Are you a Twitter? Do you have Tweeps?

Since most of us have no clue what a Tweep or a Retweet is, we invited Mark Heiner, our President Elect, to educate us on social media at the 690th meeting of the Rotary Club of Dixie Sunrise – the 45th meeting of this year! Wow, where is it going?

Mark gave us a brief “Twitter for Dummies” class or, as he pointed out, a “Twitter for smart people who feel dumb when using technology” class. Communication is changing and it is not wise to fall behind. While many of us assumed Twittering was for teenagers, Mark pointed out to us that many many businesses are using the vehicle to communicate information to customers, employees, colleagues. It is yet another vehicle to keep followers abreast of news. We also assume Twitter is all about cell phones, not true. The messages go to our computers unless we designate messages go to our “smart” (internet capable) phones. They can pile up fast, however. If you have become a “follower” of many sites you could get hundreds of Tweets per day.

It comes down to Twitter being a method of communication one might call micro blogging. It is the passing of information is very concise messages (a maximum of 140 characters). One can join Twitter sites for news updates, weather updates, traffic updates or selected deals such as vacation packages.

There are currently 3 BILLION (YES, BILLION) Tweets every day. Mark suggests that if you choose to have a Twitter site you should use the “rule of thirds” in posting information. 1/3 should be about yourself (your business), 1/3 should be about your competition, and 1/3 is the forwarding of information called a “retweet”. (Oh yes, if you are wondering what a “Tweep” is, it’s a follower of your Twitter.)

Did you get all that? If not, we’re going to invite Darrin Hallman to pick up this education in the near future and carry us forward into places like Facebook. It is all making my brain hurt, I’ll think I’ll take 2 aspirin, lay down, and hope the whole phenomenon passes.

Next week, more on the upcoming International Festival!
Have a great week! Marla

The Dictionary Project--photojourney

P.A.W.S, for paws and more paws!

On Thursday it was our pleasure to welcome Pat Dalpiaz, President of CarePoint Group Purchasing and Supporter and Advocate of PAWS to speak to the Club. Pat’s husband Paul, also a P.A.W.S. volunteer joined her to share with us the work of this organization.
The sad news is that more than 12 million dogs and cats are turned into animal shelters each year. Almost half are euthanized. Enter P.A.W.S. P.A.W.S. is a 501(c)(3) charitable organization formed for the primary purpose of decreasing euthanasia rates at local shelters through spay/neuter programs, public education, and the location of quality homes for homeless animals.
She told us why people have pets:

Unconditional Love

People ages 50-64: 45% have a dog - 27% have a cat

24% of pet owners over 55 celebrate their pet's birthday

57% of pet owners 55+ say their pets are more likely than their significant other to give them enthrusiastic welcome-home greetings!

P.A.W.S. had made significant contributions to our area: look at this slide!




Next week please join us for a great presentation on the use of Social Media. For many of us figuring out social media and how to use it is like “going where no man has gone before.” Let’s take the leap and learn it. See you then!
Marla Shelby-Drabner, President
Rotary Club of Dixie Sunrise

All Clubs Meeting welcome GSE Team

Thanks to the Red Rock Rotary Club for hosting and inviting us to share in the All Clubs Breakfast meeting on May 13th to meet the GSE Team and learn of the members, their vocations, their families and their culture.

Below, thanks to John Johnson in my absence, are some details of the group.

Each GSE Team member provided a personal Power Point presentation introducing us to their families, their places of employment, their personal interests, passions, hobbies or avocations.
Albertina Seillant, an English teacher, was the first presenter. She shared her passion for saving the Earth, it’s natural resources such as forests and water, with statistics that were impressive and educational.
One of the teachers, Maria Belen Garay and vice principal of her school, mentioned her school has over 1000 students and the staff of 40 teachers have access to only 2 computers.
Ann Marina Petrovic, the Team Leader has been President of her Rotary Club and is a recent graduate of Ancient Chinese Medicine, teaches Tai Chi, designs jewelry and is very active with several of her club’s projects.
Gustavo De Luca is a biomedical engineer and university professor. He works mostly with cancer research.
Lawyers Ana Maria Acchitte and Grima Machado described the type of law they practice and were delighted to be in Utah to experience snow for the first time.
All members commented on the beauty of Dixie and the friendly and kind people here. After the meeting, Brad Christensen Hurricane Elementary School Principal said all GSE members were taking a field trip of his school and then touring Zion Park.

And after this meeting our guys trooped off to deliver dictionarys.

More on that later.

May 20th, Pat Dalpiaz will tell us about the work of PAWS! See you then!

Marla

Aid Station #9 is #1 and Paul Harris Awards at last

Our meeting on May 6th was a celebration!

First, it was our pleasure to present the Paul Harris certificates, pins and medallions to Tyler Todd, Greg Walker, and Chantra Gooch. While the accomplishment was acknowledged some time ago the very special tangible awards were very delayed in coming. Paul was finally able today to complete the awarding of these recognitions which completed the acknowledgement of the second time this Club has achieved the status of a 100% Paul Harris Club, a goal of Paul's year as President.

Mark Heiner than took us to an update on the projects on-going from this year to next including the Rotary Licence Plate. If you have not signed up for one there is still time.

Then we celebrated the First Place win of Aid Station #9! It was GREAT FUN! See photos on the BLOG below. Thank you all who helped in any way, on the road, driving the shuttle (Herb, that would be you), the cooks, the photographers, the helpers, the runners, the entertainers, the volunteers one and all. While certainly not close to enough "thank you", it was my great pleasure to award to Paul and Lynn (with Lance as a proxy) the prestigious, first time every "U" Rock Award for organizing and pulling off this great fun and fundraising event. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Remember no Thursday meeting next week. All Clubs Breakfast hosted by the Red Rock Club on Wednesday and District Conference Thursday - Sunday! Attend as much as you can.

And, again Aid Station #9 "U" Rock!
Marla

Aid Station # 9 of the Ironman St. George

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, so here are about a million words on the Aid Station #9 project. :-)

Great Fun! Thank you all participants!

Thank you All who participated.

CERT

CERT

We had the pleasure of hearing from Valerie and Dave Seeley on April 29. The Seeley’s came to tell us about CERT – The Community Emergency Response Team. CERT is designed to be all hazard training for the general public. It is training for local citizens to be ready to help victims of a disaster AND to be better prepared themselves in times of disaster. Because Emergency Services are overwhelmed in times of disaster, CERT seeks to train local residents to be first responders and to put emergency preparedness in the hands of individuals.

Dave reminded us that all disasters are local. FEMA assistance takes 11 days to arrive and the effects of any event are felt where the disaster occurs – locally! CERT brings varied groups together to prepare for the unexpected. It bridges churches, school, clubs and citizens. With the current class there will 519 trained CERT volunteers in our community. The training is extensive and provides hands-on and practical experience to prepare volunteers. Training includes not just what to do but also what not to do in a disaster.

To learn more visit: http://www.bereadyutah.org/.

Dave and Valerie, thanks for coming!

Ironman NEXT:

And as a preview, we had a Rotarian visitor from Scotland who came all the way over to watch his son participate in the Ironman! Best of luck!

The Crossroads

Thanks PE Mark for conducting this meeting. The group heard from Dr. Thibault about The Crossroads program. Welcome Dr. Thibault.

CERT is our next program. Ironman coming up!