Greeters: Mark Ellsworth & Russ Iwan Speaker: Diana Failla
Diana Failla Executive Director, The Urban Bird & Nature Alliance
Topic: EAB and City Trees
Join ISA Certified Arborist, Diana Failla, to learn about The Emerald Ash Borer and how it will impact the Ash tree canopy in our city. The presentation will include seeing the beetle up-close and personal, it’s damage on trees and the benefits of trees in business districts, neighborhoods and parks. EAB will detrimentally impact the state of Nebraska in many ways; economically, environmentally, socially, public health and more. If you love trees, join us to learn and discuss the value of an overall sustainable tree canopy in our city and state.
Bio: Diana Failla is the founder of The Urban Bird & Nature Alliance. The Alliance is dedicated to preserving and conserving nature in the the city. Sustaining the tree canopy throughout the city, particularly with the current loss of the Ash trees due to EAB is a primary focus at this time. The Alliance is also engaged in educating adults and children to enjoy, recognize, respect and protect nature in their own backyard. The alliance is housed at the UNO Weitz Community Engagement Center.
Diana is an accomplished journalist, poet and published author and an avid environmentalist. She is a Master Gardener and an International ISA Certified Arborist. She serves on many decison-making boards throughout the community; overseeing 17 Landmark neighborhoods in Midtown Omaha and Midtown Vision 2050. She is also a former Landmark Heritage Preservation Commissioner. Diana is an active advocate for many important causes. She owned and operated, The American Citizen Newspaper, an 95 year old newspaper, published in Nebraska and Iowa.
Last week, President Nuzhat Mahmood presided the meeting. Mike Morey gave the Invocation. Manny Paz and Dick Lerner served as greeters, while Russ Iwan was Sgt. at Arms. Don Otis was Cashier. Martie Cordaro was Chair of the Day. Martie introduced our own Luke McNeese, Boy Scouts District Director. Luke spoke about exciting developments regarding their transition to full family scouting. To learn more about Boy Scouts' family scouting, please visit their website here.
L to R: Luke and Emily Koch, Nuzhat Mahmood, Luke McNeese, and Matt McKeever
Omaha West Rotary Club Secretary Report for May 18, 2018.
Our guests included Rotarian Timothy Hegarty from the Rotary Club of Londonderry, Ireland who came a long way for a makeup! Our clubs exchanged banners and he stayed after the meeting to talk with club members about his travels. Guests of Rotarians included Dan Lassek, a guest of Martie Cordero. Bonnie Gill introduced Marcelin Hateuekimana, who presented to our club last year. Gail Veitzer introduced her husband, Irv Veitzer, for the tenth consecutive meeting! Luke McNeese, our presenter today, introduced his guests Luke Koch and Emily Koch.
Nizar Mamdani shared news that he and his wife will be moving to Florida soon. Jim Meier had good news about the Run for the Fallen event in June.
Fines were levied aplenty at the meeting! Mike Jones was fined for a newspaper article about his hole-in-one. Martie Cordero was fined for an Omaha World Herald article on the new date and time for the Storm Chasers/KC Royals exhibition game next year. Matt was fined for two Bitcoin articles from Carol Gendler about plans by Goldman Sachs and the NYSE to incorporate Bitcoin trading. Matt admitted that he could not wiggle out of a fine from an WSJ news story submitted by John Morey even though the article was about fraud relating to Bitcoin “wannabes” and not actually Bitcoin. Matt fined Luke McNeese for an article about the upcoming name change for the Boy Scouts of America.
For his monthly law-related story, Matt brought in some volumes of American Jurisprudence 2nd Edition, a legal reference guide that lists the subjects contained in each book on its binder. The two topics listed on each binders are often related in unintentionally interesting ways. The binder topics on the volumes Matt brought included Vol. 52 “Logs and Timber to Marriage”; Vol. 79 “Weapons and Firearms to Wills”; Vol. 23 “Dedication to Desertion”; and Vol. 41 “Husband and Wife to Indictments”.
Here's Matt McKeever showing his extreme dedication as Rotary Secretary. He brought half of his legal jurisprudence as props to his mostly true law-related story
We got a surprise visit from Rotarian Timothy Hegarty from the Rotary Club of Londonderry, Ireland. He chose Omaha West Rotary to have a makeup meeting. He must have read something very interesting about Omaha West Rotary.
Jim Olafson has successfully completed the rigorous and highly structured Red Badge requirements. President Nuzhat happily presented him with his Blue Badge. On hand to congratulate Jim was his Rotary sponsor Kendall Scheer, who spoke lavishly about Jim's potential of becoming a great Rotarian. Jim capped the presentation stating that after his business adventures in Colorado, there's no better life than the Good Life in Nebraska. And there's no better Rotary Club than Omaha West Rotary. Congratulations, Jim!
We learned that Del Toebben is still recovering from his heart procedure from few months ago. Del served as our Club President and has been a Omaha West Rotarian for 40 years. Please send Del a get well card. His home address is 1438 132 Ave. Circle, Omaha NE 68154.
We received communication that Evan Olson has been placed in Assisted Living at Aksarben Village located at 1330 S 70th St., Omaha, NE 68106. Evan served as our Club President and has been a Rotarian for 39 years. Please send your cards to the Aksarben address.
Recently, Dr. Mark Manhart introduced our newest member Mark Christopher Manhart. Mark is the owner of Manhart Designs LLC. His principal business activity is remodeling and designing. Mark also teaches furniture building. Please introduce yourself and welcome Mark when you see him at our Friday meeting.
L to R: Dr. Mark Manhart, Mark Christopher Manhart, and Nuzhat Mahmood
Rotary Social Hour at Project Harmony, June 7, 5:00 PM - 7:00 PM
Due to popular demand, we have scheduled a private tour and club social hour at Project Harmony hosted Gene Klein. Please RSVP by June 1st by clicking here. You may donate cash at the event, instead of using credit card online. Any questions, please contact Rebecca Miller at rebecca.miller@fixlexia.com or Gene Klein at gklein@projectharmony.com.
Henry Doorly Zoo, June 17, 12:00 PM - 2:00 PM. More information here and sign up here.
American Muslim Institute Tour, June 20, 5:30 PM - 7:00 PM. More information here and sign up here.
We will have paper sign ups at our Friday meetings as the date approaches for each event. As always, you get an attendance credit when attending these events. If you are Red Badge, your attendance will also count toward Red Badge credit.
The Rotaract Club based at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln, has embarked on a wheelchair project. The Rotaractors are raising money to send 120 wheelchairs to Ivory Coast and support the momentum of polio eradication in that country. Please make your gift to the Rotaract Wheelchair Project, Rotary Club of Lincoln 14 Foundation, PO Box 83843, Lincoln, NE 68501. Details about this project can be found here.
Spread the News! It's a great time to join Omaha West Rotary!
Please spread the news, the fee for joining West Omaha Rotary has been discounted from $540 ($340 plus $200 application fee) to $113 from now till June 30th. Because of the generous “new member” contributions from Nizar Mamdani, Dwayne Brown and John Morey, the application fee has been waived and the membership fee has been supplemented for all new members. This is a great opportunity to encourage prospects to test out our club and join at a reduced rate. For more information please reach out to Jill Slupe at Jslupe@verdemartin.com or 917-416-7498.
May Birthdays Rich Secor 04 Don Klein 05 C. Latta 08 Kent Templien 11 Carol Gendler 13 Jim Meier 13 Ric Miller 16 Mary Sue Riley 17 Luke McNeese 20 Steve McWhorter 25 Mike Jones 31
Let's go to Toronto in June 23-27, 2018 for the Rotary International (RI) Convention!
There is no experience for a Rotarian quite like an International Convention. Meet old friends and make new ones from around the world. Hear great speakers and enjoy fabulous entertainment. Participate in the many breakout sessions on topics of interest to you. Stroll through the House of Friendship. Enjoy the many restaurants and tourism opportunities that Toronto has to offer. The next several RI Conventions will be outside of North America, so it's a good time to go this year. You will not believe it, but it's really not expensive to fly to Toronto. We did a random search online and the round trip ticket ranges from as low as $220 to $400. Of course, it could go higher if you fly business class, but the general fares are pretty good.
To register for the RI Convention, please click here. If you need help with your registration, please contact Jill or Yolanda.
To find out about speakers at other Rotary Clubs in the area, you can conveniently see the list of Club websites here. Then click on the home icon to the left of the club name. The list of speakers are listed on their Homepage.
Understanding the value of The Rotary Foundation . . .
When asked what participants want to get out of Rotary training and meetings, we hear things like the statements above.
Meeting all of those needs is a challenge - but there is an answer – the Rotary Leadership Institute (RLI).
RLI has been available in District 5650 since 2006. The curriculum and format were improved in 2009 and we expanded to partner with District 6000 in Iowa in 2012. There have been nearly 275 Rotarians participate in our local program.
Rotary Leadership Institute (RLI) was designed to provide discussion and activity-based programs. There is time to go into detail on many topics. It is not focused on a particular Rotary position but allows an opportunity for participants to truly discover Rotary.
All Rotary members benefit from the RLI experience. Rotary Club leadership can be more effective because of their expanded knowledge and connections made during RLI sessions.
RLI is a three-part program. Each RLI participant attends three one-day sessions. Our goal is to offer each Part with every meeting date (pending a sufficient number of registrations).
Upcoming session dates:
March 3, 2018 - Hosted by District 6000 in Iowa City
April 21, 2018 - Hosted by District 5650 likely in Omaha
October 6, 2018 - Hosted by District 5650 likely in Omaha
November 3, 2018 - Hosted by District 6000 likely in Des Moines
We are now offering 10 punch lunch tickets ($160) and 10 punch meeting-only tickets ($70) for sale at the meetings. Get one and don't worry about having cash or getting out your credit card! For sale at check-in.
MONDAY BELLEVUE 12:00 PM (DJ's Dugout, 10308 S. 23rd St.) NORTH 12:00 PM (Omaha Eppley Airport Conference Room) MILLARD 12:00 PM (German American Society, 3717 South 120th Street) - NO MEETING on Oct 9
TUESDAY MORNING 7:00 AM (Happy Hollow Country Club, 1701 S. 105th St.)
NORTHWEST 12:00 PM ( Effective August 15th Northwest Rotary will meet Tuesday's at noon at Jerico's, 11732 W Dodge Rd, Omaha, NE 68154.)
SOUTHWEST NIGHT 5:15 PM (DJ's Dugout at 17666 Welch Plaza, northeast corner of 180th & Q streets)
WEDNESDAY COUNCIL BLUFFS CENTENNIAL 1st Wed 7:00 AM; 3rd Wed floating event; no meeting other weeks (Hy-Vee in Mall of the Bluffs, I-80 Exit 5) DOWNTOWN 12:00 PM (Field Club, 3615 Woolworth Ave.)
THURSDAY COUNCIL BLUFFS NOON 12:00 PM (The Center, 714 S. Main St.)
SUBURBAN 12:00 PM (Anthony's, 7220 F St.)
WESTERN DOUGLAS COUNTY 7:00 AM (Elkhorn Common Ground Community Center, 1701 Veteran's Drive)
FRIDAY WEST 12:00 PM (Champions Run, 13800 Eagle Run Drive)
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The Rotaract Club based at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln, has embarked on a wheelchair project. The Rotaractors are raising money to send 120 wheelchairs to Ivory Coast and support the momentum of polio eradication in that country. Please make your gift to the Rotaract Wheelchair Project, Rotary Club of Lincoln 14 Foundation, PO Box 83843, Lincoln, NE 68501. Details about this project can be found 
