Our program this week will be Jake Reynolds, manager of  the State of Idaho Business Retention and Expansion Team.

Its hard to imagine but the 2016-17 Rotary Year is almost at an end! President-elect Schubin and his team will take over effective July 1st. Scott is counting the days when he becomes a "Past President"!. Plans are in the works for the annual "Changing of the Guard" celebration which will take place sometime in June. Its guaranteed to be a fun, family friendly event! Stay tuned for more details!

Our contingent of five Rotarians represented our club in Sun Valley this weekend for the annual District Conference.  President Scott accepted an award for Outstanding Membership Growth. Our group was Allan Bosch, Scott Swan, Bret Vaterlaus, Deb Every and John Biggs. We also set up a display table for our Greenbelt project and got lots interest! They loved our video!  Great speakers, great food, great fellowship!!  Sorry, you didn't win the raffle!

Many years ago our club completed a project by the Greenbelt behind the Garden city Library/City Hall called "River Pointe Park". There was a series of seven interpretive signs telling about flora and fauna of the area. Well, due to the ravages of time, they're barely readable any more. So, with the help of a District 5400 Grant and a contribution from our club, the signs are in the process of being replaced. The project should  be completed in June.  Check it out!  Janice Fulkerson is spearheading the project!

As you will recall, the total budget for the project is about $60,000. Half of that was to come from grants, gifts and sponsorships. The other half from our sale of bricks. Well, with respect to the first half, we're almost there! However, we're a bit behind on our brick sales. We want to have a handle on our fund raising by mid-June. If we're looking good, we can look forward to fall construction. There are lots of folks our there who are excited about the project and will buy a brick, they just haven't got around to it yet! Are you one of those? Also, we still have some "naming opportunities" available - think about who we might approach. Park benches, monument restoration, bike repair station, etc. I am working on getting that little video uploaded to YouTube so we can all share it!  So order now, while supplies last!!  Bricks make great gifts!

On Saturday, May 27th, we'll be preparing a picnic lunch of hot dogs and beans for the Idaho Senior Games at their 5k fun run/walk event. We'll be at the Boise Pavilion by the tennis courts. We'll start serving at about noon. Dave Wilson is our project chairman. He'll need volunteers to bring crock pots of beans, hot dogs, chips, drinks, etc. Contact Dave if you can help.

In case you missed it, Rotary International recently passed an edict that clubs can't raffle guns or put the Rotary logo on guns. Nothing against guns, but.............Anyway. lots of confusion still. Some argue that this seemingly anti-gun position (it isn't) will negatively affect our Student Exchange Program. An you believe, one reason that America is an attractive destination for an exchange is that the kids might be able to shoot guns!.......You won't be getting this format of news for awhile. Your editor is heading out on a cross-country road trip and won't be back until mid-July. Early stop will be Atlanta for the International Rotary Convention. Will send photos.