Happy Tuesday, Rotarians.

Need to Know:

1. December has five Tuesdays.  We will not have a regular club meeting on the 5^th Tuesday; instead we will be having a 5^th Tuesday bowling party on Tuesday, December 29^th from 6:30-8:00 PM at Andy B’s, 1127 E. Battlefield, Springfield MO (formerly Battlefield Lanes).   The club will cover lane fees/shoe rental.   Spouses, kids/grandkids and potential new members are welcome, but we need to know how many lanes to reserve, so we need a headcount ASAP.  Please sign up on the club website today with how many you are bringing.  Thanks to Brian Drane for organizing this fun event!

1. Friday is DARE graduation for LR and Marshfield and our Don’t Meth with Us Committee will be passing out t-shirts to the graduates.  To make finding sizes and passing out shirts more efficient, the shirts are folded and rubber-banded.  If anyone can help fold shirts before Friday, please contact Amy Wilkerson.

1. Leslie Thomas proudly invites all to her daughter-in-law Alannah Thomas’ art exhibition.  Alannah will be graduating this month with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Ceramics from MSU.  Alannah’s work will be exhibited at Rock Castle at 242 E. Washington, Marshfield on Friday, December 18^th from noon-5:00 PM.  Refreshments will be served.

1. There will be a Breakfast with Santa event at Marshfield Nazarene Church on Saturday December 12^th from 8:00 AM-11:00 AM.  The Marshfield Christmas Parade is also this Saturday.

1. The Marshfield United Methodist Church will be having its annual live Nativity on the Thursday – Saturday evenings this week. 

1. It’s pecan time again.  Bags of both halves and pieces are available at MFA.  Pecans are $10.00 per bag of either halves or pieces.

1. To expand the good works of the club, we would like to add at least one more fundraiser next year.  Suggestions so far include a vehicle raffle, golf cart/gator raffle, golf tournament and a color run/5K.  If you have any other suggestions for a fundraiser for 2016, please contact Scott Jones.   The board will be voting on this at the December meeting, so please get your ideas to Scott this week.

1. Upcoming speakers:  Next Tuesday author Susan Keene will be here; on December 22^nd, Marshfield Superintendent Alan Thomas will be here to discuss opportunities at Marshfield schools with OTC; there will be no meeting on December 29^th; on January 5^th, there will be a presentation on Harmony House; on January 12^th, the Mayor will be here to discuss economic development; on January 19^th, Reanna Anderson with MSU’s Small Business & Technology Development Department will be with us.  There are lots of great speakers on the calendar, so invite a guest!

1. Our next board meeting will be Monday, December 14^th at noon.  It will be held at Southern Missouri Bank.  All members are welcome.

1. Go ahead and put this on your calendar now:  our 3^rd Annual Romance Raffle will be held on Friday, February 12, 2016.

1. Go ahead and put this on your calendar now:  the Marshfield Easter Egg Hunt will be held on Saturday, March 12, 2016, with a rain date of March 19^th.

Meeting Recap

We had a couple of guests today:  Adam Blanch invited Landon Keeler who has a new business in Marshfield – All Steel Carports.    Visiting Rotarian Steve Vaught was also with us today.

Don Stockton provided us with a great update on Rotary Park.  The city’s Tree Committee has replaced 25 of the approximately 50 dead trees in Rotary Park through donations by the Department of Conservation.  They hope to replace the rest next year.

Sarah Herren was scheduled to speak to us about what is going on with the Chamber of Commerce but a conflict arose.  We will try to reschedule with Sarah for a later date.

Since there was no speaker today, our fearless leader Scott Jones took the opportunity to tell us about Rotary resources available to us online.  Did you know our club has a terrific website?  If not, you are missing out.  Check it out at: www.marshfieldrotary.com.  On our site, you can sign up for upcoming events (such as our social event at Andy B’s – don’t forget to sign up today!), check out the club calendar for upcoming speakers and events, look at pictures from recent club events, read newspaper articles about the club, read about club history and bylaws, refresh your memory on what committees you serve on, and clink on links to Rotary International, the Polio project, and our District 6080.  You can even relive the excitement of my newsletters in the newsletter archive!

There are opportunities to make our website even better.  Have an idea for something that should be on the site?  Let Scott Jones know about it.  There is also space available for a few paragraphs on the history of Rotary Park if anyone wants to write something.

Rotary International’s website www.rotary.org/myrotary/en is a great resource for RI news, education, and for tracking your own foundation giving, Paul Harris status, etc.

For club membership contact information and “pmails” which you can send to the entire club, the board or your fellow committee members, log on to Dacdb. www.dacdb.com/.  Dacdb is the district and club’s database on membership, attendance, etc.   If you are reading this newsletter through e-mail, you have received a pmail from me through Dacdb.  Please keep in mind that if you do use Dacdb’s pmail system, that it is for Rotary business only.  Rotary’s pmails to members should not be used for business solicitation or personal matters.

Final Thoughts

“I’ve learned that you can tell a lot about a person by the way he/she handles these three things:  a rainy day, lost luggage and tangled Christmas tree lights.”

Maya Angelou (1928-2014)

Anyone put up a Christmas tree yet?  I have not decorated yet but I happily decorate a fake tree every year with ornaments mostly given to me by family.  One of my great holiday joys is trimming the tree with ornaments hand-knitted by my late grandmother.  Because of allergies and fear of burning my house down, I have never had a real tree but I love the way they look and smell.  But do you know the origin of the Christmas tree?

The importance of displaying evergreens long pre-dates Christianity.  Ancient cultures in different parts of the world hung evergreen boughs to celebrate winter solstice, and to ward off evil spirits.   Ancient Egyptians decorated with palms to honor their sun god Ra.  Ancient Romans hung evergreen boughs to honor Saturn, the god of agriculture. Druids and Vikings also decorated with evergreen boughs.

The Christmas tree tradition as we now celebrate originated in 16^th century Germany.  Christians began decorating trees as a celebration of Christmas.  Protestant reformer Martin Luther is widely held to be the origin of lighted trees when he attached candles to his tree to attempt to replicate the look of starlight.

Due to Puritan influence, Christmas trees were not widely accepted in early America until the 1840s, when the large numbers of German immigrants, and global popularity due to fashionable Queen Victoria and Prince Albert’s tree, raised the Christmas tree’s profile in the US.   In 1659 it was actually against the law in Massachusetts to celebrate Christmas in any way other than going to church.  Decorating was a fineable offense.   For more information on the history of the Christmas tree, check out http://www.history.com/topics/christmas/history-of-christmas-trees.

https://youtu.be/g7T4TyOWR8U

Marshfield Rotary Club:  Raising the bar through leadership, giving and education.

Yours in Rotary Service,

Kristin Grace Krebs