♦ Packers are needed on Thursdays. Please contact LETA KELLEY. On Friday afternoons the Back Pack Distribution committee could use more help. Please contact BECKY ROBLEDO or DICK RAHDERT if you can help.

♦ STAN MITHOEFER announced the Purposeful Living in Retirement conference on Wednesday, April 27th. The conference is open to all - Purdue related or not - retired or not. It is $10 well spent. For details and registration form, contact STAN.

♦ KIM MOTULIAK invited members to pack cereal at Food Finders from 9 - 11 this Saturday morning. Bring your kids or grandkids, spouse or friend and join the fun!

♦ SUSAN HYCHKA explained the Satellite Club Pilot Program offered by RI from 7/2011 till 6/2014 for those clubs whose application is accepted. It is suggested that our club might have a "Pub Club" after work in the downtown area. Before SUSAN writes the application, the club membership needs to approve of the idea. By a show of hands, there was unanimous approval from members in attendance today.

♦ Attention all Euchre players! There are now two opportunities. Steve and SUSAN HYCHKA have invited players to their house on Friday, April 1st. Beth and ROBERT SCHROEDER have invited the group to their house on Friday, April 22nd. Come at 6:30 bringing an appetizer to share and the wine of your choice. Sign up for one or both by contacting LETA KELLEY.

♦ LETA KELLEY, co-chair of the Family of Rotary committee, invited us to "take a trip to the opera." At noon on Saturday, April 9th at Lafayette Theater 10 there will be a behind the scenes tour followed by Rossini's comic opera "Le Comte Ory". The cost will be $18.50 for seniors ands a few dollars more fo under ages. The opera entertains for over three hours. By that time everyone will be hungry. Dinner is at Nine Irish Brothers. Since the private room there only holds 32, let LETA know now that you want to participate.

♦ Our District 6560 is offering matching points for Paul Harris Fellows for two more months. If you want to contribute to The Rotary Foundation (International), and want to get more "bang for your buck", write a check and give it to DICK RAHDERT or JANE.

TIM LUZADER presented this summary of the Board of Directors' decision regarding hosting a District conference in Lafayette in 2012.

About six weeks ago at the February Board of Directors meeting, DGN CRAIG SHERMAN shared his interest in holding the District Conference in Lafayette during his term as District Governor in 2012-13. He sees it as an opportunity for the District to better connect to clubs in the more northerly region of the District.

As you may have expected, we took this decision very seriously and Board members had many questions. We postponed the decision to support such a move until the March Board. Primary concerns voiced included the following:

♦ Sponsorship expectations to support the conference,

♦ Sponsorship capacity of this community to support the conference

♦ A potentially negative impact on fund raising for our Club's signature project, and

♦ The timing of the event potentially conflicting with significant community events.

Over the course of the month, factors impacting our decision-making evolved. We recognized that hosting the district conference could be a great opportunity to benefit our club as well as the Rotary cause. Postponing the Rotary Harvest Dinner to the night before the District Conference and offering a strong program (e.g. a World Food Prize presenter? a Purdue Glee Club performance?) with a theme focused on hunger, it would be an attractive event to district members as well as members of our club and community members. Such an arrangement would help us to accomplish our overarching goals of 1) promoting a core Rotary objective, 2) raise our profile among prospective members in the community, and 3) help us to secure financial support for our signature community project.

Relative to our sponsorship concerns, efforts would be extended both locally and throughout the district to support both the dinner and the conference. We as a Board realized that we do have a strong business case to make this district conference and harvest dinner arrangement work.

♦ There are a significant number of sponsorship prospects among communities represented by all Rotary Clubs in the district that could be drawn to both events.

♦ In the Lafayette and West Lafayette area, there are a significant number of businesses that would have a vested interest in gaining exposure to Rotarians throughout the district. Among them, grocery store chains, department store chains, financial institutions, residential complexes, and other organizations with a customer and recruitment base that stretches beyond our local area.

♦ In addition, the high profile and strong reputation of Rotary on an Int'l basis would help promote affiliation with multinational companies with Lafayette operations through support of these events.

Following this report at our March meeting, our Board of Directors voted to accept the invitation from the District to host the District Conference in Lafayette with the contingency that there be a funding model to support our signature project as well as the conference. Our own BILL HATFIELD, along with LEE JOHNSON will co-chair the conference and the committee work will begin next month.