Milwaukee North Sunrise Rotary Meeting –February 20, 2020 – Minutes
Attendees:  Dr. Willie Hart,  Monica Phillip,  Cynthia Roberson,  Buzz Althoen, Greg Williams,  Diane Beckley,  Sharon Adams
Guest:  Asst. District Gov. Rob Bassett
The meeting was called to order by President Willie, who led us in the Pledge and the Four Way Test.  Invocation was given by Cynthia Roberson...
President Willie welcomed our guests, Asst. District Gov. Rob Bassett, and our speaker Brett Bennett.
Buzz Althoen, as Sgt. At Arms pro-tem collected $17.
Good News/Bad News:
Sharon shared the gratefulness of Brown Street School for the books written by Isaiah Thompson.  The school expressed a desire to carry on a relationship with our Rotary Club, and has invited us to participate in their Winter Festival on Friday from 12 noon to 2:30 PM.  Members from our club intending to attend are President Willie, Sharon, Cynthia and Greg.
Diane passed out a wanted flier for a Pool Manager at St. Ann’s.  She is also looking to hire dentist and salon manager.  If we know of anyone, she asked that we contact her.
Diane also bragged about her granddaughter and son going to their first Daddy/Daughter Dance.
President Willie was recognized in the press along with other sorority members in an article and picture.  She also told us about her Gospel singing group, The Majestics,  being selected as a musical for an upcoming movie.  The group will also be performing at the Gospel Fest in Milwaukee this year.
Greg asked that we pray for a good humanitarian spirit to develop in our city which seems to be filled with so much violence lately.
CLUB BUSINESS:
Because of so many members not being able to attend March meetings, it was decided that we will not have club meetings on March 5th and March 12th.
Buzz gave an update on our Veteran’s project leader, Dennis Johnson.  It does not look like he will be able to coordinate the two collections our club does for the Vets.  No one has stepped up to take his place with this particular project.  We may not be doing the appliance and warm clothing collections for the Vets this year unless someone from Veterans Services has someone to coordinate with us.
President Willie reminded everyone that nominees for “Unsung Hero” this year are due by May 1st.   She also reminded us that applications for scholarships are due May 1st and should be handed in to our Secretary, Monica Phillip.
President Willie reminded us that we need to select a date in June and a place to have our Anniversary/Changing of the Guard dinner.  Please come with suggestions at next week’s meeting.
Speaker:  Monica introduced our speaker, Brett Bennett, Director of Ocular Benefits and Operations Director for the SKYGEN International Foundation.
Mr. Bennett gave us a presentation and video on SKYGEN, whose mission is to find cost effective ways to improve healthcare in underserved parts of the world by using emerging technologies.  Throughout 2018-2019, Brett embarked on 3 separate humanitarian missions to Tanzania, Africa to establish mobile vision clinics, train local staff and provide much needed vision testing and eyeglasses to tens of thousands of local Tanzanians in need.  Tanzanians have limited access to vision care due to very limited numbers of eye doctors…..only 4 doctors for 2,000,000 people.  Sixty-eight percent of the people live below the poverty average of $1.90 per day.  Two-thirds of the population is 25 years old.  This means there are a lot of kids in need of visual assistance.  SKYGEN has two Tanzanian optometrists working with 121,500 patients.  Last year 27,000 pairs of glasses were supplied.  Of the organization’s funding, 95% is used for eye exams and glasses.
President Willie thanked our speaker for his presentation and presented him with a Rotary pen.
Raffle:  Cynthia’s number was called and she pulled out a blue marble so the count is 2 blue and 1 white at the next meeting.
The meeting was adjourned at 8:40 AM
Respectfully submitted,
Monica Phillip, Secretary

UPCOMING PROGRAMS:
February 27 –Toni White, Director – Employ Milwaukee
March 5 – NO MEETING
March 12 – NO MEETING
March 19 – Open
March 26 - Open
May 7  -  Past District Gov. Jeff Reed – Rotary Trip to India

LIST OF EVENTS FOR 2019-2020 YEAR:
1.	VETS COLLECTION OF WARM CLOTHING – OCTOBER (FLIERS AND COLLECTION DATES) (DONE)
2.	POLIO PLUS “END POLIO IN THE WORLD” DAY – OCTOBER 24, 2019 (DONE)
3.	COLLEGE SCHOLARSHIP- APPLICATIONS DUE MAY 1, 2020
4.	CHRISTMAS WITH DIGNITY – DECEMBER, (DATES) START WORKING ON IN SEPTEMBER, 2019 (DONE)
5.	OUTBOUND YOUTH EXCHANGE – CANDIDATE NEEDED
6.	4TH GRADE ESSAY CONTEST – APRIL, 2020 – JUNE, 2020 –CANOE TRIP AND CLUB PRESENTATION
7.	WORLD AFFAIRS SEMINAR – JUNE, 2020 (NEED TO FIND A STUDENT)
8.	VETS COLLECTION OF KITCHEN ITEMS – JULY 18, 2020 (FLIERS AND COLLECTION DATES)

CHRISTMAS PARY – DECEMBER, 2019 (DONE)
ANNIVERSARY/CHANGING OF GUARD DINNER – JUNE, 2020