Eau Gallie Rotary Club Ramps Up Philanthropy and Community Engagement for 2024
Tuesday, January 23, 2024
Members are reminded to complete the club survey by February 2, accessible via email or the provided link, with submission acknowledgment required for entry into a February 6 prize drawing. Updates include the January 30 social at Pineapples, information on using Qualified Charitable Distribution (QCD) for tax-free donations to the Rotary Foundation, and an announcement about the 2024 Kids’ Fishing Clinic. The meeting recap includes introductions, a foundation contribution initiative, a fundraising auction for the Rotary Foundation, a financial recap of the Brewfest event, and an explanation of the difference between the Eau Gallie Rotary Club and its Charities. Other highlights include details on the grant application process for 2024, coordination of the club's support for Rotary Hod Hacarmel in Israel, and the announcement of an upcoming social event at Pineapples.

Melbourne Police Kids Fishing Clinic
Important request: Be sure you fill out the club survey by Feb. 2. See your inbox for the survey or click on this link https://forms.gle/29kX8HgKUJZbdRGE7. Bring in your submission acknowledgment (or if you already completed it and didn’t print out/save your submission acknowledgment receipt, let Mary know) to be entered into a drawing for a prize. Drawing will be Feb. 6.

Important calendar information: the Jan. 30 social will be held at Pineapples. Details as to when, etc. will be forthcoming via email.

Important additional info on using QCD (Qualified Charitable Distribution) to make contributions to the Rotary Foundation as discussed at the 1/16/24 meeting: The Qualified Charitable Distribution (QCD) is available to those over 70½ to give directly to 501(c)3 organizations from pre-tax IRAs with no tax consequences for the withdrawal.  This is particularly attractive to us who have Required Minimum Distributions (RMD) because the QCD also counts as the RMD.  Put another way, those over the age of 70½ can give to charity (The Rotary Foundation) from their IRA without having to pay taxes on the IRA distribution.
 
Fishing clinic: See attached for a flier regarding details for the 2024 Kids’ Fishing Clinic.

Now to the recap itself:

Meeting was called to order by our FL. Bruce provided the invocation, Al the pledge, Rick the song.

Gary introduced his guest, Cassie Pericak, Florida Tech.

Al provided the Foundation minute. In an effort to get the club back to a 100% participation in contributing to the Rotary Foundation, Al and Jim will be contacting those who didn’t make a contribution last year to talk about how/if they will be interested in contributing to the Foundation this year.

Mary won the weekly pot of $6 but failed to win the $156 rollover pot.

Brian served once again as the esteemed sergeant-at-arms.  He first collected $1 from all non-pin/logo wearers even if the pin/logo was in your pocket. Mirth was provided by Paul, Jen, Charles, and Rich. Topics ranged from the pope’s arthritis to the line of men at a barbershop to the Dallas Cowboys. Many happy dollars were shared plus one sad dollar from Eric reporting their illness contracted on their get-away cruise.

Tom Q held an auction of a lovely watercolor called Highland Sunrise painted by a local artist. Jen bid $75 as the highest bidder. Proceeds will be earmarked for the Rotary Foundation.

Rich Sutter distributed invoices and pointed out the invoices contained the option to make contributions to the Foundation and/or to Polio Plus.

Tom R provided the Brewfest Financial recap: The gross revenue was over $100,000 if you count in the “in-kind” donations; ticket sales were $50,865.16; expenses were $48,648.98 for net profit of $47,003.00. Congrats to all for a job well done.

On behalf of Corrie who was under the weather and not able to be at the meeting, our FL reminded us of the area of focus service survey and urged all to complete. Details are above. Jen and Steve reported they had completed the survey.

Brian gave the Cliff Notes version of the difference between the Eau Gallie Rotary Club and the Eau Gallie Rotary Charities. The club is a 501c.4 Social club that funds the club’s operating expenses while the charities is a 501c.3 and receives the proceeds from our fundraiser such as the Brewfest and distributes these proceeds to the various charities we support.

Tom Q reviewed the process being implemented for the grant process this year. A committee of four is reviewing the applications from last year, answering 10 questions that hope to capture a variety of characteristics of the grant submitted, and submitting their reviews by Feb 18. Tom will compile these results and determine the organizations to receive grant applications for the 2024 grants process. The deadline for submission of grant application will be April 2, a hard deadline. If a member has a charity that want to be considered for a grant, get with Gary to schedule a date when a representative from the organization can come to a club meeting to present information on the organization needs. Jen and Lois have indicated an interest in doing this.

Our FL announced that Jen will be coordinating our club’s support of the Rotary Hod Hacarmel (Israel) as the club is contributing directly to projects and requests for needs that are not being met by any other group or authority. The club will be joining us via zoom for a meeting in February. The hope is other area Rotary clubs will also join us at the meeting as well as in financial support for the Rotary Hod Hacarmel. Stay tuned for more details.

The 5^th week social will be held at Pineapples on 1/30. More details to come.

The meeting was closed with our motto “Service Above Self.”