Rotary FLASH of 10-30-2007
Our Rotary meeting came to order in the usual way, with the Pledge of Allegiance, God Bless America, and the invocation given by Ron Debellis. Mark Parker reported 43 members in attendance out of our 95 club members. We had two guests this Tuesday. John Kline brought a potential member, Ron Barner from First Commonwealth Bank. Dan Carr brought his business partner Nick Marshall. Also, it wasn’t announced, but Leia Shilobod graced us by bringing her two year old daughter Anna (spelling? Sorry Leia!) We also had students visiting us from Hempfield. Nathan Nalevanko, Amber Stahl, and Kathryn Thompson.
Our only announcement was a board meeting at UPG in the Hempfield room on Thursday at 5:30. So, we returned the floor to Mark Parker who gave us his mini-autobiography. I won’t mention everything, but did you know that Mark has thought about becoming a priest, was in the Air Force, was a news broadcaster, and now works in insurance? You’ll have to ask him about it sometime…it’s a good story.
After Mark bored us, I mean intrigued us with his life’s story, he introduced Donna Ferry, Michelle Brandt, and Tina Woldzinski from the Westmoreland Children’s Bureau. Donna told us that they are running a Westmoreland County project similar to Joe Denardo’s Project Bundleup in Allegheny County. They procure funding to purchase coats for children. Their goal for this year is $11,000, and currently have $3,000. They have been purchasing the coats from Kmart, who has helped immensely by providing a discount of 30% on these coats. They wanted to remind everyone who might be interested in contributing that any contributions would be tax-deductible. Donna then permitted Michelle to talk a little more about the details of the program, since she has primarily running it in the last few years. She answered several questions from Rotarians. A final touch was the presentation of a contribution from the Greensburg Rotary toward the fund. John Kline presented the award to a pleasantly surprised Michelle.
Carl Rossman was able to provide us with a quick list of October birthdays compiled by Cathy Baumann. After singing Happy Birthday, he closed the meeting with the four way test. Have a great week everyone.
Rotary FLASH of 10-23-2007
Our Rotary meeting began with the usual Pledge of Allegiance, God Bless America, and our invocation by Ed Nemanic. Mark Parker reported 48 Rotarians in attendance of our 96 members. We had 2 visiting Rotarians, Tom Uram from the Washington and Tim Dingman from the Latrobe club. Dawn Roberts brought a driver, er I mean guest, her husband Michael. Leroy Ferri also joined us today, who is Mark Parker’s father in law.
We had 3 students in attendance from Greensburg Salem High School. Allison Ross, Chase Stickel, and Nick Paaincic joined us for lunch.
Dawn Roberts announced the welcoming party on November 12 from 6-8 for the new Courtyard Marriott. They have several things going on, but some of the highlights are a complementary open bar for two hours, and free admission. (A $10 donation for the Miracle Network is requested.) All are welcome to attend. If you’re interested, call the Courtyard and ask for Alisha or Mandessa.
Our word of the week was aboulia, or abulia. The meaning of the word is a symptom of a medical disorder causing loss of volition, or lack of initiative. I can think of a few Rotarians suffering from this condition…
Our speaker was introduced by Mark Parker. Dr. Ralph Capone, the chief medical director of Excela Health came to talk about the new Strategic Plan and Vision for the health provider. First he had to add his own word of the week though, opticalrectumectomy. It is a new procedure in which a long pair of scissors is inserted up the rectum in order to snip the optic nerve behind the eye. It is designed to remove an individual’s shitty outlook on life.
Ralph then began to be serious and spoke about Excela Health’s new strategic plan and vision for the next 5 years. Excela health was formed in 2004 from Westmoreland, Frick, and Latrobe hospitals for financial benefit. Now that the merger is three years old, the direction of the organization has started to take form.
In one of the most difficult markets for healthcare (Western PA), during a time when doctors don’t want to remain in PA, and more than 1/3 acute care hospitals are in financial distress, Excela Health has begun to thrive. They have 3900 employees, the largest employer in the county. They have provided 22 million dollars in care for the uninsured in the last 3 years. But still they strive for more.
The goal of Excela Health is to become the best provider of care and the employer of choice in 2012. Their focus is on improving clinical excellence by enhancing education, operational excellence by enhancing technology, and growth by maintaining three distinct hospitals, but still combines various specialty services. Thank you Dr. Capone for allowing us to be the first to witness this new plan, and good luck with its implementation.
Our meeting ended in the usual way with the four way test. Have a good week everyone.
Rotary FLASH of 10-16-2007
Our meeting began with Carl Rossman leading the Pledge of Allegiance and God Bless America. Yours truly, Dan Carr, gave our invocation for the lunch.
Mark Parker reported 55 Rotarians in attendance of our 95 members. We had 3 guests. Dawn Roberts brought her driver and intern, Lisa Letender. John Kline brought Ron Barner as a guest, and James Boggs brought Lee Demaskey as his guest. We also had a visiting Rotarian, Jim Bassett from the Murrysville club.
Our student guests were from Greensburg Central Catholic. Allison Neeven and Jessica Ulishney joined us for lunch.
Ron Debellis wanted to let everyone know that this Halloween, the Four Points Sheraton will be conducting a costume drive from October 9th through the 28th. They will provide a costume closet where individuals may drop off new costumes to be donated to Excela Health Physician Practices at Excela Health Women’s Services. Costumes to be donated must be new and in the original packing. Please help if you can with this worthy cause.
Ed Meadows announced that two Rotarians made the paper. Tom Hedley was in the paper for his involvement with the Arthur St. Clair dinner, and Michele Bononi was in the paper for her involvement with Laurel Legal Services, which celebrated its 40th anniversary this year. Congratulations for both organizations and to Tom and Michele.
We received a thank you from the WWII vets for our contribution to their trip down to Washington DC to see the WWII memorial. 173 vets made the trip, and it was truly an emotional experience to my understanding.
Our Word of the Week was ursine. And like the red necks in the bar, according to Tony Martino, ursine means bear-like.
Jeff Malloy introduced our speakers for the day. We had Thomas Wolfe, our PA Secretary of Revenue, speak to us about Gov. Rendell’s health care proposal. The growing health care crisis affects businesses more than anyone, but it affects all people. The cost of health care is rising very rapidly, and fewer people can afford it. This means that fewer people are covered, which means that premiums go up for those who can afford it. This gap is slowly widening as a result. His point is that health care cannot be treated as a commodity, but as a universal right. If someone shows up in the emergency room who will die without treatment, they will be treated, whether or not they can pay for it.
Other problems include underinsurance, the emergency room being often the first point of contact, fragmented information systems, and hospital infections. But the point remains that a crisis is evolving. Thank you Tom for educating us further on the subject.
We also had two judges speak to us today. Rita Hathaway and Jay Ober told us a little bit about their backgrounds as individuals, as lawyers, and as judges. Both are up for re-election this coming term, and would appreciate our votes of confidence.
Our meeting ended in the usual way with the Four Way Test. Have a good week everyone.
Rotary FLASH of 10-09-2007
THE FLASH for the Rotary Club of Greensburg PA October 9, 2007
Our meeting opened with our president Carl Rossman leading us with the Pledge of Allegiance, and God Bless America. Jim Steeley gave the invocation. Our Sergeant of Arms, Mark Parker totaled 42 of our 95 members attending lunch. We had Kristen Eagle from the Uniontown Rotary Club joining us, as well as Tim Dingman from the Latrobe Rotary Club. Monica Sciullo and Alisha Huber were guests of Dawn Roberts, Paul Herrington was a guest of his grandfather Ted Herrington and Sandy Martin also joined us today. Our visiting students from Hempfield were: Steve Sachs, Mike Addis and Alan Githens.
MEMBERSHIP PROSAL PUBLICATION
The Board of Directors has approved the following:
Timothy “Tim” Henry, Private wealth advisor for Ameriprise Financial, residing and working in Greensburg. He is a former member and Past President of the Hempfield Area Rotary Club. Mark Parker proposes him. Any objections to his membership must be presented in writing to the Secretary within 7 days.
NEW MEMBER CELEBRATION
Christopher Columbus, aka Tony Martino, helped Mike Lucotch with today’s celebration of new members, Doug Arndt, John Barth, Rod Booker, Ron DeBellis, Patty Lonsbary, Mark Parker, Dawn Roberts, Leia Shilobod and Bill Thorne. I heard that the cake was good.
THE QUARTERLY REVIEW NEWSLETTER
Bill Kern has published a newsletter that will be included in each quarterly dues invoice mailing. We received our first issue today. It looks wonderful and is filled with lots of important information. Many thanks Bill.
OUR PROGRAM FOR THE DAY
Lisa Hays with the Westmoreland County Historical Society spoke to us today about the proposed History Education Center that is planned to be constructed on a hilltop overlooking the reconstructed fort and village of Hannastown. The Center will feature an Exhibit Gallery, General History Exhibit with information related to at least 19 surrounding historical associations, a Multi-purpose Room for things such as genealogy classes, a collection of archived documents and an archeology lab. She stated that there are over 1 million artifacts that have been discovered. There is a campaign to raise the needed funds. She said tht the 22,000 square foot center would cost an estimated 6 million dollars. A total estimated cost of 7.5 million dollars will be needed, due to an additional 1.5 million dollars being needed to bridge to other programs. The Westmoreland County Commissioners have already pledged 1 million dollars to the cause. She hopes that ground breaking will occur by the Fall of 2008.
Carl closed the meeting in the usual way with the 4-way test.
Rotary FLASH of 09-25-2007
Our Rotary meeting on September 25, 2007, began as usual with Carl Rossman ringing the bell and leading us in the Pledge of Allegiance and God Bless America. Our invocation was given by Dick McNeel. Mark Parker reported our attendance at 52 of 97 members. We had a few guests. Mark brought a guest, Tim Henry from Ameriprise Financial, and the former president of the Hempfield Rotary came and visited us. Also, Dawn Roberts’ husband Michael joined us for lunch.
We had students from Greensburg Central Catholic join us as well. Nicole Bruno and Dana Hartung took time out of their school schedules to join us, and we heard some of their activities and future plans and goals.
Tom Hedley announced the Arthur St. Clair dinner next Wednesday at the Greensburg Country Club, sponsored by the Historical Society. It is a wonderful presentation of awards to individuals and organizations that make a significant contribution to the preservation of our area’s history. Anyone interested in attending should contact the historical society. Chuck Anderson later added this little tidbit…did you know that Arthur St. Clair was the first president of the United States?
Ben Policastro also announced the success of the roadside cleanup on Saturday. 8 people went to the spot on 130 just outside of the Greensburg Country Club and helped clean up the roadside. Thank you to everyone who participated.
Chuck Anderson reminded everyone that the District Conference and dinner is coming to Greensburg at the Four Points Sheraton on November 3rd. Since it’s so close to home, we should make an attempt to make it and represent our club well.
We got a thank you letter from Taylor from Greensburg, Kansas thanking us again for our hospitality during his visit.
Carl gave us our Word of the Week. Phantasmagoria. Does anyone know what it means? If you really have to know, your best bet is to check out www.dictionary.com, because I never wrote it down on Tuesday. Or ask Carl, since he’s so smart.
We had a presentation of the birthdays and anniversaries of the club. It was quite a lengthy list, and I never got the list from Rod Booker, who announced them for us, as well as some interesting events that occurred on those days of birth. Sorry I don’t have the list…maybe I’ll get it for next week so I can embarrass everyone in the next flash.
Our speaker this week was Bud Smail, who spoke to us about the motor vehicle industry, its effect on our economy, how it has changed over the years, and what changes may be coming. The annual sales figures for the US of vehicles is 675 billion dollars. In PA, that number is 35 billion dollars. This translates to a large amount of tax dollars. In addition, a large number of charity organizations benefit from donations of vehicles for raffles.
There have been 790 million new vehicles built and sold since Henry Ford built the first one. In addition, 4.8 trillion miles are driven every year by people in the US. Each family has an average of 2.5 vehicles. All of the revenue generated by local advertising as well by local dealers reaches 7.8 billion dollars nationally. Also, local car dealers employ a large number of Americans. These are jobs that cannot be outsourced.
There are several issues that he spoke about, including a concern about the number of technicians in the economy. He said technicians instead of mechanics, because the average vehicle has 17 computers in it. They aren’t your usual “grease monkeys” anymore.
He also touched on the future of electric powered cars, hydrogen fuel, and some of the current political controversies that affect the industry. Thank you, Mr. Smail, for the very interesting and informative talk.
We closed in the usual way with the Four Way Test.