This week Rotary celebrates its 110th anniversary. The three Traverse City-based Rotary Clubs plan to celebrate with an after-hours gathering at Minerva's on Tuesday, February 24th. We have rescheduled and relocated our monthly "Sunrise at Sunset" gathering to coincide. We hope you'll be able to join us. In fact, if you know of others who have been impacted by the good works of Rotary, include them in the party! Think about it . . . none of the amazing things that have been accomplished by the three clubs and Rotary Charities would have happened if Rotary International hadn't existed to begin with.

As of Monday we have 28 people registered for Saturday evening's Winter Social at The Franklin. We will be giving them our headcount on Wednesday afternoon so if you haven't had a chance to sign up, please click on the link in our events calendar.

We're continuing our tradition of a fun silent auction and are donating the proceeds to the annual fund of Rotary Foundation to help our club maintain eligibility for grant applications. Donated items to date include:

• Lebanese Dinner @ Vic's
• Jolly Goods beach towel pillow
• Torch Lake day of fun on the water with the Skarshaug family (food/beverage included)
• Dinner & a movie (Bubba's & State Theatre)
• Two $25 gift certificates for Pangea's Pizza
• Legal services for last will & testament prep
• Wine & Cheese Basket
• Dinner at Apple Hill (Nancy's place) - season-dependent can include snow shoe hike, morel hunting
• Cookie Monster Fantasy (12 dozen ready-to-bake cookies)

If you'd like to contribute something to the auction please let Nancy know (nthornton@centos.net). Need not be present to donate!

What do Amy, Peter, Kathi, Jay (Berger), Linda, Nancy, Laura and Becky (Ewing) have in common? All have volunteered to assist with the 2015 District Conference. How can you help too?

• Host a dinner on Friday evening May 1st (budget allows $25pp reimbursement)
• Help transport Rotarians to/from the Friday evening dinners
• Serve as a speaker VIP to help make sure they get to/from airport and have what they need while in town.
• Help with the Sunday viewing of "Shot Felt Round the World" at State Theatre

If you can be available, please let Nancy (nthornton@centos.net) know that you're interested so she can pass that along to the right people on the conference committee.

Guests: Jennifer Hutchinson from Grand Traverse Pavilions, Andy Smits and Audrey and Joanna Geht

Visiting Rotarians: None

50/50: Steve McGregor won $21 in the 50/50 drawing

Announcements:

1. The Club Winter Social will be held at The Franklin on February 28.  Cost is $25 per person. 

2. Jane stated the Rotary Chorus will perform at the State Theatre April 22-25.  They are recruiting singers and information (on blue paper) is on the table at the entrance to the meeting room at the Elks Club. 

3. Tim informed us that the ad sales for the Rotary Show program are due March 13, 2015 and the Sunrise Club will receive the proceeds from ads sold by Club members. 

4. Brandon Bugai, our outbound student, will be going to Germany for his student exchange year.

5. The club board has approved Jay Buckmaster's membership application and presents it to our club members for review/comment.

Member Classification Talks

Guest speakers were Michelle McManus and Vic Geha. 

Michelle graduated from Traverse City Central in 1985 and subsequently earned a Bachelor of Science in Political Science from Central Michigan University.  She has been married to her husband, Keith, for 20 years and has two children, Mary (17) and Ben (7) as well as a stepdaughter, Jessica.  The family has lots of cars—Keith builds and sells cars.  Michelle grew up on a cherry farm and is an avid hunter.  Michelle was elected to the Michigan House of Representatives in 1992 and served 6 years.  In 2002, Michelle was elected to the Michigan Senate, serving 11 counties.  Two of the bills Michelle sponsored that she is most proud of are the bill requiring booster car seats for children in Michigan and in 2005, direct shipment of wine.  Michelle was term limited in 2010.  She came back to the private sector and worked for State Farm Insurance and is presently a loan officer at Honor Bank.
 
Vic Geha grew up in Detroit.  He is 57 years old.  He has four older sisters and was the spoiled baby of the family.  Vic is of Lebanese descent and attended various Catholic schools.  Vic’s family moved to Birmingham, where he attended Birmingham Brother Rice High School.  Vic was a member of the cheerleading squad; he and his fellow (literally) cheerleaders attended a cheerleading camp in Midland, where they were way outnumbered by the girls, which apparently was a good thing.  Vic and some of his friends formed a band as teenagers and are still playing together 40+ years later.  The name of the bank is Moose Wampler & the Overdays.  Vic met his future wife, Georgia, at Oakland University and they have two children, Josh and Amanda.  Josh lives in Austin, Texas and is planning a November 2015 wedding.  Amanda lives in New York City and is the manager at a ballet academy.  Vic is in the IT business;  he started his career at Zenith Data Systems over 30 years ago. He and Georgia later moved to Traverse City.  He has worked for Lloyd Business Machines, MicroAge and now Wyant Computer Services.  Vic was heavily involved with soccer/TBAYS and was instrumental in starting the soccer fields on Keystone Road in Traverse City.