director

     Ben Johnson: Director

     David Kreller:  Director

     Megan Loftin:  Director

     Jay Merrill: Director

     Chris Nolte: Director

We are very fortunate to have such quality individuals willing to serve and contribute to our club.  Please plan to attend on the 15th to show your support for these members.

We have some great programs arranged in the coming weeks for your enjoyment and benefit.  Here is the program lineup for January:

Jan 8, Ned Seaton, Top Stories of 2014

Jan 15, Eric Higgins, Economic Review and Outlook

Jan 22, Lyle Butler, Red Lobster Update

Jan 29, Ron Fehr, City of Manhattan Update

 I'm confident you will enjoy our upcoming speakers and meetings.  I hope to see you this Thursday for lunch!

Scott Emley