Crowley Rotarians hold annual club assembly

Each year in January, the Rotary Club of Crowley takes a break from weekly informative programs to discuss the club’s work and find ways to grow and improve each year.
Tuesday, it was time again for the Crowley Rotary Club’s club assembly, where the committee chairs took over the meeting.
President Mary Zaunbrecher invited the Rotarians to present questions to the chairs concerning the committees roles in the club.
First up was Community Service Committee Chairwoman Melinda Malmay, who fielded questions about the club’s involvement in the city of Crowley’s Cleanest City Contest clean-up day; some of the biggest fundraisers and charitable acts the club has participated in over the past few years and the prison library project, which was explained in greater detail by Peggy Sandidge.
Malmay fielded suggestions on improvements in several of those ventures, including the adoption of a slogan for the City Clean-Up Day and the addition of more books to the prison library.
Second on the agenda was Scott Privat, chairman of the Club Service Committee. Privat welcomed more ideas for club socializing outside of the annual Christmas Social and crawfish boil and discussed the work of new members and the New Members Committee.
Privat discussed the idea that the club should look at itself to see if it is missing any occupations and/or invite new business owners in the community to join as the club looks to not only maintain its membership – which currently sits around 80 – but grow in size as well.
Amy Thibodeaux, chairwoman of the Vocational Service Committee, talked extensively about the club’s scholarship program, encouraged her fellow Rotarians to participate in the Career Expo next month (Feb. 24) and talked about vocational speeches and awards.
The club, Thibodeaux explained, presents $500 scholarships to three graduating seniors each year (one at Northside Christian, one at Notre Dame and one at Crowley High). Those scholarships follow the students for all four years of college so long as he or she re-qualifies for the award.
Fourth on the agenda was International Service Committee Chairwoman Susan Comeaux who talked about the upcoming Rotary International Convention (set for June 6-9 in São Paulo, Brazil), the Rotary Foundation and, of course, polio. Comeaux called on some of her sub-committee chairs to help better explain Rotary Foundation and PolioPlus.
Three countries remain on Rotary International’s radar in regards to polio. The debilitating disease has been eradicated in all but Afghanistan, Nigeria and Pakistan.
Finally, Adrianne Vidrine, chairwoman of the Youth Services Committee, discussed the relatively new fifth avenue of the service of the club.
Youth Services, formerly known as New Generations, was created in 2010 as Rotary International began putting a higher emphasis on children and young adults. These avenues include school clubs (there are four in Crowley alone at Ross Elementary, Crowley Middle School and Notre Dame and Crowley High) as well as a Rotary exchange student program and leadership program.