Rotogear for September 24, 2008

RI President Dong Kurn Lee's Guest Book

The Rotogear
of the Rotary Club of Fort Collins

September 24, 2008

This week Shelly (“How About Those Rams”) Godkin will introduce Ram Volleyball Coach Tom Hilbert. Tom plans to talk about the growth of College Volleyball as a sport, and will also discuss the important responsibilities coaches have in guiding young people through such an important segment of their life.

Tom Hilbert

And with the team ranked # 15 in the nation (perhaps lower by Wednesday), (10-1, 2-0 MWC) and fresh off beating # 8 Florida and a three-set sweep of # 24 BYU, he will, of course, discuss the rest of the season, the players, etc. He is also planning to show a brief video of the team's trip to Europe this past summer.

Fresh off his sixth Mountain West Conference Coach of the Year award in the past nine seasons, Tom Hilbert enters his 12th season at the helm of the CSU women's volleyball team. Under Hilbert's guidance, the Rams have developed into one of the top programs in the nation, qualifying for the NCAA tournament for 13 consecutive years. The streak is a school record for consecutive postseason appearances in any sport.

A deeper look inside Hilbert's coaching record reveals some remarkable achievements. Hilbert has amassed a 113-19 record in Mountain West Conference play and has led the Rams to six regular-season conference titles and four tournament titles. He also ranks 10th among active Division I head coaches in winning percentage (.761).

Last season, Mekana Barnes became the fifth player Hilbert has coached at Colorado State to be named to the AVCA All-American team.

While at CSU, Hilbert has a record of 284-72 (.798), and is 458-144 (.761) overall in 19 seasons as a head coach. He has led his teams to 20 or more wins every season since 1992 - a span of 16 straight years - with the 1999 Rams setting the school's single-season record for winning percentage after going 30-3 (.909).

Before coming to Colorado State, Hilbert led Idaho to the Eastern Division title in 1996 (its first season in the Big West) and in the Big Sky Conference his teams won either the regular season or the tournament championship from 1992-95.

Hilbert accumulated a 174-72 (.707) record at Idaho. He coached the Big Sky's only All-American in Mindy Rice. Hilbert also guided Idaho to its first national ranking and the Vandals were the first Big Sky institution to ever be nationally ranked.

Prior to Idaho, Hilbert spent five seasons as an assistant at his alma mater, the University of Oklahoma, from 1984-88.

A native of Norman, Okla., Hilbert earned his bachelor's degree in business administration and marketing from OU in 1984. He also received a master's in sports and recreation management from Idaho in 1993. Hilbert and wife Leslie have been married for 20 years, live in Fort Collins and have one daughter, Myles, who will be 8 in September.

Presiding at Last Weeks Meeting

Larry Kunter

Jerry Kennell

Presiding: Jan Bertholf

Invocation & Pledge: Larry Kunter

Music: Steve Busch & Dr. Ed Siegel

Song Leader: Steve Busch

Greeters: Jerry Kennell

Introductions: Jerry Kennell

Microphone & Seargent at Arms: Stacy Plemmons

Guests Last Week

Luci & Liliana Castro, Meridith Wheeler & Rosie Wheeler, Teresa Sedlak, Vanessa Aschmann, Patience Agana, & Sube Amadu, guests of the club

Gary McFaddin, guest of Warren Garst

Chris Fry, guest of Paul Hudnut

Visiting Rotarians

Dr. Ed Siegel, of the Del Mar, California Rotary Club

Bill Smith of the Ester Park Rotary Club

Announcements

Shelly Godkin	Stacey Baumbarn
Garth McCann	Jim Mucklow
Jan Bertholf	Max Getts
Bob Meroney	Susie Ewing

Shelly Godkin announced that the CSU Volleyball team was now ranked 15th nationally after beating then #8th ranked Florida. He said that we would hear more next week when Volleyball coach Tom Hilbert is our program. How about those Rams!

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Stacey Baumgarn announced that CSU is looking for a family(s) to host the son of a CSU alumnus from Saudia Arabia, who will be attending CSU. The length of stay will be from six months to a year. See Stacey if you are interested.

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Garth McCann reminded us that the regular meeting on Oct. 1 will not be held. In its place we will be having the Teacher of the Year Meeting at the Marriott at noon on Tuesday September 30th. My bet in our board of directors annual pool about the number of members attending the non-meeting on October 1 is eight. Someone on the board guessed that fourteen would inappropriately come to the non-meeting.

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Jim Mucklow announced that twenty Rotarians and spouses would be traveling to Russia next August for the "Russian Rhapsody" river crusing trip that is also a fundraiser for our club. If one more couple signs up for this trip, our club will gain $9,000 for our charitable efforts. He had more announcements on the tables. Questions should be directed to Jim.

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Jan Bertholf gave the club an update on Jud Harper's condition. Jud is recovering from his surgery fast enough so that he may attend next week.

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Jan Bertholf gave the club a brief view of our clubs budget. He indicated that the club will increase dues $7.00 per quarter to offset increases in dues from Rotary and increased charges for meals and from the Lincoln Center, etc. Jan showed the various parts of the budget via POWER POINT slides. If you have questions, please contact Jan or members of the Board of Directors.

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Max Getts said that next week will be a parade of old hats. He showed us one example.

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Bob Meroney is searching for deer, elk, coyote, goose, duck or turkey call devices that he might use with presentations for the Master Naturalist programs he provides for the Fort Collins Natural Areas open space program. He thinks preschoolers and elementary children would be fascinated to hear the animal sounds when he give talks about wildlife for school kids. Do you know any ex-hunters who might have accessories they no longer use or someone who might have upgraded to newer stuff and still have the old. Contact Bob Meroney, 482-9252.

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In the second week of embarassement, Susie Ewing was brave enough to parade around the room, her non-victory lap, dressed in CU garb and leading Mable.

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Sue Wagner asked club member to set aside the date of December 20th. The Fellowship Committee has a holiday fellowship event scheduled with the Fort Collins Symphony for that date. More information later.

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Student of the Month

Jamie Grim

Meredith Wheeler

Jamie Grim introduced Meredith Wheeler, a senior at Poudre High School, as the September Student of the Month. Meredith has lived in Fort Collins all of her 16 years. She said that her life has been dominated by two themes, internationalism and service. Those values were first instilled in her by her parents. From a young age, her mom would take her to the food bank and other non-profits. When younger, she said that she did not appreciate the value of service and would roll her eyes when her mom would insist she volunteer. She begrudgingly joined National Charity League (NCL), a mother daughter service organization, in the eight grade, but in high school NCL has been one of her primary focuses. She has had the opportunity to volunteer for a variety of organizations, but her primary commitment has been to the Fort Collins Museum. This year as president of the NCL council, she hopes to share her excitement for service with younger students and help them form lasting connections with local non-profits.

Meredith describes to us other service experiences and why and how living in Fort Collins has been such a benefit to her passions. She told us she was thinking about taking a year off from school to volunteer with a group called “City Year.” Then she expects to study Arabic and Hebrew to go along with her language skills in Spanish and German.

Foundation Minute

Chuck Rutenberg

Chuck Rutenberg gave us the Foundation Minute about Rotary's Polio Challenge. He told us about his first memories of Polio when he accompanied his mother when she tutored Polio patients so that they would not fall behind in school. He described the patients in Iron Lungs, with only their head being visible. Most of us need to be reminded of what this terrible disease does before it was brought under control in our country. He talked about what our club needs to do over the next three years to help match the Gates Foundation donation of $100 million. There are only four countries where the disease is present, but not getting Polio eradicated in those countries would endanger all of our previous efforts because of the ease of the spread in our modern world. Rotary International wants us to include our community in the effort to raise our share of this matching money. Plans to do this will be announced in the future.

Group Study Exchange Experience

Five weeks in Southern Chile - Interested? Spanish speakers encouraged to apply but not a necessary skill. Our district is looking for a ROTARIAN to be our 2009 GSE Team Leader to Southern Chile - Rotary District 4350, see their web site: Rotary Districe 4350. Leader applications are due September 6 to Tammie. Interviews are September 20, 2009, Laramie. The trip leaves in the early spring and is a cultural and vocational exchange. We are also seeking NON-ROTARIANS age 25 - 40 to be GSE Team Members. Frequently asked questions can be found at: GSE Questiions. Applications are due by the end of September to Tammie. Information and applications are on RI webpage at: GSE Application or call Tammie Niemann, 231-9786 or niemannted@aol.com.

Last Week's Program

Omnia El Hamim

Luci Castro

Omnia El Hamim introduced Luci Castro, our Rotary district Ambassadorial Scholar for 2007/08. Luci, a 2007 CSU graduate in political science and philosophy, spent a year in Ghana studying at the University of Ghana in Accra. She told us that Ghana, in West Africa, is a country of relative peace and stability, has a population of 23 million and is the size of Wisconsin. Luci started her presentation by talking about her experiences at the University, about the dorm where she lived and about the classes she attended and about some of the other Scholars. She used a POWER POINT presentation as an aid to her presentation.

Most of Luci’s presentation was about her extracurricular activities while in Ghana. She wrote many articles for the CSU Collegian during the year and was a member of the University female soccer team. As a first grade teacher for 57 seven year olds she told us about having to experience their traditional “canning” punishment. She also volunteered at a refugee camp of 35,000, where she helped form a female soccer team that was videoed by a German vews team.

Luci also helped with one of our club’s Matching Grant projects. Partnering with the Rotary Club of Accra East, with her help we provided water for four villages. She was able to visit all but one of the regions in Ghana and to visit the neighboring countries of Togo, Ivory Coast and Burkima Faso. She showed us a series of touching pictures which she entitled, “finding comfort in the unfamiliar.”

Luci ended by thanking our club for a “remarkable and rewarding year.” She thanked several in the club and her parents for all their individual help.

Calendar

Sep 24 - Fireside Meeting at Betty Brown's home, 7:00 pm, for red badge members to get Rotary Introduction

Sep 30 - Teacher of Year Tri-club Meeting, 12:00 noon, at the Marriott - NOT A WEDNESDAY MEETING

Sep 30 - GSE team member applications due to Tammie Niemann

Dec 20 - Holiday Fellowship Event at Fort Collins Symphony

Future Meetings

Sep 30 - Teacher of the Year Program at the Mattiott

Oct 01 - No Meeting this Wed., regular meeting on Tuesday Sep 30

Oct 08 - Not known

Links to the previous and next Rotogears

September 17, 2008

September 30, 2008

Warren and Genny Garst Wildlife Collection at CSU Click here or on the "tiger."

Rotary District 5440 Home Page - We recommend browsing this page particularly the links to other Clubs in District 5440 as your time permits.

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