050929-01 Gulsah Kucuk 100_0642.jpg	050929-02 Lana Johnson, Dennis McMillian, Ken Osuna, Cece Preston & Larry Daniels 100_0643.jpg
050929-03 Gulsah Kucuk, Phil Livingston & Mike Howerton 100_0644.jpg	050929-04 Dennis McMillian, President, The Foraker Group 100_0645.jpg
050929-05 Hugh Gellert, Kerry Dorius, Cece Preston & Ginny Grupp 100_0646.jpg	050929-06 Diana Livingston & Jody Liddicoat 100_0647.jpg
050929-07 Jen Esterl, Ken Osuna, Lana Johnson, Carol Howerton & Larry Daniels 100_0648.jpg	050929-08 Cece Preston, Phil Livingston & Jen Esterl 100_0649.jpg
050929-09 Jen Esterl, Phil Livingston & Dennis McMillian 100_0650.jpg	050929-10 Gulsah, Kerry Dorius, Jody Liddicoat, Hugh Gellert & Ginny Grupp 100_0651.jpg
050929-11 Kerry Dorius, Gulsah Kucuk, Ginny Grupp, Dennis McMillian, Diana Livingston & Larry Daniels 100_0652.jpg

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The meeting was called to order by President elect Carol Howerton at approximately 7:05 pm with Mike Howerton leading the Pledge of Allegiance followed by Carol Howerton, as an inspirational message, quoting William Feather.  Carol also provided the Rotary Moment.

 Inspirational Message:

William Feather: “Here is the secret of inspiration.  Tell yourself that thousands and tens of thousands of people, not very intelligent and certainly no more intelligent than the rest of us, have mastered problems as difficult as those that now baffle you.

 Rotary Moment:

Paul Harris comment at the 1921 Rotary International Convention in Edinborough, Scotland: “Since the beginning of civilization, there has been a surplus of sayers of things.  If there is any one particular in which I would have Rotary distinguished from other organizations, it is in the quality of character, which results in the doings of things.”

 Members and guests present are listed in the tables below.  (Percent of members attending -  51.7%)

Announcements:

·       The final numbers on the Gird to Bird Bike Rally are:

o         Gross:                        2305.00

o         Expenses:                    991.10

o         Profit:                        1313.90

·       Ken Hatch has agreed to organize and chair our Avalanche Express event again this coming year.

·       Normally about 50 Rotarians pre-register for the IFSR events but we already have 162. We’ll need everyone to volunteer to help out.  The event will be held at Alyeska in late February.

·       Assistant District Governor Paul McGuire will be our guest next week.  New members Ginny Grupp and Joyce Kiana will be inducted at that meeting

·       October is Rotary Vocational Service Month – Carol Howerton has a surprise vocational event scheduled for each meeting.

·       Our annual Girdwood Heath Fair will be on October 8^th.  Volunteers are needed to help setup Friday afternoon, staff on Saturday starting about 9 am and tear down Saturday afternoon.  Please contact Diana Livingston to volunteer.

 Guest Speaker:

Carol introduced our guest speaker, Dennis McMillian, President, The Foraker Group.
Dennis worked in the United Way system for twenty-one years in Alabama, South Carolina and Louisiana before moving to Alaska in 1992 to run the United Way of Anchorage. During his tenure at United Way he trained hundreds of United Way professionals and volunteers, spoke at numerous national conferences and consulted for over forty United Ways across America. He has also worked with numerous United Ways in Canada, throughout Asia and in Russia. The United Way of Anchorage first envisioned The Foraker Group, and prior to Foraker Group, provided nonprofit training throughout Alaska; Dennis did many of these trainings. Since Foraker Group was formed in 2000, Dennis has now worked with over 400 Alaskan nonprofits building their capacity and has trained thousands of Alaskans serving on boards. He has a B.S. Degree from New College from the University of Alabama and an M.S. in Education Management from UAB. He is married with two grown children. When he's not flying around Alaska helping to strengthen nonprofits, he likes to read, run and travel around Alaska to hike and sightsee.

·       Additional The Foraker Group staff are:

• Vice President Laurie Wolf, MNPL, CFRE.  Laurie has worked in the nonprofit sector for 16 years. As Vice President, Laurie co-creates and provides both community-wide and one-on-one training for Board of Directors and staff in the areas of board service, strategic planning and resource development.
• COO George Hieronymus, Senior Consultant.  George has lived in Anchorage for 18 years and he brings a wealth of experience in nonprofit management to The Foraker Group. He served on the board of Bean's Cafe in Anchorage for seven years, two as Board Chair. He then left the board to become Executive Director of Bean's, a position he held for six years. For the last three years, George has been the Program Officer for Health and Human Services for the Rasmuson Foundation, Alaska's largest family foundation. He is currently on the board of the United Way of Anchorage and the Anchorage Downtown Partnership.
• Director of Interior Services Michael Walsh, PhD, has lived in Alaska for over 25 years, most of that time in Fairbanks. Mike served in the administration of Governor Tony Knowles and Lt. Governor Fran Ulmer. As the Director of Interior Services Mike oversees our Fairbanks Office, has overall responsibility for development of our business planning services, and provides training to boards and staff on a variety of topics.
• Program Officer Todd Steele, MPA, has lived in Alaska for nearly 10 years. As Program Officer for the Trust Beneficiary Group Initiatives (TBGI), Todd is responsible for consumer-run programs that serve Alaska Mental Health Trust (Trust) beneficiaries.
• Administrative Assistant Vicki Lewis came to Alaska in June 1996, from Aberdeen, Scotland. Vicki joined the staff of The Foraker Group in February 2004 as administrative assistant to the President, Dennis McMillian and Vice President, Laurie Wolf and also works on special projects.

·       The Foraker Group was started on the concept of “Shared Service.” 

·       When it was started BP had just bought Arco, so they had to wait to see what impact or fallout for non-profits would occur.

·       Elmer Rasmuson 90th birthday

·       Murdoch Trust

·       The Foraker Group, a 501, 3 (c) designated non profit organization, was formed on the concept of through “Training and Shared Service,” enough money could be earned so that fund raising would not be necessary for operations. 

·       Elmer Rasmuson wanted The Foraker Group to be statewide

·       Shared service concept has been successful in all but health services area

·       Provided training is $15 per person for non profit members and $40 for others

·       Originally anticipated 200 participants for breakeven but now have over 400

·       Largest member organization in size is Providence Health Services

·       Annual budget is $3 to $4 million and all but $450,000 is now earned from services and membership

·       The Foraker Group does not charge for prep or fly time

·       There are 5,300 non profits in Alaska – that equates to 1 non profit for every 135 persons.  That is the highest density of non profits in the USA

·       McCarthy has a population of 38 full time residents – there are 13 non profits in McCarthy

·       9% of the workforce in Alaska is employed by non profits

·       5 of 10 largest employers in Alaska are non profits

·       That is a disproportionate # for Alaska when compared to the rest of the USA

·       Generally rural states have a larger number of non profits than non rural states

·       Rasmuson give 25 million per year

·       United Way gives 13 million

·       Murdoch

·       Paul Allen Foundation

·       Bill Gates Foundation

·       2003 USA all charity giving was 240 billion

·       35% was money given to churches

·       In Alaska, giving is down to 6% from 9% - Probably due to more corporations bottom line driven

·       In Alaska, corporate giving is 12%

·       In 2003 foundations giving was 11% of the 240 billion

·       74% of giving is from the general population

·       If non profit sector is going to survive, philanthropy has to grow

·       Nationally, 29% claim charitable contributions on tax forms

·       In Alaska, only 21% claim charitable contributions on tax forms

·       Alaska has 3 time more 100,000 plus income households per capita than the rest of the USA

·       % of giving to education is 17% to 19% - second only to health

·       How does Girdwood compare to the rest of the state on a per capita basis for non profits? – example used was McCarthy.

 You may view additional information on The Foraker Group on their web site at http://www.forakergroup.org/index.cfm.

 Adjourn:  The meeting was adjourned at approximately 8:05 pm.

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