Amanda Senn announced Happy Hour will be at Bar Lucci on Wednesday from 4-6 this week. If you stay, you can play Euchre! She also noted that later in September we will be at another trivia contest. Stay tuned!

 

Randy Smith reminded the members of the ad hoc fundraising committee would be meeting after today’s meeting. Anyone welcome to attend and be part of the brainstorming of possible fundraising ideas.

 

David Myers for his kids being back in school and for the great job Amanda did in setting up lunches for the past two weeks when we met at other locations.

Denise Baba in honor of our speaker for today.

Anita Herrington for the Guardians being in first place in their Central Division.

Asad Khan in honor, and as a reminder, of the tragic loss of life in Pakistan. On a lighter note, he also indicated he will be riding again and will certainly beat Paul Organ.

Kathy Myers for guest Debbie Smiles

Paul Organ in response to Asad. “Just wait,” or some such biker trash talk!

John Flynn for his two grandsons, who helped the Kenston Bombers beat the Chagrin Falls Tigers in soccer for the first time in 17 years!

 

Denise Baba introduced Scott Taylor as our speaker. Scott currently serves as the Chairman of The Portage Foundation, a position he started in on June 6. He had graduated from Kent State University and after serving in various positions else ware, he wanted to settle down in this area. He currently lives in Tallmadge with his wife and children.

 

Scott used the time he had to basically give an overview of his journey to this position. He had many stops along the way and some of the key points he made included the following:

 

-His initial major at KSU was in accounting, but he realized it wasn’t something he really was interested in. He was more interested in recreation and decided he wanted to own a sports fitness center.

 

-This interest led him to positions at the YMCA, where he served in many different locations and a variety of positions. This exposed him to many more non-profit organizations serving people. An example was his time in Butler County PA, where he established their Big Brother & Big Sister Programs.

 

-He found himself next working for the Youngstown Habitat for Humanity. He was challenged to change the culture after his experience as a volunteer for Habitat. He bought a vacant church to be used for training volunteers in the building trades, helping them understand the basic construction techniques.

 

-Eventually he landed a position at the Tallmadge YMCA, and then was recruited by the Akron YMCA, where he helped raise $11 Million Dollars for the building of the new downtown YMCA.

 

-The Portage Foundation position opened, and he applied. Since attaining the position, he has established a goal of making the Foundation sustainable for the next 30 years. In the immediate future, he hopes to provide training for people in writing grants, build relationships with people, and carry out the mission of the Foundation.

 

Scott closed by emphasizing the importance of his family and his commitment to this area.

In response to a question about the reestablishment of the Black-Tie Gala, Scott indicated that everything is on the table and discussions with the Foundation Board are being held to decide about programming. He also said there will be a 25^th Anniversary Raffle coming up.

 

Chas Madonio was the responder, using the moment to reemphasize the history of the foundation twenty-five years ago and noting Kent Rotarian Ralph Kletzien’s contributions to the Foundation. He also thanked Scott for coming on board and challenged him to change the image of the Foundation being “the best kept secret of Portage County".

 

The meeting ended with the recitation of the 4-Way Test.