President Brian Hayes welcomed everyone to the Centerville Rotary Club and led the Pledge of Allegiance. PDG Harvey Smith provided the prayer.
President Hayes had the following announcements:
- Our Club Theme this month covers the area of Youth Services
- Our thought of the moment comes from writer, Rita Mae Brown who said “I finally figured out the only reason to be alive is to enjoy it."
Adam Manning announced the Golf Outing last Friday went well and gave a big thanks to everyone who volunteered and to those who sponsored the outing. Once all of the bills are paid, he will share the final financial report.
Mike Wier sent a message that the Dayton Dragon’s group tickets will be good for the July 6 game. Please let him know if you plan to attend.
Monthly Theme: Youth Services
50th Anniversary Committee Tidbit was shared by Ginger Clark
Ginger highlighted our Dictionary/Thesaurus program and noted the District has given financial support every year we’ve done this project. (Some members estimated it to be 16-20 years.)
Ginger asked for a guess on how many dictionaries and thesauri we’ve given throughout the history of this project. Gerry Eastabrooks received a prize for guessing closest to 42,400. Ginger said we give out 700 copies of each book per year (but didn’t know how many years we’ve done this project at the time of calculations.)
We will be sending our Happy Bucks for this quarter through Matthew 25 Ministries to provide support where needed in the Ukraine.
Sergeant of Arms this week was Adam Manning.
Happy Bucks this week were given for:
- Adam Manning shared that two years ago at a fundraising meeting as we were coming up with ideas on how to raise money, Harvey Smith suggesting having a Golf Outing. Thank you Harvey!
- Uriah Anderson announced the Joyce Young room dedication will be this Monday, 12:30 pm at the Enrichment Center and all are invited. He then gave $40 for his 40th birthday today.
- Carol Kennard was wearing a mask today and explained she had a great weekend in Columbus where granddaughter, Kaycee was in a dance competition and daughter, Emily came over from Pittsburgh for the weekend. Unfortunately Emily tested positive for COVID yesterday, so Carol was taking precautions by wearing a mask. Everyone else is feeling fine.
- Ginger Clark announced the Park District received a $310,000 H2Ohio grant for Grant Park stream bank restoration and stormwater improvements which will improve the water quality in Holes Creek at Grant Park/Nature Nook area.
- Ray Merz was happy he and Sue spent time with their son and daughter-in-law in Toledo for Mother’s Day
- Jeff Senney gave some of his Golf Outing winnings as he was the lucky winner of the 50/50 prize.
- Gerry Eastabrooks for Ukraine.
- Lee Hieronymus announced he showed up for his first 50th anniversary committee meeting today, shared some of his thoughts and was not invited back ;-) (Is it the truth, Lee?)
- Don Stewart was happy.
- Frank Perez had great weekend in Columbus (and no one got COVID), and will have another wedding in October (his son.)
- Chuck King is leaving for Orlando to visit his 93 year old uncle, and said his air conditioner heat pump went out last night so this may be the last time he has money to give for Happy Bucks!
- Crissy Allums was happy to be here.
- Bill Menker announced the library is getting ready to open a maker space at RecPlex that will be called Creativity Commons - it is a studio-like space with printers, laser engraver, sewing machines, etc.
- Susan Schnell announced her clean laundry pile today only had euros, and her washing machine broke, so she hopes to have clean American money next week. Her daughter, Lane is home from American University for the summer and was visiting Rotary today.
- Elda Gotos-Gay was happy as both of her sons are getting better. She was sorry to miss the Golf Outing.
- Sofie Ameloot was happy but regretfully announced her daughter just became a Kiwanis officer!
- Jim Harris was happy.
- Boyd Preston gave congratulations to the golf committee, congrats to Ginger for receiving the grant, and sorry Sofie is no longer mother of the year!
- Ron Hollenbeck for Ukraine and Lee being a good Rotarian (Is it the truth, Lee?), and said it is a joy to sit between two beautiful minds.
- Matt Kuhn announced his daughter passed the California Bar. Congrats Lauren!
- Dale Berry said until last week he had never been to a golf outing. He helped at our outing last week and said it was a great experience/event. Congrats to the committee for a well planned/executed event.
- Harvey Smith gave for Ukraine.
Uriah was then serenaded with the Happy Birthday song.
Our speaker today was Aaron Primm from the Dayton Mediation Center.
Aaron Primm said the Dayton Mediation Center is part of the City of Dayton and was created in 1987. They currently have 9 staff, 3 contractors, and 50 volunteers. Very few mediation centers are affiliated with a city, so they are unique.
They receive 1,800 referrals annually and conduct 1,000 conflict interviews. They have 17+ years experience on staff - some of the best mediators around.
They conduct transformative mediation - help change the quality of the conflict and support people by not telling them what to do.
What is mediation? Serve as a neutral third party to help people talk through issues. Not an attorney but finds himself in court quite a bit. By law, he can’t talk about anything spoken about in mediation.
They provide this free service to all who live, work or go to school in the City of Dayton. It can be an alternative to judicial system at any stage of the conflict. In juvenile program, individuals can come to them before going to court, hopefully at the early stage of conflict. They try to effect positive systemic change.
Mediators don’t scold or dictate, do not share personal thoughts or feelings, and do not let any feelings show on their face. Aaron quipped that real life is far more entertaining than what you see on TV.
Aaron is in charge of the Landlord/Tenant - Homelessness Prevention program. Oftentimes cases are sent to mediation to solve before going to court.
Basis of what they do is to change destructive & constructive cycles. Trying to change other people because they’re wrong or stupid doesn’t work. People want to change other’s behavior, but often times by changing how we approach an issue, can lead to a change their behavior, too. Not necessarily agreement, but understand where the other person is coming from.
Located across from juvenile court.
Cost for someone outside of Dayton depends on the specific program - landlord/tenant or parenting is free no matter where you live. Sometimes depends on whether you’re willing to come to their office downtown. Generally $100/hr but is negotiable. Their base funding comes from the City of Dayton, and also received some funding from Montgomery County and grant money.
Aaron said they have a new Mediation Response Unit - mediators will respond to non-violent 911 calls, to help provide alternatives to police response, and reduce the number of low emergent 911 calls.
Oftentimes the Issue brought forward is not the real issue but by talking it through, the true issue usually comes to the surface.
For more information, contact Aaron Prime at:
Dayton Mediation Center
371 West Second Street, 3rd Floor
Dayton, OH 45402
(937) 333-2349 ext 2
President Hayes said next week our speaker will be Mark Willis who will be talking to us about the Hall Hunger Initiative
Also, keep in mind that there will be a Board Meeting on Monday, May 23rd @ 5:30 pm. Zoom link will be forthcoming.
President Hayes lead the group in reciting the 4 Way Test and wished everyone a good week.
