03/06/14 Judy Budi and Ed Flohre

03/13/14 John Callander and Gerry Eastabrooks

03/20/14 Deb Delaney and Erich Eggers

03/27/14 Mike Gentile and Cynthia Fraley

If you cannot greet on the day assigned, contact Kitty and she will schedule a replacement

 

 

Feb.27, 2014, Centerville Rotary at The Clubhouse at Yankee Trace

Centerville Rotary Club president Judy Budi opened the meeting with the Pledge of Allegiance. Sivaji Subramaniam gave the prayer and Don Gebhardt led the singing of My Country Tis of Thee.

 

 

The guests at the meeting included Irene Ullmer, mother of member Kitty Ullmer, and Rotarian Ned Dull and his daughter Cindy, of Van Wert, and Bob Kilpatrick, a Miamisburg Rotarian. Our speaker, Tom Nichols, director of media relations for the Dayton Dragons, and Evan Elkins, corporate marketing manager for the Dayton Dragons, were also guests.

 

President Judy Budi announced that the District Conference will be April 4 and 5. Anyone interested in attending should contact her.

She noted that the volunteer date for the House of Bread is March 21 from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.

She said she received a notice from the Mont. Co. Common Pleas Court stating that the park district is looking for a new park commissioner. Anyone interested should let her know. 

Also, the next meeting will be time to start bringing in new shoes and socks for the Shoes for Orphan Souls program and bottles of wine for the basket to be in the silent auction at the District Conference. If you can't brings shoes or socks, you can write a check to the club with the word shoes on it, for the program.

Judy also noted that anyone wanting a special lunch should let her know so the club is not charged extra for it. If they are not on a list of always wanting the chicken salad luncheon, then they should let Yankee Trace know before the meeting they do want the special lunch. The club is charged extra for any special lunches ordered on the meeting day itself, she said. 

Club member Ron Hollenbeck said April 26 will be the Rebuilding Dayton day this year. The club organized a pit crew to do some repainting for the program last year, he said. 

Also the club will need some volunteer help for mulching at Hithergree May 3rd, he said. 

There will alsobe a need to have some members help deliver books to homebound seniors once a month as part of a literacy program at Hithergreen, he said. Members interested in helping out should contact Cynthia Fraley, he said.

 

Judy said the club will pay the $70 for members wishing to attend the March 22 Rotary Leadership Institute for District 6670 in Xenia. You can contact her for more information.

 

 

Brad Thorp introduced our speaker Tom Nichols, director of media relations for the Dayton Dragons. He said he was a graduate of Ball State University and had 27 years in the baseball industry, with the last seven years working with the Dayton Dragons. 

 

Nichols said this is the 15th season for the Dragons and after playing a bit of Trivia with the group, asking about the five mascots, players who went on to the majors, etc., giving out some Dragon souvenirs, caps, shirts, etc., he noted that the Dragons beat the all-time record in North America for consecutive sold-out dates for a sporting event with 815 on July 9, 2011. Its streak has continued with 983 consecutive games at this point in time. 

Nichols said two of the part owners of the Dragons, Magic Johnson, and Archie Griffin were at the July 9 game. Three former Dragons players that became Reds players were helicoptered to the game from Cincinnati, which only took 20 minutes, he said. That event made national news and was covered by CNN, USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, NY Times and ESPN, the Today Show, etc. 

 

Nichols said the target market for the Dragons game crowd is "the family," parents and their children, grandparents, etc.

Hence the game is entertainment oriented in a Disney fashion with mascots and fun events like a baby crawling race with the fans getting involved. 

 

Nichols said 63 Dragons players have gone to the major leagues. It can be a five to six year journey to get there, going from one step to the next. The team gets just 25 players on their roster each year, he said. The owners of the team are most concerned with developing those on the team into someone they would want to join the Reds, he said, so they might play someone that otherwise might not be played in certain situations, so that person can develop. Such was the case in a fast ball pitcher, who threw rather wildly, at least at first, he said.

 

Nichols said the first game will be April 1 and that tickets are still available now and that there are 9-game packages and suites to rent, etc. They have group tickets available still, so to make it a sell-out, more tickets still need to be sold, he said.

 
The players make $1,100 a month for the five months they work, which is just $5,500, he said. If successful,  they can make a minimum of $485,000 a year in the majors, with some making an average of three to four million a year and the top player right now making $275 million over a 10-year contract. 

 

 

 

 

Did you know you don't even have to be on Facebook to see what's posted on the Centerville Rotary Facebook page? You can get to it easily by clicking on the FB link on the home page of the club's website.

 

Each week in the eBulletin, we'll make it even easier for you to connect through social media, by including links to our Facebook, website, and LinkedIn.