Volume 65, Number 10

April, 2009

Short & Tweet

The Topeka Rotary Club mentioned in The Rotarian
 The Editor’s Blog
T he other day, I went to my mailbox and re-
trieved the latest copy of The Rotarian. I had
gone through this routine several times over
the past three or four months looking for an article
about how Rotary clubs are using Twitter. I was
particularly interested because I was interviewed for
the article. (see p.6)
Truthfully, its not that big of a deal, although it is al-
ways kind of exciting to see your name in print in a
national magazine. But what I am most excited
about is that Rotary is recognizing the importance
that social media has on the way in which we com-
municate in 2009.
What we do in our Rotary on the Web
club is not confined
to the readers of the  Rotary International
Rotopeka. Our club Website—
members are using www.rotary.org
websites like Twitter,
and Facebook to
share Rotary with  Rotary District 5710
their friends. When we send out our weekly meeting reminder, it is Website—
shared not with just our club, it is also sent to many members of the www.rotary5710.org
local media and others who might not currently be a member of
Rotary, but might have an interest in what we do.
 Rotary Club Website—
Many of you are sharing Rotary through your own Facebook pages www.downtowntopekar
and by ―twittering‖ about what we are doing. Each time you do otary.org
that, you are in effect telling someone else about Rotary. So tweet
away readers. Let the world know what we are doing here at the
Topeka Rotary Club. And while you are at it, send a social network-  Rotary International
ing friend an invitation to come and meet you at Rotary. Foundation—
www.rotary.org/
Each day, there are hundreds of postings from people all over the
foundation
world through Twitter. As I am writing this, there is a post circulating
the ―twitterverse‖ called 18 reasons to join Rotary. With the permis-
sion of the Kildaire Rotary Club of Cary, NC, which I received  Twitter—
through a Twitter communication, that is reprinted on page 3. www.twitter.com/
So why not join up with Rotary in cyberspace. There is so much topekarotary
more out there.
Greg

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Why Join Rotary? PUBLIC SPEAKING SKILLS Some indi- is expected to take part in the
viduals who join Rotary are afraid to growth and development of his or
FRIENDSHIP In an increasingly com- speak in public. Rotary develops her own profession or vocation; to
plex world, Rotary provides one of confidence and skill in public com- serve on committees and to teach
the most basic human needs: the munications and the opportunity to youth about one’s job or business.
need for friends and fellowship. It is practice and perfect these skills.
DEVELOPMENT OF ETHICS Rotarians
one of the two reasons why Rotary
CITIZENSHIP IN THE WORLD Every Ro- practice a 4-Way Test that governs
began in 1905.
tarian wears a pin that says ―Rotary one’s ethical standards. Rotarians
BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT This is the International‖. And every Rotarian are expected to be ethical in busi-
second original reason for Rotary’s is welcome at 32,000 clubs in more ness and personal relationships.
beginning. Everyone needs to net- than 200 nations and geographic
CULTURAL AWARENESS Around the
work. Rotary consists of a cross sec- regions. There are few places on
world, virtually every religion, coun-
tion of every business community. Its the globe that do not have a Ro-
try, culture, race, creed, political
members come from all walks of tary club. This means instant friends
persuasion, language, color and
life. Rotarians help each other and in one’s own community and in the
ethnic identity is found in Rotary. It is
collectively help others. world community.
a cross section of the world’s most
PERSONAL GROWTH AND DEVELOP- ASSISTANCE SSISTANCE WHEN TRAV- prominent citizens from every back-
MENT Membership in Rotary contin- ELING Because Rotary clubs are ground. Rotarians become aware
ues one’s growth and education in everywhere, traveling Rotarians can of their cultures and learn to re-
human relations and personal de- find a doctor, lawyer, travel ac- spect and work with people every-
velopment. commodations, advice, emer- where.
LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT Rotary is gency services, etc., by contacting PRESTIGE Rotary members are
an organization of leaders and suc- a local Rotary club. prominent people: leaders of busi-
cessful people. Serving in Rotary ENTERTAINMENT Every Rotary club ness, industry, the professions, art,
positions is like a college education has parties and activities that pro- government, sports, military, clergy,
in Leadership: learning how to moti- vide diversion in one’s business life. academics and all disciplines. Ro-
vate, influence and lead. Rotary has conferences, conven- tary is the oldest service club in the
CITIZENSHIP IN THE COMMUNITY tions, assemblies and institutes that world.
Membership in a Rotary club makes provide entertainment as well as OPPORTUNITY TO SERVE Rotary is a
one a better community citizen. The Rotary information, education and service club. Its business is mankind.
average Rotary club consists of the service. Its product is service. Rotarians pro-
most active citizens of any commu- DEVELOPMENT OF SOCIAL SKILLS vide community service to both the
nity. Every week and at various events local and international communi-
CONTINUING EDUCATION Each and functions, Rotary offers the op- ties. This is perhaps the best reason
week at Rotary there is a program portunity to develop one’s social for becoming a Rotarian – the
designed to keep one informed skills and people skills. chance to do something for some-
about what is going on in the com- FAMILY PROGRAMS Rotary provides body else and to experience the
munity, nation or world. Each meet- one of the world’s largest youth ex- fulfillment that comes in the proc-
ing provides an opportunity for dif- change programs; high school and ess.
ferent speakers and different topics. college clubs for future Rotarians; Rotarians believe in service above
FUN Rotary is fun. A lot of fun. Each spouse programs and activities; self. It is richly rewarding.
meeting is fun. The club projects are and a host of activities that invite ―HE PROFITS MOST WHO SERVES
fun. Social activities are fun. And participation by the whole family. BEST.‖
the service is fun. VOCATIONAL SKILLS Every Rotarian
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Reprinted with permission of Cary-Kildaire Rotary Club Cary, NC
 Minutes from March Board of Trustees
Secretary’s Report: Approved as presented.
Treasurer’s Report: Accepted as presented.
Rotary Club of Topeka
Officers February 28 Membership: 199
Resignation: were received from John Pinegar and
Tom Wright, accepted.
PRESIDENT—Kirk Johnson
New Member proposal: for Nancy Daniels was pre-
PRESIDENT-ELECT—Terry Wages
sented, Alvin moved to approve, Glenda seconded,
VICE-PRESIDENT—Gordon
Lansford
passed.

TREASURER—Gary Knoll Dictionary/Book Distribution - Glenda reported that a

SECRETARY—John Wall
few members are needed to help with distributions.
SERGEANT AT ARMS—Mike Locke Improving the Sound System: at our weekly meetings
Board Members was discussed, Mike Locke presented a written pro-
posal. There will be further discussion at our April
David Beck
board meeting.
Alvin Dvorak
Career Day: Fred reported that we have funds for one
Glenda DuBoise
$500 scholarship, needs a few more pledges for the
Fred Gatlin
2nd $500 scholarship.
Jennifer Haller
RYLA – Susan reported that she has ten serious inquir-
Henry McClure
ies.
Joy Moser
Fireside Chats – Jennifer reported that Marie Pyko is
Blanche Parks
chairing this annual event.
Susan Mauch
Golf Tournament Update: Henry reported it will be
Past President—Joan Wagnon
May 7, our regular weekly meeting will be held at the
course, sign up sheets will be on the tables at the
THE ROTOPEKA
March 12 meeting.
Editor—Greg Hill

Published Monthly by the Downtown Rotary Club of Next board meeting: will be April 8 at the Topeka
Topeka

Downtown Ramada Inn, Suite 110 Topeka, Kansas

Shawnee County Public Library. Meeting adjourned.
66607

Subscription $2.00 per year

Respectfully submitted,
Periodicals Postage Paid at Topeka, Kansas USPS 471-
860
John Wall
POSTMASTER: Send address change to Rotopeka 420
SE 6th, Suite 110 Topeka, KS 66607

Rotopeka deadline is two weeks prior to the first

Thursday of the month

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Message from the President
By Kirk Johnson, President

F ORE!!!!!!!!!!
That’s the traditional golf warning to ―look out ahead!‖
And ―four‖ is the number of ways and reasons you should get
involved in the Topeka Rotary Club Gold Tournament on May
7.
First, and most importantly, this event is a fund-raiser to help
eradicate polio. Thanks to Rotary polio is now endemic to only
to Afghanistan, India, Nigeria and Pakistan and was limited to
only 1,633 new cases in 2008. We are so very, very close to liv-
ing this 20-year-old Rotary dream. Participate in the tourna-
ment in some way and help eliminate polio from the face of
the earth.
Second, help by actually golfing! Have fun! Lie about your
score! What a great way to spend a Thursday out of the office
in the beautiful Kansas Springtime at the gorgeous Shawnee
Country Club. Gather your foursome and enjoy an idyllic May
day. Better yet, gather a non-Rotary foursome to help share
the costs.
Third, help by sponsoring a hole, a team, or by providing goods or services for the auction. Golf auc-
tions are always good money-makers but they only work if you have things to sell. Please contribute,
and spread the word around town. Our polio message is a strong selling-point. Find a donor or a spon-
sor the help defeat polio.
Fourth, bring a guest, a friend, a youth or a potential Rotarian. This is a chance to see Rotary at its very
best, showcasing international club service, vocational service and by building better friendships. Bring
a potential member/guest to golf and invite them to join us every week.
Henry McClure and his committee are going gang-busters to make this first ever Golf Tournament a
success. He needs our help. Remember, the club meeting that day, May 7, is at the Shawnee Country
Club, 29th & Adams. See you there and then let’s tee off against polio and drive it from the world!

Upcoming Programs
April 30—Mike Lehnherr, Rotarian, Polio Plus
May 7—Rotary Golf Tournament, Shawnee Country Club—Brings clubs and a gues

May 14—Mike Ryan, Author & Editor, Finding Meaning in Life

May 21—Jason Opat, Kansas Film Commission

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 Short an
M
aybe you’ve seen them, tapping on their Blackberrys or
scrolling through a stream of information on their iPhones.
They look like they’re texting or surfing the Web, but
they’re not: They’re Twittering. If you’re among them,
you’re nodding right now, maybe even typing ―Reading
article about Twitter‖ into your phone. If you’re not, you might be won-
dering whether Twitter isn’t just another high-tech way to waste time.
Twittering is text messaging, instant messaging, and blogging all rolled
into one. Posts, or ―tweets‖ as they’re known in the Twitterverse, are
limited to 140 characters and are usually meant to answer one simple
question: What are you doing?
Twitter , which has been around since 2006, gained traction as a fast,
efficient communications tool when users aggregated news of the
massive earthquake that struck China last May, and when eyewit-
nesses Twittered about the November terrorist attacks in Mumbai, In-
dia. But most tweets aren’t real-time accounts of natural disasters or world events. They’re
mundane snippets of everyday life, such as ―Stuck in traffic‖ or ―Cheerios for breakfast
again.‖
Those humdrum responses to ―What are you doing?‖ inevitably lead to another question:
Who cares?
Certainly not everyone. But your posts about what you’re reading on your lunch hour or
where you’re headed after work might resonate with someone, and that can be a jump-
ing-off point for more meaningful dialogue.
It takes only about 15 seconds to get set up on Twitter, but creating an account isn’t
enough to get the conversation flowing. It takes time to build a network and find the right
balance of friends (the people whose tweets you receive) and followers (the people who
sign up to receive your tweets).
Chris Lindell, webmaster and president-elect of the Rotary Club of Cedar Rapids West,
Iowa, USA, was looking for ways to bring together a more diverse group of members and
potential members. ―Something that we hear from folks is that they have a hard time con-
necting,‖ says Lindell. ―So how do we provide avenues for people to be able to interact
with others in these new ways? Twitter keeps coming up.‖
Since November, Lindell has been Twittering about the club’s work to help victims of the
floods that devastated the Cedar Rapids area in June, and sharing links to videos and in-
formation posted on the club’s Web site. Momentum has been slow to build, but Lindell
says he has made a few useful Rotary connections through Twitter and plans to keep ex-

6
nd Tweet
perimenting. Still, he doesn’t have a personal account, and says he’s not
sure he will open one. ―I haven’t seen the payback,‖ he says. ―How does
it engage people?‖
According to RI Web operations specialist Beth Skony, who oversees Ro-
tary International’s official Twitter presence , Lindell is probably not alone:
Twitter doesn’t immediately ―click‖ for many users, but she says Rotary’s
Twitter site can be a good place to start.
―When [Rotarians] come to our site and they see that we have 300-some
followers, they know that most of the other followers are Rotarians, and
they can reach out to them pretty easily,‖ says Skony. ―We’re the center
point, and they can make those other connections.‖ Think of a cocktail
party filled with interesting people. Tweets are the open-ended icebreak-
ers you need to start conversations and discover what you have in com-
mon with others in the room.
―What’s kind of neat about Twitter is that there’s some transcending of interests,‖ says Greg Hill,
who handles communications for the 200-member Rotary Club of Topeka, Kansas. Hill had been
using Twitter for more than a year when he brought his club on board in September, and he
now maintains three accounts: one for his club, one for business, and one for personal use.
Through them, he networks with people all over the country who share his interests.
―While the information is out there for our club, what we’ve found [is] that communication back
and forth has been with more of a national audience,‖ says Hill. ―It’s opened up communica-
tion to other clubs around the country.‖
With three accounts, you might wonder how Hill has time to do anything else. But he says Twitter
sucks up less time than other social media, such as Facebook. Part of the appeal, he says, is
that he can send out a tweet while he’s sitting in a club meeting or whenever he has a moment
of downtime. He also appreciates being able to control the amount of information he receives.
―You can, for the most part, follow people, and they don’t necessarily have to follow you
back,‖ he says. ―What that gives you is a great sense of following large organizations and
maybe more-established people in your area of interest.‖ Even if those people never read your
tweets, he says, what they have to say can be a great information resource.
And once you know what everyone else is up to, that leaves only one question: What are you
doing?
By M.Kathleen Pratt - The Rotarian
The Rotarian -- May 2009

M. Kathleen Pratt is a freelance writer and former managing editor of The Rotarian.

7
 What you may have missed
What does Rotary Do?
The next time you are asked what
our club does, remember all the
wonderful projects we have
helped make a reality. Here are
several of those projects:

Christmas in April
Help with TARC Winter Wonderland
Dictionaries in School
Dental Screenings
Scholarships for Washburn Students
Florence Crittenden Services
RYLA
Vocational Day for Junior High
Angela Wilson of the Kansas Attorney General’s Office recently
Sponsor Ambassadorial Scholars spoke to the club on the topic of Consumer Protection.

Christmas Bureau
Our club awarded sponsorships for the Rotary Youth Lead-
Sponsor East Avondale Activities
ership Academy to eight area high school students. The stu-
Polio Reconstructive Surgery— dents and their respective high schools are:
India
Madeline LeNeave, Washburn Rural
Cataract Surgery—Pakistan
Meredith Higgins, Washburn Rural
Ambulance Project—Bangladesh
Keith Howard, Topeka West
Medical Team—Panama
Haley Johnson, Washburn Rural
Shelter Box
Erin Maxwell, Shawnee Heights
Books for Peace Corp Volunteers
Emmy Kasper, Olathe East
And Much, Much More
Laurel Gardner, Shawnee Heights
Hannah Gardner, Cair Paravel

Of the things we think, say or do:

Is it the TRUTH?

Is it FAIR to all concerned?

Will it build GOODWILL and BETTER FRIENDSHIPS?

Will it be BENEFICIAL to all concerned?"

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Winners of The Francine Hines Memorial Scholarship for International Students

Tina Huang degree in Nursing at Washburn. He is a junior.

He intends to go to graduate school and spe-
Tina is from The People’s Republic of China. She
cialize in public health after getting some work
is a junior majoring in English and International
experience.
Trade and carries a GPA of 3.25. She would like
to have a career in international trade. Jingjing Sun
Tracy Huang Jingjing is from China and also is an exchange
student from Zhejiang Normal University. She is
Tracy is also from China. She is here as an ex-
studying English language and literature at
change student from Zhejiang Normal University
Washburn and is carrying a GPA of 3.75 in her
majoring in English at Washburn who will gradu-
senior year.
ate from her home university in June 2010. In her
first semester she earned a GPA of 4.0 and was Miranda Yin
honored for outstanding academic achieve-
Exchange student from China majoring in Eng-
ment on the President’s Honor Roll.
lish . Her career goal is to be a three- language
Ian Otinga interpreter (English, German, and Chinese). Has
a part time job in the student union.
Ian is from Kenya and is pursuing his bachelor’s

Use your cell phone to make a one-time US$5 or £5 donation to help End
Polio Now. Proceeds will go toward Rotary's US$200 Million Challenge .
Terms and conditions -- for those donating over U.S. cell phone networks
A one-time charge will be added to your mobile phone bill. Standard messaging rates and additional fees may apply. All charges are
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For full terms in the United States, visit www.mgive.com/a.

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 Welcome to our new members
Nancy Knopp Daniels

Nancy Knopp was born in Dickinson County, KS. She graduated from Chapman High School before a
tornado blew it away in 2007. Her mother and five siblings still reside in Kansas.
Nancy attended Kansas State University before getting married to Don Daniels and following him to
upstate New York where he worked for IBM. When Don realized how much Nancy missed Kansas kith
and kin, he found a job with Blue Cross Blue Shield and they have happily made Topeka their home
for 34 years. Nancy graduated from Washburn with a degree in Business Administration. In 2008,
Nancy completed a Master’s degree in Public Administration from the University of Kansas. Time and
distance will probably prohibit attendance at the other four regent universities.
Nancy’s volunteerism had more influence on her employment and life plan than her education. She
cherishes leadership experiences with United Methodist Women, RESULTS (creating the political will
to end hunger and poverty) national Board of Directors and Children’s Defense Fund Emerging Lead-
ers.
During 18 years with United Way of Greater Topeka, Nancy served as the Director of Success By
6®.whose goal was to create a community where children have the keys to a success life by the age of
six.
Don and Nancy have two successful adult children who attended Topeka Public Schools. (Definition of
success: working at jobs with health insurance benefits) Daughter Stacie lives in Houston with hus-
band, daughter and--in July-- a son. Son Eric works at FHLBank in Topeka. “Little Brother” Matthew
enriches their lives as a “Big Couple.”
Nancy became the Executive Director of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Topeka in 2005. The agency
served almost 600 children last year as part of Kansas Big Brothers Big Sisters, the second largest men-
toring organization in the country. KSBBS serves more children than New York City, Boston or Los
Angeles.
As a professional matchmaker, Nancy wants you to know that you can make a significant difference in
the life of a child with as little as 30 minutes once a week as a Big Brother, a Big Sister, a Big Couple
or a Big Family. We have the research to prove that these relationships make a difference. Please call
234-5524 or see www.kansasbigs.org to volunteer.

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11
 Eldon Sloan (seated) celebrated his 100th Birthday on Thursday, March 26, 2009. He joined Rotary in 1954.

Meeting Makeups
Topeka West—Wednesday, 7
AM Marriott Courtyard, 2033
SW Wannamaker
Topeka South—Friday, 7 AM—
Kansas Room, Washburn Uni-
versity Memorial Union
Topeka North—Wednesday,
noon—Topeka North YMCA
Board Room. 1936 NW Tyler.

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