Rotary's Theme for 2015-16

 

 

 

 

 

 

President Brad Thorp noted that member Bill Abrams is back after recovering for several months, and that member Fred Weir is back after being in the hospital after last week's meeting to be checked out for a heart attack. After numerous tests he was given the okay to return home and continue with his good works. 

 

Carol Kennard reminded everyone of the Oct. 15 meeting at Oak Grove Park, and the need to note whether you will be there and/or will also have a guest, so the correct number of meals can be ordered. If you need something other than the standard DLM box lunch, she asked that she be told, and no one requested a vegetarian meal, so she said the choices will be roast beef, turkey or ham, and a Killer Brownie. 

 

Boyd Preston headed up a group of members going to the building behind Cline Elementary School after last week's meeting to put labels on the dictionaries and thesauri to be donated to the area elementary school children in grades three and five. He and those who signed up to help present the books in the schools have been making the rounds and already have some thank-you letters from the children at one school.

 

Boyd said the 324 winter coats the club is providing to area children through Hannah's Treasure Chest are in and that Brad and Ron and he would be heading to Hannah's Treasure Chest for a picture to be taken for a press release for the newspaper. The picture can be seen above.

 

Ron Hollenbeck mentioned that there were more yard signs available to advertise the Oct. 24 Pancake Breakfast at Centerville High School, our biggest fund-raiser.

 

 

Sgt.-at-Arms Erich Eggers, on a business trip to California, was out golfing, so we are told, so Boyd Preston was asked by Brad to stand in for Erich. Boyd got some rousing applause, with encouragement from those who usually sit with him, and noted that (after conferring with Carol Kennard) that this month's Happy Bucks will be going to the Reclaiming Futures program that Montgomery County Juvenile Court Judge Anthony Capizzi and several others associated with the program explained to us at recent meetings.

 

It was noted that the Centerville Spirit Chain collected about $40,000 for charity, with the help of about $1,000 from our club, but that Kettering Fairmont won the challenge with around $80,000, getting a match of the money they collected from a local community member.

 

Dale Berry said his oldest granddaughter, Rachel Mount, who came with the Centerville High School Spirit Chain group to our club meeting recently to explain how the Spirit Chain works, was named Spirit Queen for collecting $7,600 for the charity fund-raiser, which will help Guatemalan children with their educational needs. Rachel, a Centerville High School senior, is also a member of the Centerville Interact Club.

 

Before introducing our speaker for this week, President Brad said he found some interesting information about Paul Harris, founder of Rotary. Brad said there is a focus on the vocational aspect of Rotary, and Paul Harris's own background as described on the Rotary Web site tells of the great diversity of jobs Paul Harris engaged in before settling down to take up the law practice he studied for. He got his law degree in 1891. Before turning to his law work, however, he first was a reporter for various newspapers in the West and also worked as a cowboy, teacher, and manual laborer picking fruit, raisins and oranges, before deciding to go to Chicago and practice law. He said he was going there for the purpose of living. Three people formed the first Rotary club, helping each other in business and the community.

 

Brad said our speaker, Mark Koogler, was working for Liberty Bank about five years ago when he was forced to take another career path when the bank was taken over by another bank. Brad, a financial advisor for Edward Jones, encouraged Mark to work for Edward Jones and then take on a branch of his own, in which he built up many clients. Brad said Mark and his wife are the parents of two foster children, a little boy and a little girl. He asked Mark to discuss the impact of Rotary on his life and career, looking at the 4-Way-Test,

      

 

 

Mark said his life, like most lives, has had its ups and downs. He said the story of life's ups and downs is portrayed in The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis. In that book a demon at the senior level has a nephew at the entry level he is mentoring. The demon's job is to get one to fail  and persuade people that truth is irrelevant, and to forget the undulations of life, so they will quit and give up. 

 

 Mark said his story is like that of the entry level demon. He said he was an entry level teller at a big bank and had a mentor tell him he would be good as a banker. He was hired against his will, he said. He was hired part-time and became a teller, then in two years, an assistant banker. He said he was told he was great and he began to believe it because he was one of the youngest managers at the bank. But then with the economic recession new small businesses ceased to exist and his job turned in a different direction and he was having to audit cashiers checks and manage employee schedules, etc. He was designed to be out on the prairie and yet he wasn't, he said

 

For about three years he felt his career had stalled and that he was at a low point career-wise. He had felt he was great and then suddenly he thought, "maybe I'm not so great."  He began interviewing, and interviewed 50 times. Three banks called him back five times but each time he didn't get the job, he said. He began having self doubts. "I asked myself, am I good enough?"

His bank was bought out by another bank and he was among the 25 percent of the workforce that was being laid off. His wife had ordered an expensive fertility treatment, but when he heard her was being laid off, he had to call her and tell her they could not afford it.

 

 "Enter Brad (Thorp, a financial advisor with Edward Jones)," he said. 
"He came to me multiple times and said, I think you would be awesome at this (being a financial advisor). He encouraged me to try. It was life changing," he said. "To say you can do this. You can do really well at this. To have someone to believe in you. He said, 'I swear to you I will not let you fail.' "

 Mark said his dad had told him: "Always do what's right and you'll never regret what you've done." Mark said he believes that's what Rotarians live by and that's the code of the 4-Way Test. It defines what's right to do, he said. The 4-Way Test asks four questions:

1. Is it the truth?
2. Is it fair to all concerned?
3. Will it build goodwill and better friendships?
4. Will it be beneficial to all concerned?

Being a good person is more important than any financial success you might have, Mark said. Being a good caring man or woman, being a good person, is what is of value, he said. "It's been a wild ride," he said.

In many ways it seems, he was also telling us: Be a gift to the World, the Rotary theme for 2015-16.