August 8, 2022
Meeting Minutes
President Faye Hargrove rang the bell and called the meeting to order.
Jeff Flowers gave the pledge and invocation.
Richard Rogers gave the Sunshine Report today.
Club members introduced their guests in attendance today.
Announcements
- Please continue to sign in each week so that we have a record of attendance.
- We have added the virtual meeting option back for those who cannot attend in person but still wish to participate in meetings.
- President Faye played a compelling video showing the impact of Rotary around the world and encouraging young members to join us.
- Our speaker on 8/15 will be Penny Wasden with Women in Philanthropy and 8/22 will be Georgia Lieutenant Governor, Geoff Duncan.
GRSP
Our GRSP student, Simbainshe Mutoti from Zimbabwe, announced the Mutoti family was joining the meeting via Zoom today.
CART: President Faye asked everyone to please continue to contribute to the blue buckets on the table or online at mycartfund.org using the same login credentials you use with DACDB. During the last Rotary year we donated $17,262.55 to CART.
PDG Ed Presnell came forward and presented Past President Shanda Vaughn the Zone 34 Membership Award for the 2021-2022 Rotary Year.
President Faye reminded the club that we currently have 161 active members with a goal to reach 165 before the end of the Rotary Year. She also thanked Jerry Woods, Membership Chair, for his work to reach this goal.
SAVE THE DATES
- August 18 will be Rotary Night at the Augusta Greenjackets Game. Tickets will be $27 per person and flyers are on the table to sign up.
- The annual College Pick-em will kick off on August 22nd with scouting reports from various teams. We will have a special gameday menu that day.
Program
Susan Jernigan gave an overview of the GRSP program which was founded in 1946 by Rotarian Will Watt. GRSP is not an exchange program since we are not sending students to reciprocal schools. It is an ambassadorial scholarship program that allows a student to come here and learn our customs and traditions while also expanding their education. Since its inception, there have been over 3600 alumni of the program representing 108 different countries.
Susan then introduced our current GRSP student, Simbai Mutoti. Simbai gave a fascinating presentation on his family and his country, Zimbabwe. Simbai has a twin sister and then a younger brother and sister. His father owns a gold mine and a food export business. Both his mother and father are active in the United Methodist Church serving as a lay leader and an elder.
Simbai is very well rounded with a strong athletics background in field hockey, rugby, swimming, and cross country. He also plays guitar, chess, and enjoys camping. He gave a brief performance using an Mbira (um-beer-ra) which is a type of handheld guitar.
He gave the club a very informative presentation on the structure of his country which includes 11 districts/tribes and sixteen different languages. Zimbabwe has approximately 15 million people and is roughly the size of California. Sazda, made of cornmeal and water, is the main staple for his country and livestock/herding is its main form of commerce.
After finishing his remarks, Simbai presented President Faye with the Mbira as a gift from his Rotary Club to ours.
Following questions from the audience, President Faye led us in reciting the four-way test and adjourned the meeting.
Easy links to pages on our website
Rotary schedule of meeting dates and speakers
Member Proposal Form
Online directory - Find a member or update your information
Bulletins - Weekly bulletins from 2014-current
