• Aaron McDermid, filling in for President Matt Rupert, reminded us that the Festival of the Superstitions is coming up quickly. Rotary will be working the beer garden again, so Aaron passed around a sign-up sheet for volunteers. Dates are: Saturday and Sunday, November 7 and 8.
• A brief golf committee meeting followed the day’s lunch meeting.
• Aaron also reminded everyone that the override election is coming up quickly (November 3). Aaron’s handsome mug graces the latest postcard from Save Our Schools, endorsing the override on behalf of the Chamber of Commerce. Please be sure to vote!
• The club received a thank you card from the Community Alliance Against Family Abuse (CAAFA). Sharon Stinard told us that the recent “Giddy Up Gala” fundraiser drew the largest crowd they have ever had. The event was very successful, and CAAFA has already pledged to “do the Western theme again.” CAAFA is dedicated to providing domestic violence and sexual assault victim advocacy and community prevention in Northern Pinal and Eastern Maricopa counties. 
• Jim Erickson repeated his request that Rotary Club members sign up for “My Rotary.” We still need eight more members to sign up on “My Rotary” to achieve the 60% goal.
• Dan Govinsky informed us that our club just made a $2,500 donation to the Rotary Annual Fund. Donations are made in the name of individual members; everyone should be receiving a letter from Rotary International, thanking you for the donation.
• ​The pot today was worth $250.  Aaron McDermid won the drawing and $10 but drew the 8 of spades.

Jay Jones introduced the speaker, Rod Daniels of the Mesa West Rotary Club. Rod is the District Polio Fund Chair. Rod was also the five-time president of the Chandler North Rotary Club, until that club melded into the Mesa West Club this past January. His passion in Rotary is Foundation; specifically, Polio. About a year ago, Rod’s extensive Rotary resumé grew to include the position of District 5510 Polio Program Chair.

Polio has been around for a very long time. “It is a horrible disease, but with our partners, we will eradicate polio from the face of our earth.” Who are the partners in the fight against polio?

• The Manager: World Health Organization (WHO) – coordinate the management, administration, technical and operational support

• The Virus Hunter: Center for Disease Control (CDC) – investigate reports of the outbreak of polio and identify the strain

• The Immunizer: UNICEF – distribute and administer vaccinations

• The Multipliers: Bill and Melinda Gates – donating 2 for 1 up to $35 million annually through 2018

• The Foot Soldiers: Local Health Workers – go door to door, speaking to mothers and convincing them of the importance of polio vaccinations

• The Gatekeepers: National governments

• The Advocate: Rotary International; if it weren’t for Rotary’s business acumen, people skills, fundraising ability, and constant drive, the fight to end polio would not have come so far

In 2013, an “End Game Strategic Plan to End Polio” was drafted. The strategy includes:

• Polio detection and interruption

• Injectable Polio Vaccine (IPV) and Oral Polio Vaccine (OPV)

• Certification

• Legacy Planning

There are three types of polio. Type 2 has been eradicated; type 3 “we’re pretty sure” has been eradicated; and that leaves type 1. Southeast Asia was certified as polio-free in March, 2014, leaving two of the six regions yet to go. (Certification is established by region, rather than by country.) No new cases had been reported in more than a year, until two outbreaks appeared in the Ukraine 16 days ago. “Reason: they stopped giving the vaccine. We’ve kicked polio! But they stopped giving the vaccine, someone came in with a circulating virus, and there were two outbreaks as a result. The CDC jumped in, as per the strategic plan, and they stopped it.”

In Pakistan, there were 230 new cases in 2014 between January and October. In that same time span this year, there have been 38 new cases. “We’re closing in,” but efforts cannot stop because we’re getting close. Polio strikes children under age 5, causing paralysis and sometimes death. If the eradication campaign were to stop right now, it is estimated that by 2022 – just seven years - 200,000 children would be afflicted annually due to circulating viruses.

Short of going to Pakistan or Afghanistan to distribute vaccines, what can you do?

• Advocate

• Fundraise

• Educate

World Polio Day is October 24, but this year, we are celebrating World Polio Week. Through October 24, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation will match donations 2:1.

For more information, go to:

• Global Polio Eradication Initiative – PolioEradication.org

• End Polio Now – EndPolio.org

Rotary Club Central is also an easy resource to check on your own contributions, what Rotary is doing, what your club is doing, and numerous links that you can follow to gain more information.

The Benefits of MyRotary

Did you know that as of October 1, 2015 only 13 of our club’s 43 members have

logged into MyRotary on the Rotary International website. That represents a

percentage of .3023. Now if you were a baseball player, a batting average of .302

would be close to making you a super star. However, as an indicator of how many of

our club members have used this very useful tool, the number tells kind of a sad story.

So what would seem to be the problem? I suspect the members that have not used

MyRotary either do not know how to use the site, or they don’t care to use the site. In

other words they see no benefit to MyRotary.

Located on the Rotary International website is a short 3 part video course entitled

Learn Rotary – The New Rotary.org. You can find this material at

http://learn.rotary.org/pages/course/CourseMaterial.aspx?courseid=106

The third video in this course is entitled “My Rotary Video Tour.” The video, which

runs about 11 minutes, does a very nice job of explaining MyRotary, how the site

works, the information that can be found on the site, and most importantly, how to log

into MyRotary if you have never done so. You can even go back and watch how to

log in more than once if the pace of the video is too fast for you! It would behoove all of

our members to watch this video and then establish an account at MyRotary. Am I

dreaming? Perhaps – but even if we could raise our usage from 30% to 60% we as a

club would be money ahead. And who knows, we might even collectively become

more knowledgeable about Rotary.

Once you have established an account at MyRotary you’ll be able to create your own

personal profile. You’ll find a quick club snapshot and you will be able to access

Rotary Club Central and view your club’s goals. Look these goals over. You might

learn something you didn’t know about your club, as you will see information on

membership trends, gender trends, and age trends. You’ll see information about

goals, engagement, communication, and public relations. You will be able to view

your giving history, and finally, if you so choose, you’ll be able to make donations to

The Rotary Foundation.

BUT WAIT – THERE’S MORE! You will also find featured links that will provide useful

and interesting information. On the top menu bar you’ll see where you can exchange

ideas, take action, find learning and reference material, find management tools for club

administration, find information about TRF, find RI news and information, and access

various online tools. Do you know what TRF is? I hope so, but if not it is The Rotary

Foundation.

So what is stopping you? Click on the link above (or type it into your browser) and get

started on MyRotary. Let’s see if by the end of this month we can have registered

MyRotary users at 60%. If you need help in this I’ll be happy to provide same. And by

the way, are you/we taking the over or under on the 60% number?