December 19 Meeting Minutes

WELCOME !
Two visitors were hosted at tonight's meeting:
Jon hosted Oscar Martinez and Robin Lambaria hosted Michelle Kirk.
At the end of the meeting both visitors expressed their intentions
to join the club.
This brings our membership up to fourteen, and Jon reminded everyone
of the charge to host new member candidates at any meeting. Our new
city manager, Jim Mustard will join the club after New Year's.

ANNOUNCEMENTS AND UPDATES:

1.NO MEETING NEXT WEEK(December 26)
This is due to the closeness to Christmas. Members were given the
address of this blogsite, and Buck Johnston's contribution was
acknowledged.

2.CLUB PRESIDENT ELECTION:
Two nominations have been received. One
for Amy Allison and the other for Sandra Harper.

During the meeting Amy declined her nomination, citing her previous
tenure and service as an club officer for several years running.
Sandra also declined her nomination, citing her many other
commitments.

Jon has stated his willingness to serve another term, but due to
the lack of a quorum at this meeting, the voting is now delayed
until the January 2nd meeting, and nominations will continue to be
accepted until that meeting. Please e-mail Jon with your nomination
at aasejon@gmail.com, or call him at 729-3109. Amy reminded people
who cannot attend the January meeting to vote by proxy, again by
e-mail or a call.

2. SERVICE OPPORTUNITIES:
Jon explored the possibility of serving
mobility-challenged older adults in our community who may lack the
funds/energy to construct a ramp at their home. His meeting with Sylvia
Zubiate (another Rotary prospect)produced one potential candidate
for this type of service project. His name is Tacho Magallanes.
Johnny and Oscar both know this individual. Discussion included
consideration of the level of his mobility, the type of construction
that might be needed, and the liability incurred by building some-
thing like this. Joe Denham will check into the liability issues
before the club proceeds with any decision.

3.ROTARY EXCHANGE STUDENT / FRIENDS OF MARFA LIBRARY COLLABORATION:
Alice Jennings, president of the "Friends" says that a decision on
the Big Read grant will be made in January. By the end of January
we will know whether or not we want to press for a young person from
Egypt or not. Melissa Metcalf, the inbound exchange coordinator for
our district, wants to know if we would host a student from somewhere
else. If Marfa gets the Big Read grant, we will be sending two Marfans
to Egypt (Cairo alone has five Rotary Clubs) and they can work for
to make the contacts and arrangements for Rotary. So we feel we have
some leverage to bargain with the Rotary coordinators here for flexibility.

4. SISTER CITIES INITIATIVE:
Jon has sent two e-mails (one in Spanish)
to Lauro Marquez in San Juanito, but has received no response to either.
He asked members for ideas. Four ideas were discussed. First, Jon will
re-new his communications with Sandra's acquaintance in Creel, a priest
named David Ungerlei. Second, Jon will try to make contact with Ernesto
Estrada Gonzalez, who was running for Presidente of the Bocoyna Municipio
last summer. Third, Jon will contact Nazario Martinez, who is the Rotary
district governor in the state of Chihuahua.

5.MARFA'S COMMUNITY GARDEN:
Sandra Harper is looking for adults interested in leading and supervising
elementary students in the community garden Just contact Sandra at
farmstandmarfa@gmail.com. The garden also needs piles of leaves for making
leaf mulch. Jon proposed that the club work to improve the outer appearance
of the garden, which at the present time is surrounded by large tumbleweeds.
Mona suggested that we try to go beyond that and cut the weeds in the lot
that surrounds the gardens. Jon will check on using the school's mower for
this purpose. Johnny reminded club members that in projects like this, his
"hundred percent" will not be on a par with younger, more physically
robust members. Joe Denham suggested that the school's National Honor
Society kids may be able to provide some of the volunteer labor.

PROGRAM:
Robin Lambaria presented a short introduction to her initiative, The 1st
annual Marfa Film Festival. She acknowledged that Sul Ross has WestFest,
and suggested that she envisioned a smaller version of the Telluride Film
Festival (Colorado)that would bring many films to Marfa that might not
otherwise be screened, as well as film-makers from across the country to
talk about their work. She has already reserved the Goode Crowley Theater
and other venues in the community. She envisions a parade and a number of
bands coming into town to perform. Celebrating Cinco de Mayo is also part
of her plan, and Jon spoke about his desire to present the festival for the
third time again next year. He wants some of the proceeds to support a
Mexico trip for the at-risk students from the county. He and Robin will
do some planning and report back. Robin told the group about her past
experience leading to her decision to take this on. In this regard she
mentioned a music festival which she was largely responsible for
presenting in San Antonio, and which was successful.

The meeting adjourned to the sounds of the bells from the church and the
snapping flames of the wood fire in the tipikiva.

Merry Christmas, everyone....and Prospero Ano Nuevo!

Club Minutes Dec. 12 (Jon)

Club Minutes, December 12,07

Sandra,Amy and I welcomed Tana Gutierrez as our guest for the meeting.
Where is everybody else? Is an e-mail or telephone reminder necessary to
help our members remember this meeting?



Announcements:

1. Jon has received a DVD called Humanity in Motion from Rotary International, which is a compilation of the best PSA's (public service announcements) for TV, radio,print, billboards, etc. which might be used to increase public awareness in Marfa.

Suggestion is for Jon to take this to Tom Michaels of KRTS to see what might be done to share the Rotary story with the community.

2.An agenda item for our next meeting is the election of a president for the club.
No names have been received by Jon as nominations this week. Please make nominations to him by e-mail: aasejon@gmail.com. And everyone please plan to come to next week's Dec.19 meeting so we can achieve a quorum.


Business taken up without a quorum:

1. Need to call TXDOT about putting Rotary sign back up on highway east of Marfa.
Jon will do this

2. Exchange Student update....More info needed from Alice Jennings about the timetable for the Big Read. Marfa Rotary can be more assertive about an exchange student from Egypt once we know this grant has been won. Jon will call Alice

3. Discussion about Service opportunity categories....

a. Sandra suggests that English as a Second Language classes are needed. How can Rotary help?
b. Jon suggests that Rotary might build wooden access ramps for older or disabled people around here. Jon will contact Sylvia Zubiate at Senior Center.
c. Sandra is asked about the Teaching Garden....how might Rotary help?
First the garden needs leaves for compost. Oops....most of the leaves have been raked already, but the invitation is to bring leaves to the garden at 1st and Kelly street
Second, the garden needs adults willing to lead children in year-round gardening tasks.
d. Amy suggests that the garden might acquire the high school's greenhouse that was 80% complete and yet has never been finished or used. Amy and Sandra will check into this possibility.

These are some excellent suggestions as action items for moving forward and thank you to the members who came. By the way, the Tipikiva now has a liner around the perimeter and with a fire we were comfortable during the meeting.

See you all on Wednesday the 19th, and Merry Christmas everyone.

Marfa Rotary Online!

The Marfa Rotary Club is now online.

We encourage anyone interested, to please join us on Wednesdays, 5 - 6 p.m. at the Tipi Kiva just behind Adobe Moon BBQ at the corner of Highway 90 and Abbott.

At our meetings, you can learn more about Rotary's mission and network with other leaders from our community.
The club offers various short-term and long-term volunteer opportunities -- including fundraising for student scholarships, home improvement for disabled and elderly and hosting a foreign exchange student (Rotary has 32,000 Clubs worldwide).

For more information, please email Dr. Jon Johnson, current Club president at aasejon@gmail.com or call 210.410.4880 or 729.3109.