New Club Officers
At our annual club business meeting on December 21, the club unanimously approved the slate of candidates presented by our nominating committee. Thanks to Dave Benson, Dean Harms and Brian Dieter for their work identifying candidates.
  
Congratulations to newly elected officers and board members. President-elect: Dave Kraemer, Secretary: Terry Adams, Treasurer: Jim Ziebold, Sergeant-at-Arms: Jim Obrecht, Doug Ward, Webmaster: Arch Oldehoeft, First-year Board Members: Jane Acker, Dale Ruigh, Angie Weber, and returning board members: Rick Elbert, Jill Guffy, Scott Sanders. And I will “retire” to the role of past-president, or as Brian Dieter says: “I will no longer be on the two-year perfect attendance program”.
  
Turning the Corner
It doesn’t seem very long ago that I was attending the Rotary International Convention in Chicago. That event certainly gave me meaning to what it really meant to be a Rotarian. I recall vividly sitting at the President-elect luncheon with fellow president-elects from South Carolina, Ontario, California, Surinam, and Hawaii. We shared thoughts and aspirations for our upcoming year as Rotary club presidents. But I didn’t count on having the time slip by so fast.
  
I thought I was prepared after attending two President-elect Training Seminars (PETS) and two fall district seminars. I did my preparation and made commitments to Rotary District 6000 regarding club support of the Rotary Foundation. I set my goals for the club and submitted them to our assistant district governor. We even made it through the District Governor visit relatively unscathed. But then we lost four members, two of which were charter members and along came Special Olympics, Katrina, a fire-ravaged family in Nevada, and two “mystery” grants with foreign partners, that we did not know existed and for which reports were overdue – Wait a minute, those weren’t in the plan!
  
But every time something came up, our Rotarians stepped forward and things got done, bases got covered, people were helped, and community projects were accomplished. When you step back from it all and look around, you cannot help but be humbled by what goes on in a Rotary club like the Ames Morning Club. And imagine, there are 32,000 Rotary clubs all of which are defining what it means to “Do Rotary Right”, on a daily basis.
  
But in spite of the surprise, much has already been accomplished in six short months. We rose to the occasion and raised $1,528 for Rotary Katrina relief and $400 for a fire victim family in Nevada. In November, we recognized 14 club Rotarians for milestone contributions to the Rotary Foundation. A new financial Executive Summary was created to allow the Board to view club finances “at a glance”. Work is underway to clean-up club member vocational titles and to create a new vocational web page that will allow you to look up members based upon their vocation. We have continued to support local community projects and will have new opportunities for club fellowship throughout the year. We have much to be thankful for.
  
Thank you for giving me the opportunity to serve the club in this capacity. If you have the opportunity to take a leadership role in Rotary – say yes, you will not regret it.
  
Dave Miller, 2005-2006 Club President, Ames AM Rotary