After a lively reception, SC Evening President John Vincenti called the group to order at 6:05. The group sang "My Country Tis of Thee" accompanied by Tom Smyth on the piano. Will Kibby gave the invocation. The group of 84 then enjoyed another great meal from the Nittany Lion Inn.

President John reconvened the meeting at 6:45. Mary Johnston with Tom Smyth on the piano led the group in singing "ROTARY", "Smile", and "Take Me Out To The Ballgame". Tom King from the SC Club then welcomed everyone from the four clubs in attendance. He gave a special welcome to District Governor-Elect Jerry Friedman, District Governor-Nominee Dale Lepovsky from St. Marys, PDG Kelly Wike, PDG Carol Walsh, PDG Carl Hill, and PDG Don Tressler.

President John then reminded everyone about our club receiving the Governor's Cup as the Rotary Club of the Year in District 7350 and thanked Teresa Davis and the Downtown Club for helping us win the cup by working with our club on the Dictionary Project.

Incoming President Mike Siggins of the evening club was introduced. Mike later in the program introduced his officers for the coming year.

Nancy Goff, the baby member of the Pleasant Gap Rotary Club, talked about the various community projects their club did this past year along with their fundraisers. Projects included the Senior Christmas dinner for 250, the Dictionary Project done in both the Bellefonte and Bald Eagle School Districts, sponsoring Emily Johnson to attend RYLA, sponsoring Rotary Exchange students, and working on the Alzheimer's Memory Walk planned for this October. Their fundraisers are the Big Blue Beef Raffle at Grange Fair in August and their Chicken and Waffles dinner held at the Grange Hall in the early spring.

Teresa Davis, President of our club, called their 53 members the "Rebels with a Cause" club. They do many different projects including the Dictionary Projects, funding for the YMCA, the Food Bank, Special Olympics, Rotary Exchange Students (two inbound and four outbound), and the program with a Rotary club in Turkey providing furniture for a new school. She then introduced here club's officers for next year.

Dennis Younkin, President of the soon to be chartered, State College Sunrise Club, talked about the 31 enthusiastic members in the club. The club has decided to designate health research as their fundraising objective; i.e., CVIM. He reminded everyone that they meet at 7:15 am on Wednesdays at the Hotel State College. He had the members in attendance stand to be recognized. He invited everyone to attend the new club's Charter Night that is scheduled for June 15 at the Nittany Lion Inn. He thanked Carol Walsh, Mary Johnston, and Jerry Friedman for their hard work and effort into getting the new club up and running. He said the club is a partnership of people who want to give back o the community.

DGN Dale Lepovetsky said that he hoped he can get the three clubs of St. Marys, Johnsonburg and Ridgeway to come together for joint meetings like the one we were having tonight! He informed everyone that his District Conference will be held in State College in May of 2008. He stated that District 7350 is amazing and wants to get the southern and northern parts of the District to become more involved in District activities.

Kelly Wike then had Dave Witherite introduced his club's officers for next year. She then introduced the speaker for the evening, PDE Jerry Friedman.

Jerry thanked everyone for attending. He presented his thoughts and vision for the future of District 7350. Progress always required change. You keep the good stuff and work on new things to take the place of the things that didn't work.

He showed Bill Boyd, the incoming Rotary International President's talk on the theme for the coming year and his emphases for 2006/2007. The emphases are: Water Management, Health and Hunger, Literacy, and the Family of Rotary. The theme for the coming year is "LEAD THE WAY.

Rotarians have the power to change the world one act at a time. You have a Better Rotary with Better Rotarians.

Jerry then presented the District theme for the year - BUILDING BRIDGES. He said Rotary is at its best when we work together.

Some of his hopes for the year including: Intercity Meetings just like the one we were at; having both an incoming and outgoing GSE Teams with District 1850in Germany in April/May of 2007, having club/area friendship exchanges both with other districts and between clubs and/or areas within our District, keeping the Dictionary Project as an ongoing community service project in the District with its low cost with great impact (have more members work on this project), and to implement a new project, the 4-Way Test Speech Contest. This contest would include teaching a class in high schools on Rotary and the 4-Way Test. Students would then give five to seven minute speeches on how the 4-Way Test impacts an area of their life. Rotary would partner with Toastmasters International on the actual events. After competitions on a local level, winners would then compete on a District level with scholarship monies awarded on both the local and District levels.

Jerry then talked about the District 7350 Conference to be held in Omni William Penn Hotel in downtown Pittsburgh, May 10 to 13, 200y. Roy Adams is chairing the conference. Friday night will be a dinner cruise on the Gateway Clipper and Saturday night there will be a musical entitled "A Bridge To Tomorrow" which will "star" Rotarians, family members, and our youth exchange students. He asked everyone to mark his or her calendars and plan on attending

He also talked about the trip made recently by some Rotarians as part of the Katrina Reconstruction Project. At least one or maybe two more trips will be made to help the Gulf Coast areas with reconstruction.

Jerry talked about the World Friendship Exchanges which are self-financed by those attending. One is planned with a District in Australia sometime in 2007.

He talked about the Open World Program where five participants from the former Russian republics come to an area for a specific time frame. This is coordinated and mostly financed by the US State Department.

PolioPlus was Jerry's next subject. In 1985, 350,00 cases were reported; in 2005, there were only 66. The plans are to have the last immunizations done in 2007; we are on the brink of success. There are still small pockets of the disease in Nigeria, India, Pakistan, and Afghanistan. The hope is in 2010 to have the world declared polio free.

Jerry ended the evening by saying that Rotary is important. There is much work to be done; this will not be accomplished solely by the Rotary people in Evanston or by the District Governors; we need to work together and lead in the best way each and every one of us can.

Respectfully submitted - Mary Johnston

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Darren Johnston, June 5; Rose Kauffman, June 7; Paul Rutter, June 8;
Chris Hickey, June 23;
(if I missed yours please email me)

 M  A  K  E  -  U  P  S

Reminders on makeup's:
All makeup's are good for credit toward meetings missed 14 days before or 14 days after the makeup. Makeup's made at other Rotary Club meetings also get a dues credit. Makeup's at service projects get attendance credit only. All makeup cards should be turned into the club secretary promptly. To find out where you can makeup, check the RI Club Directory, or District Web site.

NEIGHBORING CLUBS- check out the web site listing or one of the E-clubs all over the world
MEMBERS- check out the web site listing
COMMITTEE CHAIRS- check out the web site listing

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district 7350; club 24095
State College Downtown Rotary; P.O. Box 10742; State College, PA 16805- 0742