MINUTES OF ROTARY MEETING
February 13, 2020
By Monde Donaldson
Call to Order: The meeting was called to order by President Tom McGehee at 12:15 p.m. Tommy Fulton offered the invocation and Tommy Blankenship led the club in the song and pledge accompanied by Bill Oppenheimer.
Student Guest: Bryson Smith from Theodore High School was introduced by Jeff Luther as Student of the Week.
Announcements: In keeping with our mission, several grant and foundation gifts were announced. The Dumas Wesley Center received a gift from the Rotary General Fund. Rotary Children’s Foundation Grants were announced by Bo Mattei. The recipients were: United Cerebral Palsy, Altapointe and Mobile Infirmary.
Program: Sandy Stimpson, Mayor of Mobile
He was introduced by Saty Putcha.
Mobile Mayor Sandy Stimpson gave us an inspiring talk on how to build a better Mobile. The theme of his talk was – “Do you want survival, success or significance? He detailed how we could all work together to build One Mobile.
He started with showing population statistics. In 1960, the population of Mobile was 194,856. In 2017, it was 192,085. The highest number in the last 57 years was 200,452 in 1980. The population has remained flat, he said. The mayor explained that we can no longer count on government alone to grow the city. He challenged all to work collaboratively to build a vibrant city. He asked Rotarians – what do you do to build a better city? What does your company do? For One Mobile to work it has to be a strong partnership with public, private and corporate entities, he explained
Mayor Stimpson said many city leaders and community leaders are reading two books he suggested –The Infinite Game by Simon Sinek and Building a Vibrant Community: How Citizen-Powered Change is Reshaping America by Quint Stuber. Stimpson said Studer is from Pensacola and has hosted some of the city’s leadership team to share his insight. He encouraged Rotarians to read the books and asked for a show of hands of members who had read them. About a fourth of the room had read one of the two books. If more leaders and citizens followed some of the principles set forth in Studer’s book Mobile would be advancing in population rather than remaining flat, Stimpson said.
He presented a slide for One Mobile that showed a circle entitled – safer, more business and family friendly city. It was surrounded by goals to achieve: improve the quality of life, empower citizens, vibrant city and generate more revenue. If we follow the circle around the center, we will successfully build One Mobile, he said.
If we embrace the One Mobile concept, here are some of the outcomes he predicted – our children get a better education, we have better job opportunities, we are safer, it is easier to grow your business, our property values increase and our quality of life improves.
Will you help us build advance your city, he asked. He welcomed participation and partnerships on the city’s efforts by leaving handouts on each table asking Rotarians to give their ideas on how to build a better community. The handouts gave his contact information. He ended his talk by saying, let us all work together to be a city of significance.
Adjournment: The meeting was adjourned at 1:00 p.m.