Submitted by Diane Eckberg

The September 7, 2021 meeting was called to order at the Boone Courtyard Marriott by President Jim Street at 7:40 a.m.  There were 27 in person and 4 Zoom attendees.  Guests included Reggie Hassler, Bob Kitchen of Wilmington and Jeannine Collins Underdown.

After the Pledge of Allegiance, Sergeant at Arms Nick Friedman facilitated the Happy Dollar collection, the 50/50 drawing and introduced guests.

Announcements

Ben Henderson provided a recap of the Luke Combs parking effort, recognizing all involved.  About $13,200 was collected, to be split evenly with SAHA (after expenses).  About 330+ cars were parked.

Lynne Mason reminded everyone that the New River clean up will be held Saturday, 9/11 at 9 a.m.  Meet at the Greenway covered bridge  The Interact group will be cleaning up another section of the river.

Lynne also reminded the group to mark Tuesday, October 5 on their calendars for the next blood drive.

Ben Henderson has some tickets available for purchase for the September 10 & 11 BANF film festival at the Schaefer Center (since sold.)

Caroline Poteat shared that the Blowing Rock Rotary blood drive was being held on September 7 at the American Legion.

Program

President Elect Brian Irving introduced speaker David Jackson of the Club’s Communication Committee.

David reminded the group that Beau Wilson continues to handle communication with the District via DACdb stories; Diane Ekberg handles internal Club communication; and he and Caroline Poteat are focusing on communication with the community/public.

The external communication efforts to date have focused on the Club’s website and Facebook page.  The information posted allows the Club to showcase its activities, engage members and non-members and hopefully generate new membership.

David shared how spending a nominal amount of money can “boost” a Facebook posting.  A posting promoting the Luke Combs parking lot was boosted and resulted in many more views than any other Facebook posting on the Club’s page.

David highlighted the updates that have been made to the website (boonerotary.org).  He’ll be looking for assistance to enhance the “Creating Local Change” and “Creating Global Change” tabs on the site.

There are things the members can do to help the external communication effort:

• Like, share and comment on Facebook postings.  David demonstrated how to accomplish this.
• Send relevant Club member photos/articles to David (david@boonechamber.com) for posting.

In the future, Instagram may be a social media target for the Communication Committee.

In closing, David invited the members to attend the Boone Area Chamber of Commerce’s 72nd Annual Meeting on Tuesday, October 12 from 4:30 to 7:30 p.m. at Valle Crucis Park.  This event is the Chamber’s largest fundraiser.  Tickets are $40 per person.

After reciting the 4 Way Test, Jim Street adjourned the meeting at 8:30 a.m.