Rotary News

October 29, 2007

Editarian - Mary Jo Hawk

Visiting Rotarians:Cindy Carter, Tom McComb

Guests:John Brusse, John Blumenstrin, Bryan Zocher, Jeff Perry, Bobby Hopewell, Jim Wenlimorth, Martyn Croston, Teresa Thrash

Announcements:Tom Little was the winner of $250 in the District Foundation Raffle.Congratulations, Tom!Drew Elliott announced nominations for three directors for the Board are due including nominations for the President.

Ann Drummond shared a letter from last year's South African Rotary Ambassador.

November 19 is soup and salad lunch - proceeds go to the Ethiopian Promise project.

Happy Bucks:Rick Briscoe visiting four grandchildren;Stewart Sandstrom join Chamber of Commerce in discussing new tax proposal;Roger Stoorteboom is pleased his entire store is moved to the one main location from S. Westnedge;Jennifer Lang for her four year old son who went on stage with the Kalamazoo Symphony Saturday night;Stacy Ridenour for being able to wear Rotary earrings and have them count;Dan Hartlieb for Grand Valley football win and daughter's acceptance to Grand Valley;Mark Pollard for Planned Parenthood opening three more rural centers and his new grandson;Pat Norris for safe Halloween program;Jean Forrest for her basement buck;Marvin Veltkamp for November 19^th speaker on Ethiopia;Amy Krone for her 16^th wedding anniversary;Jerry Lord for Brett Favre breaking football records;Gordon Duisterhof for granddaughter who just left for China;Jim Holtgrieve offering flu shots at his office.

Program:Keith Roe introduced Hap Haach - Executive Director of Community Access Center.

Hap received his Masters at MSU, worked at a cable network in Ann Arbor then moved back to Kalamazoo.He worked under Joan Burke here.He told how they are under threat from the large cable companies.Their goal is to have diverse voices heard in the community.They rely on a consortium of five local governments for much of their support.This is an excellent example of inter-governmental cooperation.They have trained many in video production and serve many non-profits.

Hap showed a video clip of some of their projects.One such is "The Selling of Addiction" in cooperation with the Kalamazoo Foundation.In 2000 they moved to the Epic Center - a good move to be downtown.Their 25^th anniversary was in 2006.They are broadcasting community radio from 6PM to 6AM and can be heard on WKDS 89.9 FM.

Starting January 8^th they are introducing the channel allocation plan - channels will be allocated to specific topics - gov't, etc.They are becoming a digital multi-media center.You can view the Holiday Parade this Saturday, November 3^rd.