John Germ (Chattanooga) has been nominated by RIPE D. K. Lee and approved by the RI Board of Directors to serve a four-year term as a Trustee of The Rotary Foundation. John served as our district governor in 1996-97, as a director of Rotary International 2003-2005, was vice president of RI in 2004-2005, and chaired the Council on Legislation in 2007. He and his wife Judy are currently serving as Aides to RIP Wilf and Joan Wilkinson.

 

The other distinguished Rotarians who will also begin four-year terms as trustees in July are PRIP Bill Boyd (New Zealand), PRID Sam Okudzeto (Ghana) and PDG Doh Bae (South Korea).

 

When you have an opportunity, please extend your congratulations and best wishes to John and Judy.

 

Using a design contributed by Tom Ireland (Farragut) and hard work by DGN Bill Martin and Hanna Shapira (Oak Ridge), the district web site has a new name and location. The name change resulted from a license problem with the old name rotary6780.net. Please use your browser to select the new site and add it to your list of favorite sites. As much as possible, the latest news and information about our district and its programs will be found there.

 

Past issues of these newsletters will be available there shortly. When a login feature is added, contact information will be available so any Rotarian in our district can access up-to-date information that is currently in our district directory and much more.

 

For many years, our former site has been hosted, designed and managed by Bill Stone (Tullahoma) and Walter Gunne, who works for Bill. All their service was performed at no cost to the district. The Rotarians of our district are indebted to Bill for his excellent support. When you see or talk to Bill, please thank him for his contribution to our district communications.

At its annual Christmas Ball on Saturday night, the Sparta club celebrated the addition of 13 new Paul Harris Fellows! In addition, the club recognized Dr. Charles Mitchell (on the right in the photo with President Don Randolph) as a Major Donor to the Foundation. Foundation Chair PDG John Bailey assisted Randolph with the individual recognition and I presented the club banner recognizing the Sparta club for having achieved 100% Paul Harris status through its "Pay It Forward" program.

 

When you see a member of this club of 40 members, congratulate them on their significant achievement and dedication, and ask them about Pay It Forward.

For many years, the Oak Ridge Breakfast Club has provided parade marshals for the city's Christmas Parade. This year the club built a float with "Books in Toyland" as its theme. More than 40 Rotarians and family members were involved in the development of the float, the blimp in the photo, attending the float and blimp, and serving as marshals. Candy and more than 125 donated books were given to children along the parade route. The club members involved had a great time and are committed to giving away more books next year.

Sunday - Oak Ridge Breakfast Adopt-a-Street