Bloomington Rotary Club #3430

ROTA LETTER FOR MARCH 2, 2010

BLOOMINGTON ROTARY CLUB (www.bloomingtonrotary.org)

Founded 1918

Rotary 2009-2010 “The Future of Rotary is in Your Hands”

NEXT MEETING: Tuesday, March 9
Robert Arnove, Distinguished Professor of Comparative Education, speaking about his book, Talent Abounds. Frangipani Room.

MARCH 2 MEETING

GREETER: Fred Dunn

PLEDGE AND REFLECTION: Trent Deckard

INTRODUCTION OF GUESTS: Lee Caulfield
Sandra Cross, guest of George Karnes; Sue Shelden, guest of speaker Michael Shelden; Hideo Ito, guest of Peter Kroener; Paul Zietlow, guest of Charlotte Zietlow; Jack and Gretchen Moore, former club members, visiting from the Muncie Rotary Club. Gretchen presented our club with two flags from Muncie clubs.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

On March 9, checks will be presented to Teacher’s Warehouse, Martha’s House, and Monroe County United Ministries from Bloomington Rotary Foundation.

Phil Meyer wants to remind us that WTIU is looking for phone volunteers for the following shifts for WTIU’s March Membership Campaign.

Saturday, March 6, 8-11 p.m. (two volunteers needed)
Monday, March 8, 8-11 p.m. (one volunteer for a live on-air shift)
Tuesday, March 9, 8-11 p.m. (two volunteers for a live on-air shift)
Wednesday, March 10, 8-11 p.m. (one volunteer)
Saturday, March 13, 9-11 p.m. (one volunteer)
Sunday, March 14, 8-11 p.m. (two or three volunteers)
Wednesday, March 17, 8-11 p.m., (one volunteer)
Saturday, March 20, 8:30-11 p.m. (one volunteer)

Contact Laura Grannan in WTIU Membership at (812) 855-6114 or lgrannan@indiana.edu if you are interested.

The GSE team from the Netherlands will be in Bloomington the third week of April. Housing is needed for April 20, 21 and 22. Jo Daron is the InBound GSE Committee chair.

Past District Gov. Howard from California is organizing Immunization Plus Days in Nigeria from April 17-27.

Please return member directory updates to Pam Martindale as soon as possible.

NEW MEMBERS
Four new members were inducted by Chris Molloy. The inductees and their sponsors were Virginia Hall (Byron Bangert), Geoff McKim (Kimberly Gray), Marsha McCarty (Leslie Green), George Ray Karnes (Robert Gutmann/Chris Molloy).

PROGRAM
Charlotte Zietlow introduced our speaker, Michael Shelden, an author who lives in Bloomington and teaches at Indiana State University in Terre Haute. He talked about his latest book, Mark Twain: A Man in White. It is subtitled: The Grand Adventure of His Final Years.
Shelden’s presentation was spiced with humor about Twain. Among the lines on Twain’s resume, Shelden said, would be publisher (went broke), investor (went broke), frontier journalist (very unreliable), and world showman (unforgettable in life).
He said Twain switched from wearing black to wearing white in his later years because black was what was worn to funerals, and he wanted no part of that.
He shared several of Twain’s quotes and quips:
“America has no native criminal class except Congress.”
On President Taft: “Roosevelt’s miscarriage preserved in alcohol.”
To a man arrested for breaking into his house: “You keep this up and one day you’ll be in the United States Senate.”
Shelden noted that April 21 will mark the 100th anniversary of Twain’s death.
His book, published by Random House, is available online at Amazon.com and at area bookstores.

FUTURE MEETINGS:
March 16 - Norman Crampton, partnership specialist, “Census 2010 - and why it is important to Bloomington.” Frangipani Room.
March 23 – Mayor Mark Kruzan. Great Hall, First United Methodist Church.
March 30 - Mayer Maloney, Herald Times publisher, “The Future of Newspapers.” Frangipani Room.

Reporting for the Rota-Letter: Bob Zaltsberg